Customer evangelism: Get customers to enthusiastically promote your company / Marketing in virtual worlds? Maybe not. / "Informal organization" critical to a company's success / Going green

CUSTOMER EVANGELISM: GET CUSTOMERS TO ENTHUSIASTICALLY PROMOTE YOUR COMPANY
When was the last time one of your customers actually sold your products or services for you? I mean really sold, in the sense that they were so jazzed about what you had done for them that they just had to convince someone else to give you a try? It would be fantastic if it happened naturally, of course, but it’s also possible to use a little creative thinking and invite your customers to become evangelists for you. Your “sales force” expands exponentially, at little or no cost to you.

I recently ran into an older post by John Moore on his Brand Autopsy blog about Fiskars, the scissors makers, and their very interesting Fisk-A-Teers. It seems that Fiskars has embraced customer evangelism to the point of sponsoring a Fisk-A-Teers blog, where four customers-turned-Fisk-A-Teers actively and passionately post about their experiences using Fiskars products. Fantastic idea! And of course, a great way to showcase new products.

I’ve always admired the way Jones Soda invites customers to become involved in product marketing with their long-running label campaign. You know, “even you can be a star” with your photo on a bottle of Jones Soda! And what’s more, because they encourage voting, customers who have submitted photos invite their friends to come to the site to vote — more website traffic, sent by customers. And if your photo is chosen as a label, you’ll become even more evangelistic, won’t you? Very groovy.

Heinz Ketchup is now doing something similar with their Heinz “Top This TV Challenge.” Heinz encouraged customers to submit ideas for the next great Heinz Ketchup commercial, and the five videos with the most votes will be aired on national TV. The top winner will also pocket $57,000. You can “eat up” several hours at the Heinz Challenge site, watching very creative customer evangelists try to outdo each other in promoting Heinz Ketchup.

Then there’s the fascinating Dunkin’ Donuts Talk by Scott Lewis, a Dunkin’ Donuts fan and business consultant who started the site to show up a friend who teased him about his love of the company and its products. Dunkin’ Donuts Talk now receives over 1500 unique visitors per day, tapping into a cult-like following who discuss all things related to donuts, coffee, and goings-on within the company — all outside of the company. Dunkin’ Brands listens in and has become involved in terms of correcting information found in comments on the site and supplying Lewis with Dunkin’ product images, since he gets quite a few inquiries about Dunkin’ Donuts t-shirts and hats — but they don’t sponsor or direct the site.

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have some excellent information about customer evangelism on their Church of the Customer blog and books about how to create customer evangelists of your own. For any organization, say McConnell and Huba, a blog is part of a long-term customer evangelism strategy. They cite the following reasons:

• Their personal nature helps humanize you and your organization.

• They function as an instant-feedback mechanism.

• They compel you to Napsterize more of your knowledge more often, making it easier for customers and prospects to find you.

• They facilitate the spread of buzz.

• They allow you to have more simultaneous conversations.

• They help position you as a knowledgeable expert in your industry.

Wow, kind of gets the creative juices flowing, seeing what can be done to get customers involved, doesn’t it? Think about the customers who love your company the most, and how you could engage them in an interesting way to spread the word about why they like to work with you, or why your product is so wonderful. Can you supply them with your product, like Fiskars, and a public way to talk about it? Can you get them involved in your marketing, like Jones Soda and Heinz? Do you have your blog up and running so your customers can start becoming evangelists right away, with a method for giving feedback?

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MARKETING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS? MAYBE NOT.
You might have missed the hype surrounding Second Life, the game in which tens of thousands of people at any one time walk, talk, and interact in a 3-D virtual world. In Second life, you participate as a digital alter-ego called an "avatar." Using a keyboard, you can make the avatar move around, drive cars, chat with other people via their avatars, and -- interestingly enough -- conduct commerce. The currency of Second Life (called Linden Dollars) has made news because it has an equivalency to real money. Participants buy Linden dollars, then use the Lindens to buy in-world gadgets (like a software script that sends you an email when someone rings your doorbell) and fancy outfits for their avatars. The merchants can then convert their Lindens back into real money.

This smelled like a bold new marketing frontier to companies like Wells Fargo, Disney, and American Apparel, who dove in, purchased in-world real estate, and set up "brand islands" designed to create a steady flow of avatar customers, sell some wares, and hopefully give the computer users operating those avatar customers a nice brand experience to carry out into the real world.

A few years later, Wells Fargo is pulling out. The American Apparel store, which was almost always deserted, is closing down. Others are doing the same, realizing that even with some in-world promotions, the axiom "if you build it, they will come" isn't very true in a virtual world.

Despite these public flops, marketers continue to look at virtual worlds like Second Life as opportunities to spread their brand message. No one success story seems yet to stand as an example of the right way to market in-world, as much of the commerce conducted daily is of the grassroots, mom-and-pop variety. Can big business thrive in Second Life? Only time will tell, but many of the early adopters are now choosing to spend their marketing dollars elsewhere.

Source: secondthoughts.typepad.com, businessweek.com

For more articles like this about alternative marketing, see Creating Successful Viral Marketing, Emotion Marketing, and Marketing via Experiences

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"INFORMAL ORGANIZATION" CRITICAL TO A COMPANY'S SUCCESS
Management consulting firm Katzenbach Partners, LLC, conducted a telephone survey of 510 American workers at large companies and found that the "informal organization" is where workers find support, guidance, and job satisfaction. "Informal organization" refers to the relationships between workers who rely on one another rather than looking for support up and down the company's formal organization chart.

Some of the study's findings were that:

• 65% of workers said that employees rely on themselves and co-workers to provide solutions and solve problems, whereas 30% said they rely on managers for the same.

• 37% reported that they sometimes "ignore company rules because they've developed better ways of getting work done."

• 90% said that they have someone at work who they can turn to when they need to get something done. For 52% of them, it was a co-worker. For 45%, it was a boss.

• 57% said they believe that the best ideas for making the company more successful come from all levels of employees. Only 8% said these best ideas come mainly from the CEO or president, and 7% said they come mainly from senior managers.

In general, the survey's findings suggest that workers at large organizations are satisfied at their jobs, and that the reasons have much to do with the relationships they have with their co-workers. As many people have suspected, some of the most important relationships in large companies -- and those largely responsible for a company's well-being -- are not those between manager and subordinate, but between co-workers with no superiority difference between them.

Source: Business Wire

For more articles like this about employee satisfaction, see Interns Want to Learn, Delegate the Important Stuff, and Getting the Most out of Millennial Workers

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GOING GREEN
There's been a lot of interest recently in saving the planet, and some restaurants are hopping on the bandwagon. Whether the trend toward "going green" to conserve energy and resources is genuine planetary concern or a marketing gimmick, the results are the same for some -- better resource conservation and a simultaneous surge in popularity. Pizza Fusion in Fort Lauderdale, for one, is gaining in popularity thanks to its environmental stand.

Pizza Fusion's ingredients are organic and all-natural, and its delivery vehicles are all hybrid cars. The chain has been so popular amongst environmentally conscious customers that it is expanding from its original two stores to twenty scattered across the country. Pizza Fusion has announced that these 18 new stores will be built in line with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, which seek to conserve water and energy and to utilize efficient and environmentally friendly materials in construction. Some of the features on tap are:

• Countertops made from 100% recycled detergent bottles

• No heaters or water heaters. Water and air will be heated by recycling heat produced by the ovens.

• Solar power

• Low-voltage and low-heat lighting

• Bamboo flooring

• Building materials composed partially of recycled aluminum cans, pre-used drywall, and recaptured industrial concrete

There are benefits outside of marketing and PR for restaurants choosing to go green. Energy savings will typically eventually pay off the one-time cost of adding some solar panels or water-saving fixtures. However, any restaurant that chooses to employ an environmentally friendly strategy can today also stand to gain some public goodwill by letting customers know that they are "going green."

Source: Restaurant Hospitality

For more articles like this about going green and natural ingredients, see Vegetarian Restaurants on the Rise, Healthy Beverages, and Foods Come Clean