Fidelity vs. Convenience

An exclusive excerpt from Fortune magazine of a new book by Kevin Maney which explores the trade-off between quality and convenience and how Starbucks lost its "fidelity."

"Consumers are willing to give up convenience for great fidelity, or ditch fidelity for great convenience. But anything that offers just so-so fidelity and so-so convenience falls into a no-man's-land of consumer apathy that I call the fidelity belly. That's where music CDs, newspapers, and desktop Windows-based PCs find themselves today."

The Power of Access in the Experience Economy

Now that I'm back on the agency side of the marketing world, I get excited about odd things. Earlier this year I convinced my client to conduct their first-ever digital-specific ethnographic study of their target consumer. It was a great study and among the many actionable insights it generated, consumers said they were open to "getting access" to parties, celebs, experiences...from the brand. Of course they were.

Later this year, as I worked on developing a holistic Relationship Marketing program, the idea of exclusive access arose again. As I was thinking through low-cost, easy to execute "rewards" for loyalists, I started thinking about not only what the brand could provide -- branded merch, product, exclusive experiences...but also what partners could provide -- content, access to events and thought leaders, exclusive experiences...

Any given brand, especially large national and international ones, have all sorts of relationships that can be leveraged to provide ongoing value to consumers. I've found that the opportunities are only bound by our creativity and negotiation skills.

Supporting my theories is a new venture that launches tomorrow -- namedrop. While the feel of the site is slightly off and the business model dubious (the more time you spend, the more people you refer, the more rewards/chances to win...) the idea of ACCESS as it's own business is interesting. Can someone create an ad-sustained business by promoting unique experiences? What other business models could apply? Can you auction off experiences to the highest bidder? Lastly, how can brands partner with synergistic companies to provide real value? Who's doing it well?

What do you think?

namedrop.com

Juice Stimulus Bill Explorer

Another shoutout to the good folks at Juice for doing what they do. Their newish (awaiting an update) Juice Stimulus Bill Explorer is brilliant for people like me who either don't have the time or are unable to comprehend spending 700+ billion dollars. I love that they've added the simple voting tool and gradient scale, nice.

Social Influence and Persuasion

I had the opportunity to attend a presentation given by Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" last week. His contention is that there are scientifically proven universal tenets of human social influence and persuasion that can be used in speech and in marketing copy to open the minds of your audience to the benefits of your case. This is especially true in times of uncertainty. Here are the six he mentioned:

Reciprocation – people are obligated to give back to you what you provide to them. Give first to open minds and ears and only then should you ask for something. Presuasion instead of Persuasion

Scarcity – people want more of the things that there are less of. People are more powerfully affected by losing something than by gaining something. Employ language that spurs people to avoid loss.
- Ex: If you fail to do this, you will lose
- Ex: Calculate the amount of money you are wasting by not using our products.
- Ex: Bose Speakers - “New Features” versus “See What You've Been Missing”

Authority – if an expert says it, it must be true. Studies show that the credible communicator is the most successful. Credible means both knowledgeable and trust worthy. You must make your credentials known. This is best done ahead of time via a letter of introduction or get a mutual 3rd party to introduce you.
- Before you mention the strongest element of your case admit a weakness – this establishes immediate credibility. Avis and L'Oreal examples
- Berkshire Hathaway always begins their annual statements with a mis-step
- Likewise, build this formula into individual statements by changing the sequence of your words. Put the positive aspect of your statement after the word “but”
- GM CEO said, “We've built a plan to succeed, BUT we have a long way to go.” It should've been “We have a long way to go, but we have a plan to succeed.”

Consensus – people are likely to follow the lead of a) many others and b) similar others.
- Ex: “If operators are busy please call again”
- Ex: “The majority of our customers are saving $X”

Consistency

Friendship/Liking

In times of uncertainty:
- People tend to freeze and not make decisions
- People become very loss averse - Scarcity

Scarcity and Exclusivity of Information
- No one has this information yet
- This is exclusive information available for only a limited time
- Information value decays over time so you need to act on it NOW

Measure Change Social Network on Ning

http://measurechange.ning.com

Just experimenting...

hulu versus YouTube - Mark Cuban misses the point

An interesting post by Mark Cuban on his blog makes some good points but completely misses one of the most important differences between the two sites, YouTube is a social network, hulu isn't. For content producers, publishers and marketers, there is no better site (perhaps besides Facebook) for driving rich brand engagment. Sure, as a marketer, I can put an ad on hulu, but it's the same old mass market interuption model...will anyone click? No one will comment, mash-up, respond or subscribe to my content, that's for sure. YouTube, like MySpace and Facebook will continue to evolve their business models, they must and they will. But for now, they have won, and will continue to win because they've created much more than just a internet version of the same old lean-back platform.

Viral Video Tracking + Reporting

A great overview of video success metrics for Barak and Hillary by the folks at divinity Metrics. The world of tracking and reporting of online video is finally sprouting...

Fourbuttons.com

Mobile Decisions Made Easy™

A Call for a Customer/Visitor Profile Standard

Please, I beg you Jim Stern and the Web Analytics Association, QUICKLY develop a data standard for visitor profile data. Before I contract with 5 siloed vendors that will build proprietary profiles in their black boxes, please define an OPEN STANDARD where vendors can securely share and build upon my aggregated profiles. Google's doing it with "Social Media" profiles, the big analytics firms are selling their black boxes, all online Behavioral Targeting relies on them...you MUST do it with customer profiles, yesterday.

Doing good and doing it well.

Last night at 11:00pm, as I was putting away the groceries from my late night Safeway run I was listening to a BusinessWeek Cutting Edge Designers Podcast I'd meaning to check out. It was an interview with Hans Rosling, a Swedish professor turned information designer extraordinaire. If you haven't been watching the GapCasts now is the time. This one is a great place to start,

Gapminder - GapCast #5 - Bangladesh Miracle

If you like this sort of data visualization stuff and you don't know about the folks at Juice Analytics, get to know them!

Also, I've recently become obsessed with Good Magazine. these folks have found a way to "give a damn" and to present it beautifully. Subscribe damn it!