Save the bunny and HotOffice

Some blog (I don't recall who) recently pointed to Andy Haven's Legal Marketing Blog. I found a couple posts good enough to recommend here:

I remember seeing all the HotOffice ads in Fast Company, what, five years ago during the bubble. Seems like Andy just found them, and is testing them out. He's really excited about the low cost of entry. Seems like a lot of groupware sites like Intranets.com or Quickbase.com (which I use), now have very pricy rates. Why they insist on 'per user' licencing is beyond me, especially for a web product. I want to share my info with everyone, not decide if each rep is going to get $15 a month worth of value. HotOffice is a relatively cheap intra/extranet product that Andy is recommending.

I also enjoyed his post about savetoby.com, the guy who is threatening to kill his bunny if we all don't pay up. He essentially calls the scam for what it is and indicts it as a crime against humanity (why are those $20K not going to Unicef or Tsunami relief?). Okay, we all knew this stinks and all, but I just thought Andy was pretty convincing (must be the lawyer in him). It probably is an excellent example of the power of The Story, as Seth Godin has been driving home with his Liar's Blog and book.

Why no posts for a week...

I've recently learned that when one of your sons looks at you and both eyes aren't pointing the same way, calmly, but promptly calling his doctor's office is the right thing to do. Then get ready for an exhausting time.

One of my twin boys, Robert, age 8, woke up sick to his stomach on Saturday, while also complaining about his eye. He spent most of the day laying down, sleeping, and squinting. It wasn't till Sunday afternoon that he looked at me with both eyes, and thought I was looking at the next Marty Feldman (or for Harry Potter fans, Mad-eye Moody). And I found the reason he was laying around was that he couldn't walk.

The ER didn't find anything wrong with a CAT scan, so we were referred to an eye specialist who is booked out till July. But since he had talked to the ER, and my wife pushed his receptionist to talk to him, we got in Monday. He immediately sent him back to the ER for an MRI.

Turns out he as two problems...the eye problem is just a symptom of the real problem:
Symptom: "One and a half syndrome". Websites on this describe the odd behavior of they eye in a nearly foreign language. This could be caused by any number of brain problems.

Cause: "ADEM" or " Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis " which is a form of encephalitis. It usually is a latent reaction to a previous viral infection, but not necessarily, as in Robert's case. The neurologist says its a lot like a one-time, temporary bought of multiple sclerosis. He says he sees only 10-15 cases a year in Grand Rapids.

Here is a website that talks about ADEM in almost-english.

So, the prognosis is excellent, but he has to spend the week at the hospital getting poked and prodded, plus getting steriod treatments.

Me? Its been an experience. The marketer in me is constantly looking for the poor usability issues in what we've gone thru. Mostly they are details...like shouldn't doctors have business cards they can give you so that you can tell the next doctor who you talked to last? The kid has about 5 different doctors looking after him.

I've posted this to help anyone else in my situation learn about these problems and find out they aren't alone. It is a bit rare, especially to have both. Anyway, back to the hospital.

The new way to say 'no'

1. I had a salesperson meet with me to show me their new marketing tool and how it might help my company. He followed up last week and left a VM. I returned the call and left a VM telling him to call me later. Then I pulled out his materials, did some research and decided I didn't need what he was selling. At least I felt better prepared than if I had received his follow-up call.

When I hadn't heard from him, I decided to send an email. Its interesting the thought process when a salesperson doesn't call you. Did he get canned (it is a newer, riskier product), or did he give up, or is he just disorganized? Email seemed a safer way for me to say 'no'. Besides, I could clearly articulate why, on my terms, without listening to useless counterpitches. His reply: "Can we have a meeting to discuss this?" Now I've got to get up the nerve to write back "no".

2. Our sales manager also recently banned a potential vendor from incoming calls because he thought his product was more important than the work we need to get done. The last straw: he was dumb enough to try to go up to our president.

3. I also went thru my AOL instant messenger buddy list this week, deleting people I no longer 'need' to chat with. It gives a stange feeling as you purposefully snuff out an interactive relationship.

B2B selling and marketing is about relationships. But how do we deal with the sticky issue of ending those relationships? Here is an article from Wired on breaking up in this day and age that, while not a step-by-step guide, it does cover a lot of the issues with becoming disconnected from someone...saying goodbye or no.

Wired News: We'll Always Have ICQ

It takes two minutes to remove someone from your IM lists, even if that person has eight handles across five different clients. You can filter incoming e-mails straight to trash if you don't want to deal with someone again. You don't run into your online exes around town.

Online relationships tend to be emotional, because that's the kind of connection we make when we remove the physical from the equation. But without the physical reminders that someone has left behind -- a shared table at the local cafe, the friends you hung out with together, a toothbrush -- it's a hell of a lot easier to get through the emotional upheaval and move on with your life.

How sucky are these B2B ads?

If you subscribe to BtoB Magazine, you probably got a survey request in your email. The survey is actually a review of recent full-page ads in their magazine. Check out the survey. You can just skip the survey questions and look at the 17 ads.

While the survey asked the very vague "What message or feeling do you get from this ad?" essay question, I felt compelled to write like one of their own 'copy chasers'. Man, these ads sucked! Really! Only two I rated as winners, and 2-4 were okay...out of 17. A couple I commented look like they were created in Word. This is a magazine for marketers?

I guess I must normally flip past these ads and not pay attention. Most are selling services or magazine advertising, so having a picture of a real product not realistic. But you figure the exhibit booth vendor would at least have a picture of a show booth in their ad. Or the company selling ads in elevators would focus on explaining their product. The most effective and compelling was the Forbes.com two-page spread in black & white.

Going thru the survey a second time, I see they are rotating the ads in the survey. Click this image to see a full-size sample of suckiness.

Marketing isn't always so simple

A lot of the marketing content I come across is the same stuff...improve your marketing, improve your results. Change your strategy, change your luck. In practice, its nice to talk about, but hard to always pull off. But how about starting a completely new product in a new industry?

So, I felt enlightened by an article in the Grand Rapids Press on Sunday (not on the web), as it told the story of a local company seeking to change its product line. The continued disappearance of manufacturing, especially plastic components like Cascade Engineering makes, caused them to realize they needed to diversify. The strong growth in medical devices seemed attractive, but they had no product to offer. The CEO created a team and sent them out across the country, going to conferences and such. And at an event in California, they came across a potential partner who is just across town here in Grand Rapids.

The story doesn't really have a happy ending yet. The two companies have had discussions and written contracts, but nothing has been made yet. They are working together on a interim product to get the ball rolling. Its been a year, yet the article talks about Cascade wanting to move 'quickly'.

"This won't be the only effort to diversify, he said. His company will make other forays that will be just as complex and time consuming. But at their heart will be the same driving force: The need to keep innovation ahead of the shifting sands of this economy."

Just a lesson that sometimes marketing takes shoe-leather, introspection, and persistance. Stuff you can't wrap nicely in a report or PowerPoint!

Fun week part V: Fun link Friday

Every Friday I visit, Joel's blog (a long-time reader of b2blog) for his "Fun Link Friday"
Corvine Design - News Section.

All the links have been surfed for quality and uniqueness...you won't be disappointed. Check out the 'foil project' in today's post.

Fun week part IV: Seeing a marketer caught in a lie

I remember reading Consumer Reports initial review of the Ionic Breeze air filter a couple years ago and understanding it was not the great things the commercials made it sound like. Sharper Image sued CR and it got tossed out, all while selling 2 million IBs.

Chris Bush posted about new CR claims about the IB, and SI's response

One of the big "success stories" in the recent annals of DRTV (Direct Response TV) has been the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze. But, according to this story at engadget.com, the company may need to find a new stud for its stable.

Here's the Consumer Reports position.

Here's Sharper Image's response to the May 2005 story in Consumer Reports.

This has all the makings of the media version of the Hatfields and McCoys.

While the new technical issue is the generation of Ozone (that 'fresh smell' the IB brags about), the CR position mostly talks about the lies that SI's endorsements are. SI concentrates on the ozone issue in their response, leaving clarification of product endorsements as footnotes.

As a marketer/copywriter/salesperson, the response by SI just smells of PR cover-up. How false does a statement like this sound: "its safe enjoyment by millions of consumers is impressive testimony to its safety and effectiveness as an air cleaner. " Ford could have said the same about the Pinto!

Fun week part III: Mash-ups

First, have you tried the neato super folding trick yet? Here's how it goes for those of you too lazy to click on my links:

Now to mash-ups. A mash-up is simply taking two or more songs and mixing them together to create something new. The first one I came across (quite by accident) is a whole album called The Beastles. Have you guessed what it could be? The Beastie Boys mixed with The Beatles. Its pretty heavy on the B-Boys, but with the mix of the Beatles you can't help but smile (at least as a B-Boys fan).

I haven't found a central source for these yet as they are underground and possibly illicit, so blogs and del.icio.us seem to be the way these things get around. Here is an article from Wired on mash-ups. And here is a guide to making mash-ups that I found interesting because it shows how the secret to doing a mash-up is syncing the beats.

What two groups would you want to make a mash of? How about Veggietales and Green Day?

Fun week part II: Podcasting

Did you try the folding trick I posted about yesterday? Print out the little diagram and take it home and try it. Strangely addictive trick. Okay, back to today's post:

Last month when I went to California, I bought an iPod Mini. Had it the next day, even with super-saving shipping from Amazon. Was going to get just a thumb drive, but then thought an MP3 player would be cool. The Mini is definitely a cool way to go. But now on to the fun...

So I quickly learned about podcasting. You've probably already heard about it and have a vague idea of what its all about. Its cooler than blogging and I think it will be even more revolutionary. You don't need an iPod to get involved, you can just download the shows to your PC and listen to them there. I blew-off NPR's recent fund-drive by just listening to podcasts in my car (I have the iPod hooked to a small FM transceiver. Actually, I use the headphones very little with it.)

Tracking the shows you like is easy with a free podcasting client like iPodder. It automatically can check for podcasts, download them, and if your MP3 player is set to auto-sync, uploaded.

Here's one show to get you hooked: Coverville, which is a 30 minute show full of cover songs. I like the recent a-capella show. I'm not big into the business shows, like I am in blogging, but they are out there. Have you got a podcast to recommend?

Can we have a little fun? Part I: Neato Neato Super T-Shirt Fold

All work and no fun make Dave a very dull boy. And with a very harried week for me (short-staffed), how about making some posts of fun stuff. Learn something new and find some new websites.

It sounds silly, but folding a T-shirt can be fun. And the Impulsive Buy is a fun blog to read. For the marketing angle, the product reviews at IB should be good lessons in what makes a product remarkable (or not).

The Impulsive Buy: Neato Neato Super Super T-Shirt Fold

More on the subject of folding with a good diagram on how to do it

Industrial buyers still want to buy American

Got this in an email newsletter today from Process Heating (not on their website however):

Results of Process Heating magazine?s electronic survey of industrial electric heater users show that most buyers prefer to purchase their heaters from U.S. companies.
Eighty-eight percent of respondents to the February survey indicated they do not look to China or India for their electric heaters or heating elements. Why not? Here are some direct quotes from respondents.

• We buy American.
• I try to promote the U.S. economy.
• I am comfortable with domestic suppliers.
• Because I live and work in America.
• Good U.S. manufacturers are available.
• Our company typically likes to go with American-made products.
• No reason to, and would prefer buying U.S.-made goods.
• We have an established relationship with a U.S. manufacturer and always patronize American manufacturers.

The February 2005 survey was emailed to more than 5,000 subscribers and had a 6 percent response rate.

So, while it seems that everything is made in China these days, the industrial B2B world still likes to buy American. If you've got foreign competition, it would be smart to boast that you are selling domestic products. Instinctively, you might think that doing so is too much 'talking about us', but to the buyers there is a benefit: feeling good about their decision.

Industrial Quick Search revamps

One of the first topics I discussed on this blog was Industrial Quick Search, whose tagline "The engine inside the engine" defines what they do very well. They are a directory website service to increase visibility of industrial companies like mine. Their high Google rankings and convenient list of suppliers was quickly copied by Thomas Register (now Thomas Net). I joined their listings with the belief that the sooner a searcher can find my website and products, the better.

In recent history, Google has buried or dropped a number of their sites, including the one I am listed on. Traffic dropped significantly, but I am patient to see them recover (dropped to the levels I get from Thomas).

They haven't been sleeping, adding content to their otherwise spartan directory sites. Now they are adding a new website, www.iqsdirectory.com which aggregates all their listings and looking to add an RFQ tool so that a visitor can blast their request to directory members. This becomes more of a 'sticky' website for the repeated industrial product searcher, more like GlobalSpec or ThomasNet.

But, as one person said to me about online directories recently, "what are they really selling?" In IQS's case, its quality website traffic. Can they deliver like they used to?

A marketing app?

One of the frustrations as a salesperson is paperwork. Since we implemented ISO, one of the added forms is a "Request for New Customer" form, that also requests a standard credit app (trade references, duns#, bank info) from all new companies that buy from us.

Apparently is a more common procedure these days, but most buyers don't send this information with a PO, and most buyers don't list their name or contact info on their POs. So you've got to hunt down the buyer and request that info. I usually wait until I've entered the order so I can also tell them what other problems their might be with their PO. At least for us, the 'request for new customer' doesn't slow down the order, which is a competitive advantage over the #1 in our industry who won't release any order till credit is approved.

So, while filling out one of these forms, I wondered if my new one-man marketing department should create its own ISO procedure requiring detailed info on new customers for demographic analysis? Or at least add these questions to the 'new customer' form. Probably better to tack on to someone else's painful paperwork than add my own, huh? Shouldn't we treat the customer's demographic data with as much importance as the customer's credit info?