ADvice
Here's our two cents in marketing. Of course,
we write it in the hope that you'll find it more
valuable than that. Like 10 or even 20 dollars'
worth of good advice.
Positive Customer Experience has WCG Staffers Flying High
It’s safe to say that international coach flying can be a beating. With the endless check–ins and extensive pat–downs (at least buy me dinner first), it’s enough to make you want to either stay home or fashion your luggage into a flotation device and make a swim for it.
That is, unless a client requests a last–minute video shoot in London. Then…it’s go time.
Lucky for WCG’s Blair Keeley and Rachal Hansen, the duo booked back–to–back flights on Virgin Atlantic–and learned firsthand the difference between flying and flying high.
Inspired by his stellar flight experience, Blair creates a new superhero: The Masked Super Virgin.
“When a company like Virgin Atlantic improves its business practices in order to alter the unfavorable reputation of air travel, you can’t help but take notice,” said Blair. “And when it improves them from the first touch point to the last, you can’t help but take notes.”
Note #1: Be prepared. This one may seem like a gimme, but it’s surprising how many companies offer great products or services and are inept at delivering, sullying a reputation from the beginning. Virgin hit the ground running by creating a hassle–free boarding experience. Normally during the boarding process, it’s enter at your own risk. Stampedes break out, and old ladies with canes will not hesitate to deliver efficient elbows if it means making it to the front of the line. But Virgin Atlantic was prepared, with three separate lines to board according to seat location, and a 350–seat plane was ready to go in less than 20 minutes. That first impression set a nice tone for the rest of the flight.
Note #2: Be proactive.Customers won’t always send verbal signals that something’s wrong. Sometimes it’s just a look on their face. Anytime anyone on board the Virgin flight looked slightly uncomfortable, there was a flight attendant on the spot asking what he or she could do to help. And when the question was asked, it was always followed up with a “yes, ma’am” or “no, sir” and a smile.
Note #3: Be progressive. Every business can get a leg up on the competition by using technology to its advantage in creative ways. On the back of every seat, Virgin has installed TV screens that operate
A sea of TV screens and video game controllers were visible throughout the plane.
Note #4: Be polite. Sometimes it isn’t about the fanciest technology or the latest gadgets—it’s about good old–fashioned kindness and courtesy. When Blair noticed the Airbus A380 (the largest passenger airline in the world) sitting on the runway, he excitedly brought it to Rachal’s attention. Rachal couldn’t have been less interested, but the flight attendant who sat across from Blair struck up an instant conversation, talking about Virgin’s business and fleet–something Blair had an obvious interest in. Later, on the return flight when Blair and Rachal were checking in at the terminal, they were immediately swarmed by a sea of Virgin red coats, asking if they needed assistance–all made possible by a simple red tag Virgin put on its customers’ luggage to make them easily identifiable.
At every level, when Virgin Atlantic saw the opportunity to enhance customer experience, it did. In doing so, it provided an informative road map for heightened customer service, won business fans for life and made a chilly trans–Atlantic swim seem far less appealing.
Age (Diversity) is More than a Number
Think about your neighborhood, the business community, our country. Nothing looks like it did 20 or even 10 years ago. The world is changing at an extraordinary pace, and the faces are different. There’s much more diversity.
For savvy marketing companies, cultural diversity isn’t simply an ethical imperative, but a way to connect with global customers who have different needs and perspectives. But there’s another valuable diversity to champion in agencies, as well—age diversity.
If you doubt the importance of this issue, consider this: there are three outstanding age groups that drive markets—Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials—and the largest gap in age spans almost 40 years. Oooooh, what a difference 40 years can make.
Now, I’m “hip,” as the kids say (do they still say that?). Born on the outskirts of Generation X, I feel like I have at least a big toe in this emerging market. I use the word “emerging” because Marshal Cohen, Chief Industry Analyst at market research firm The NPD Group, reports that teens today are spending approximately 6% to 8% more than they were a year ago. However, I got a rude awakening at the most unlikely of places—the Visiting Nurse Association Rummage Sale in Somerset Hills, New Jersey.
I was there diving into various vinyl bins, salivating with each uncovered jewel. Led Zeppelin! Nat King Cole!! Fleetwood Mac!!! Ella Fitzgerald!!!!!! The Psychedelic Furs!!!! Prince!!!!!! OH, MY!!!!!! Then I heard a female voice behind me.
“It’s called a record,” she said, “and what you do is put it on a thing called a turntable. It spins, and when you put a needle on it, the songs play out of a speaker.”
I turned and saw that she was talking to her son, who couldn’t have been older than 13. I, in contrast, had never felt older in my life.
Valuable lessons were learned that day: a) Age affects buying trends in more ways than imagined; b) In order for marketers to gain a greater understanding of these buying trends, we should innovate in a work environment that represents these differences; and c) It’s possible that I’m not as young as I think I am.
Fundamentally, agencies should pay as much attention to their generational make-up as they do their cultural diversity. The more their staffs can mimic the variations in consumers, the greater their inherent understanding of target audiences, and the more precise their campaigns can be.
PowerPoint: The End of the World as We Know It?
I have firsthand knowledge (and accountability) that PowerPoint is crippling productivity in corporate America. I am reasonably sure schools are using it to numb today’s youth. Yet, until I read an article in The New York Times about the rampant use of PowerPoint in the military (“We Have Met the Enemy and He is PowerPoint”), I had no idea this tool was compromising the defense of the Free World.
I should have figured it out. How did we think we could keep this Microsoft kool-aid out of the hands of junior military staffers? Like keeping drugs away from the poor and vulnerable, aren’t these the very people who need it most? Think about it…
When you’re dealing with the world’s most complex supply chain command…when you are charged with defending democracy…when your bottom line really is a matter of life and death, that’s when you need bullet points, clip art and computer-generated charts the most!
From the PowerPoint Rangers — as these presentation-wielding officers are called — I submit to you this pasta-like slide:
It caused one U.S. general to remark that, “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.” I laughed the way people do when theirs was the last finger in the pie. Nervously. Guiltily.
I, too, have used PowerPoint to create the illusion that I fully understood (or cared) what I was talking about. It’s the perfect solution for style over substance — especially when the correct answer is somewhere along the difficult lines of “Fewer Pretty Pictures, More Critical Thinking.”
In the business world, we get all kinds of PowerPoint advice. Like…forego bad color schemes…don’t read every single word off your PowerPoint slide (Mother of God, no!)…and ditch distracting animation. All good tips, but let’s agree that…
Some problems are too complex to be bulletized. There are dynamics that deserve in-depth examination, and there are topics that can be made clear only through thoughtful discussion.
Before you reach for that pointer, ask yourself if there’s a better way to present your information. Like a demonstration? Or a White Paper?
Sometimes the medium isn’t the message you want to send.
The Expanding Mobile Market
Mobile applications are shifting their appeal from the early adopters and the tech savvy to the common man. Gartner, the world-renowned technology research and advisory company, recently released a report saying that by 2011, 85% of mobile handsets will offer a web browser. This growing internet availability can only serve to fuel the public’s increasing need to consume mobile app content wherever they are and whenever they want it.
There are indications that the mobile application pace is already quickening. In an April 2010 article on networkworld.com, it was reported that just over 6 billion mobile apps will be downloaded this year alone, up from 2.4 billion downloads last year.
For developers like West Cary Group and companies looking to simultaneously expand their business and grow their clientele, this means a new addressable market—an “everyman” audience that is looking for applications to better assist them in their everyday lives. To meet this need, apps can no longer simply be about tossing penguins and twirling lightsabers, but will need to focus on supporting and becoming an integral part of the daily events of the public’s lives.
This leaves wide-open fields in which to play—applications that boost work productivity, offer utilities and provide greater access to services in the areas of health, education and government. That is, real applications that offer real solutions to everyday needs. It’s a growing mobile market out there. To stay ahead of the game, West Cary Group knows that developers should be thinking about how to fill that future space.
Contact West Cary Group about our experience in digital services.
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There are No Limits
If you put mental limits on what your small business is capable of doing against larger competitors, you’ve lost the race before it’s even begun.
Allow me to draw on a life comparison. I recently biked 145 miles (thus the race analogy).
At first glance, that seems like a pretty impressive feat. I made daily visits to the gym, did squats like a maniac and biked every weekend for two months straight. I got the latest gear. I cleansed for nine days so that my cells would work more efficiently (I know, I know…) and dropped 10 pounds.
But I did it. I biked from Penn Station, NY to Montauk, Long Island in a single day.
My friends were pretty impressed. Heck, I was pretty impressed with myself. But my pride diminished when I witnessed another girl on the same ride.
To put it mildly, she was not the specimen of physical fitness. In fact, she had a good 20 pounds on me. Instead of cycling attire, she was decked out in a jumper, knock-off Gucci glasses, a gold backpack, no helmet and flip flops—and she was rocking it all on a hot pink steel frame bike.
Oh, we laughed. We took bets on how long she would last. We scoffed at the flip flops, snickering that we should turn off at the nearest drug store so we could invest in a pair, as well.
But you know what? She finished the ride. And she finished before I did. What. The. Heck.
Just goes to show you, all the money and all the training in the world can’t beat two things:
Big Ideas. You don’t have to have the biggest or best toys—or bottom line. But you do have to have the big picture in mind. It allows you to think beyond what is and operate in what can be. I would never have thought anyone could finish 145 miles on a steel frame bike until I saw Flip Flop Girl waving at me from the finish line.
Dogged Determination. In the business world, half the battle is internal. If you have passion for your product or service and are relentless in pursuing your goals, you’ve already got a leg up on the competition.
Headwinds, a heavy bicycle and steep hills threatened Flip Flop Girl’s ride, but she took that hot pink bike and crushed the road like a Tour de France champion.
So take a lesson from Flip Flop Girl, oh ye small business owners. Never put limits on your company’s capabilities. Because there aren’t any.