Category: marketing

Take my data

FabrizioLeave a comment

You are more ok with the idea of paying taxes if you regularly benefit from tangible services your taxes contribute to cover.

The same is valid with data.

The problem with companies collecting information about us is not the collection per se.

It’s the secrecy of the operation, the impossibility to control what is collected and what not, and the fact that six months after buying a new car you are still getting ads with car offers.

“Have you already purchased a car?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, from now on you will stop seeing car offers while navigating the web. If you want to reactivate car offers in the future, you can do so by typing ‘activate car offers’.”

“Thanks, and feel free to take my data.”

All of the attention

FabrizioLeave a comment

A 30 seconds spot during the Super Bowl sells at $5.6 million.

And while I assume most people use breaks to do stuff they can’t during the match, the buzz it generates and the consideration of the almost totality of the Americans make it probably worth it.

It’s just a pity that such a memorable and expensive opportunity is often wasted with trite cliché and ground level irony. Some random stars, a couple of jokes, a pinch of visual effects and most agencies call it a day.

This year, among those who have gone against the tide, my personal favorite was Google with Loretta. It resonates because it tells a story from the end user perspective. It answers the question “what can I get done with Google Assistant?”, rather than “what does Google Assistant do?”. And as a bonus, it is inspiring and moving.

Story and evidence

FabrizioLeave a comment

A downside of the amount of data and information we live with nowadays is the fact that one can cherry pick the metrics that better support their story of the day.

Story and evidence go hand in hand, and story-building is also about choosing what to measure and what to focus on. If tomorrow that has a negative trend, you can only defend the story by going out there and try to explain the reasons why it is so. When you present a different set of data, the story changes, inevitably.

Everywhere

FabrizioLeave a comment

The voice of your customers – what they feel, what they want, what they say, how they speak about their problems, your product and your competitors, what they think – is everywhere.

It’s in the messages they send to your sales and support.

It’s in the reviews they leave online.

It’s in the forums and discussion boards.

It’s in the noise at trade fairs and conferences.

It’s in the interviews transcript for the next case study.

It’s in the blog and social media posts they write.

It’s in the way they use the material you provide them.

It’s in the results to the survey you are running on your website.

It’s in the questions they ask the first time they meet you.

It’s in their choices after you’ve sent them the final proposal.

Of course, to make all of this relevant, you have to first shut up. Then listen. And finally act on what you have learned.

Working on the voice of customer is an expression of servant leadership. That’s probably the reason why so few succeed with it.

The experience

FabrizioLeave a comment

If there’s one thing that everybody in marketing agrees on is that to effectively market a product or service you should not talk about that product or service.

And if you look around, you know that very few practice what they preach.

This video from Apple is something to aspire to.

There’s loads of products, actually there’s virtually no frame that does not feature an Apple device or solution (I stopped counting at 25 shots).

But it is not about the products.

It’s about the transformation that the product can produce in the world. It’s a story about taking a piece of paper and translating that idea into something concrete and worth presenting. It’s about the excitement, the fear, the tiredness, the anxiety, the juggling, the mistakes, the rebirths, the preparedness and the unpreparedness, the unsecurity, the will to make things happen.

Apple would be entitled, more than many others, to spend hours talking about their technology, their features, their apps, their ecosystem. But they understand that’s useless.

What matters is the experience. That’s what this ad is.