del.icio.us tag: marketing

Alexander Kjerulf at Chief Happiness Officer thinks the old notion that the customer is always right is a load of sh*t. If you operate under that presumption, you have unhappy employees who may provide bad customer bad service, it encourages customers to be abusive, it neglects the fact that not all customers are good customers and that sometimes, yes, they are WRONG.

trojan, what are you doing with my name?

This morning, while reading The Washington Post, I saw a 3/4 page ad from Trojan about the recent report from the CDC that 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. The condom maker is responding by collecting signatures on a petition which calls for "greater access to accurate sexual health information, options, services and products, such as condoms. This includes comprehensive sex education in schools."

The petition is part of Trojan's Evolve campaign, which launched nearly a year ago in June 2007. The campaign, apparently developed by Edelman Public Relations (their name is on the press release for the campaign's launch) is "a wake up call to change attitudes about condoms and, on a larger scale, the way we think and talk about sexual health in this country."

I support the message of the petition and, while it's obviously within Trojan's self interests to promote condom use, I think they warrant a seat at the table as a corporate citizen.

But there IS a problem — that can be solved.

It's not clear what they are going to do with the petition signatures — policies regarding curriculum are decided at the state, county and school district levels, for example. For AT LEAST a couple of reasons, it would benefit Trojan to be more transparent about what they plan to do with the signatures.

1. To be effective as an advocacy campaign, providing this information would be more empowering: "If you sign this, your simple action will contribute to this outcome." Signing a petition so that Trojan can do a press conference a few months down the road doesn't actually lead to any real social or policy change. Sincerity works wonders. If Trojan actually DOES have a plan that will lead to change, share it with us.
2. Many — if not most — folks (including myself) are hesitant to provide their contact information to potential marketers and the site's privacy policy makes it clear that they will indeed contact consumers with marketing information.

Come on, Trojan (and Edelman), add this information. Talking about sexual health requires people to be honest and transparent and effective digital advocacy requires the same.

Update: Good morning, Edelman NY. Great idea. Take it further. We know you can.

del.icio.us tags: marketing

Dave Armano from Logic + Emotion shared this great presentation from Paul Isakson at via Twitter. The deck -- don't let the 91 slides scare you, it goes fast -- is a brilliant look at the evolution of marketing.

The biggest takeaways?

• If you have a great product or service, people are going to talk about it.
• If you're product or service isn't that great (come on, be honest with yourself), you have the opportunity to create great content.
  
• That content needs to be one of two things: 1) ENGAGING content that can't be ignored. Not wacky "viral" videos, but great content that keeps customers coming back for more.
• Or USEFUL content that makes people's lives better.
  

| View | Upload your own

del.icio.us tags: health

PatientsLikeMe is a social network that connects patients, enabling them to share lessons learned and get the support they need. The site organizes content by individual patients, treatments, symptoms and research. The site currently has a limited number of disease-related communities, but the folks behind the site encourage you to suggest others.

not on my watch

To the folks at Not on Our Watch Darfur:

You might already have someone working on this, but if you don't, can you let me know if I can be of help in doing something about your Web site?

You've got a worthy cause and quite an impressive group of supporters, but I think you could be doing more with your online real estate to help you to achieve your mission of generating "lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for the vulnerable, marginalized and displaced."

I'm not suggesting investing hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and diverting money away from the people and programs that really need it. I AM suggesting that limiting others' engagement in your efforts to clicking on a Donate Now button is not going to enable you to raise the kind of money you should be raising and create the political change that will need to happen to generate REAL public funds beyond the dollars and cents garnered from a few really well-meaning individuals.

Seriously, let's talk.

Thanks,

Alison

hallelujah

I wish I could be in the room when the campaign staffer screens this (comes via Boing Boing) for McCain.

I'm guessing they'll be a fair share of nervous laughter and, if the staffer knows what's good for him, he may not want to stand within striking distance.

"Are they f*cking with me? I mean, is this a good thing?"

del.icio.us tags 03.22.08

Pete Blackshaw writes a definitive post on the Ten Things Every Marketer Should Know about Wikipedia. In other words, please, dear G-d, stop thinking you can continue to ignore and even dismiss the impact that Wikpedia is having on your brand.

Tamera Kremer posts on 3i about how to use social bookmarking sites (like my beloved del.icio.us) to gain customer insight. Both the tags and notes chosen to describe your brands or products can reveal a great deal and help lead you in the direction of better product development or more effective marketing strategies.

you, sir, make me feel blue

I decided a number of years ago that I didn't like movies with brown palettes, which is why I don't like Lord of the Rings . . .

. . . and the thought of paying money and sitting through a movie like 300 causes me to break out in hives.



Blues and greens, ahhh . . . Badlands has lots of blues as a result of the amazing vistas and the lushness of the green of the early forest scenes -- despite what the movie poster might lead you to believe.

Very satisfying.

And, although I discovered after a poor purchase decision at J Crew that yellow has no place in my personal wardrobe, I'm open to the idea of a yellow movie as well. Maybe it's just primary colors?

Darjeeling Limited is a yellow movie that I have not see yet.

This post has no purpose at all beyond serving as a preface to me telling you -- now listen up -- that wear palettes is a one of the most satisfying blogs I have been checking these days. It makes me want to carry a Pantone GoeGuide in my pocket and approach strangers on the street to tell them what colors I see when I look at them.


Update: Wes Anderson's fondness for yellow expands beyond Darjeeling to his first (we always remember our first): the brilliant Bottle Rocket.


I'm too lazy to do the research to see if this trend follows through on his other films. Thanks to the kids at This Recording for making this post almost as long as one of their brilliant diatribes. (They and Dave Armano are my current blog crushes -- even if Dave does think he's losing his mojo.)

del.icio.us tags 03.19.08

Blogs
Regina Schrambling writes, at The Los Angeles Times about the growing number of professional chefs who are blogging to build their personal brand, demonstrate (through traffic) their popularity to potential restaurant investors and sell product. I'm not thrilled with the folks who let their publicists write their blog posts -- you're missing the point, as far as I'm concerned -- but I love that Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin in New York makes the connection between the zines "he grew up reading in the age of underground punk rock" and his blog, Notes from the Kitchen.

CSR
Allison Mooney at PSFK writes about P&G and Unilever's dueling efforts to demonstrate who's more bad a** on the environmental front as they try to create loyal customers out of young consumers, who are increasingly demanding ethical behavior from the companies to whom they give their money. Sure, as Allison and others have pointed out, contradictions abound but I'm with her when she says, if "eco-minded consumers -- and the earth -- end up benefiting," who gives a toss?


One More Reason to Love Charlie Rose
I disagree with Sandra G, the first to comment on this TechCrunch post about Charlie Rose's commitment to his MacBook Air; Charlie is one of the sexiest men on television. There's a group of us who probably have had fantasies about sitting across from him at his big round table, lamenting the fact that he's so close, yet oh so far away (purrrrr). But a man who sacrifices his visage for his laptop? I'm with you, Charlie. If the house was on fire, my iBook would be the first thing I grabbed.

Search
Overture helps you to pick search terms for a keyword marketing campaign. Brian was the one that told me about it a while back, but I just got around to adding it to del.icio.us. Nothing like getting a peak into the mind of your customer.

del.icio.us tags: politics

Colin at e.politics posted yesterday about the growing trend for political activists to use the comments section on mainstream media news sites to voice their opinions and, as Colin writes, "reach the news organizations’ readers directly" and "bypass the editorial approval process." One more reason why I find media relations to be such a snore. Who wants to spend their time begging for coverage from reporters? Jump in to the conversation on your own terms.

hip hop portraits

Jake and I met this afternoon at the National Portrait Gallery so we could go see Recognize: Hip Hop and Contemporary Photography.

Best moment = little kid pointing to portrait of Ice-T and saying, "Ice, Ice Baby," and his 40+ year old white dude dad saying, "That's a different Ice," and smiling while he mussed the kid's hair.

I was particularly fond of the portrait of Big Daddy Kane . . .

But Jake really liked the portrait of LL Cool J, including the seal (in the upper right hand corner there), complete with boxing gloves, beat box and Kangol cap.

All three are by Kehinde Wiley. The show runs through until October 28, but if you want to see the Stephen Colbert portrait, you need to get to the Gallery by April 1.

I took portraits of the lovely Jake after our tour of the Gallery, over (tasty) burgers at Poste.

Jake tells a story.

Jake admires the basket of eggs to his right.

Jake wonders if Alison is listening to him or just objectifying him.

Jake tires of being a male model.

del.icio.us tags 03.13.08

Politics
I've heard a few Republicans smirk and make the comment that Democrats only stay Democrats until they grow up -- and become a Republican. Not so fast, kiddies. LiveScience reports (via The Huffington Post) that a new longitudinal study says that people become more liberal as they grow older.

Digital Advocacy
From late January, here's an article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about how nonprofits are using social media to engage supporters, promote their issue and raise money to meet their mission. Gone are the days (hopefully) when these organizations need to build expensive -- or crappy -- web sites to achieve these goals OR try to figure out how the hell to drive traffic to these sites, adding one more unvisited destination on the "information highway." As should be expected, the success of these efforts can be attributed to word of mouth. Gather.com's Tom Gerace knows what he is talking about when he says, "If you get contacted by a friend or colleague who points out a group doing great work, that can be (IS, Tom, IS) much more effective than trying to reach people with a random mailer that doesn't have the same trust factor."

If you don't believe ME that the promise of the future is NOT building more web sites, listen to Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion who proselytizes about "the promise of small content that can go anywhere."

Word of Mouth
Spike at Brains on Fire makes the argument that it's quality -- and not quantity -- that makes all the difference in word of mouth. Those few are willing to do some heavy lifting for your brand, your issue. Reward them, recognize them, help them to be the evangelists that will take the conversation -- and the love -- further.

i draw the line at throwing children

10

Favorite question?

During the fight, would you feel morally comfortable picking up a child and using him/her as a weapon to throw at other children?

I'll admit it, I said "no."

as quoted by, part II

Kristen was kind enough to her readers to follow up on her movie quote meme post with the answers, so I figured I would do the same.

Here are the answers to my earlier post. Thanks to the folks who contributed answers.

1. "I heard this story once about when the Germans were occupying Paris and they had to retreat back. They wired Notre Dame to blow, but they had to leave one guy in charge of hitting the switch. And the guy, the soldier, he couldn't do it. You know, he just sat there, knocked out by how beautiful the place was. And then when the allied troops came in, they found all the explosives just lying there and the switch unturned, and they found the same thing at Sacre Couer, Eiffel Tower. Couple other places I think." "Is that true?" "I don't know. I always liked the story, though." - Ethan Hawke in Before Sunset

2. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just think you're interesting." - Wes Bentley in American Beauty

3. "I didn't feel shame or fear, but just kind of blah, like when you're sitting there and all the water's run out of the bathtub." - Kristen got this one: Sissy Spacek in Badlands

4. "I hope that was an empty bottle, George! You can't afford to waste good liquor. Not on your salary, not on an associate professor's salary! - Kristen got this one too: Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

5. "Bless me Father for I have sinned. Three months since my last confession. I — these are my sins. Took the Lord's name in vain on several occasions. On a number of occasions, I've taken newspapers from the racks without paying for them. I've — deliberately taken pleasure in impure thoughts. I've been involved in some work that I think, I think will be used to hurt these two young people. It's happened to me before. People were hurt because of my work and I'm afraid it could happen again and I'm — I was in no way responsible. I'm not responsible. For these and all my sins of my past life, I am heartily sorry." - Gene Hackman in The Conversation

6. "I'm so sorry for what happened between us. I realize what a terrible mistake I made with you. And I can only hope that you understand. Be assured you can count on me for excellent references." - Jennifer got this one: Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary

7. "It's like they taught us at Harvard: few things are as gratifying to the soul as having another man's nuts in a vise." - Jason Robards in All the President's Men

8. "Are you out of your mind? You know, I admit I may not be the best mother in the world, but I'm doing the best I know how, and he doesn't need you to rub his face in shit because you think it's good for him! He's gonna find out that the world is a horrible place and that people suck soon enough and without any help from you!" - Christina got this one: Laura Linney in You Can Count on Me

9. "You're the first person that I've wanted to tell that to, 'cause you're the first person that I've wanted to talk to for more than five minutes . . . ever." - Zooey Deschanel in All the Real Girls

10. "Every one of my records means something! The label, the producer, the year it was made. Who was copying whose style — who's expanding on that, don't you understand? When I listen to my records they take me back to certain points in my life, OK? Just don't touch my records, ever! You! The first time I met you? Modell's sister's high school graduation party, right? 1955. And 'Ain't That A Shame' was playing when I walked into the door!" - Daniel Stern in Diner

11. "Ben, you're boring me. I have a husband. I don't have a need for another one." - Sigourney Weaver in The Ice Storm

12. "You go back to your hotel and I'll go back to my glamorous life of being alone. The only thing I have to come home to is a bottle of mouthwash to get the taste of cum out of my mouth. I'm tired of being alone. That's what I'm tired of." - Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas

13. "So tell me, Cameron, just tell me because I'd like to know, what on earth could make you think that we would want to share a flat like this with someone like you? I mean, my first impression, and they're rarely wrong, is that you have none of the qualities that we normally seek in a prospective flatmate. I'm talking here about things like presence, charisma, style and charm, and I don't think we're asking too much, I don't think we're being unreasonable. Take David here, for instance: a chartered accountant he may be, but at least he tries hard. The point is I don't think you're trying." - Kristen got this one: Ewan McGregor in Shallow Grave

14. "Do we really have to listen to this vagina music all the way there?" - Liev Schreiber in Walking and Talking

15. "Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat. Now, that's a fact. I'll fuckin' kill you." - Kristen and Jeremy got this one: Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting

wonder of me x 100

Kristen knows she can get me to post when she tags me on a meme, although this time around she acknowledged that she might be pushing my aversion to "wonder of me" posts a bit too far.

Boy, did she ever.

I started this one the other night and needed to abandon it because it was just too gross. And, well, it's still pretty gross.

100 Amazing Things I've Already Done

This list is meant to be in response to those lists that are often generated about the things you want to do before you die to justify your time on the planet; the kind of list that will inevitably make you feel like sh*t as you look at your watch and realize that time is ticking and the top of Mount Everest isn't getting any closer to sea level.

So, yeah, this is a list of 100 thing that I have already done. Some are more impressive than others, some are about what has shaped me as a person, but all are things that I can pull out as story fodder ("Did I ever tell you about that time . . . ?"). There is a bit of starf*cking going on in here, so excuse me.

Enjoy. I tag everyone who feels the need for a little self affirmation. You can write the list in your notebook if you feel like it.

I have . . .

1. Surfed in Oregon
2. Won the gold medal in the National Latin Exam
3. Climbed the Acropolis in four-inch red heels
4. Salsa danced with Joan Baez and Desmond Tutu — at the same time
5. Been given ride home by Jackson Browne — from his concert
   
6. Talked to Maura Tierney in the bathroom at a movie premiere
7. Earned my master degree from Harvard
8. Driven cross-country — three times
9. Run Rock the Vote
10. Published a zine
11. Published a blog — for more than three years
12. Been a Salzburg Seminar faculty member
13. Traveled to South Africa – twice
14. Visited Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island
15. Dipped my toes in the Indian Ocean
16. Met Al Gore
17. Met Ted Kennedy
18. Taken a class from Michael Ignatieff
19. Done an independent study with Samantha Power
20. Developed the strategy for the first-ever Cabinet member blog
21. Kissed a Heartbreaker
22. Met two members of Nirvana — and kissed one of them
23. Seen a woman take her clothes off in front of the presidential palace in Prague
24. Maintained a friendship with Chris for 20 years
25. Survived and overcome
26. Been a guest on Loveline
    
27. Avoided financial ruin after a medical emergency that occurred when I did not have insurance
28. Celebrated New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh
29. Moved to London with no job and no place to live when I was 24
30. Visited the Lower 9th Ward post-Katrina
31. Written and read an original essay on NPR
32. Walked through Sherwood Forest
33. Trained young political leaders in Cambodia
34. Sat in a green room with Ted Nugent
35. Appeared on CNN as a regular political commentator
36. Contributed to fighting the global health crisis
37. Created a career out of doing “good”
38. Visited Bonnie Raitt back stage
39. Seen Badlands in a movie theater
40. Managed to avoid ever going bowling
41. Dropped out of college for a year and a half — and gone back to school
42. Moved to San Francisco (from Connecticut) on a Greyhound bus when I was 20
43. Met Bill Clinton
44. Trained youth organizers in Mexico
45. Been on the merry-go-round near the Eiffel Tower
46. Been John Hughes’ pen pal
47. Stayed in David O. Russell's guest room
    
48. Gone from growing up on AFDC/welfare to now earning more than xx percent of the population (too tacky to actually write)
49. Been offered a job by Mary Robinson
50. Spoken at my grandmother’s funeral
51. Had an essay published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York
52. Attended a presidential debate
53. Met Bono
54. Met — and been quoted by in a speech by — Sting
55. Seen Wilco in concert (at least) 10 times
56. Climbed the Wicklow mountains in Ireland
57. Gone on a road trip to the Clinton Library
58. Talked on the phone with Katherine Hepburn
59. Shaken hands with John Edwards
60. Stood outside the Cambridge City Hall at 12:01 am on May 17, 2004 to congratulate the first-ever same sex couples to be married in Massachusetts
61. Voted in every local and national election since I turned 18
62. Attended the International AIDS Conference — in Barcelona and in Toronto
63. Maintained a database of everyone I have met for 10 years
64. Watched Taylor give birth to Victoria
65. Called John McCain a “wuss” on CNN
66. Received flowers from Martin Sheen
67. Managed to convince foundations and companies to give projects I am working on tens of millions of dollars
68. Been linked to by Jeff Jarvis
69. Had one of my ads used as set dressing (Zoey's dorm room) on The West Wing
70. Had another one of my ads used as an example of ad agency star Helen Hunt’s work in What Women Want
71. Overcome my fear of cockroaches
72. Had an essay published in How to Get Stupid White Men out of Office
73. Seen Edward Norton and Catherine Keener off-Broadway
74. Seen John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman on Broadway
75. Gone to an Ozzy Osborne concert — minus adult supervision — when I was 10
76. Seen Nation of Ulysses in concert
    
77. Seen Circus Lupus in concert
78. Seen Lungfish in concert
79. Seen Beat Happening in concert
80. Advised three presidential campaigns on young voter outreach
81. Managed to have the most perfectly 80’s iconic first make out session ever: behind the Space Invaders game; at the roller skating rink; wearing sneaker skates, designer jeans, a velour Izod pullover and a turtleneck with a whale on the collar; while Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” played in the background
82. Interviewed Heather Armstrong and Robert Scoble
83. Saw Jawbox in concert in London
    
84. Worked on a diversity project that was cited by President Clinton's Initiative on Race as a “Promising Practice”
85. Had Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia ask me who she needed to f*ck to get into the VIP section
86. Exchanged emails with Pierre Omidyar
87. Met Walter Mondale
88. Gone to a rave in Southampton, England
89. Visited Angkor Wat
90. Shared "guest" status with Billy Baldwin on an ABCNews.com web chat
91. Served as an adviser on UNAIDS project
92. Attended four of five True False Film Festivals
93. Become a connoisseur of single malt scotch
    
94. Eaten dinner at a table next to Donald Rumsfeld
95. Served as a BBC political commentator on that fateful 2000 election eve
96. Worked on a documentary film project with Frances Reid
97. Organized a mayoral debate for young people in Kansas City
98. Driven the 101 from Los Angeles to San Francisco
99. Stayed at the oldest hotel in Savannah, Georgia
100. Attended one of two Dismemberment Plan reunion shows
     

del.icio.us tags 03.07.08

Word of Mouth
Robbin at Brains on Fire can't figure out why folks in the C-suite are so freaked out about "loud and proud customers taking co-ownership of (their) success." As she says, "It requires letting go of control," something that the Barack Obama campaign, she points out (as well as Ron Paul, I point out) have been willing to do, to their benefit. In this election cycle, voter generated contact has increased the profile of candidates with minimal name recognition and have helped to turn out record numbers of voters at the polls. "Why," Robbin asks, "should a company care if its customers create art with your product or express their love in a song?"

Digital Advocacy
Katya at Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog has a list of 15 reasons why people make donations to organizations. Note, she says, that "'Because I loved the organization's brochure,' is not on there." What is? Word of mouth, great storytelling, a belief that they can have an impact, tax deductions, personal values, it's the cool/right thing to do. Check out the full list and consider adding a few of your own.

Fan Brands
Dave Armano is such a rock star. I would love to be able to think in terms of visuals and tell such simple yet fascinating stories through infographics in the way he does. This time it's the "Novelty Curve": the path from "I can't live without this" to "what was I thinking?"

i blame it on the mayans