Here’s a great interview of the marketing VP at Nokia that provides credible evidence to the bright future of new media and word of mouth marketing. Not only does this interview shed light on the huge potential power that new media offers, it also stresses that in order to utilize such grassroots efforts, a company has to offer real quality, otherwise the whole effort will backfire. This is one of the beautiful things for all of us about this new era of customer led marketing.

While new media is exciting, we here at RisingLine feel it’s important not to lose balance and forget that other marketing channels still have an important role to play. It’s encouraging to see that a progressive company like Nokia feels the same. It seems there are a lot of advertising agencies that totally discredit new media and grassroots marketing and the few grassroots marketing firms out there can lean to the extreme in their admonition to ditch advertising completely. While the answer as to the advertising/grassroots mix will be different for every business, as a general principle each business needs to plan their comprehensive marketing strategy with careful consideration of both.

To get you started on some fresh multichannel marketing strategy, check out the latest issue of Practical Ecommerce.

As I continue to peruse the Internet for great blogs, I came across one today which in my opinion epitomizes a successful blogging strategy. Annie’s Homegrown products is promoted by Bernie’s Blog, a social advocate Web site that is specifically targeted toward an emotionally engaged audience of progressive liberal folks. As a fairly conservative guy, I may not agree with the content on the site, but I can certainly appreciate the way this organization has used a polarizing approach in order to appeal to folks that are interested in their products.

For those of you who have read my blogs on a regular basis, you probably have noticed that one of my pet peeves is a blog which has nothing to do with the customer or their interests. The quickest way to alienate a reader is to write about things that don’t interest them … things like your corporate picnic or your strategic initiative for the year. Please understand, the actual subject matter is irrelevant, but customer interest is key.

Going back to Bernie’s blog, pay attention to the content and it’s easy to see how the writer(s) has masterfully leveraged connecting the product to the emotional sensitivities of their target audience. I would venture to say that in 8 of 10 cases, the typical Annie’s shopper relates to this content and most likely visits the site on a regular basis.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers,” said Thomas Watson president of IBM in 1943. Of course this turned out to be wishful thinking on the part of the few who controlled that technology in that era. In 2002 Gartner consulting reported that over 1 billion personal computers had shipped since the mid 70′s.

I was reminded of this quote when I read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer today entitled

Americans are blogging a dead horse in which a journalist made a similar assertion about blogging. Her article, which reads more like the journal of a panic attack, says:

• People are sick of blogs (she backs this up with a reference to herself).
• Blogs are bad because anyone can utilize them.
• The average person is stupid and should not be allowed to convey their
  thoughts on blogs.
• Blogs are bad because the communication is too rich.
• People in general aren’t smart enough to discern good from bad information.
• She already knows blogs are finished and slams her 10-year-old son’s
  blog as proof.
• Don’t start a blog (because you’re an idiot).

One of the most bizarre statements in this article is:

When you read a blog, it’s easy to forget that it’s just one person in a little corner of the world. You get sucked into their universe, and the words on screen give their daily dramas a validity they might not deserve.

Hmmm. Well I can see how this is so bad…I would much rather be spoon fed refined information from the Philadelphia Inquirer instead of engaging in direct communication and having to think for myself!

The irrational comments of this journalist, many of which are completely opposite of the well documented massive growth in popularity of blogs are really not that difficult to understand. Old-school journalists and information brokers fear greatly the change that’s happening now. For obvious financial reasons they are in panicked denial that they no longer hold a monopoly in the world of communication. The last sentence of this article captures the true essence of this old-school journalist’s motive, “So, please, do me a favor, don’t start a blog.”

Now no one will dispute that there are some weird and wacko blogs out there…a lot of them. However, “bad blogs” are a small price to pay for little things like freedom of speech and freedom of choice. Focusing on the blogs that this person perceives as low value completely misses the point—the blog phenomenon is about the decline of mass communication and advertising and the rise of targeted niche communication. Who am I to say any particular blog is no good? If I’m not that blogger’s target audience, as small and insignificant as that might be, whether I like the blog or not is irrelevant. Individually we’re not supposed to relate to a majority of blogs.

The cultural revolution of blogging is shaking up the world of journalists especially. The fact is, we don’t need a few people to decide what information gets communicated and how. The author of this article might be better suited to take up writing for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since they still fully subscribe to the philosophy of information control and dissemination and have been called the most censored country in the world.

Journalists of all professions should be embracing the change instead of fighting against the inevitable. The smart ones are.

Why would a business pass up a virtually free way to bring in new customers? Any business owner or executive should cringe at the thought of this, but research indicates that many are letting just such an opportunity pass by.

An interesting study was just published from a web hosting company in Britain. Even though the study is from Europe, the findings are very consistent with the experiences we’ve had here at RisingLine.  About half of the 2,300 small to medium businesses surveyed said they really liked the idea of using a blog on their site to increase traffic, but only about 3 percent actually plan on starting a blog in the near future.  This is odd behavior given the irrefutable evidence that consumers are increasingly flocking to consult blog sites before making purchase decisions. Blogs are no longer esoteric, they have grown to number 54 million (according to Technorati), with 75,000 new ones being created each day.

It really should be a no brainier. Blogs provide an easy method for businesses to develop rapport with their current clientele and create a like-minded online community that attracts prospects that are the most desirable clientele. Blogs allow non-technical business owners and executives to take control of their website without the assistance and delay of an IT professional, and to publish more authentic (and therefore believable) content for their site visitors.

Based on this study, it seems that a large percentage of business owners do realize the benefits…at least on some level, so the question is why is such a tiny percentage actually acting on the opportunity?  The survey showed exactly what we hear everyday…the business executive has no time to blog. Here are the three reasons why this exuse is not justifiable:

1. It doesn’t take that much time. You don’t have to write a polished article…in fact it’s often better not to. Just provide concise and valuable insight, maybe a comment on a news item, for your target client. Here’s how: keep up to date on the most relevant topics using Google Alerts, write a few sentences in your own words of why a certain news item is important, and post it.
2. You’ll Work smarter not harder. By spending 10 minutes each week to develop an online community of high value clients and prospects you’re ROTI (Return on Time Investment) can be exponentially higher than many other low-value activities you most likely engage in. You’re building a community of customer evangelists who will start driving highly qualified prospects to your business. Recycle 10 minutes of your time each week and blog! Set a reoccurring Outlook appointment to post to your blog the same time every week.
3. You’ll gain a better strategic perspective for managing your business.
   By taking a few minutes each week to watch the trends in your industry, you’ll keep on the cutting edge of your market, mature into a trusted advisor, and gain more credibility with your clientele…not just on your blog but in all your interactions with them.

As I was visiting some relatives in Finland last month, I noticed that very few Nordic Web sites had incorporated blogging and New Media features at a corporate level. Blogging and podcasting have already become commonplace amongst the general population in Finland, as it has in the United States, however there is a glaring gap between most corporate Web sites and available New Media technology.

Something inherent about the Finnish society is that people adapt to technology very quickly. In fact, it is a country where you find youth text messaging live television talk show hosts from their mobile/cell phones although they’re being charged to do so. Finns, and I’m supposing other Europeans, would most likely embrace companies or organizations that would open up the level of transparency in regards to products, services, and community. For instance, Nokia is Finland’s most influential consumer brand, of which people proudly show off their new model phones amongst friends and family, along the same level as a car, home, or other status symbols. So as to exploit and enhance this brand power, I could certainly envision Nokia providing an interactive community where its customers could go online to chat about new product features, designs, like and dislikes, desires for future technology and so forth. Not only would this create further intimacy amongst Nokia’s customer base, but also it would enhance customer evangelism while at the same time providing in-depth and basically free unsolicited market research. Plus, Nokia has already experimented with the blogosphere by sending bloggers new phone models and had phenomenal response; why shouldn’t Nokia then take blogging to the next level and engage their customers? Nokia also has a few non-employed enthusiasts blogging about their products, the next step would be to envelop this community within the Nokia.com sphere to help shape the content and engage in the discussion.

So as to prove this isn’t a Nokia centric blog, Fazer, Finnair, Hesburger, and Stockmann are four other Finnish companies that come to mind that could leverage new media technology and customer evangelism. In fact, no matter the firm or industry, the main ingredient for success is to identify a loyal customer base and empower enthusiastic individuals with tools like blogs and customer reviews so as to become a participative marketing and sales extension for little to no cost. Although this may appear somewhat iffy in terms of ethics, the truth is that most customer evangelists don’t want to be bought, they’ll proactively solicit the virtues of a company’s products and services simply because they feel an inherent personal emotional identification around the brand. In other words, the brand becomes a reflection on their personality.

In conclusion, I’d like to reiterate the old mantra to those of you who haven’t heard it before … great brands create consumer evangelists by empowering their customers to be a strategic marketing force. Companies that have succeeded, such as Apple Computers, Under Armour, and Southwest Airlines, know what makes their customers tick. If you’re a marketer reading this blog, I highly encourage you to check out some articles under Google keyword search using “Customer Evangelism.” One article in particular that I would recommend is the “Customer Evangelism Manifesto” by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba; it has honestly revolutionized our corporate drive at RisingLine New Media Marketing. Anyway, I hope this blog provided some helpful information. Please feel free to provide feedback or ask questions.

How many business leaders plan on sacrificing so much of their life for a business that sticks around for a decade or two? Assuming the answer to this rhetorical question to be “few if any,” then another question is begged: Why is the shelf life of most companies so short?

The best place to look is on the opposite end of the spectrum, to those companies who have created a legacy. I’ve been fascinated by this topic especially since recently becoming an adoring fan of Fiskars, a company founded in 1649 and on the cutting edge today of customer evangelism marketing utilizing new media (see last week’s post).

So maybe a better question to ask is, “Why  are old companies are still around?” Starting with the extreme relics like Kongo Gumi, (the Japanese construction company who was in continual operation from the year 578 until January of 2006) there is a treasure of insight available that we can directly apply to the business environment today. I’m no business history expert, but I am smart enough to deduce that most of these companies are going to be found very strong in two important suits: 1)Exploiting environmental change, and 2)Exemplifying the marketing concept.  Inversely we can deduce that most companies, the ones with short shelf lives, are probably vulnerable to environmental change and don’t adequately embrace the marketing concept.

Here’s what makes this topic so provocative today—as you may be aware we’ve just stepped into a period of radical revolution that will be destroying the status quo of how business interacts with society. The statistics are undeniable that this change is in full gear, for example take a look at this report posted today at Information Week.

So what’s the average business to do? Fight the trend?  Stick to the old ways that have worked (or at least kept
heads above water) and hope it all goes away? It all depends on how you answered the question of “How long do you want to be in business?”  My brash prediction is that companies, large and small, who do not undergo an extreme
makeover, driven by the fanatical passion of its leaders, will cease to exist, sooner or later within the 21st century. For context to my position please see our perfect storm analogy.

As we enter this new era of turbulent upheaval, it’s a prudent tactic to take some time and study those organizations
that have weathered and prospered from these storms of change time and time again—a truly fascinating  and timely study.  I would love to hear the opinions of others on this topic, here’s my invitation:

1. Pick a company from this list of oldest companies from Wikipedia, or another that you’re aware
   of. Let’s say one that’s been in business at least 50 years.
2. Share your insight on why this company is still around.
3. Have your article posted on this blog with credits and links to you.

If you haven’t decided whether the buzz over developing new media promotion tools, like blogs, RSS, and Podcasts is hype or reality; it’s time to come out of denial. It’s a brand new business world out there and as Warren Buffet might say, “It’s time to get some skin in the game!”

It’ not bad news though! The Internet has finally evolved to a place where unambiguous success can be achieved by those who recognize the opportunity and make a die-hard commitment to develop a radically different outlook on business, and really, on life in general.

I hate to state the obvious, but just in case we’ve got some readers who have missed what the Internet has already done to the business landscape, here are some quick facts from a Google query:

>>Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that 47.3 million North American households have online access and 43.9 percent have browsed online. Of the 43.9 percent, 65 percent have made purchases.

>>Time-starved consumers are regularly going to the Internet first to determine which local service company to patronize.

>>Consumers are rapidly becoming more comfortable using credit and bank cards to make purchases from security-backed virtual retailers.

>>Large corporations and governments have already mandated the use of online transactions to their downstream vendors.

But remember, that’s history now

These early years of the 21st century are radically different than the “old” Internet described above. The one where people became comfortable with the stability, security, and general trustworthiness of receiving information making purchases. We have just entered a brand new era, one that is especially historic for business. Why?  Because for the
first time in the industrialized world technology has aligned in a “perfect storm” with the marketing concept—the concept that businesses should make all decisions based on the needs of their customers. It’s always been great
concept, from when Adam Smith first wrote about it in 1776, but never realized in a macro market. Today we
have the tools to make the marketing concept a achievable reality on a broad scale.

Businesses driven by real-time communication with customers (i.e. the Marketing Concept) create an almost Utopian scenario—the customer’s needs are best met, the business is optimized for profitability and growth, and society benefits from a net gain in opportunity from the customer and investment profit from the business.

It’s the realization of a true free market economy in which the consumer has the most direct influence over the management of businesses, institutions, and organizations. It’s a radical new order within society where a business’ best customers can become its best salespeople. Adam Smith would be proud.

Customer Evangelism meets New Media

We here at RisingLine believe that the best strategy to achieve the Marketing Concept is customer evangelism. Developing a customer evangelist marketing strategy insures that your business is truly focused on meeting the needs of your customers and maintaining interactive communication with them. Ultimately, customers are so pleased with the
quality of your solution, that they organically become your passionate advocates.

We group the technology used to launch customer evangelism under the term “New Media.” It encompasses ulta-modern Internet technology like blogs, RSS, Podcasts, and content management systems—allowing the Web to become a conduit of real time communication, collaboration, and community—creating the perfect storm of marketing strategy and technology tools.

How do I start?

Funny you should ask, we just happen to be in the business of New Media Marketing…helping clients to gain strategic insight and catch the passion of customer evangelism, then providing them optimized web tools.  So, a great place to start is our website…to to our front page and work you way through:  http://risingline.com. For a great introduction to Customer Evangelism, we’ve posted the Customer Evangelism Manifesto by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. To see some of the New Media technology applications, (Web Edit Content Management, Custom Blogger Blogs, etc) you might like to visit our live demo site and try them out for yourself. To get a feel for the power of RSS we invite you to visit a non-profit site we sponsor, http://freeRSSdisplay.org.

We of course are ready to provide some more personalized insight through a phone call, WebEx, or visit…just let us know how we can help.

I know that many of you have heard my mantra on why advertising is losing effectiveness in our society, but I recently came across a New Yorker article that brought about a new dimension as to why consumers are getting burnt as a result of mass media ads. To be specific, we consumers are the ones paying for the ads we don’t want to see. In fact, a good number of Fortune 500 companies allocate approximately 25% of their budget to advertising. For instance, Proctor and Gamble spent nearly $3,000,000,000 on advertising ~ and that was two years ago. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that those costs are passed along to the consumer. So, when you need to cure that scalp itch with some Head and Shoulders, just remember that a quarter of what you’re paying for goes to pay for commercials you don’t want to hear.

So by now you’re probably asking yourself why this blog is relevant to New Media marketing. Therefore I’ll get to the point … if you’re a marketing professional at your firm, think like a consumer and channel your message so as to communicate in a non-intrusive yet informative manner. In the old days, people would gather at the coffee shop to discuss life as well as business; and within their business discussions, they would give recommendations to their
peers over a friendly conversation. This might have cost the consumer a nickel for a cup of joe, but they actually enjoyed the fresh roast much more than having an obnoxious guy with a beard yelling at them through a screen about how some special soap will remove grape juice stains from their grandmother’s afghan. In other words, as a consumer myself, I don’t mind when a friend passes a recommendation along to me because 1) I enjoy my friend’s company, 2) I know my friend isn’t getting paid to provide this information to me, and 3) I myself am not paying for that information.

Furthermore, today’s coffee shop is virtual and the conversations are taking place, you as a marketer need to engage and infiltrate in order to build your brand from an organic level. For example, Apple is a forward-thinking company
that understands this concept of transparent community, so much so that they are willing to invite criticism of their own products. Recently I visited their site to purchase a new power chord for my PowerBook G4, I was pleasantly surprised to gather information – FREE INFORMATION – that wasn’t filtered by Apple that influenced my purchasing decision. I’d encourage you to visit Apple’s Web store to see for yourself:

In conclusion, this New Media marketing revolution must be looked at as a win-win for both consumers and companies because it is not only reducing the communication channel while increasing intimacy, but it is also reducing costs
for companies and bringing about the opportunity to lower pricing for the consumer. The only downside to this movement is that many advertisers will be looking for new careers in the near future.

Articles of Interest:

The New Pitch, Do ads still work? by Ken Auletta

Advertising Doesn’t Work – Part 2. by Mike Catherall

Fixing the Ad Agency Mess – by Joseph Jaffe