Two recent experiences with customer service (or lack of) caused me to pause and reflect on a brand’s strength through positive and negative experiences. While we’d love if our products and services garnered only rave reviews, that’s just not realistic. So how can negative experiences be mitigated, especially online?

First we’ll start in Hell. Well, Hell’s Kitchen that is. I journeyed to this downtown Minneapolis restaurant on a recent Friday evening with a group of co-workers, nine in all. We came in a little after 5:00, which is a popular time, I know. But as we descended into the “greeting area” the front desk gentleman simply asked, “How many?” We told him nine. He responded, (bitterly sarcastic) “Have you heard of a reservation? They’re super fun and super easy to make on those computer things.”

Although upset by his rudeness, we still inquire about the wait time.

Mr. Personality: “45 minutes,” even though there were at least five open tables within sight.

Us: “Really? Even with all these open tables?” (And multiple rooms?)

Mr. Personality: “Yep. Because we have a lot of RESERVATIONS tonight.” I suppose that was his subtle way of asking us to leave.

So now (as you can image) we’re mad, walking out, grumbling about out his darn lousy customer service. Come on—we’re professionals who will spend and tip well. Even if there were a big wait, had he just been polite we would walked away from Hell’s Kitchen to return another time. Instead, I will make a point not to go back. I’ve recited this story in-person and now online. I even sent the restaurant’s manager an email detailing this experience and have gotten no reply. So I think I’ll leave Hell to Dante and find a place that welcomes my business downtown.

Flash forward to this past Sunday when I headed to the AMC theatres in Eden Prairie to catch the Oscar-nominated Descendants with a gift card. I made it through nearly 45 minutes of the movie when I thought, “Who cares what happens, is this supposed to be good writing? And hey, isn’t Adele on 60 Minutes pretty soon?” So I left to not waste any more time, mad at myself for not seeing War Horse instead and wasting the nice gift card on this snooze fest (plus some pretty lousy popcorn). I headed to the well-marked Guest Services area to see if anything could be done. The very nice manager was personable, understanding and gave me a free movie pass and snack item so next time I could return to enjoy a show. Wow! I felt like AMC theatres wanted my business. I thanked her for standing behind her brand and she said they want happy, repeat customers. What a novel idea! Are you listening Hell’s Kitchen?

I think there is a lesson to be learned for marketers and brand builders by informing you of these events. First, is to acknowledge that your brand is reflected not only in marketing materials, but by individual employees, or brand ambassadors. So you better equip the “front lines” to communicate well. And second, is to tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), word-of-mouth harnesses the voice of the customer for the good of the brand. And it acknowledges that the unsatisfied customer is equally powerful. In an often-heard statistic, a typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to 10 people about his or her experience. One in five will tell 20 or more. And these word-of-mouth statistics are understated in today’s social marketplace where a tweet or Facebook post can be seen by hundreds in just a matter of minutes.

There are ways to learn what customers think, beyond your business’s Facebook wall. Check yelp or Epinions for unbiased reviews. It’s worth a monthly check to identify any negative reviews and attempt to resolve them. Companies can work hard to make people happier, to listen to consumers and make it easier for them to recommend your business to friends. And most importantly, remember that each small interaction counts—you never know who might put you in their blog.

Are there specific sites you like to use to gauge feedback? Have you righted a negative situation for your business? We’d like to hear!

-Jenny Silgen

Political candidate logos are often quite predictable: NAME IN ALL CAPS, the same palette as the American flag, and trite symbols like stars, stripes, and banners waving in the wind. It is curious that the majority of politicians play it safe with the visual aspect of their brand. After all, their logos have the potential to get a massive amount of impressions. Yard signs, billboards, commercials, bumper stickers are just a few of the endless types of applications. With this much expected exposure, one would think a candidate would want to stand out in a sea of repetition.

In 2008, Barack Obama debuted a logo that broke free from the monotony of the past. Designed by Sol Sender, the eye-catching mark stood out because it had an actual concept. The campaign logo’s prime goal was not only to improve name recognition. According to Sender, “We were looking at the “O” of his name and had the idea of a rising sun and a new day. The sun rising over the horizon evoked a new sense of hope.” The result? The design became one of the most recognized political brand logos and is being used again in Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

Fast forward to this year’s election. After witnessing the graphic design breakthrough four years ago, I was excited to see even more progressive political design. Let’s take a look.

After reviewing the final four logos in the GOP race, I was shocked at how similarly boring they were. In the GOP roster, all of the tired motifs had returned: name in ALL CAPS, very similar (and overused) serif typeface and generic red striped banners waving. The tag lines even step on top of each other, with an emphasis on the word “America.”

The only brand that stands out belongs to Obama. Implementing his 2008 icon into 2012 is a great transition. Smartly, the original logo is not altered; it is given new life with placement. Also given new life is the typeface Gotham. For 2012, type foundry Hoefler and Frere-Jones created a new custom version of their Gotham typeface by adding serifs. On their website, Hoefler mused, “Can we add serifs to Gotham? For the President of The United States? Yes We Can.”

What are your thoughts on the campaign logos?

-Joy Wagner

As the Director of SCG’s Perfect Pitch Call Center, I work to conceptualize and design successful calling campaigns. A large part of this consists of lead generation.

When conducting lead generation activities, one of the first things you will discover is the great variance in contact rates throughout the course of a single day. There are a number of factors that determine contact rate, such as:

• the industry you are calling,
• the level of decision-maker you are trying to reach, and
• the complexity of your offer.

It is not uncommon for a company to see contact rates range between 10% and 30%, depending on the time of day you are calling. One of the unique advantages an out-sourced service provider offers is the ability to staff projects based on the best time of day for calling to achieve a higher contact rate.

Ready for some math? Let’s use the range of 10% to 30% as an example. If your average contact rate is 20% and you make 20 calls per hour you will reach four decision-makers each hour of calling (20 x 20%). Over an eight hour day that would be 32 contacts. Taking it a step further, a study of your call results may reveal that you have a 30% contact rate between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. A call center could staff eight people to make calls during that peak hour of the afternoon and could potentially reach 48 decision-makers in the same amount of time. By doing so you would increase your productivity by 33% and of course—generate more leads. Granted, this is an extreme example but it helps to illustrate the advantages of out-sourcing lead generation.

How would a 33% increase in contacts affect your revenue projections?

Read more blogs at SCG’s 41 Stories.

-Randy West

While a study by BtoB Magazine conducted last year pegged 93% of all B2B marketers to be engaged in some form of social media marketing, I still see some B2B marketers shun a mufti-dimensional social media program. Sure, LinkedIn is okay but all the others?

Perhaps the name is the first barrier. The soft, squishy “Social Media” label belies the incredible influence that blogs, twitter, Facebook, Google+ can have on a business-to-business brand. But I like to think of “Social Media” more as visibility media – or search media. Jeffrey L. Cohen, Managing Editor of SocialMediaB2B.com agrees. He recently wrote that “prospects still find their way to your site and your content by search, and Google (Plus) is giving B2B marketers another tool to help with that.” That’s actually true for all the social media elements.

But just exactly, how does Social Media work to help your prospects find you? Let’s start by examining a company’s digital foot print.

In the graph above, the mighty Web Site is situated on the left with corporate and product messaging, and possibly e-commerce waiting patiently for visitors. Just four years ago, the quip “build it and they will come” held true for web sites. Some studies suggest that as much as 93% of internet visitors went directly to the Web Site as recently as 2008 – without the assistance from Google or another search engine.

However, today that relationship has completely reversed. Now 90% of visitors arrive at your site through search, represented in the graphic as the circle on the right. It is no longer enough to just build the site. Marketers must expand their presence on the internet to get closer or rather more visible to the search engines. And one of the most effective ways to do that is to use social media to expand the company’s digital footprint.

The most common social media vehicles are noted on the chart. However, the real key to maximizing the footprint is not so much which elements are selected but rather that these social media elements are integrated with each other – as well as refined to best appeal to certain segments of your prospects and customers. For example, a new product is usually launched with an announcement on the web site. A message is also posted on Facebook about the new product as a tweet directs readers to the blog on the microsite that explains in greater detail the product benefits. A video of someone using the product is posted on YouTube, and the blog feed is updated on the management team’s LinkedIn page. The next day, the twitter account takes up new tweets and retweets. Facebook has a couple of new posts. The next week the same integrated approach is applied to promote the next topic identified in the editorial calendar.

It is actually a fairly straight forward and efficient process but it takes a good plan and some discipline to keep all the pieces working together. There is one other important element to success – engaging relevant content that has been optimized for the search engines, but I’ll save that for my next blog. If you would like to explore further how to create or enhance a strategic approach for B2B Social Media, please contact me.

patriciah@scgpr.com
612-288-2403

-Pat Henning

I would consider myself an avid Do-It-Yourselfer. I love the challenge of learning new skills and the accomplishment of making broken things work. Recently, I have found myself having to fix a number of things myself. And thanks to the many how-to videos on the Internet, my DIY adventures have been successful.

• First, it was my flat screen HD TV that needed help. I had to replace 4 Capacitors, which I learned by watching a tutorial on YouTube.
• Then, I replaced the LCD screen on my MacBook, again with the help from a You Tube video by Smalldog Electronics.
• After that, I replaced the spark plugs on a VW Jetta with the help from a step-by-step tutorial on a VW forum.

I am currently researching how to replace the water lines to my upstairs bathroom, which brings me to this blog’s topic. While researching processes and replacement materials, I found a great video that easily explained everything related to this particular project. This video was made by the B2B pipe fitting manufacturer WATTS. The video not only introduced me to its new innovative pipe fittings, but also showed me how the fittings work and why they are the best solution for me, the consumer. There were links to additional videos explaining how to use these fittings and install them with various materials. Finding the how-to videos introduced me to this manufacturer’s product which then informed me and sold me.

Loaded with information and confidence, I went to my local Menards and specifically ask for the Watts Quick-Connect fittings. The plumbing experts at Menards also showed me another fitting product comparable to the Watts brand, but already feeling familiar to the Quick-Connect, I stayed loyal and bought those.

With information overflowing on the Internet, Do-It-Yourselfers—and consumers in general—are feeling more empowered than ever. This is a great opportunity for B2B companies to share knowledge and show off products. Just because a company is B2B and doesn’t sell directly to end-users doesn’t mean it shouldn’t speak to them. Using industry expertise reinforces product brand strength, and how-to videos featuring product lines are a great way to illustrate that a brand is anticipating the needs and wants of end-users. Utilizing YouTube videos and channels allows organizations to be the first to reach end-users so they will demand your product in the marketplace.

And, if you’re curious about my current DIY project, this is how I’m going to replace my bad galvanized pipes with PEX and connect it to the existing copper pipes.

-Trevor Nolte

As the boundaries between TV viewing and online viewing continue to blur, YouTube’s new venture will gray the lines even further. 2012 will see YouTube jump off computer screens and onto TV’s by bringing premium channels and original content to our homes.

In case you haven’t heard, YouTube has recruited producers, directors and performers from traditional media to create at least a hundred YouTube TV channels (YouTV, if you will), which we can expect to begin viewing in the next six months.

These channels will have a lot in common with more traditional TV programs, as YouTube will act similarly to a small TV station, but content will be streamed and delivered over the Internet. YouTube requires that each channel produces a certain number of hours of content per week but other than that, creators will have the freedom to program their channels as they see fit.

According to Forrester Research, by 2016 50% of all households will have Wi-Fi-enabled devices on their televisions, which will bring all those new YouTV channels into the living room, tempting people to cancel their pricey cable subscriptions. The only way for the networks and the cable companies to grow will be to buy Web-based channels.

“People went from broad to narrow,” YouTube’s Global Head of Content Robert Kyncl said, “and we think they will continue to go that way—spend more and more time in the niches—because now the distribution landscape allows for more narrowness.”

We’ve already seen how cable allowed TV channels to create more narrowed programming. Kyncl believes that audiences want even “nichier” content and that YouTube’s original channels will be the driving force that will deliver it right to our digital doors.

It’s like free cable TV? I’m on board!

With YouTV (in theory), the niches will become more focused, and the audiences will get smaller and more segmented, meaning they will be more quantifiable which is great news for marketers. Channels and advertisers will know precisely who its viewers are—not our names but info regarding our viewing histories, searches, purchases, our rough location and our online social connections. This will let advertisers produce more relevant ads for very specific audiences.

So it’s free, but will it be any good?

Kyncl ensures that quality programming is the ultimate goal. YouTV has attracted names like Disney, Jay-Z, Madonna and Amy Poehler, who have already begun creating their own channels. With the array of channels it will offer, it’s up to the audience what to watch, not the TV executive.

YouTV has already been likened to the upheaval led by cable companies in the 1980s broadcast industry. Will we see similar results? What are your thoughts?

-Jodi Osmond

Marketeer err…Mouseketeer Ears at the Smithsonian.

As a longtime interactive professional (or “overly seasoned web nerd” if you want to get technical), I’m as guilty as the next person for inadvertently spewing forth a barrage of acronyms and vernacular the non-nerd has never heard before or may not fully understand. This, of course, is no problem when I’m in the company of other geeks, but I wanted to put together a cheat sheet of sorts for those that deal with my folk every day.

Say What?

• HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language):  HTML (and/or XHTML) is the foundational coding language used to create web pages and websites. Right click in your browser and View Source and you can see it for yourself!
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):  CSS is a coding language that tells HTML what to look like. If someone’s talking about CSS, they’re definitely talking about the colors, fonts, links, buttons and overall look and feel of a website or web page.
• CMS (Content Management System):  Anything on the Internet that’s built on a CMS is done so in order for a non-technical person to be able to easily update its content. Most sites nowadays are built on one of the thousands of CMS systems available and usually fall into one of three categories:
  • Open Source:  Freely available and modifiable under an open public licensing such as the GNU General Public License (GPL)
  • Proprietary:  Often referred to as a SaaS (Software as a Service). Proprietary systems are closed source and users are usually charged recurring licensing fees
  • “In-House” or “Home Grown” CMS:  Usually a proprietary CMS by nature and in my opinion, very rarely a cost-effective solution for most projects
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization):  Can be coupled with SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and is the process of improving the rankings or “visibility” of a website and its pages in search engines. For more on SEO, check out some other posts we’ve shared here on 41 Stories.
• PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor):  PHP is the most widely used server-side scripting language with the only major competitor being Microsoft’s .NET (formerly ASP). PHP is free to use while .NET is a paid solution. Here’s a little fun fact:  Facebook is largely written in PHP. Another fun fact: this acronym is what’s called a recursive acronym and it’s confusing. For some fun reading on recursive acronyms check out this Wikipedia entry.
• XML (Extensible Markup Language):  I can keep this one super easy. It’s a regular text file and it holds data.
• RSS (Real Simple Syndication):  A standardized XML file that allows publishers to syndicate, share and distribute content. I’m sure you’ve seen the orange icon a few times. And if you use Google Reader, that’s what’s called an RSS aggregator.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator):  I can keep this one simple too. For all practical purposes it’s a link. URL is sometimes confused with domain. A domain is the address where a website lives while URLs point to pages and/or files on a website’s domain. Clear as mud? If not, here’s a domain:  www.google.com and here’s a URL www.google.com/about.
• FTP (File Transfer Protocol):  This is the network protocol used to transfer files over the Internet and from personal computers to websites. If someone’s talking about an “FTP site” then they’re probably talking about a means to transfer files (often large ones), and if they mention “FTP access” then they’re probably talking about getting access to update the actual files that make up a website.

Still awake? If so I could most certainly continue with OVDA (Other Various Dork Acronyms) but I’ll stop short here and allow for any inquiring minds to ask their questions in the comments below.

-Brian Larson

This is a busy time of year for everyone, particular marketing professionals.  If you’re anything like me, you probably have a mental list of personal and professional goals for 2012 and are 100% committed to achieving them by 2013.  However, I’ve found that in my personal life if I set too many goals or they are too vague, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and revert to past behaviors.

With that in mind, here are three New Year’s Resolutions to enhance your 2012 marketing efforts.  Hopefully you can fully commit to at least one of them:

1. Don’t Forget About Traditional Marketing Avenues. Yes, social media is transforming communications and it holds tremendous power for connecting with your key audiences, but isn’t an excuse to abandon other marketing efforts. To most effectively reach your audiences utilize a number of channels to get their attention, not just Facebook or Twitter. Traditional tactics like media relations, direct mail, search engine marketing (SEM) or refreshing your corporate website with more current content still have tremendous value.
2. Seriously Consider A Mobile Version of Your Corporate Website. Mobile web traffic is here to stay. It was estimated 6.8 million Android and IOS devices were activated on Christmas Day alone. Some studies suggest mobile web traffic will grow by 400% by 2015. We’ve seen mobile traffic to the sites we monitor ranging anywhere from 5-14% of monthly traffic and steadily growing. Mobile browsing is here to stay, is your website ready for it?
3. Resolve to Have More Fun. Without rehashing too much of the gloom and doom of recent years, I think it’s safe to say they weren’t a picnic for anyone. Budgets were tightened, demands increased, and technology changed faster than ever. But the fog seems to be lifting. While trying not to jinx anything, there seems to be a growing sense of optimism in the air. The best marketing ideas tend to come when everyone is having fun and focused on coming up with great ideas, not what roadblocks are in the way.

Surely my list isn’t complete. What marketing related resolutions do you have for 2012?

Read more blogs from SCG’s 41 Stories.

-Jeron Udean

A long time ago, I was a product manager for a mini computer product for Sperry Corporation (now Unisys). I vividly recall on my first day there being taught how to add 2 + 2 inside the back panel of the computer. It was a process of putting binary code into cells and telling the computer to add them and where to put the binary answer (100). This was basically all done using light and tubes. A lot has happened since those analog days, and I have enjoyed using constantly evolving computer hardware and software almost every day since 1979.

SCG has always been an integrated agency. In 1992, we developed our first integrated communications model which included public relations, advertising, direct marketing, and personal selling support. By 1998, we fully integrated the young, developing Internet.

Looking back over the past ten plus years, it was the ability of the Internet to transmit messages so cost effectively and powerfully that allowed our business to incrementally shift to the point where digital now represents about 75% of our business.

Leaning into the digital world, especially with social media, has been a natural transition for us because we have always cared more about effectively reaching our audience than with what tactic we used to actually reach them. We have been indifferent to the tools and tactics to reach a prospect or existing customer and instead search for ways to integrate a communication program that is most compelling and persuasive—and also the highest value from a cost perspective.This indifference is a big advantage in that we offer solutions to communications challenges without a bias for any particular tactic.

As Web 2.0 has evolved toward Web 3.0 and social media matured, we now have the added opportunity to engage very narrow and targeted audiences around the world. It is especially valuable, in my experience, with B2B customers because of the ability to consistently scale a program that doesn’t exceed the capacity to quickly and effectively respond to comments and queries.

One of the things I have noticed from the most successful Twitter users is that they outgrow their scale fairly early and can’t respond to comments from those that follow them. When that situation occurs, though they may be popular, they are essentially converting an interactive system into a broadcast system and not engaging in what the platform was designed to do, namely allow for manageable two-way dialogue. But sharing information is a noble enterprise, so using digital platforms in ways they were unintended for is often a perfectly useful and valuable approach. It remains ironic however, that with social media the more successful you are, the less likely you are to be using the platform as it was intended.

With Web 2.0, the elephant in the corner remains scalability. But, in many cases, two-way dialogue is not the primary benefit of the digital platform. Many professional readers of corporate blogs are not as likely to make comments on the blog for a variety of reasons including the need for discretion and in some cases trying to retain a competitive advantage. Social media offers those folks alternative platforms such as Buddy Press  that allow for an invitation-only platform for non-competitors to share more sensitive corporate information with each other.

As we move into 2012, here are ten trends to watch for. Pay particular attention to mobile; it takes 24/7 to a new level by adding the variable of anywhere, to anytime thanks in large part to the cloud.

Things are moving fast, and it’s a daily challenge to keep up with it all. But it’s definitely worth the effort, especially relative to the powerful and cost-effective results available from the digital age.

-Patrick Strother

Simpler, faster and more personal. These three concepts are the main drivers of the new Twitter design and features that rolled out last week to Twitter’s various smartphone and tablet applications. (Twitter’s website will reflect the changes before the end of December.) The new design provides a better organized and more functional interface while also offering brands a more enhanced page to engage, interact and share content with followers.

Enhanced profile pages (or brand pages) now provide a differentiator between brand accounts and user accounts. The new brand pages will allow companies to customize a large header image for prominently displaying their logo, tagline and any other visuals. Companies can also control the message visitors see when they first come to their profile page by promoting a tweet to the top of their page’s timeline, which helps highlight the most engaging and important content. The top tweet also auto-expands to reveal an embedded photo or video without requiring the user to click on a link. So far, Twitter has launched the new brand pages exclusively to 21 companies: @AmericanExpress, @BestBuy, @bing, @chevrolet, @CocaCola, @Dell, @DisneyPixar, @generalelectric, @Heineken, @HP, @intel, @JetBlue, @Kia, @McDonalds, @nikebasketball, @NYSE_Euronext, Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible – @GhostProtocol, @pepsi, @Staples, @subwayfreshbuzz, and @VerizonWireless. Other companies will be able to jump on the bandwagon in the coming months.

In addition to a more streamlined interface and new design, here are four key ways Twitter has been reorganized:

• Home: Where you view tweets from the people you’ve chosen to follow. Now, photos, videos and conversations are embedded directly in tweets so you can see the whole story at a glance. You’ll also be able to see information about @replies and retweets for a particular tweet by selecting “Open,” a new feature that works much like following a conversation thread on Facebook.
• Connect: A new section where you can see who has followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorite one of your tweets. It’s an easier way to track your impact across Twitter by showing all actions other people have taken related to you and your tweets. You can also type in someone’s Twitter handle to instantly learn more about them and connect.
• Discover: Tap into a stream of useful and entertaining information, customized for you. You’ll see results that reflect your interests based on your location, connections and language.
• Me: A new profile section that provides an opportunity to introduce yourself to the world. This is where you add the information you want to share so people can learn about you at a glance.

According to a poll of Mashable readers, many users (almost 41% of respondents) love the new changes, saying that the site is “easier to use,” “fantastic” and “pretty kewl.” On Twitter, the overall response seems to be positive, with many users reacting with enthusiasm.

I’ve played around with Twitter’s new design and I must say, it is a vast improvement from the old. How do you like the new Twitter design?

Read more blogs from SCG’s 41 Stories.

-Mary Nhotsavang