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Using PowerPoint to communicate your message

Friday, May 15, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

I'm sure everyone has seen many bad presentations in their career, but the key is having the ability to recognize that they are bad presentations.

How you communicate your customer listening information is crucial in getting people to not only understand what you are delivering to them, but for them to buy into it as well. If they don’t understand your concept, they will not support it, and all of your hard work will be lost.

Spend a little extra time on developing the presentation, and consult a designer if you need to. Taking this extra step will help you in getting your company to understand why it should be building customer loyalty.

I encourage you to read Dan McCormick's blog post "Are you killing your presentations?," which gives some guidance on avoiding some of the pitfalls of bad presentation design.

And for a little entertainment, view comedian Don McMillan's routine about bad PowerPoint practices entitled "Life after Death by PowerPoint."

Jeff Wiggington
Marketing Communications

The Box

Thursday, April 30, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Are you finding it hard to get people to take action on the customer feedback your program delivers? Is it difficult to get traction with your listening program?

Maybe your co-workers can't see past their box. No, not their cubes, but their day-to-day routines and tasks. It is amazing how much is missed when we are focused on something else.

Help re-focus your organization. Develop ways to get your program noticed. Branding your program and starting a campaign are great places to start.

Being in a box can also be applied to customer loyalty managers. Are you blind to any parts of your organization? Can the voice of the customer be used anywhere else?

Avoid the box. Be active.

Dan McCormick
Marketing Communications

Do you have an internal marketing plan?

Friday, April 24, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Every company should have an internal marketing plan to keep their employees aware of the company’s efforts and philosophies. It may not be a structured plan, but all companies need some type of communication vehicle to share their vision, goals, brand, and values. It’s better to define these vehicles and determine what the best and most effective method of delivery is in your company. Everyone should be striving to reach a common goal, but how can they do that if they don’t know what the goal is?

So whether or not your company has a corporate internal marketing plan, you should create a plan for your customer loyalty program to share your customer relationship strategy. Developing a plan for your program is essential in enhancing your customer focus and getting it ingrained into your company’s culture and building customer loyalty.

“As companies empower staff to build stronger customer relationship, internal marketing underpins the drive for greater involvement, commitment, and understanding.”
- BNET Editorial

The “Planning Internal Marketing” blog post by BNET Editorial is a great place to start, and the book Internal Marketing can give you more insights on how and why to create an internal marketing plan.

Jeff Wiggington
Marketing Communications

The Power of Video

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Video can be a very powerful tool in the marketing of your customer listening program's brand. And, along with anything that is powerful ("With great power comes great responsibility"), you must be careful how it is used.

Below is a good example of using video. Technically, the video looks professional, and the message is clear and focused -- it represents a brand well.

This video, on the other hand, is a perfect example of not representing a brand well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unMJR9-4MdA

In fact, this video may be destroying a brand. One video view at a time.

Behold, the power of video.

Brianne Drlich
Marketing Communications

Clarity

Friday, April 3, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Clarity is a simple word, but it has a profound meaning. Dictionary.com defines clarity as clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity.

The big question: Are you creating clarity in your customer listening program?

Ambiguity is the enemy. Do your coworkers have a clear understanding of what your program is or does? If people don’t understand it, how can they know the true value? For your organization to get the most out of the customer perspective you have to cut through the clutter. A good way to do this is to create new and interesting ways to promote your program. In essence, you need to market being customer centric to your organization.

To get the good ideas flowing, find a few creative people and start brainstorming. Discuss possible campaigns and develop a strategy for promotion. The key is to create a campaign that is fun and exciting but doesn’t lose the clarity of your message.

Take a look at what Blendtec did to promote their blenders. It is funny, but it shows the durability and power of their product. Are there ways you can get your organization excited and ready to use your customer loyalty programs?

Dan McCormick
Marketing Communications

Marketing With Col. Sanders

Friday, March 27, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Did you ever think that you would see Col. Sanders from KFC filling potholes in your community? Although this is probably more like a publicity stunt or guerilla marketing, it is a very creative way to get noticed and to help the community at the same time.

KFC has aligned their current “fresh” marketing campaign with filling potholes in Chicago to “Re-fresh” city streets as part of a growing trend called consumer-service marketing. These campaigns are actually helping stakeholders (sometimes indirectly), and at the same time helps the company build customer loyalty and employee engagement by showing that they care and are trying to help the local community.

How can your customer loyalty program benefit from consumer-service marketing? Start by thinking outside the box like KFC is doing, and try to align your program’s message with a service or charitable event that can help benefit your customers, employees, or a local charity. Look at your customer loyalty research, or organizations your employees are active in to target the campaign to what they would be interested in.

This is sure to create a memorable experience, and will be remembered more than the occasional email or newsletter mention. Do you have any ideas for consumer-service campaigns? Post a comment and let us know about them.

Jeff Wiggington
Marketing Communications

What can we learn from 'tween Dora?

Friday, March 20, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Recently in the news there has been some uproar over Mattel's unveiling of the new 'tween Dora the Explorer. For those of you not living in the world of children's characters, Dora the Explorer is a bilingual adventuresome, map-toting, backpack carrying girl, teaching kids Spanish, problem solving, and helping others.

Mattel and Nickelodeon thought it would be a great idea to create a 'tween version of Dora to let "girls continue to learn and grow with the character." Sounds pretty innocent, right?

Well, there was quite the backlash among mothers out in cyberspace.

There have been many angry blogs and petitions against this new tweenage Dora. It seems the new Dora will be moving to the big city, going to school, and having adventures with her four new friends. Will she have her backpack? Her best friend Boots the Monkey? Probably not. Here are a couple of the mothers' comments:

* "What next? Dora the cheerleader? Dora the fashionista with stylist purse and stilettos?"

And, my favorite:

* "If the original Dora grew up, she wouldn't be a fashion icon or a shopaholic. She'd develop her map reading ... design new ways to bring fresh water to communities in need ... become a wildlife preservationist biologist."

So, what does this have to do with the marketing of your customer program?

When we help companies communicate their customer program, we generally suggest five steps to make it effective. The first step is "Define your Audience."

Clearly, Mattel was not expecting this sort of backlash in the release of 'tween Dora. But, I can't help but wonder if they were carefully thinking about their audience. Will a little girl who was a fan of Dora as a preschooler love the new Dora in the big city without her map, backpack, and Boots the Monkey? Maybe.

I wonder if they thought about why the Dora fans love her so much. From the sounds of the angry moms, it seemed as though she was a refreshing change from Bratz dolls and Barbie, who are fashion focused. Dora seemed to be a pioneer of sorts.

So, did they miss the mark on the audience? Should they have been thinking more about what the parents will think? I think so.

If Mattel would have asked us, we would have told them to do the following:

List all of your appropriate stakeholders with whom you need to communicate
Prioritize this list- Where will you get the most impact?

This is a good first step of what you can do when you are thinking about communicating your customer program. Don't let there be a Dora backlash.

Brianne Drlich
Marketing Communications

Are you killing your presentations?

Friday, March 13, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Bad presentations are a fact of life. Neither the presenter nor the audience wants them to happen, but they do. In most cases, PowerPoint is to blame. Not the software, which is a valuable tool, but the presentation the speaker creates. The slides become the focal point of the presentation and are not used as a supplement. In essence, slides are used to “kill” a topic.

For example, how many times have you been in a meeting where you thought the deluge of slides would never end? The presentation continues slide after boring slide. Or have you sat through a presentation where everything the speaker says is already on the slide?

What does this have to do with my customer feedback program? It greatly influences how your important data is received. A concise presentation that demonstrates the key facts about your customers can have more of an effect than one packed with every piece of customer information. Your goal should be to get the voice of the customer to your organization in a way that makes a positive impact.

Simplifying your presentations and tailoring them to your audience can increase interest in your customer loyalty programs.

Need a few ideas to get started?

Death by PowerPoint

View more presentations from Alexei Kapterev.

Dan McCormick
Marketing Communications

Obama is great – at branding

Thursday, March 5, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Whether you agree with President Obama’s policies or not, you have to admit that his branding skills are impeccable. He has successfully created a brand for himself, not only as a person, but as an idea and a movement. Everyone talks about his success in harnessing social media, but what he really did was transform a customer strategy into a branded customer centric initiative that everyone wanted to be involved in.

Now he is doing it again by branding his recovery programs. This may sound pretentious, but it’s actually a very smart idea. Obama just unveiled new emblems (logos) for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) team. By branding these programs he is not only giving them credibility, but he is creating a symbol for people to easily recognize and understand.

“These emblems are symbols of our commitment to you, the American people. When you see them on projects that your tax dollars made possible, let it be a reminder that our government, your government, is doing its part to put the economy back on the road of recovery.” – Barack Obama

Ultimately this gives the perception that Obama truly cares about these programs, and shows his followers that he is actively working on them. Pay attention to Obama’s initiatives and try to create this type of energy around your customer loyalty program. Show your customers that you care about them and that you want their loyalty, and are willing to work for it. Creating a branded strategy around your program will also give your employees incentive to put the customer first, which will help in building customer loyalty.

Jeff Wiggington
Marketing Communications

How does your logo make you feel?

Friday, February 27, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

There is an interesting article in Brandweek that made me think about another way the down economy is affecting us – logo creation. Yes, this is most likely a little lower on your list, then say, your child’s college education, but it could impact your customer listening program, nonetheless.

Apparently some major companies are changing their logos to become more upbeat, colorful, whimsical – you know, all around feel-good stuff. One of those companies, Kraft, just unveiled their new logo last week. (See this link for a slide show of their logo evolution. Did you feel a roller coaster of emotions?)

Obviously a lot more thought went into creating their logo than to just make it cuter so people who are upset about the economy will be made happy every time they buy some mac and cheese. However, it is interesting to think about the impact a more positive look of a logo can have on employees or customers.

At the very least, it can show you the impact that a logo change or revamp can have on its audience. Does your customer listening program’s logo evoke any emotion?

Brianne Drlich
Marketing Communications

What are your graphics saying about your program?

Thursday, February 19, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Are your customer loyalty reports and presentations saying what you want them to? This is not about getting the right customer feedback, but about how the reports and presentations are communicating to the people who see them.

It is the norm to put your energy into your customer loyalty reports, but leave little thought to the graphics, design, and page layout of the final product. The majority of the time is spent getting the right information and having the correct numbers. These are critical details, but what about the person trying to decipher the customer listening data? Can they read it easily? Is the flow logical? Taking time to think about layout and design will help keep people fully engaged and make the information more valuable.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when working on your presentation or document.

Declutter your page layout – Get rid of everything unnecessary.
Keep it simple – Lots of color, gradients, and effects don’t necessarily mean a good design.
Use white space – A little white space does wonders for readability
Keep a consistent theme – Make sure your fonts, font sizes, colors, margins, etc. are the same on every page.
Pictures and graphs – Using a visual is a great way to break up text, but remember to keep them consistent.
Keep your message clear.

Having a final product with a great layout and graphics increases the credibility in the recipients mind. It may not be a conscious decision, but people are more likely to read and follow a well designed report than one filled with clutter. While some may be skeptical about taking the time to design something for their loyalty program, it can have a drastic effect on how the facts being presented are perceived.

Taking time for design helps increase the effectiveness of your communication. If your goal is to increase internal awareness of your customer program and become more customer centric, take a look at what you are saying visually.

Dan McCormick
Marketing Communications

Instant coffee and the marketing of your customer program

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

I don’t claim to be a coffee snob by any means, however, I do like a tasty cup of quality joe. And, you don’t have to be a coffee connoisseur to know that instant coffee has probably the worst reputation of all in the coffee family – maybe just a notch above some gas station coffees but definitely far below the trendier types sold in shops with jazz music, WiFi, and those sizes that need to be translated.

But, Starbucks one of those trendier types, has decided to boldly go where no “quality” coffee maker has gone – instant coffee. VIA Instant Brew claims to be have the “rich, flavorful coffee of Starbucks” in just an instant. Too good to be true? Maybe, but those marketers are sure doing a good job making you believe that this time instant coffee is different.

This may be a great lesson in marketing your customer program. Many times our marketing team is asked to help with rejuvenating a customer program that has gone stale, or asked to create ways to draw attention to a customer program that is going to be “re-launched” within a company.

Let’s take a look at some elements of their campaign and how it can be applied to marketing your customer listening program.

•   The Name - Even the name itself is dripping in Starbucks’ fancy marketing - VIA. Is it foreign? Perhaps an acronym? Or, just simply a way to describe how to get from “here to there”?

Lesson Learned: Naming your program something that is memorable, clever, or unusual may be a way to make it stick in the minds of employees or customers.

•   The Message: On VIA’s website, it really tries to not mention the words “instant coffee.” They have even switched the words around to say “coffee in an instant.” Doesn’t that sound more appealing? They also are sure to leverage the fact that Starbucks coffee is high-quality and they have spent “years perfecting this process.” It really makes you believe that this is going to be the best instant coffee you have ever tasted.

Lesson Learned: How you craft your message around your customer program is very important. You should have a plan on what you want to emphasize and follow through with what you want people to take away.

•   Creative Vehicles: In VIA’s case, they have a very simple, creative video to explain why this instant coffee is different. Also, the packaging is very clever.

Lesson Learned: Think about creative ways to get your message out there. Consider the best vehicle to do this, whether it be a video, logo, microsite, or even a clever viral campaign. A little creativity can go a long way.

Brianne Drlich
Marketing Communications

Making your customer program unique

Friday, February 13, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

Instead of thinking of your customer loyalty program as a survey and some research, make it fun and inviting. Brand your program so it is unique inside and outside your company. Use a theme and visuals to show your employees and customers that you value their input by making the program more inviting. Good visuals capture the attention and enthusiasm of people far better than just graphs and charts in a PowerPoint presentation.

By using a theme around your program you can create a campaign that will not only attract attention around the program, but will also give you the opportunity to inject some fun into the corporate humdrum and bring fellow employees together to enjoy some camaraderie. The list of activities is practically limitless, and is open to your imagination. I have included an image of a proposed theme labeled “Discover The Customer,” which includes a map, tickets, and a compass. These items could be used for an office scavenger hunt, an amazing race type of game, an event where everyone can use tickets to bid on office perks, or integrate a customer focused activity into a charity drive to raise money for a local charity.

Create some variety in your activities with different themes and have something accessible throughout the year, but do something big once or twice a year to keep the program exciting. Keep your employees engaged and show them that they should care about your customer program and can be an active participant in the program.

Once you create some excitement internally, you can then carry some of these elements over into your external program. Show your customers that this is an ongoing effort that you are making their feedback part of the company culture and not just a sporadic survey to fix some problems or to raise profits.

Jeff Wiggington
Marketing Communications

The Snuggie – Smart marketing or pop culture craze?

Friday, January 30, 2009 by Promoting Your Program

By now, I am sure everyone has seen the commercial for the Snuggie – you know, the blanket with sleeves that allows for people to have the freedom to: Read a book! Change the channel! Cuddle with your family! Roast marshmallows with your family! Without the annoyance of getting “stuck” in a blanket.

When I first saw the commercial I thought it was a joke. It looked like a Saturday Night Live skit. I mean, seeing the family clad in their Snuggies on the sidelines at a soccer game was comic gold. But, the more I saw the commercial (which was usually MULTIPLE times a day) the more I realized that this is not a joke. No joke indeed. These people are not playing around about the Snuggie.

Apparently, the Snuggie sales are through the roof. According to this report, more than 4,000,000 Snuggies have been sold since September, and have been back ordered for months. People really want a Snuggie. And, I have started seeing the Snuggie talked about everywhere – Good Morning America, the USA Today, the Ellen Show.

So, the question is – What is making this item such a success?

Obviously, it has something to do with the marketing. Let’s be honest, it’s a blanket with holes in it. You could make your own at home. I seriously doubt if I tried to peddle a blanket from home with two holes in it around my office, I wouldn’t have any takers. What is it about the Snuggie that makes people want to buy one?

In my opinion, I think that they created this and it is all they needed – Buzz. Take a look at the following points:

The name, Snuggie. When you think about it, it’s really pretty asinine. But, it’s catchy and definitely not forgettable.
The commercial. Let’s face it, the commercial is a joke. But, I think the fact that it is over-the-top bad makes it a winner. People love to make fun of it. I am not sure if the makers of Snuggie did this on purpose, but in any case they are taking advantage of this buzz.
The power of social media. There are more than 250 groups on Facebook, and hundreds of parodies of the commercial on YouTube. Whether people love it or hate it, they are a-buzzin'.

So, what does this mean in branding your customer loyalty programs? I think this goes to show you that a little bit of buzz can go a long way. What can you do in your customer program to create a little buzz?

Brianne Drlich
Marketing Communications