Hoi Polloi

There's no delete button for 'McJobs'

Companies love to invent words. To add a word or phrase to the lexicon is often thought of as an accomplishment. After all, if thousands, no millions, of people use your trademarked word or phrase, it means  (a) they like you (b) they remember you and (c) the idea has spread.

We have plenty of examples of this. From brand names such as Bikini and Google to pithy slogans such as  "Fair and Balanced" to the unbelievably long "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." (If you were born after 1975, here's who's line that is.)

Many brand managers dream of such a nirvana when their product of service gets it into the Oxford English dictionary, right? Well.....

It was probably this kind of drunken brand-management stupor that got McDonald's to trademark the term McJob in 1984. It was intended to be the name of a training program for handicapped people. In 2003, it Miriam-Webster recognized it as a word, as did OED before that, but with a completely different definition.

Today, McDonald's is trying to re-define that word, and possibly delete the notion that a McJob is one with poor career prospects. They make the point that many of their top ranking people started out at the bottom. 

I am with them on this. No-one belittles the Pizza delivery guys, window cleaners or the UPS drivers or the companies they work for. I'm a somewhat frequent visitor to the Golden Arches, and I've seen it change over the past five years. Their service is excellent, and their staff highly motivated. Can't say the same of so many others working at big brand name stores who don't seem like they're lovin' it.

 

When drive-time meets talk-time. The other mobile network.

I've always wondered why someone had not come up with a service that allowed drivers to call up someone in another car in front of them, or in the next lane.

Ome compamy has. A new service called SameLane requires drivers to register with their license plate number and a cell phone. They then put up a sticker in their window announcing they are part of the SameLane network. The SameLane mobile number (not their personal mobile number) is also displayed.

When someone in the next lane wants to call up that driver, they call theSameLane  number, enter the license plate number, and the call is patched through.

It has some potential, because it's an opt-in network, so receiving a call won't be considered a nuisance. Privacy is maintained by the network, since SameLane says the phone number of the receiver ewill never be disclosed.

But there are potential problems, the first of which is the liability of promoting drivers, rather than passengers, to make calls while driving. SameLane compares 'talking to strangers' akin to chatting to someone in a Starbuck's line. The comparison is obviously misleading.

But it's an interesting development. Treating thousands of vehicles going in the same direction as you, as a network. 

Ghost blogging & dictated blogs: Give Blogging CEOs a break!

Not sure if you've been following the debate on Ghost blogging. It's a topic (not as simmering as 'Blogola,' for instance) that's been popping up now and then that's worth discussing if you're in PR, marketing or media relations. Why? Because of our vested interests in transparency (or the lack thereof), and the power of authenticity.

I spotted an interesting comment from the CEO of Reuters, who's been blogging, but not been a celebrated blogger like Sun Microsystem's Jonathan Schwartz, for instance.

Responding to a question if he was actually the person behind the blog, he was pretty candid: Yes, it was him, but on occasion, he phoned in his post and dictated it to his assistant, who transcribed it and posted it.

Sallie Goetsch has a long, well thought-out post on the topic. In a situation where many CEOs speak “bland corporate drivel,” a ghost writer is able to channel those ideas.

Someone who shoots  from the hip and doesn't know what corporate drivel is, is Bob Lutz. GM's CEO. He talks all things automotive, and they don't seem to moderate (read: delete) negative posts. Last week he addressed the sticking point about not posting often enough. To which he apologized, and shot back at his critics who thought he had got bored with blogging. Interestingly, in his defense, visitors to the blog came out in support. There were 95 comments as of today.

People need to give CEO bloggers a break. They do have real jobs, but the fact that they are inviting a conversation, whether they are dictating their posts, or taking some breaks between them, is still admirable. No one seems to get too upset with people who send out press releases with predictable verbiage, made-up quotes, and sentences often pulled off their spec sheets and web site.

At least these guys like Schwartz, Lutz, and Glocer are trying.   

Watching YouTube videos tops Social Media behaviors

Here are the results of the Social Media Survey I conducted for ValleyPRBlog, a weekly snapshot survey on key preferences of PR practitioners, marketers, ad agency folk, communicators, bloggers and a few geeks.

First take a guess. What do you think people like you soend more time on? Listening to a podcast, commenting on a blog, or checking an RSS feed? Having had to explain what an RSS feed was about twice a week, I would have guessed it was blogs. Wrong!

When online, over the past 10 days:

52% checked their RSS`feeds (14% said they had no time for this)

48% left a comment ion someone's blog (29% said they had no time for this)

48% linked to, commented on, or forwarded a link to a video on YouTube

38% posted to own/organization's blog (14% said they had no time for this)

52% chatted with someone using IM -same as those checking RSS (14% had no time for this)

20% created a wiki (15% had no time for this)

Only 14% sent a trackback to a blog (67% said it didn't interest them)

33% listened to a podcast (same number didn't have time for this)

And the top behavior...

72% watched a video on YouTube (19% said they had no time for this)

 

Vonage's ball and chain. A brilliant way to retain customers

I've been a big fan of services such as Vonage and Skype. I've written about VOIP over the years. But I just discovered the ball and chain approach to retaining customers.

To cut to the chase, I asked Vonage to cancel my account since my phone does not work with another Vonage user in another part of the world --the reason we both bought the Linksys boxes and signed up.

The reality: You could do everything with Vonage, online, except cancel the service.
You have to call them, but that too, only on weekdays between 9 and 5.

Then there are the Terms of Service.

I looked at the link they had emailed me to the Terms of Service, when I signed up.
The one- or two-year term is couched in the legal-ease:

If your Service was activated on or before January 31, 2007, the disconnection fee is waived if your Service is disconnected one (1) year following your activation date.

Meaning: I am stuck with a one-year contract!

Isn't there a simple straightforward way to say that in about 6 words?

How does this relate to marketing?

Whatever happened to exceeding customer's expectations? Heck, what about their part of the contract, that I get the part of the service I signed up for?

There must be a huge disconnect between what the Customer Care people are allowed to say, and what 'Marketing' has asked them to say. The CSR can't terminate my account without a penalty, but tells me about value added services. Look, I stopped him, I called to cancel my account, not to listen to your value add.

To make matters worse, my buddy tried to speak to customer care from overseas through his crippled Vonage connection The line was so bad, they didn't understand each other.

Oh, they do have a 'solution.' My account has been downgraded to $5 a month for the next two months, after which I could cancel without a penalty. Brilliant marketing strategy, that.

For the next two months I can warn everyone considering Vonage to please, please, go over to Skype.

Reminds me of the anecdote I heard from  Fred Reichheld (The Ultimate Question) on taking back a rental car and being slapped with a penalty after being caught in traffic. They recommended in future when he rents a car, he buys 'protection.' He was livid (on his podcast that is now out there) wondering if it was the car rental business or organized crime..

The long tail of 'rip, mix, burn'

Steve Jobs and Shawn Fanning must be anxious about Jeff Bezos's next move.

Apple's 'rip, mix, burn' idea resonated with music fans who got a taste of Napster, and the power of peer-to-peer that Fanning had evoked.

Amazon obviously believed in the 'Music Like Water' analogy of Gerd Leonard and David Kusek, who have advocated in their book The Future of Music, that music would one day be ubiquitous and unlocked. Not necessarily free, but priced differently, just like tap water, basic bottled water, value added carbonated water or even premium stuff like Evian.

The news that Amazon will indeed sell DRM-free music will put this theory to the test. As many have wondered, it shifts the marketing battle between Big Record Labels vs P2P, to iTunes and Amazon. Not that it's going to be easy to dethrone iTunes -which is also readying to sell unlocked music from EMI.

It's not just the pricing, but the music quality, and the 'carbonation' factor that will matter. Oh, and the hardware. iTunes is, after all, the marketing arm of the iPod --or vice versa. Amazon has the loyal customers, Apple has the raving fans. Marketers always wish they could have the best of both.

I'll put my money on customer loyalty, because that's where the long tail of music will be played out. 

Owhata blog - the art of storytelling

My friend and marketing co-conspirator, James Palazzolo was always promising me he was working on his website.

Then came this. Owhata.com

It took me awhile to digest so much that has gone into a blog. Packed with insights and nuggets about cinema, music, art and of course marketing.

Reason I bring up Owhata, is how much thought he's given to his tags, links, and copy. Google James, and his site comes up with a snappy description that's --not accidentally-- the first line of text on the site. He uses page titles that make you want to click. Consider this one: "How to save the world" which is actually asking for support for the site.

Your money keeps Starbucks open, Target running, Nintendo in business…why not me?

Not surprisingly, James is a copywriter, novelist, and techie.

Take a look at the site. You won't be disappointed.

 

Friday Survey - What did you do in the social media playground?

This week I'd love to find out what social media tools (or toys) you spend time on most.

The survey closes on Wednesday the 23rd May. And the results will be posted on Thursday.

In nine clicks, you'll be done!

Start here.

Mitch Joel's recipe to dive into social media

Trust Mitch Joel to cut to the chase, with his six points of separation --the six ways to jump start social media.

1. Reader
2. Blogrolls
3. Delicious
4. Google Alerts
5. Get an iPod
6. Comment

Search Engine usage results

Last Friday I took a snap survey about how readers of this blog and ValleyPRblog use search engines.

Interesting results, as always. Meaning, you get to know the different ways people use something we take for granted.

• 60 Percent use a search engine from a tool-bar they have installed on their browser.
• When using search, 75 Percent Always click on Natural Search results first (12 Percent said never!)
• Only 7 Percent first click on Paid results first (60 Percent never go there first)
• Interestingly, 57 Percent click on Natural and Paid results 'Sometimes' (of the choices Always, Sometimes, and never)
• 38 Percent Always scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the results (50 Percent do it Sometimes, 12 Percent Never go there; 50 Percent do it sometimes.
• 44 Percent are darn persistent, and Always click on the next page of results

What might this mean? Remember this was not a scientifically selected sample. But they were random, no doubt, and more importantly, people like you, probably.

I used to work at an interactive marketing agency, and the thinking at that time was that clients were putting way too much money on Paid Search, and neglecting finding ways to get high ranking on the Natural results. Natural (or 'Organic' Search) is the industry term for getting the search engine web crawlers or 'spiders' to rank your web site on the left side of a results page.

Translated into marketing, this means spending a lot more time with optimizing those pages on your site so that they are Google and Yahoo friendly.