In the truth is stranger than fiction category comes this story of a client who decided that toilet paper was REMARKABLE.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I was at my wonderful client, Pinstripe’s offices and we were in the middle of a Client Touchpoint Assessment.

As part of the exercise, we were doing some “touchpoint awareness building,” driving home the point that there are thousands of these interactions with a client that can either be boring or remarkable.

During the session, Michelle shared a story about their client, Kate (name changed).

Kate was visiting their offices and, apparently, excused herself from a meeting to go to the bathroom.

When she returned, she was overjoyed.

Why?

“You guys have the best toilet paper of anybody!”

Apparently, the Quilted Northern was a winner…and a wonderful touchpoint (sorry, had to throw that in there!)

In other words, it was Remarkable.

It’s built the relationship between Kate and her RPO provider, Pinstripe and become a great example of how you never know which detail will give a client a reason to make a remark about you.

What’s the ROI on buying Quilted Northern vs. a generic, lower-priced brand?

Upfront, it is hard to say.

After the fact…HUGE. (i.e., a story that motivates an entire company of 150 people, a excited customer, and a blog post from me…ok, maybe that last one isn’t so great, but you get the idea.)

And these types of small bets are exactly what sit at the core of Dandelion Marketing.

You can rest assured that when Kate comes to town, the team double checks that there is plenty of Quilted Northern in the Ladies’ Room!

My free consulting to Pinstripe? Send her a case of it ;-)

 

Note: In case you are wondering, yes, this WHOLE post has been pre-reviewed by both Pinstripe and Kate-talk about a Raving Fan, eh?).

 

He’s also frustrated and irritated.

But, at least he’s nice about it.

Sort of.

You see, Godin, in his newest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? has decided to move up the food chain from his  heretofore usual (and you know I’m a Raving Fan) “the world of marketing is changing and here’s what you should do about it.”

Now, he’s on the “Listen up!! The WHOLE WORLD OF WORK is changing and if you want to have any type of career security at all, you need to start taking risks and daring to be REMARKABLE, because if you don’t, you are a commoditized cog in the machine!” warpath.

He’s been singing this tune for years, in fits and starts, but now he’s brought in all together into one place where he lays out his thesis.

1. Here’s how the world used to be (vis a vis the workplace)
2. Here’s what has changed
3. Here’s what you can do about it

And he’s really tired of the whiners, the complainers, the nay-sayers, the shoulda/coulda/woulda people who spend more time coming with reasons for why it won’t work/can’t be tried than daring to dream about why it can work.

He’s tired of people he’s met like the MBA student a few years ago who took a ‘sheepwalking job.’

He’s beating his bald head against the wall telling people to go for it and he’s losing patience for their excuses.

This is a man who genuinely wants to give the gift of his understanding and unique perspective to as many people as he can and is frustrated that, until now, it’s only worked with some of them. It’s kind of fun to see this side of him, I must admit :-)

As a marketer, however, he knows that if the audience isn’t persuaded, it doesn’t mean the audience is stupid, it means the marketer needs to tell a better story.

That’s what Linchpin represents, I think. Godin’s effort to “put it all together” so that you, the reader, walk away saying “yep, he’s right. Now it’s time to make the change and I won’t let my reptilian fear reflex stand in the way.”

Was this my favorite Godin book?

No, not at all, but that’s because it was more auto-biographical than forward-looking, since it just explained my own transformation in leaving Microsoft to start Never Stop Marketing.

As I shared in my new e-Book, Dandelion Marketing: How to Increase Your Odds of “Going Viral”, one of the things you need to do in your organization is create a culture of high fault tolerance.  Godin hammers home on this point (and many others), but at a personal level, to become a “linchpin” in whatever you do, a person that will be cherished, not downsized.

We’re at a stage where the truly valuable people, the linchpins, are artists in their craft. This book is his manifesto to help you tap that inner artist so you can have the fulfilling career (and life) that you desire.

It’s easy to get caught up in all of the hundreds of tactics that could be used to cultivate your community. (Sign up here to get the forthcoming e-Book on this topic).

Still, the more that I study it and do it, the more I am coming to the conclusion that, from a strategic perspective, there are really only two things you want to do.

1. Offer value in a “hub and spoke” model.
2. Be The Connector

Hub and Spoke

The term “add value” is so overused it makes me sick, but we all know what it means.  Job #1 is give your audience a reason to care about you. Share something fun, interesting, insightful. It’s not about you, it’s about them. The information you share is what makes you stand out in the attention economy.

Be The Connector

When all is said and done, people like to hang out with other people like themselves. I’m told i’s called “homophily” (for you Greek speakers out there).

Like-minded individuals who share our passion…we will spend time with them over others any day of the week.

And guess what?

Sitting as you are in the hub of these spokes, you know a LOT of people who are like each other and share a common passion with each other.

Your job…figure out a way to effectively and relevantly introduce them to each other.

The value? Best expressed in Reed’s Law.

The more that you connect the nodes of your network with each other, the more valuable the entire network becomes.

Sometimes you can say “no” to a potential customer and turn them into a Raving Fan.

Lee Prosch reached out to me asking if I would be interested in helping him develop a marketing strategy.

Like most of you, I hate to turn down business, but I had to.

I was at capacity. Here’s what I told him.

 At the moment, I am backlogged in terms of work/contracts.

I will investigate a few other options and connect you if they think they are a good fit. Will that work?

Thanks again for touching base and hope that you’ll still consider me in the future.

The Lesson?

Lee sums it up best.

As a consultant myself, I REALLY appreciate your honesty about availability. 

No better way to make a new customer cranky than committing to work you don't have the capacity for.

Thanks a million for the referrals!

As you know, Gretchen Rubin is my client and her book, The Happiness Project is currently #1 on the NYT best-seller list.

My buddy Connor pinged me tonight to say that he saw it on the local DC news (and that I make a cameo).

In it, Gretchen offers 5 tips to be happier. (Video here)

My first boss told me: “never believe your own B.S.,” but I can’t help seeing more evidence that marketing as a discipline has to move to the Dandelion Marketing model.

Take this fantastic post from Jeff Jarvis, arguably the most cutting-edge blogger on the topic of journalism, media, and the Internet.

The money paragraph is this one (imho):

What we’re seeing is the disaggregation of another media form.

We don’t buy albums; we buy singles. We don’t buy newspapers or magazines; we aggregate, curate, and link to the best stories we like, bypassing editors’ packaging….Now we will end up picking and choosing TV channels and even shows, diminishing the power network and station programmers’ and cable MSO’s hold over us.

I previously argued that advertising as we know it, MUST die and will evolve in a different form.

Jarvis drives that point home:

At the highest level, what we’re seeing is the death of the mass audience — and the value of distribution — and the advertising model that supported it.

So, here’s the rub for you, as a marketer.

If the mass audience and the ad model that supported it are dying, then the assumptions of how we find new customers (based on that model and the behaviors that it engendered) must also die.

That is precisely the argument which drove the development of the Dandelion Marketing e-Book and why I think marketing MUST also evolve.

This is going to be fun to watch and help (in a small way) develop.

Sure, if no one pays attention to you, you’ve got no chance to successfully market your movement.

However, one of the core tenets of Community Driven Marketing is finding Raving Fans and that requires PASSION.

I’ve often said, “if you’re not passionate, we don’t want you.”

So, I was particularly intrigued by Anil Dash’s awesome post on his experience being one of the people on Twitter’s (somewhat controversial) “suggested follower list.”

In short, the huge numbers don’t really add that much value for you.

My invention (one of these days) will be the Passion-o-meter. You’ll wave that like a TSA wand in front of your allies, friends, customers, etc. (in a literal or digital sense), and you’ll be able to assess whom you should cultivate and whom is not a worthwhile investment.

For now: don’t get sucked into the false security of large numbers. Better to find those 1000 fans.

So, you hire someone to do a job for you. Design a website, put on an event, whatever.

You are the client. You are the one calling the shots. They have to meet all the deadlines. But, you don’t, do you? When they send you something, asking for feedback, they have to wait until you are ready, right?

Here’s a tip.

If you hire someone, that person (most likely) is going to be excited about your project and want to please you, make you satisfied. Turn you into a Raving Fan.

When they send you something, they have just said, “I am proud of this and can’t wait to hear what my client thinks.”

You should get quality work no matter when you respond, you’re entitled to that. But superior work?

I bet you that if you give yourself a deadline that is 6-12-24 hours after the vendor deadline and provide rapid feedback…that’s when the vendor (I hate that term, actually, but we’ll use it) will go the extra mile.

Why?

Because you’ve struck when the iron is hot.

You’ve said,

“I appreciate what you did enough to spend time on it NOW, to provide feedback while it is still fresh in your mind, and to tap into your intrinsic motivation to do a Remarkable job,” (nod to Dan Pink and DRIVE) which is what you need anyway.

I haven’t studied this quantitatively or anything, but anecdotally I can tell you that I can see it in the phenomenal people (Amy Detrick and Kathryn Schwab  on the NSM video, Jonny Goldstein on the book cover, and Nick Hudkins and Brian Zalk on the website, among others who have helped me).

And it just makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

When you don’t respond, you pour water, instead of gasoline on the fire of some potential Raving Fans of yours.

You’ve spent the money to hire them. Now, spend the time to get the biggest bang from your buck.

It’ll pay off two-fold.

Superior work and vendors who sing your praises as a client…and as a company.

 

Two of the principles of Dandelion Marketing are to

1. take advantage of rapid feedback loops
2. practice agile marketing development

A few weeks ago, I shared a different take on Coca Cola/Minute Maid’s approach than Ted Minnini had offered in their efforts to re-brand.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, I subsequently saw Andy Sernovitz profile a brave attempt by Mountain Dew (owned by Pepsi) to involve their customers in the process of invention.

In an attention economy, the very act of participation, of co-creation, of inviting feedback is itself a forward-looking marketing activity that generates positive Word-of-Mouth. It’s stage 2 of Community Driven Marketing, actually, cultivation.

Lesson: If you approach co-creation in a humble, genuine, and open way, you’ll reap the rewards of (some) Raving Fans who feel a sense of belonging in your effort.

Cola wars redux? ;-)

I get a gift card to Staples.

Which is great.

My wife is in the store, sees some bookcases she likes and comes home to tell me about it.

She pulls them up online, shows me and we agree, they are a good fit.

Thing is…she can’t use the gift card online.

Only in the store…or in the Internet Kiosk in the store.

Back in 2000 when the web was fresh and integration was expensive, ok, we could tolerate that.

Today, however, expectations are higher and this just isn’t acceptable. Instead of a seamless experience that makes us happy to be customers, we are frustrated.

This isn’t meant to be a “hey, I can rant against Staples, aren’t I cool?” post.

It’s meant to serve as a reminder.

A reminder that you need to look at the touchpoints of your business as if you were a customer.

You/we MUST design experiences  for our customers and clients that eliminates obvious hassles and hurdles to commerce.