Category Archives: Helpful Hints

August 16, 2012 · 11:05 am

Trust

Johnny Carson turned around his TV career with a show called Who Do You Trust.

Johnny Carson

Ultimately, I think marketers can do the same for their many of their campaigns by asking exactly the same question as if they were their consumer targets.  Whom do they trust?  The answer is “not you” until you’ve earned it, and the places and ways to do that are, increasingly, via social media of some sort.  After all, eMarketer “forecasts that Facebook will have nearly 826 million users around the world this year, up from 650.7 million in 2011.”   Furthermore, a survey of US adults conducted by About.com found that 84% of respondents felt that brands needed to prove themselves trustworthy before they would interact with them or other information sources. The study found that there were 10 primary trust “elements,” or cues, that brands must establish in order to engender trust, including accuracy, expertise and transparency.  eMarketer again:

In a social media context, customers wanted to see that brands had a significant number of positive reviews, and that they didn’t go out of their way to hide the negative ones. The survey found that 41% of respondents said the ability to see reviews on social networks added to their feeling of trust in a brand. Reviews played a bigger role in cultivating trust than seeing that friends had “liked” or recommended a brand, or that the brand had accumulated a large tally of “likes.”

Friends trust their friends or friends of friends or entities that are human, particularly when they’re in review mode.  Corporeal things, not corporate things, if you will, until those corporate things have a human face. Earlier this week I’ve written about how brands need to stop behaving like brands as well as how a cup of soup had a ton of marketing value while some marketing expenses fell flat.  While I hadn’t really planned out a theme week here on the screed, maybe a reminder each day that we need to speak to our audience transparently, honestly, and in a human voice isn’t a bad thing.  What do you think?

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August 15, 2012 · 9:43 am

The ROI On A Cup Of Soup

According to what I can find in their public reporting,

Panera Bread

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Panera Bread spent somewhere north of $33 million on marketing last year.  Their financial results are impressive and they get good ROI on that investment.  I’m willing to bet, however, that the best marketing return they’re going to get this year is on a cup of clam chowder and a box of cookies. You might have heard about this story, but if you haven’t, this AdWeek article sums it up nicely.  A dying grandmother wants some Panera Clam Chowder on a day when the local store doesn’t make it.  A grandson calls to ask them to help.  A smart, responsive, caring manager immediately says yes and when the kid shows up to get it, gives him a box of cookies for grandma to go along with the soup.

It being the age of social, the grandson shares the story on his Facebook page.  Half a million “likes” and 22,000 comments later, that cup of clam chowder bought Panera more goodwill and positive marketing than most of the cash it spent.  Let’s think about what went right and why.

  • Someone answered the phone.  Sounds like a small thing but how many companies do these days?
  • Someone made a decision.  Not “I’m not authorized to do that” or “I need to ask corporate”.  Someone decided to do the right thing and was empowered to make the decision stick.
  • Someone went beyond what they were asked – cookies too!
  • A brand behaved like a person!  The kid didn’t call Sue, the manager.  He called Panera which Sue represented.  The wholly human way in which she responded was perfect.
  • Panera didn’t tell the story – the kid did.  Panera didn’t manufacture anything (except the chowder and cookies).  This resonates because it’s real.

The best marketing these days tends to be just like this – treating your customers well and letting them tell the story for you.  Yelp, Trip Advisor, and other review sites are all about this, and their comments often get ported to other social sites (the usual suspects).  More time on service training and less on trying to create viral media might just get you to the same destination.

Did you see the story?  What do you think?

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August 10, 2012 · 8:37 am

Non Troppo

It’s hard to know what topic to choose for Foodie Friday in the middle of Summer.

English: Insalata caprese, made from mozzarell...

Insalata caprese, made from mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil and basil.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After all, there is no other time of the year when a cook has so many great ingredients from which to choose. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchini and (it seems) just about everything else are near or at their peak season now. It becomes hard to choose a topic just as it is to choose which to use for dinner.
Of course, the ingredients themselves are a theme we’ve hit before. I’ve written about being choosy and not settling for an inferior product, either in the kitchen or in the office.  Today I want to write about the corollary to great ingredients: not getting in their way.

Obviously you can’t put basil fresh from the garden next to a perfect tomato and buffalo mozzarella and expect a brilliant caprese salad to put itself together.  You still need to do some work and add a bit (and only a bit) of salt, acid, and great olive oil.  But, as the italian phrase goes, non troppo – not too much.  Overdressing or over seasoning the great basics just gets in the way of their flavors.  You want to bring those flavors out, not hide them.  Slices of zucchini and other summer vegetables perfectly sliced and roasted can be a fantastic meal.  Bake them in layers and cover them in cheese and you might get a tasteless, soggy mess of a gratin.

It’s the same with your team.  Find the best people, educate them on your goals, help fill in their skill set where necessary, and then get out of the way.  You want to manage them but non troppo – not too much.  How many of us have worked for a micro-manager who wants things done his or her way even if they’re wrong?  How often are you sitting around having drinks after work with your peers and the discussion uncovers widespread unhappiness with how the team is being used?  The better that team is the more likely that they have skill sets in certain areas that are superior to those of their supervisor in those areas.  As managers, we want those people on our team.  They’re not threats – they’re our salvation.

I love cooking in Summer since there’s less I have to do.  It’s more about the shopping than it is the cooking.  Great managing is that way – it’s almost more about the hiring than it is the managing.  You need to manage, but non troppo.  You with me?

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