How Logic Limits Influence
In developing a marketing system, you have to put spaces and slack into the system that allow for positive human interaction and reaction. The story below reminds me of the old saw: 'people don't care what you know until they know that you care.' We are simply unable to capture everything we know about human relations in scripts and flow charts. You can't rely on miracles but you have to allow people to pause, reflect, listen, and add something of themselves to the process.
Strategy+Business: The Science of Subtle Signals, by Mark Buchanan 2007-Aug-29
Successful [customer service] operators, it turned out, speak little and listen much. When they do speak, their voices fluctuate strongly in amplitude and pitch, suggesting interest and responsiveness to the customer’s needs. Operators who speak with little variation come across as too determined and authoritative, but by speaking invitingly, being responsive but not pushy, a skilled operator can let callers find their own way to a sale. “Like a mother speaking singsong to a baby,” says Pentland, “variation sounds perky and inviting. If operators do it right, they’re almost certain to be successful.” ...
Most explanations of human behavior in the business world presume that people — be they employees, consumers, or executives — are influenced most by meaning and reasoning. It’s what gets said that matters, not how it is said. But the performance of these telephone operators and a growing volume of other evidence suggest that this view is seriously flawed. In a wide variety of facets of everyday business, the keys to sustained success may actually lie in understanding the kinds of signals that are ordinarily overlooked: tone of voice, body language, the ways people congregate (or don’t), the time spent on tasks, the rhythms of workplace activity, and the patterns of social networks.
Once you've been working for weeks on a newsletter or a campaign, it's hard to imagine what it's like to see it for the first time. But that's only way it's ever going to perform for you. Your email messages may compelling on your desk but in the stew of nagging assignments, endless negotiations, purchase receipts, event notices, and holiday cards occupying most of our inboxes, will yours be the delightful mushroom peaking out from behind the potatoes? To survive "inbox stew" your message has to be easy, clear, fun, entertaining, and rewarding. 
To turbocharge a new product announcement, Timberland is recycling their advertising materials, amplifying the message that the product is made from recycled materials.
Jiffy Lube is the first Houston company I've seen get serious about managing customer experience. Here's their 
There is no doubt that the people at 
One sustainable way to strengthen bonds with your customers is to tap into the passions of your employees. Of course, it helps if your employees share a passion. For instance, Southwest Airlines has always recruited people who know how to use humor to defuse tense situations. Borders has decided to tap into the fact that many of the people who work at bookstores work on a book when they go home. (See 
Businesses in Seattle are lining up for a test program from Microsoft. To promote the 
Now that credit cards and rewards programs have become easily comparable commodities, card issuers are stepping up the innovation and competing to become the "card at the top of the wallet." Two different experiences count: holding and feeling the card when you use it, and showing off the card in front of others. 
Kraft has been sponsoring a special holiday edition of People magazine for a few years but this year they are deepening the experience by adding scent-filled food ads, as well as scent to one of the editorial stories. 
This special edition will go out to about a million family-cooking oriented subscribers, and the People web site doesn't have anything about it so far. They promise the technology is much better than what's been used for perfume ads so far, with less unintended bleeding of the scent. Whether or not the technology takes off, the level of engagement with this issue of the magazine should still be powerful.
Only one place so far to lounge with your fellow American Express cardholders--The Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, NJ. This holiday season, Amex is experimenting there with exclusive and non-exclusive areas where shoppers can relax and get "shopping support."
A company in Singapore is offering a shipping container that you can rent and install to create temporary retail space. From the consumer's point of view, I call it "stumble-upon retail." Sure we've had tents at events, but this feels so much more upscale. The experience of surprise is becoming very valuable.
This IBM 
I just hope they always remember to match the gender of the real salesperson with the gender of the person in the video clip.
Here's an interesting tactic to keep the customers coming in...Target is testing a new program call the Find where they mix in an unexpected luxury item for their alert shoppers. I haven't been able to verify whether or not the 
Detroit Free Press: 
Coca-Cola hopes to attract holiday shoppers with innovative seasonal packaging. In fact, they've been experimenting with many different containers, including one shaped like a soccer ball for the World Cup and artistically decorated aluminum bottles for trendy bars. I would include their tests of new types of vending machines in this effort. So we now have five P's for marketing: product, price, promotion, place (or distribution channels), and packaging!
Simon and other mall owners are making space available for more and more temporary installations, from 
The back-to-school experience has been seriously enhanced by OfficeMax. Focusing on kids old enough to pick out their own school supplies, the retailer developed an integrated campaign that includes "Creation Stations" in the stores where kids can personlize their notebooks and backpacks, a reality show called "
When the internet media company Flavorpill got together with Anheuser-Busch, they didn't just place Budweiser Select ads on the sites or in the email newsletters which go out to hip urbanites looking for the coolest music and art shows. Instead, Anheuser-Busch funded the work of several artists to decorate the site and emails with beautiful images that contain understated references to the Budweiser Select logo. You can see all the artwork at 
Many marketers run a contest, award the prize and move on, but Volvo has done a good job of maintaining audience involvement in the 
A joint venture of a South Korean telecom, 
The stores won't resemble traditional cellphone stores, the company said. Instead they will feature lounges, a "Q&A bar," video screens, multiplayer games and live demonstrations by content providers such as game makers.
"We want people to hang out," said Jackie Foo, senior director of retail stores for Helio.
Helio currently sells its phones and service online, and in record stores, campus bookstores and boutiques popular with hip, well-heeled customers. 
Pegging your ad message to life events is getting stronger as a marketing strategy and State Farm is doing a good job with it. While other insurance advertisers focus on big tragedies, they are focusing on the little tragedies that affect a young person's life, er, car. I also like the
cards they hand out at events to help you get reconnected with them when you get back home. 
"It's hard to make insurance fun and cool, but this creates that feeling, is plausible, and stays true to the premise that insurance is a necessary part of life," said Mark Gibson, assistant vp, advertising at State Farm, Bloomington, Ill. "Young people tend to think about insurance a lot less than they think about music, cell phones and other things. But this [campaign] will engage them through key aspects of their lives: the Internet, videos and live events."
Developing a new hotel concept takes years but Starwood has decided to start building a market for their new chain 
The public spaces are designed to draw guests from their rooms with a communal lobby and bar, which provide a cozy space to grab a drink with friends, read the paper, or work on your laptop via wireless access. In the backyard; an open-air area, guests can socialize outdoors or attend aloft events. 
Ikea has had a store in San Diego since 2000, and even if it decides to put up another, it won't debut until 2010. So I wonder why it decided to distribute 760,000 catalogs in San Diego county, more catalogs than Ikea has ever pumped into a market, and set up furniture displays in ten public spaces?
In their effort to strengthen customer relationships, Hewlett-Packard reorganized everyone who contacts the customer into the same part of the company to achieve three goals
1to1 Magazine: 
In the September issue of 
The role of magazines is up in the air as audiences look to the internet for entertainment reading. While some people are uncomfortable with magazines selling the cover to advertisers and letting companies places ads that look like editorial, I think the reading experience may actual be improved. I cannot figure out a benefit to killing those trees and shipping them around unless it's to create an immersive visual experience. The easy-to-carry benefit of magazines will eventually evaporate.
As part of the ongoing push to squeeze the maximum amount of productivity out of every inch of the universe, Coca-Cola is demanding more "consumer experience" from its vending machines. I'm not really outraged--it seems nice to be able to get a free gift from the machine after you buy your beverage. I'm not so sure about new dynamic displays on the front of the machine. I suspect they will also be noisier.
The Cokefridge machine, on display at the CIES world food business conference in Paris last week, has an interactive screen that runs advertisements, and allows users to obtain free photos, games, logos and ringtones after they have bought a drink.
Users type a numerical code inscribed inside the cap of the drink into the interactive screen to get access to the photos and games.
The interactive screen says: "Available here: Cool mobile logos. SMS and ringtones and exciting mobile games. Every Coke and every Code is an experience!" Drinks available for purchase include bottled water as well as soft drinks.
To give its model homes a competitive edge, Centex is now populating them with actors who act like a family using the home. The press is abuzz with "fake families" but I don't think that any prospective home owner feels fooled. The real question is whether or not the increased sales justify the expense. The additional publicity Centex received is valuable for now. This effort may survive and grow if they have people demonstrating the applicances or how the closet shelving could be reconfigured. 
So much can happen between low frequency purchases. Many car makers now offer credit cards that allow customers to build points toward their next purchase. For the BMW Mini, the emphasis is less on discounts and more on strengthening emotional ties with the brand. In addition to offer a variety of ways to redeem points, the cards can also be printed with a picture of a custom mini uniquely designed by the card's owner. Dream cars, indeed.
Sometimes I wonder how magazines will survive the onslaught of handheld digital devices. Then Virgin Digital takes the visual treasure hunt into the music world with this ad. To appreciate print like this, you have to sit and hold a relatively large image in your hands. That's what magazines have to make us want to do more often.
