Delighting the Customer is Not Just Enough

I recently watched this YouTube tube video, of a workshop session held in Singapore by Ron Kaufman. As typical for Ron Kaufman, the video is full of energy, entertainment, and action! But, beside everything else, he makes a valuable point about how to win and retain customers for life.

According to Ron Kaufman, a company’s offer to its customers has three main facets.

1) Product
2) Service & Delivery Systems
3) Mindset

All three facets are equally important for a company, to satisfy its customers. In today’s competitive business environment, without an outstanding product you can’t go to the market place. Even if you have the best product in offer, a simple failure in delivery system will result in a total loss of customer faith in company’s brand. More importantly, even if you have the best product and delivery systems in place, what happen if your workforce does not posses the right mind set to serve your customers? Mind set is all about people. It involves culture. In order to have the right mindset among your employees, you should first ensure your company is having a customer oriented culture within the company.


All three facets pass through five stages of customer experience levels. A customer’s experience with a product may be, Basic, Expected, Desired, Surprising, or Unbelievable. Same five levels of customer experience apply for the other two facets.

With a basic product, a company would not survive at least in the short run. Most average companies would at least offer their customers an “expected product” or a “desired product”. But, those outstanding companies will always offer their customers a “surprising experience” or may be sometimes an “unbelievable experience” with their product. Every time a company offers a “surprising” or “unbelievable” experience to it’s customers, with either of above three facets; the company earns a certain level of customer loyalty towards their brand.

But, with the product and delivery systems facets, a company faces the challenge of keeping up the pace with competition. A product feature deemed as “unbelievable” today, would be seen as “expected” or even “basic” in few month’s time. As a result, a company has to keep innovating their products, and delivery systems all the time, to keep up the pace with competition.

The difference with mindset is, you don’t have to deliver “surprising” or “unbelievable” experiences every day, to earn the customer loyalty. One instance of “unbelievable” experience of mindset, will earn you life long loyal customers. And, that experience can never be copied by the competition.

The entire video is uploaded as nine parts, into Youtube. Click here to watch all the videos.

Wait a minute! What the hell is happening? I'm clueless!

I was on vacation leave for 7 days, and came back to work only yesterday. I spent the 2 days in Kandy, visiting my sister and few friends and the rest 5 days in Matara. It was a vacation completely "disconnected" from internet and work!

And now, look what I have when arriving back at work on Wednesday. The entire industry has leaped forward, leaving me a one week lagging in the trend. Every one around me talk in an alien language to me. FaceBook Beacon, Google Open Social, Social ads, Sprite Sips, are some of the words frequently used by the people around me.

I felt like "missed out in action a lot". Hey, it was only a one week before that I too used to be in the latest industry trend! How come in a one week the whole thing changes so fast? A week before, we were talking about Facebook applications, Flyers, groups, sponsored groups and things like that. But, coming back to work after one week, all those stuff are obsolete.

This opened my eyes to an "undeniable truth" about the field of online marketing and e-commerce. If you miss the tempo even for a one day, you are out of business!

Luckily for me, the rest of my office colleagues were so helpful. I quickly got on to the train again, and here I am! Moving forward...

My first challenge was to understanding the new Facebook advertising solution, launched on 6th November. I've got most of it now, and just written to them to seek chances of advertising our company, with them. Next, I'm suppose to get updated about the "open social Vs Facebook API" debate. Now what the hell is going on there?

A Logo Design Worth of Rs. 89,600,000/-

This is the logo for the 2012 olympic games, to be held in London. Organizers did a huge launching campaign for this logo, last week and it is said that the design cost for the logo was $800,000 !! (Aprox SLR 89,600,000)

This move by the organizers of the event lead to heavy criticism by many parties. Veteran Marketing writer, Seth Godin is one amongst the critics.

Seth says in his blog...

"About thirty years ago, three companies dreamed up logos that have become so powerful, I don't even have to show you the images to get them to pop up in your head. A sneaker company paid a few hundred dollars for an abstract, upside down wave, a coffee company picked a half-naked mermaid (is there any other kind) that cost them nothing, and a computer company picked [hired a PR firm that picked] a piece of fruit with a bite out of it.

What the images had in common: nothing. They range from abstract to woodcut to groovy. The art of picking a logo, even one for the Olympics, has almost nothing to do with taste or back story. A great logo doesn't mean anything until the brand makes it worth something.
That's why spending $800,000 for a logo is ridiculous."
(Read All)
Actually, it's just a jaggy picture

Six Ways to Keep Your Web Pages Simple and Increase Sales

Simplicity is probably the most important underlying factor when it comes to the performance of any Web page... whether your homepage, an interior page, a sales page, or a landing page.
Here are six ways to keep your pages simple and increase conversions.

1. Stick to one topic per page
This may not be possible always. But if you can stick to just a single topic, product, or service per page, then you simplify the experience for your visitors.
They don't have to choose—they don't have to decide where to focus their attention. All they have to do is read. From top to bottom.

2. Minimize the number of columns
Multi-column pages complicate the experience for your readers. Different areas of the page are competing for their attention. Again, they have to make choices, they have decide which column to look at first.
Or worse still, they may be reading your center information or sales column and then stop reading because they are distracted by something in another column.
If you can build your page with one column only, that is optimal and almost always has a significant impact on conversion rates.

3. Keep your message simple
As you write, try to stay focused on a single, simple message. Too many times copywriters bring in all kinds of "related" information into their sales copy.
If it is tightly related, that's fine. But when it is not directly relevant to the one topic and one purpose of your page, it can be distracting.
Keep your writing focused, linear, and progressive.

4. Don't use too many graphics
One or two graphics can help support your sales message. Some products or service can benefit from the use of a couple of well-placed graphics, but others don't need them at all.
Whatever you do, don't add too many images and graphics to the page. Again, they can fragment the reader's eye path. They distract attention from the sales message. And often for no good purpose.

5. Keep your offer simple
If you are writing a sales page, whether you are selling a subscription or a product, it is tempting to offer a number of purchase options. "If they don't want an annual subscription, maybe they'll go for a monthly subscription." Or, "If they don't want this product, maybe they'll want this one."
However, repeated testing has shown that providing multiple choices reduces conversion rates. Too many choices result in uncertainty and inaction.
Do some testing to determine the most profitable offer... and stick with that one.

6. Make your subscription or sales forms simple
The longer the form, the lower the conversion rate. It's as simple as that. So ask only for the information that is essential to complete the desired action. If you would like to collect additional information from your subscriber or purchaser, ask on the confirmation page, or with a follow-up email.

Final thoughts...
Someone within your company or development group will always come up with good reasons for adding elements to a page—whether words or graphics—that are not central to the topic or message.
Resist them if you can.
Simplicity in every aspect of your site, on every page, will increase your conversions and revenues.

Source: http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/usborne30.asp

Bad Things Happen to Brands When Companies Run out of Ideas

Article Extracted from http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/asacker6.asp

Tom Asacker
September 26, 2006

Wal-Mart, which sold more than $316 billion of low-priced goods last year, is not merely the world's largest retailer; it is also the foremost repository of information on consumer brands—and the marketing of those brands. Wal-Mart's shelves are jam-packed with the latest innovations in consumer goods packaging, design, promotion, and technology... from Gillette's patented razor blades to the myriad formulations of Crest's latest toothpastes.
But here's the paradox: Wal-Mart's brand value increases when those products stay the same—when consumer goods companies run out of ideas.

To understand why is to understand the nature of marketplace choice in today's hourglass economy: "Almost every category of consumer goods is in the process of forming into pools at both ends of the market," writes author Michael J. Silverstein in his new book, Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer. "In category after category, premium entries are growing, bargain brands are stealing share, and the middle is shrinking. "

Or to place his observation into marketing context: brands that innovate are growing, and brands that don't innovate are transferring their equity—and subsequent long-term income growth—to low-cost manufacturers and discount retailers.

In fact, Wal-Mart built one of the world's most valuable brands off of the backs of the world's most well-known brands. By pressuring manufacturers to reduce prices year after year on products that, in essence, don't change, Wal-Mart created a consumer expectation of one-stop shopping for trusted, bargain brands. Hence, the trusted—and growing—Wal-Mart brand: "Everyday low prices" on stuff that's perceived as "good enough."


But that's just half of the hourglass. The top half is growing as well, with distinctive products that offer tangible and emotional value for which people are willing to pay a premium. The one place a company doesn't want to find itself is stuck in the shrinking middle.

This shrinking middle is where many of America's most well-known and well-respected brands find themselves today—from iconic fashion brands like Levi Strauss, to Sara Lee's tired food and apparel brands, to Kraft Foods' household cheese brands.

And their self-imposed positions were fairly simple to foretell; all you had to do was watch their marketing efforts. When I discovered a $20 pair of Levi's jeans at Wal-Mart, the company's destiny was clear. I also watched Sara Lee's brands suffer from a paucity of innovation and gratuitous price reductions. And it appears from behemoth Kraft's recent predatory pricing practices on various supermarket cheese brands that it too has run out of ideas and is on the brink of handing over its well-deserved equity.

At face value, these tactics may appear to be temporary marketing maneuvers designed to reduce the encroachment of competitive brands, including store brands, and thus increase market share. In fact, they are conspicuous announcements by Levi Strauss, Sara Lee, Kraft, and others that "our brands are really nothing special" and therefore smart shoppers should choose based on price.

And once customers have relegated a brand to commodity status, to a choice made on price alone, it is very difficult—and expensive—to get them to trade back up for that brand in the future. So what's a consumer products company to do?

America's top consumer brands are at a crossroads and have some tough decisions to make to avoid being caught in this fatal squeeze of increasing sales and shrinking profits: Should we satisfy the street today or wow our customers and satisfy the street over time? Do we create real brand value or trade our equity to "hit the numbers?"

The two long-term strategic options are glaringly clear: re-engineer the business to become the world's low-cost producer, or invest in new product development and value-added marketing. The surer path to profitable market share growth is the latter, since it has been proven that customers will pay more if they feel that they are receiving additional value with the higher price.

So while struggling Levi's obsession with volume informs it schizophrenic product offering, fashion-obsessed Polo Ralph Lauren buys back its Polo Jeans license from Jones Apparel Group to stay focused on differentiated, high-end products. As Sara Lee attempts to boost sales of its Jimmy Dean sausage brand with quirky TV advertising, Nestle, the world's biggest food company, invests in patented technologies to tackle obesity and diabetes. And while Kraft surrenders to commodity pressures with price reductions, family-owned Sargento innovates with Bistro Blends, a proprietary idea mixing premium cheeses with herbs and spices.

Make no mistake about it: When companies run out of ideas, bad things happen to brands. Instead of differentiating their offerings with meaningful value-added features, like healthier and more flavorful products, time-saving recipes and packaging, or even emotive, associative value, marketers end up resorting to price cuts and special promotions. Instead of taking a long-term view of customer value and growth in sales, earnings and new product development, their focus shifts to a short-term desire to grow market share with discounting and deal-making.

Yes, there is a subsequent growth in revenue, but brand equity is damaged and profit margins invariably get chewed up as once-loyal customers migrate to even less-expensive commodity brands. And as with many fashionable new trappings, it's a position that is easy to slip into but can become a real struggle to wiggle out of over time.