Brand Autopsy

UPDATED: The submission deadline has passed.

Seth Godin is updating one of the most important marketing books ever published, PURPLE COW. It's a simple book about baking "remarkability" inside everything a business does. The book is chock-full of case study examples highlighting businesses that do things to earn opinions from customers.

With the updated edition, Seth is sharing new case study examples ... including examples submitted by us. (Yep, by us.) ACT NOW! Submissions are due by midnight, New York time, tonight.

(I submitted a ditty about Mighty-Fine Burgers.)

On May 13 & 14, WOMMA held its Word-of-Mouth Marketing University conference. Below is a video recap of a presentation from the conference.

---

The world’s two largest social networks, MySpace and Facebook, attract over 130-million users monthly. Thus the question has changed from IF you should use MySpace or Facebook to reach your customers to HOW. How can attention, affinity, and action happen best on each site? How do marketing messages spread differently between the two? How best to monitor and measure a brand’s performance on each site?

Those questions and more were answered by Heidi Browning from MySpace and Chris Pan from Facebook during the kick-off keynote to Day 2 of WOMM-U.

For smart recaps, I recommend reading posts from Josh Hallet, John Bell, and Ian Sohn. The moderator of the panel, David Berkowitz, also posted a good summary of the session.

I plopped my rinky-dink camera atop the banquet table in the dimly lit ballroom and captured much of the session on video. Because this session was so informative, written summaries fail to cover all the content. So, you should watch it for yourself and jot down your key takeaways.

---

VIDEO ONE:
In this segment you’ll learn about audience/demo profiles for MySpace and Facebook (0:00 to 2:45). Plus, you’ll hear Heidi and Chris share best practices from brands including Vitamin Water to Papa Johns Pizza to Starbucks to Cheetos to Aflac (2:46 to 9:35).

---

VIDEO TWO:
Both Heidi and Chris talk about the importance of creating engagement and community with users when designing marketing activities on MySpace and Facebook. Lots of great information in this segment.

---

VIDEO THREE:
Measurement matters to marketers. In this segment, you’ll learn how MySpace uses the momentum effect to evaluate success of a marketing activity. Facebook uses measurements of engagement to determine success/failure. Deep stuff. Watch, listen, and learn.

---

NOTE: crossposted on the ALL THINGS WOM blog

NOTE: crossposted on the ALL THINGS WOM blog

On May 13 & 14, WOMMA held its Word-of-Mouth Marketing University conference. Below is a recap of a presentation from the conference.

Presentation:
Maximizing Online Video for Marketing Success

---

Presenter said:

Jeben Berg, creative director of Cross Platforms Solutions at YouTube & Google, threw out some startling stats about YouTube during his presentation ... it’s 81-million unique monthly visitors makes YouTube one of the most trafficked websites in the world ... each minute, another new 15-minutes of video is uploaded to YouTube.

Obviously, YouTube is a media and marketing channel to be reckoned with and smart companies are finding ways to integrate YouTube into their marketing mix. Jeben explained there is “no single formula" for online video success. There are, however, lots of best practice tips on how to improve the effectiveness of online videos.

First, focus on great ideas rather than production values. Companies like BlendTec and its “Will it Blend” series begin with a singular idea — such as, will an iPhone blend? — to create simple yet interesting videos. According to Jeben, following the BlendTec approach of “high concept with low fidelity” is a recipe for creating compelling online video.

Second, think quantity more than quality. Jeben explained brands that post lots of videos gain the most viewers and receive the most must-see recommendations from friends.

Third, make the most out of your Title, Description, and Tags. Don’t get too cute with your video title names. Use key words and commonly searched terms in the Description of your videos. And, spend extra time making sure you Tag your videos with the most appropriate terms. Something simple as a good title, robust description, and relevant tags will help online videos get better visibility through search engines.

Jeben jokingly talked about how many CEOs of big brands have called YouTube requesting certain videos be taken down. As long as a copyright isn’t infringed upon, YouTube leaves such videos alone.

---

Audience tweeted:
@VirginiaMiracle was impressed with the short case study on how the rock band, Weezer, analyzed the stats behind their videos, “weezer used their YouTube stats to determine that no one in the state of Oklahoma cares about weezer.” By knowing how few viewers there were from Oklahoma, Weezer decided not to make a tour stop in the state.

In response to Jeben talking about the recent Domino’s video incident, @spikejones tweeted, “CEO of Domino’s called called YouTube and tried to play the ‘pull down the video b/c I pump so much $$ into Google card.’ It didn’t work.”

Jeben continued the Domino’s story about the company’s video response. @TravelPRPro responded, “Money Talks. Advertising does have influence. Domino’s response to employee hoax got prime placement on YouTube bc they advertise.”

---

WOMMA says:
Viral videos can give a company lots of attention. However, predicting what goes viral is nearly impossible. If you approach making a video with the intent of it going viral, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Instead, use Jeben’s advice of focusing on a quality idea more than on quality video production. It’s interesting ideas that get people interested and when interest is achieved, online word-of-mouth is primed to spread.

NOTE: crossposted on the ALL THINGS WOM blog On May 13 & 14, WOMMA held its Word-of-Mouth Marketing University conference. Below is a recap of a presentation from the conference.

Presentation:
Yelp: Empowering Consumers with Local Knowledge

---

Presenter said:

In kicking-off the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s WOMM-U Conference, Geoff Donaker, chief operating officer at Yelp, said, "The Genie is out of the bottle. You’re better off joining the conversation, than not." Conversations about local restaurants and businesses fuel Yelp’s business. Donaker described Yelp as, "local search powered by community."

It is the online community that provides Yelp with over 6-million reviews of local restaurants and businesses. 21-million people last month used Yelp to decide which restaurant to visit, car mechanic to use, and spa to be pampered at. With its broad reach and deep reviews, Yelp is changing the game of small business marketing.

Donaker told the story of a local carpet cleaner who used to spend $100K on yellow page advertising. Thanks to all the new business generated by positive reviews on Yelp, this carpet cleaner no longer spends money on yellow page advertising. Instead, this business is spending much of its advertising budget on improving it’s customer service, resulting in more positive reviews on Yelp.

Donaker also discussed how businesses have a love/hate relationship with customer-driven reviews. Businesses love how great customer service is rewarded with positive reviews. However, they hate the loss of message control. That said, the positive to negative review ratio at Yelp stands at 6:1.

---

Audience tweeted:

@ErikNYC mentioned the beauty of Yelp’s customer-driven model is that "when the customer wins, the business wins." Echoing sentiments from the presentation, @gamedayjreau tweeted, "It’s always about customer service at the end of the day."

In response to a case study example of how negative reviews can become positive for businesses, @leslieforde commented, "It’s worth engaging vocal customers gently. Reaching out to angry customers can change negative perception."

---

WOMMA says:

The love/hate relationship with customer-driven conversations is real. Word-of-mouth offline and online can not be controlled, only sparked. A business cannot ethically control what customers say about them. One of the best ways to spark word-of-mouth conversations is through delivering outstanding customer service and providing remarkable products.

For any business wanting to spark word-of-mouth conversations, it must first spend time and money to gain utmost confidence in their services and products. This confidence will give a business thick enough skin to withstand negative reviews as well as a solid foundation from which a virtuous cycle of positive reviews will fuel business growth.

---

LEARN MORE at WOMMA.org

I just watched Jim Gaffigan’s “King Baby” comedy special. Funny. Dang funny. And applicable. Really applicable to anyone who gives presentations.

Long-time readers of this blog know I’ve talked about applying lessons learned from improv comedy and from how stand-up comedians approach their craft. (So this isn’t new territory for us.)

Presenters and stand-up comedians have a lot in common. Presenters, like comics, must share a unique point-of-view. Presenters must also share their unique point-of-view in a smart way, just as comedians must do. Good presenters and good comedians utilize the power of timing and pauses in their delivery. The very best presenters and comedians go the extra mile by managing to give the illusion of their on-stage performance being a dialogue and not a monologue.

When you watch this clip of Jim Gaffigan’s “Bacon” routine, you'll learn exactly what I'm talking about. Notice how he shares his point-of-view in a uniquely smart way. Also, notice how Gaffigan pauses just enough to add more punch to his punch lines. It’ll be hard not for you to notice how Gaffigan gives the illusion of his routine as being a conversation with the audience. He's a brilliant presenter.

---

For extra credit, check out this presentation I posted on SlideShare. It shares more insights on improving your presentation skills by incorporating lessons from the world of stand-up comedy.

RSS Readers ... click here to view the prezo

If you've enjoyed the "Would You Miss" series on Brand Autopsy, then you'll enjoy Denise's BRANDS WE WOULD MISS series.

Denise is riffing off the 24/7 Wall Street article highlighting 12 brands they've singled out as being on the endangered species list.

Yesterday Denise made the case for why Budget rent-a-car deserves to exist. Today, she pleads for Saturn to survive. I wonder what endangered brand Denise will talk about tomorrow...

NOTE: crossposted on the ALL THINGS WOM blog

---

Suzy Welch, business writer, has an intriguing way to quickly analyze the consequences of decisions. When faced with making difficult choices, Suzy will 10-10-10 it. Meaning, she will take a few moments to consider the consequences of a decision that may occur in the next 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.

Suzy’s 10-10-10 model is a simple (and smart) way to analyze immediate, short-term, and long-term consequences of a decision. Plus, it’s so applicable to making important marketing decisions, especially in today’s online social world.

Except, we need to amp up Suzy’s 10-10-10 thinking to account for how quickly information spreads online. 10 minutes. 10 hours. 10 days. That’s a more workable 10-10-10 consequences model for marketers dealing with issues worthy of explosive online conversation, such as the marketing disaster recently faced by Dominos Pizza.

Because it took Dominos more than 24-hours to respond, the company was singled-out as being uncommunicative and unresponsive to the groundswell of online commentary on twitter and various blogs. Similar slow-reacting critiques have been hurled at Motrin (#motrinmoms) and Amazon (#amazonfail).

Dominos, Motrin, and Amazon all suffered immediate consequences of not making a decision on how to respond within 10 hours of the incidents they faced. The online chatter spiked and to an extent, took on a life of its own. However, these three brands did ultimately respond and the twitter storm receded within 10 days. For Motrin and Amazon, sales haven’t suffered from these missteps. Time will tell if the gross-out video will hurt Dominos sales this quarter.

We are still learning that responding quickly to marketing matters discussed online is vital. Using the10-10-10 rule should be helpful for companies in similar situations faced by Dominos, Motrin, and Amazon.

For example, within the first 10-minutes, a company should acknowledge what is happening. No answers. No explanations. Just an immediate acknowledgement using whatever social media tool a company feels most comfortable using will work. However, within 10-hours, a company should go beyond acknowledging to responding by explaining what happened and what specific actions the company is taking to address the issue in order to reassure people they can trust the company again. If done right and timely, negative consequences will be minimized 10-days after the initial flare up.

Is responding within 10-minutes realistic? Probably not. However, a response within 10-hours is realistic and expected in today’s always-on information cycle.

We keep learning the faster the response, the less damage done. If a company fails to respond quickly to these flare-ups, the consequences can last 10-years and not 10-days.