Marketing By Standing Around.

The glorious Improv Everywhere have carried out some fabulous flashmob-style events over the year, but in January they surpassed themselves at Grand Central Station. In contrast to their other events, this is all about standing out by not doing something, standing out via a cohesive action and standing out by being overtly but not aggressively different. It has an impact that is deeper and, I would suggest, longer-lasting than that of the gimmicky stunt that tends to generate a laugh but no great memory.



In contrast, the version it inspired on Law and Order some months later is insipid.

Someone Always Notices.

At an innovation conference last week, there was much discussion by the likes of Tim Berners-Lee and Sam Pitodra about the need to acknowledge that trying and failing was an essential part of progress and one that needed to be imbued in the culture.

But then on the break, the PA started blasting out the inspirational sounds of some old rock-band. It was intended to maintain the mood, but unfortunately there were lyrics.

We are the champions
No time for losers
cause we are the champions

The lessons. Don't leave any detail to chance, cliches tend to rebound on you and one single inconsistency will always be noticed. Then again, maybe they were commenting on the upcoming speaker pictured above.

Customers Want Otherness.

Seth Godin wrote a terrific little post the other day about revenues increasing as you get closer to the "pain' of the consumer. What he's reframing, of course, is scarcity. In the absence of choice (or supply), price will rise. But there are many forms that scarcity can take.

The customer who has a scarcity of time will value convenience.

The customer who has a scarcity of expertise will value competence.

The customer who has a scarcity of style will value design flair.

The customer who has a scarcity of contacts will value network effects.

There are many ways to be different. It's all about otherness.

How To Generate Word Of Mouth.

A trip to the plumbing supplies outlet. Yes, they can identify the fault. Yes, they can order the seals that need to be replaced. No there will be no charge even though it's no longer under guarantee and a number of other plumbers had suggested three figure bills.

Why so helpful?

"Because we only supply products that we can back up."

It wasn't a clever advertisement. It wasn't a scripted customer service pitch. It was just a retail worker enunciating what is clearly a deeply-engrained company philosophy. And that's why it's authentic. And that's why it's memorable. And that's why every customer who experiences it will re-tell it. Just like I am now.

Treat Customers As Lovers?

A friend bought a table at a local charity dinner only to discover, as the day arrived, that only seven of the ten seats would be occupied. The reason? One of the husbands was having an affair with one of the wives.

The repercussions in the small tight-knit community are huge of course but the thing that stuck with me was how the affair was discovered. The betrayed wife saw her husband welcome the other woman in a social setting and explained that "he greeted her in the way you greet a lover".

The marketing parallel is obvious. Businesses woo new customers as they would potential lovers, but all too often fail to keep the romance alive. Yet another reason to remind yourself that your customers are people.

Racing In A Skirt Makes You Feel Fast?

Everybody talks about Nike ID as the key innovation in blending running products and runners' enthusiasms, but apparently that's not true. Watch and learn about "putting a sexy spin on a running classic by mixing fitness, flirting and fun in an innovative new race series."

I have seen the future of athletics and I'm very confused.

Unchoosing Your Customers.

As the credit crunch bites, it seems that a number of credit providers are becoming choosy about who they want as customers. It's not just bad debts they want to avoid but also those credit card customers who shop sensibly, pay off their debt in full every month and thus are relatively unprofitable. They're having their credit limits summarily reduced or sometimes removed completely.

That may make eminent balance sheet good sense, but the message it sends to those customers, not to mention remaining and prospective customers is not so sensible. It's smart business to focus on those customers you can serve most profitably and if you choose to avoid certain customers that's fine, it's your prerogative and other businesses with different cost structures may subsequently cherry pick your rejects. But the time to do this is on the way up, not when times are hard.

Disgruntled non-customers are far less damaging to your customer-centric image than disgruntled ex-customers. It will be interesting to see if a similar scenario plays out when free web 2.0 enterprises start to monetise their businesses.