Archive View (August 2007)

Yesterday in the WSJ I noticed an ad for a Sprint world phone PDA.  Normally I just fly past cell phone ads and Sprint's ads are usually pretty boring to boot, but not today.  The headline read: 'The First $10.5M Cell Phone' Now that catches your attention. The body copy was equally engaging describing how if you buy the $10.5M cell phone they will throw in your own island.  I can't do the ad justice by describing it, so visit the integrated website (explore the site there is more than just the video). You will get a better picture of the campaign and more...

The other day someone referred to some of their clients as stupid.  I couldn't believe it .  Would you insult them in person I asked?  Do they pay your bills? Buy your product or service?  Would you do business with a company that called you stupid? I was (and still am) very frustrated with the experience for a few reasons.  Is this person calling me stupid behind my back?  More importantly as a marketer I work hard to generate leads and sales and if there is someone referring to my customers that way they are also belittling what I do for more...

If you are marketing a product or service I hope you are measuring the results.  If not, you are missing the boat (more clichés for Cybelle) and you will never know if what you are doing is making a difference in your business. The goal of marketing should be to move the sales needle (or build up a database marketing effort for long term sales) if you can't quantify the results of your efforts then put the money in the bank and earn the interest.   If you don't measure you won't be able to test one idea against another or take more...

You always hear people say the customer is always right, but how often do companies stand by this policy?  Stew Leonards gets it.  They even carved this message into a large rock in front of their stores to make sure it was clear to their customers and employees.  If you are responsible for marketing, sales or service you should take a good look at your service policy.  It has been my experience that more often then not, companies try to prove to their customers that they are right, even if it means loosing a customer. It happened to me today with more...