You Got Elfed, and Other Viral Marketing Disconnects

[I just registered on gooruze.com, and in order to link to my blog, I have to write kathrynmilette.gooruze.com in the first few lines of my post. As Tanya Ferrell noted, this is a pretty slick marketing tactic.]

In the spirit of the holidays, I got elfed by my husband. In case you have no idea what I'm referring to, getting elfed means receiving an interactive dancing elf email, and in my case, with our family's heads superimposed on the elves.

And all in the name of promoting OfficeMax, the #3 North American office products retailer behind Staples and OfficeDepot.

Well, I didn't get elfed last holiday season, which is when OfficeMax first launched this viral campaign. This year, it was relaunched along with Scrooge Yourself.

But what the heck do these campaigns have to do with selling office supplies?

Before we get to that, I am reminded of other interactive viral campaigns. Namely Monk E-Mail by CareerBuilder, launched along with the office monkey ads during the 2006 Superbowl. And the Subservient Chicken campaign by Burger King, launched back in April of 2004, starting first online, then followed up with a television campaign.

But what value do these types of participation-based viral campaigns return to the host companies?

Increased Brand/Product Awareness
I'm on the fence with this one. I thought the Monk E-Mail was for Monster.com until I just looked it up. And I wasn't positive exactly which fast food restaurant the Subservient Chicken belonged to...Chick-Fil-A was my next guess. Maybe its just been too long. As for the dancing elves...what exactly have they got to do with OfficeMax?

In the case of the Subservient Chicken, Joseph Jaffe (a writer and blogger who's articles I very much enjoy) mentions that the wrong question to ask is "Did it sell chicken?" and presumably get more feet in the door. The right question to ask is, "Did you know BK sold chicken?" And now you do. That's a good point, and one I hadn't thought of.

However, let's try to apply that logic to OfficeMax's dancing elves. Did you know associates dance at OfficeMax? No, wait...Did you know it's the holidays and there are elf dolls you can buy at OfficeMax? No, that doesn't work either.

Obviously, I'm saying this tongue in cheek, but I don't understand why the meaning behind the campaigns is so obscure. In regards to the Subservient Chicken, Snopes.com had to verify the "myth" that it was a BK ad campaign? I mean, if users don't see the connection, where is the value?

Positioning Strategy
I think this is more in line with the marketing strategy. Office supplies are boring. Perhaps OfficeMax wanted to spice things up. Now they are the fun office supply store. Right? That's what Bob Thacker, OfficeMax's svp of marketing thinks. "It gives OfficeMax a heart and a personality."

And for Burger King? In 2004, Greg Brenneman was called in as CEO to get the #2 hamburger chain back on track. The quirky advertising was part of an overall marketing campaign to target BK "superfans" -- 18- to 34-year-old men. According to BK's financial statements, in the three years following the ad campaigns, Burger King's revenues steadily increased. Was this due to the marketing campaign? They also introduced the $1 value menu, and their operating margins improved. These factors may have influenced the improvement. Also, some of BK's franchisees have argued the campaign turned off women and family business suffered.

OfficeMax has also seen financial gains in their income statements in the form of improved operating margins (though decreased revenues). However, they are also experiencing a large restructuring effort, so it's difficult to gauge the ROI of the campaign.

Overall, I think this is a long term positioning strategy, to set the stage for future corporate initiatives. I think that to expect a sustainable increase in revenues simply as a result of these fun ads is a mistake, mainly because their connection to the company is forgettable.

Search For a Larger Audience
People are increasingly choosing to spend more of their time online. And they are communicating with each other in a way that radio and television cannot. Brands are finding that this interaction helps promote increased word of mouth recommendations -- you can blast 30 friends with an email (telling them about a great new site called elfyourself.com!) in a couple of seconds, but it would take a prohibitively longer amount of time to phone them all.

Also, these types of interactive, participation-based campaigns can help illustrate how considerate these companies are of the consumer's evolving lifestyle, and at the same time they help to keep the brand relevant and modern.

Furthermore, when brands are able to leverage social media and experiment online, they have the opportunity to discover how to create more meaningful ways to communicate to customers, and have a greater flexibility to adjust messages on a dime.

And simply from a cost perspective, brands can be in more places online than they can off. A one-page ad in the WSJ could eat up some companies entire annual marketing budget.

So What's My Takeaway
Having said all this, I continue to question the relevance of creating a great viral marketing campaign that has no clear, or even semi-clear, connection to your brand's function.

I think the Monk E-Mail stands out as the best viral marketing campaign of the three mentioned. Like the others, it is certainly entertaining and recommendation worthy. But it is about the office, which is about working, which helps the audience associate working to jobs, to searching for jobs, to using CareerBuilder to search for jobs. Even its URL let's us know it's part of the CareerBuilder site.

The other examples lose something in the translation. The connection isn't clear, and the value created is weakened. Maybe these brands see the obscurity as part of a long, long-term strategy, and I just can't see that far. But I will continue to laugh, and maybe elf someone later.

Tags: Viral Marketing, Social Media

Get Your Company To Know Your Customer

Before starting graduate school, I worked for an organization* that had an internal communication vehicle called the Buzz, which published several times a week on the company's intranet. The Buzz reported on company projects, new associates, new procedures, etc. Its purpose was to keep associates in the loop on the goings on of the company, and hopefully help them feel more engaged with its growing infrastructure.

Often, buzz stories centered on new client work - the unique demands of the project, the innovative services we were applying, and so on. But as I think about it, we never really got to know the customer. Sure, we would be briefed on the client company, but did we really know the actual people we were working for?

Often, when a consumer interacts with a faceless company, there is an emotional detachment that can lead to behaviors that would be regarded as unacceptable in a face to face encounter. Think about a time you wrote a scathing communication to an underperforming company (I'm guilty of it...this past summer Kia got an 'earful' from me in a very long, very detailed letter). And in a state of absolute frustration, consider how simple it is to harshly criticize a product feature on an organization’s community forum or feedback page.

This concept unfortunately also works in reverse. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to let a deadline slip by (but it was just a day or so, you tell yourself) when the only interaction you've had with a client is over email? Or, when in a meeting with your coworkers you spoke in a careless or rude manner about a challenging client? After all, the client doesn’t really know what they want, do they? Before you know it, the impact of those detached behaviors could cost you a client relationship.

I think there is a great opportunity with corporate intranets to introduce associates to actual customers, the people they are working for one on one. Through a simple interview, an organization can provide a face to a project or customer - for example, a profile on Mark Smith, his role within his organization, reasons why he chose to work with your company or buy your product. Companies would better position their associates to provide an exceptional experience, namely because they would feel a greater degree of accountability when relating to a person rather than a corporation.

*I used to work for WD Partners, a firm specializing in delivering an exceptional prototype and rollout experience for national retail and restaurant clients.

Why You Don’t Want a Perfect Customer Satisfaction Score

I was recently introduced to the concept of 91. 91 is the theoretical score out of 100 that a business person would want from a customer satisfaction survey (10 points for 10 questions each). Why only 91? Why would you not want to exceed expectations on every facet of your business? Logically, you want 10 points out of 10 for every question, right?

Wrong, says the president of a major, global, industrial manufacturing company.* This person says the one question you want a 1 out of 10 on is about price. The question “Is our price competitive with your alternative suppliers?” or something of that nature, should garner your company a flunking score.

But if your customer satisfaction survey returns a 91, it means you are exceeding expectations everywhere else, and hopefully, that your customer prefers to use you to your competitors for the value you bring to the table. A score of 91 also means that your company is not leaving money on the table.

According to the McKinsey book, The Price Advantage, a 1% increase in pocket price (the price a company actually receives after all discounts) can result in an 11% increase in profits, which is more improved profitability than any cost reduction strategy, including reducing variable and/or fixed costs. Furthermore, if that 1% is justified, volume should not decrease. The moral of this story: pricing is critical to a profitable business. The right price may not be where your customers want it to be, but they will pay it if your product or service offers a value that exceeds the price tag.

*I heard this person speak in a Pricing class I am taking, and I'm not sure if he'd like his customers to know that he wants to make them cringe over the price!

Think Before You Speak

I recently told a vice president in charge of her company’s internet site that the design looked like information had been vomited onto the screen. Her eyes got wide and she said “Ohhhhh” in a very drawn out way. Luckily for me, the design was being phased out in favor of a new, more sophisticated one. One I liked. One I would not have so tactlessly insulted.

I wish I had better articulated my thoughts. What I should have said was that the new design gave priority to the various types of information on the page and that the color palette better segmented the different types of information. It was a more approachable, sticky design, compared to the original.

So the moral of this story is to think first and to articulate your thoughts in a way that can be taken for constructive criticism. Not rudeness.

PS - I later sent this VP an email with an apology and with the comments I really wanted to say. Thankfully, she replied that she took no offense at all, and that I should never apologize for being passionate about a topic. Very cool.

Beware: Proceed Only if Your Customer Loves You

When I applied to grad school, I needed three references. These reference letters were to be sealed and signed on the back flap to indicate that they hadn’t been opened (or revised and re-sealed, presumably by me).

That led me to think about references in the context of marketing and sales in a business environment. It’s common to include a reference list in an RFQ or when specifically requested by a potential client. But in what other ways could a reference person be leveraged?

Frederick Reichheld's well-known research indicates that the number one way to grow a business is via referrals. In the client satisfaction or customer experience world, the referring people are known as promoters (in opposition to detractors). These are the folks who would recommend you, your business, your work, to someone else. What if we could more proactively encourage our strongest relationships to spread the word? And with businesses relationships getting more personal and co-dependent, this tactic might not be so unthinkable.

Consider this scenario: An architecture firm, let’s call them AF Design, has a meeting coming up with a potential client (PC Firm) for a very large, significant, exciting, (enter your grand adjective here), project. PC Firm is interviewing several other companies to see who is the best fit to work with. The president of AF Design calls up John, the senior leader of one of AF's current clients. John and his well known an successful company, love AF Design and have worked with them for years. AF’s president asks John if he wouldn’t mind calling up the PC Firm and putting in a good word before AF’s meeting with them. John calls PC Firm, says a few kind words about AF, and leaves his number in case PC Firms wants to talk more after their meeting with AF.

Sure, I know this is not as simple as it sounds. I think there are some obvious things to consider:

Client relationship is special
First and foremost, the relationship of the business (AF) and the client they would like to make a referral (John)must be very close. In this example, AF must be doing outstanding work for this client, meeting all their needs and then some. Their relationship must be strong, deep and have many points of contact. It goes without saying, also, that John, in this instance, must be both personable and knowledgeable about the relationship between his firm and AF Design.

Timing is everything
Asking a current client to do this type of referral is very unusual. This is not a request one would make of a client on any type of regular basis. Also, being successful at this request would be made easier if AF had just completed a project in some exceptional way - for instance, 6 weeks ahead of schedule - or had done something out of scope without charging for it.

Furthermore, not every potential client is worthy getting this type of referral. It should be done on special occasions, when the potential project is critical to business objectives.*However, having never done this before, I would highly recommend doing this for a smaller potential account and test the waters to see how receptive a potential company is to this type of marketing.*

Give Guidance
When I asked the president of my company to write a reference letter for me, he said "no problem, but what do you want me to say?" Sometimes, people need a little direction. If your client is willing to do this type of referral, you might want to pass along a couple of points you would like mentioned. Some examples for AF Design are ways they helped grow John’s business, streamlined operations, cut costs off a specific design, etc - points that would be pertinent to the potential client. But make sure the referrer doesn’t feel pressured or that they have a job to do. The “coaching” call should be casual and brief, as should theirfollowing phone call to the potential client.

Know your audience (if you can)
The potential client receiving the referral – an unsolicited, out-of-the-blue referral, at that – should be the senior executive who will be at the meeting who will be making the final decicion. Also, if possible, AF should contact people within their own network to get a feel for what this person is like, to better sense if they would receptive to this type of referral marketing. I’d like to say that any information is better than no information, but wrong information is definitely not better than no information. So this is kind of tricky.

Non competing industry
It is absolutley, 100% critical that the potential client and the referring client are not competing for the same business. Asking McDonald's to recommend your company to Burger King is ludicrous. But asking them to recommend you to Home Depot is more acceptable.

There are probably more guidelines to this type of referral marketing, but I took a stab at at least starting the conversation. I’d like to know if there is anyone doing this already, how they approached it, and what the response has been. Every company is different. This is where a marketer’s intuition and gut play a big part.

A Passionate Message

This past week I was lucky enough to hear a speaker who truly inspired me. How often does that happen? In business school, I often am exposed to knowledgeable professors and insightful guest speakers. Their topics challenge my way of thinking. Sometimes, they make me feel both smarter for having listened but also more lost than I was before I heard the lecture.

But it is rare that I walk out of a class feeling that the stars finally aligned, that I am given a piece of information that I can embrace and use as a guide. And this guy did it. He told me to be passionate.

How cliché is that? Be passionate. Actually, he didn't technically say "Be passionate." In fact, this wasn't a feel good inspirational lecture at all. He talked about his companies, his role in them, his ideas, etc. But there was something about him that made me realize that passion would be critical to my life and career decisions.

Maybe it was his enthusiastic emails prior to the lecture when I started warming up to him. Maybe it was the way he spoke. Maybe it was the eagerness of his delivery, in his description of his work. Maybe it was the business-with-a-healthy-dose-of-creative vibe he gave out, which is more my comfort zone. Whatever it was, I finally saw the light. I want to be passionate about what I do. And I don’t want to be embarrassed by that passion.

[For the record, this speaker’s name was Mark Ballard, Vice President of Client Experience at Ann Taylor, and co-founder of Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties (http://www.sugardaddys.com). And really, how can you not like a guy who brings the whole class brownies that retail for $4.50 each and are to die for delicious. Though never ask how many calories are in them.]