The Jordan Philips Marketing Blog - Internal Branding - Employee Engagement

Optimism...When it really counts

OK…I realize that I am only 37 but I have gone through some hard economic times. The normal ups and downs of the economy…a few recessions (a.k.a. the "R" word) and even a Dot Com bubble here and there. As a business consultant I have worked with a great number of CEOs and CMOs who Zigged and Zagged through what was in front of them. Some making good decisions and some…well…not so much. When times get tough, the cream rises to the top and the gap gets a lot wider between the winners and the losers. This is the time when good decisions count the most and take this from experience, you can't make good decisions without a healthy sense of Optimism.

Here are my 5 tips for keeping your wits about you in hard times.

1. Maintain a Positive Mental Attitude and provide a positive sense of leadership and direction.
   
2. Stay focused on what's most important. Realign your goals and share them throughout the organization.
   
3. Keep everything that's good. This means good employees, good vendors, good customers, good service. Its OK to make cuts but do not and I will say this again, DO NOT sacrifice your quality or your values…not even a little.
   
4. Let your employees be part of the solution. They are creative, and they want to feel that they are somewhat in control of their situation. Let them take ownership and be part of the rescue team. This will also continue to build trust which is so vital in times like this. Beware of low trust actions…there is a real and true economic factor that affects businesses with low trust.
   
5. Find a way to get rid of YOUR stress. Get out and exercise. Set goals and make sure that you are getting enough sleep. Make sure that you are confident in your strategy. I say do these things because people will sniff out the fakers. They are looking for folks like you to be positive leaders who can steer the ship in tough waters. If you say one thing and project another, you are DEAD. So button up yourself and others will follow you.

Final Word:

There are winners and losers. Leadership, vision and execution…that comes…from you, can be the difference maker.

Brunch with Lexus

Once a year my local Lexus dealer puts on an brunch event for its customers. For the record I think its a fantastic idea and they pull it off with an A+. The food is amazing and of course they have my Sunday morning favorite...Mimosa. The food is fantastic, there is absolutely no sales pressure and this year they were giving demo rides of the new Lexus 460 flagship car where you can experience the "self park" feature where the car actually parallel parks itself. Amazing.

Of course I asked for a few test drives in the new cars seeing how the new car smell in mine is wearing off. I also tracked down a brand new Jaguar XK while I was there and took it for a test drive as well. There is just something about cars I really enjoy.

Holding events like this to appreciate customers is 1) super easy, 2) not that expensive 3) creates brand loyalty up the whazoo. Lexus made me feel like a million bucks and they will keep earning my business because they get me.

Splat The Mat : Yes Essentials

Today I came across a wonderful micro-site called Splat The Mat by Yes Essentials. I am a big fan of micro-sites because they give companies the ability to be fresh and promote something "new". In this case Yes Essentials finds a way to do something I would have thought impossible. They made car mats interesting. Lets be honest...that deserves a medal or something. Micro-sites help bring marketing accountability into the mix...BIG TIME! It is extremely easy to track the web traffic, press, and of course sales from the website. Its creativity builds the emotional side of the brand as well. Check it out. What ways could you build an entertaining Micro-site to engage customers and make sales?

Sony Ericsson: Night Tennis

In March 2006, Sony Ericsson put on an event like no other, called Night Tennis. It was a combination of young people, technology, dance music by Paul Oakenfold (the best know dance DJ), technology, fashion, street performers, and above all things...glow in the dark tennis. I wouldn't want to leave out the well crafted sales pitch either.

OK, here is my thing. As marketers begin to look for ways out of traditional advertising and media buying in a "low attention" medium, event marketing is a great alternative. In my opinion, event marketing is too often over looked. Don't get me wrong, putting on an event of this scope is very costly, a pain in the ass to organize and very risky. But if it works and you really are in tune with your audience...it can completely engage your customers in your brand for not only the 5 hours they are there but long after. Thats a big payoff.

I thought Sony Ericsson did a great job of building an event directly targeted to their audience and engaging them in their brand. It was a one of a kind event with a lot of entertainment, wow factor and I am sure it left a great brand imprint on the minds of their targets. I give them a lot of credit for having the insight, courage and ability to pull this off.

One real quck side note...and this is where most events go wrong. I am wondering what kind of follow-up marketing efforts were done to convert business or build a valuable database. I think too often event marketers lose sight of this key step. They get too focused on the event itself and forget that they are doing the event to not only engage people with the brand but SELL THEM SOMETHING!   

Bob Garfiled: Chaos 2.0

I must say, that I hardly ever agree with Bob Garfiled...this applies to a lot of subjects. For those of you who don't know him, he is an ad critic / column editor with Ad Age. While I am usually the first person to let him have it and I took extreme pleasure in seeing Bill Gates get up and walk out on one of his interviews...I am not above mentioning the good things either. Recently Bob addressed a group of ad execs and he made a lot of good points (Article and Video) in his Chaos 2.0 speech. Hats off to you Bob...you got this one right. While we may not agree on things we do both agree that the industry needs change.

Blue Man Group Integrates Text Messaging into Their Shows

Last night I attended the traveling BLUE MAN show Megastar 2.0 in Green Bay, WI. The reason I bring it up is I thought that there was a very interesting use of TXT messaging during the show. There was a message on the pre-show screens that said TXT BLUE to 30369 for a chance to win a backstage pass. Of course in doing so they replied with a thank you and asked if you wanted to sign up for their newsletter by giving them your email address and if you did so you would be entered in for a chance to win a VIP trip to Chicago where you could take in their full show and get a two night stay at The James (see my post about them). During the show there were a couple TXT messages and at the end when I didn't win, they sent me a wallpaper image for my phone as a consolation prize. I thought that this was perhaps one of the best uses of text messaging that I have ever seen and it leaves me wondering why more event based marketing venues don't do something like this. They were able to collect data on me for future marketing efforts, share it with their partners and it engaged me more in the experience.

The only thing that matters is BUZZ

Forget all of the surveys about customer satisfaction. They are irrelevant because they are measuring the wrong thing. If you really want to know how well your company is doing in your perspective marketplace, you have to measure BUZZ. If the market isn't talking about you then you are in fact irrelevant. Instead of measuring a word, "satisfaction", which means nothing, see how many conversations are going on out there about you! Can the media not get enough about you, what about your customers or your employees.

Are they all out there talking about you non stop? For most companies there simply isn't any BUZZ at all. Leaders are not pushing the envelope enough. They aren't innovating. They are not creating controversy. They aren't engaging enough.

Case in point. Look at DOVE and what they are doing with their beauty campaign. http://campaignforrealbeauty.com/ this is absolutely brilliant. The amount of BUZZ that they have created is off the charts. Did you know that the ROI on this short movie that they put on YouTube generated three times the ROI as their SuperBowl ad? How about that.

Read about the campaign on Ad Age. 

Consumers Fight Back

Welcome to a new underground world of "ad tagging". Consumers can get stickers online and voice their opinion directly on your ad. Think about this for a moment. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? How do you think this affects the other consumers walking by your tagged ad, especially if you just shelled out a ton of money for the design and placement. But what if the customers are right and your ad does make them vomit? Point is I think we are going to start seeing a lot more of this so marketers be prepared.

Snakes on a Plane

Today I received a personalized phone call not once but twice from Samuel Jackson. If you go to the Snakes on a Plane website, you too can send a personalized phone call or email to anyone you want. You can custom select Samuel to say their name, they hobby, their type of car, and a funny feature about their appearance. What makes this so viral is how easy it is to use and it is completely seamless. It is really well done.

Here is another reason this rocks. Jack Morton came out with their annual report and said that word of mouth is so powerful that 66% of the time you will do anything your friends ask. That is a very powerful number. Read more about Jack Morton here. They are what I would determine as leaders in helping companies develop experiential platforms. I don't know if anyone other than a large company can afford them but they seem to really get it.

This is a great attempt at doing something different and viral. Will it work...who knows, but it sure is fun.

Perfect Timing

A great campaign done for IWC watches in Germany. Here is the lesson. Good marketers can look at something you see everyday and make it creative. You always know a great idea because the second you see it you wish you had thought of it first...Like this.