One of the key elements in building a community of passionate fans is understanding what makes them tick…what REALLY makes them tick.

It’s not money.

It’s usually something else.

But, we don’t want to assume we know (I assume you know why ).

We need to ask.

There are types of people (generalizations work because they are generally accurate) who are/want to be connected to you.

It’s your job to understand-in large, but not rigid groupings, what the characteristics of those people are.

One way to do this is through Personas. For a great primer on this, listen to Josh Duncan’s podcast on the topic.

This came to mind the other day as I was driving carpool and saw this car in front of me.

My question was: what would motivate someone to spend $100 on a vanity plate telling you they have an Audi when the car they are driving is an Audi?

Identifying that can help you tell a better story and inspire people to talk about you.

 

The other day I saw a 30 minute feature on Bowlmor, the bowling alley company, on Bloomberg Enterprise.

The CEO (a native of DC area, so you know he must be good ), said “hey, we’re not in the bowling business, we’re in the cost-effective creation of customers as evangelists business.”

In other words, “create Raving Fans.”

Then, it dawned on me…

if the CEO of a bowling alley (not to be disrespectful, of course, because the guy clearly knows what he’s doing) is saying “it’s all about Raving Fans,” then it’s pretty clear to me that the mindset has shifted sufficiently to the point where this is now conventional wisdom.

Five years ago when I was thinking about marketing and centered on the role of Raving Fans as the only/best future of marketing, that wasn’t the case.

Now, our behaviors in many respects, haven’t caught up with this reality (as evidenced by the cold call I got the other day to attend a webinar) because inertia is a powerful force.

Still, I think we’ve arrived at a point that the competitive advantage as it relates to Community Driven Marketing isn’t in the fact that you are doing it and someone else isn’t because pretty soon, everyone is going to be doing it.

The advantage will be in how well you execute it. How well you grow the fans.

One of the concepts that is absolutely critical grasp if you want to be an effective marketer is that you need to understand how much value the customer places on a transaction.

It’s not about your cost or your time.

Your hours. Your profit…I don’t care.

Value…I care.

Now, if my kids (8, 6, and 3) can get it…well, anyone can…

The other night, they were telling me about the “show” they were putting on, they said, “tickets costs 30 cents.”

So, I asked them, “how do I know it’s worth 30 cents? I’ve never seen the show. None of my friends have either.”

Being the children of Never Stop Marketing, they agreed to put some “skin in the game” and we arranged a  two-tier pricing model.

I would buy a ticket for 15 cents. Then, after the show, I could pay as much as I wanted…up to 45 cents.

Which they earned

Too often, the conversation is “this is how much we charge per hour.”

“This is the cost.”

How about instead going through the (hard) work of trying to say, “ok, let’s figure out how valuable this is for you and we start from there?”

As promised, I want to give loyal blog readers a chance to have a front-row seat on the evolution of the Sprinklr marketing efforts. Actually, more than that…I fee like Annie Lenox here. I want to USE you as my own mini- R&D facility.

Part of my ramp as VP/Mktg is to refine the positioning and story of the product. It’s a live-fire moment of everything we’ve been discussing on the blog for the past 4 years.

Here’s the Offer
What I’d like to do is offer you a chance to be part of a limited webcast audience as I seek to iterate these two components.

My goal is to limit it to 30-40 minutes.

• I’ll try to tell an effective “Made to Stick” Sprinklr story, carve out a position in your minds, and demo the platform in a way that reinforces the two of them.
• Then, we’ll have a group discussion on how I did and what needs to be tweaked.

The only payment that is required from you is your attention and your candid feedback. If you’re not prepared to do that, don’t sign up.

If you are interested..
Go ahead and fill out the form below (or here), if you are interested.

I’ll probably do 3-4 revs of it with 7-9 ppl in attendance for each, so no guarantees, but I’ll do my best. Meeting request will be forthcoming.

Remember, these will be my first demos of the platform, so expect it to be raw and unpolished.

(Note: Readers of Little Bets will recognize this strategy.)

Thanks for your support.

I am in the middle of a FANTASTIC book about the human spirit and psychology. It’s called Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why and the title doesn’t even do it justice.

It is one of those books that, as my brother Asher says, “makes you think about how you think” and it will really push you.

What I love about it is that the examples it gives (while focused on man vs. nature) apply very much to how we deal with extreme challenges in any part of our lives…job change, marriage, globalization, and more.

If you can become more aware of the way you think, you might be able to help adapt and thrive to new situations as they arise and avoid being blind to them because of previous paradigms.

Certainly the US Congress and American taxpayer could use this.

I highly recommend it.

(Note: it is NOT a light read and will require some effort…but, like survival, it’s worth it.)

In yesterday’s dramatic NFC Championship game (actually, both games were great, weren’t they?), the punt returner for the 49ers, Kyle Williams, made a HUGE error in the 4th quarter.

Arguably, an error that cost his team the game.

His indecision about whether to pick up a bouncing punt led to him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The ball grazed his knee, making it possible for the Giants to recover and score a pretty important touchdown.

Now, unless you are a fan of the 49ers and allow your emotion to control your reason, it was evident to everybody watching on TV that, in fact, the ball HAD grazed Williams’ knee.

Williams, however, as athletes are wont to do was protesting, saying incredulously “Are you kidding me?!”

The thing is…with hundreds of camera and millions of eyes, it is Williams who was kidding himself.

He was better off just admitting his mistake and moving on. Tough to do that in the heat of the moment, of course, but the evidence was there for all to see.

Today, our marketing, our sales, our pricing…whatever we do in business, it’s out there on the field, surrounded by the equivalent of hundreds of cameras (bloggers, tweeters, and YouTube video creators—we need one word for them…YouTubers doesn’t really do it.)

If you do something to one customer, hundreds/thousands/millions of other customers will probably see it.

So, the best option…whatever you do, ask yourself: if this information (about our pricing, employee practices, comp plan, sales information) were available on instant replay for everyone to see, how would we feel?

If the answer is “pretty embarrassed,” then it’s pretty clear that you shouldn’t do it in the first place.

Raving Fan Tom Siegman sends in this gem.

Further proof that

1. any touchpoint can become a remarkable experience
2. thinking about how you want people to FEEL is smart marketing
3. if you do both of those, people will talk about it and share….

Here’s his story about something that Delta officially calls “Middle Seat Mondays.”
Well done, Delta Airlines!!

Yesterday I had to fly down to Atlanta. I was scheduled on the 8 AM flight. I got to LaGuardia airport and, after having a remarkable macchiato at World Bean in Delta's terminal (delicious coffee at an airplane terminal is remarkable in and of itself) I realized I still had time to slide onto the 7 AM flight and get to ATL early. Nice

I went up to the gate and they a) waived my fee for flying early, b) apologized profusely for only having middle coach seats (I'd been upgraded on the 8 AM flight), c) handed me some tasteful holiday chocolates as I boarded the flight. Fine. All of this is outstanding. But following is the kicker. Today I received this message from Delta (see below). I am now a raving fan.

--- On Tue, 12/20/11, Delta Air Lines <DeltaAirLines@e.delta.com> wrote:

From: Delta Air Lines <DeltaAirLines@e.delta.com>
Subject: Caught In The Middle
To: tbsiegman
Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011, 4:46 PM

 

I lived in Japan for 2 years. There is much to love and admire about the Japanese culture. A sense of beauty and appreciation for design and detail that is unrivaled in many places in the world.

Before my trip, I was nervous, however.

You see, Japanese culture puts a high premium on conformity.

The saying “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down” really applies there.

The challenge, of course, is that the essence, the soul, the root goal of all marketing is what?

To be DIFFERENT.

Then, I realized, that this isn’t just a Japanese problem, it’s a universal challenge. It’s just more pronounced in Japan.

As humans, we crave to be accepted. We don’t want people staring at us. We take our cues from others (see Cialdini and ‘social proof’ for this one, if you need more background)

Yet, as marketers, we DO want people staring us.

Having the courage to overcome that urge and the tendency to conform is the choice that confronts us all.

As Youngme Moon wrote in one of my favorite marketing books of all time, Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd (review here),“marketing is a mindset.”

You either choose that life…or you don’t.

The fear of standing out means that many of us just don’t.

But, you’re different, aren’t you?

A few weeks ago, I asked about the right blogging rhythm. Daily? Every other day?

Then, I talked to Raving Fan, Ross Vann (hey, that rhymes!)

Anyway, I was telling him that I was trying to figure it out and that, on the rare moments when people unsubscribe and I ask them why (it really doesn’t happen that often, fortunately), but the answer will be “I can’t handle daily emails.”

Of course, 99.2% of people don’t unsubscribe, but that’s a different story.

Ross’ response?

“If you unsubscribe, you don’t get it!

The fact that you DO blog daily is the testament to your commitment to the mantra and the lifestyle.”

And I think he’s right.

The blogging is my way to think about the issues of the day.

And the fact that I take anywhere from 5-25 minutes per day to do that is the Never Stop Marketing mantra.

Even better, I’d never thought of NSM as a “lifestyle” brand, but that’s indeed what we are.

You commit to the NSM lifestyle.

Thank you for pushing me, Ross, and helping me stay focused.

Just sharing two new tools I’ve discovered recently that are quick to implement and can make for a better site visitor experience.

First is Onwsipe. To see how it works, use a tablet computer and go to www.neverstopmarketing.com. Basically, it “mobile firsts” your site and it’s pretty slick.

The second is the “pinning” feature in in IE9. Use IE9 to visit this site.

When you get there, you’ll see this banner.

Then, the website becomes an “app” and you get notifications in your Windows taskbar about new developments on the site (say a new blog post).

 

To build your own, go here.

Hope these help.