After Midnight.
Patsy Cline goes walking. Eric Clapton lets it all hang out. And retailers turn out the lights and lock the doors. Or at least they used to.
In the new internet-based, global economy it makes sense to be open 24/7. Your customers are getting used the the "always there" nature of the internet. Who among us hasn't, at least once,browsed the virtual aisles of Amazon or Macy's at 2 am?
But it is not just on the internet. More and more bricks and mortar establishments, including fast food restaurants and big box discount retailers are staying open 24/7. They are realizing that we are no longer a 9 to 5 economy.
There are many reasons for this. Fewer and fewer jobs are the types that you can "punch out" at a certain time and head home. Work hours are getting longer (the average work day is 8.7 hours long according to some sources) and commutes to and from work are getting longer (26 miles each way is the average work commute in the US.) More families have both parents working at least one job. That means that people are looking for the convenience of a quick dinner or the ability to do their personal shopping when it is convenient to them.
Successful businesses are open when their customers are looking for them. More often than not that is after midnight.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Could I have a few moments of your time?
The other evening, I got a call asking me to participate in a survey. As I am a marketer and a communicator, I know the value survey feedback can provide and I am usually an easy mark when it comes to surveys. I agreed after being told that the survey would only take "a few minutes." 15 minutes into the survey, with no signs of things slowing down, I was reminded of how a recent AP article reported that people are getting tired of being asked for feedback. The article indicated that people in general are feeling fatigue when it comes to surveys.
Undoubtedly it is a good thing to ask your customers and other stakeholders for their input. Without question, a company should consider customer feedback when evaluating new or changing product features. And it is so easy these days! Google the phrase "free survey tools" and you will get pages of options that let you send out quick little electronic surveys that look good and automatically tabulate the results for you. You can generate charts and graphs of the results in seconds. It is a beautiful thing!
Nevertheless, cheap and easy survey capabilities may actually be doing marketers a disservice. When it costs thousands of dollars to even think about doing a survey, those hosting a survey have to carefully consider the questions they are asking and the value of the answers that they will get back. Questions that yield answers that are not actionable are (usually) eliminated. Redundant questions are culled. Heck, some companies even pre-test their surveys! Companies who pay to have their surveys done professionally have a financial incentive to make sure their surveys were tight and targeted and purposeful.
With the preponderance of cheap and easy to implement survey tools (Survey Monkey I'm talking about you!) it has been too easy to just dash off a quick survey without giving a lot of thought as to what the question is really asking, or what the results of the question will provide as far as usable and actionable data. This means not only do we get approached to take more surveys on the computer or the phone, but the surveys themselves are more and more frequently confusing, inane, highly biased or just plain no fun to take!
So, if you are a marketer who is surveying your audience, my advice is to act as if you are paying thousands of dollars to have each question asked. If you aren't going to get at least thousands of dollars of value from the answers, don't ask the question.
You might also like:Newspaper Survey
Undoubtedly it is a good thing to ask your customers and other stakeholders for their input. Without question, a company should consider customer feedback when evaluating new or changing product features. And it is so easy these days! Google the phrase "free survey tools" and you will get pages of options that let you send out quick little electronic surveys that look good and automatically tabulate the results for you. You can generate charts and graphs of the results in seconds. It is a beautiful thing!
Nevertheless, cheap and easy survey capabilities may actually be doing marketers a disservice. When it costs thousands of dollars to even think about doing a survey, those hosting a survey have to carefully consider the questions they are asking and the value of the answers that they will get back. Questions that yield answers that are not actionable are (usually) eliminated. Redundant questions are culled. Heck, some companies even pre-test their surveys! Companies who pay to have their surveys done professionally have a financial incentive to make sure their surveys were tight and targeted and purposeful.
With the preponderance of cheap and easy to implement survey tools (Survey Monkey I'm talking about you!) it has been too easy to just dash off a quick survey without giving a lot of thought as to what the question is really asking, or what the results of the question will provide as far as usable and actionable data. This means not only do we get approached to take more surveys on the computer or the phone, but the surveys themselves are more and more frequently confusing, inane, highly biased or just plain no fun to take!
So, if you are a marketer who is surveying your audience, my advice is to act as if you are paying thousands of dollars to have each question asked. If you aren't going to get at least thousands of dollars of value from the answers, don't ask the question.
You might also like:Newspaper Survey
Friday, March 2, 2012
Good Cheap or Fast
There is an old saying that I first heard from a printer. "You can have the project good, cheap or fast, pick two."
I wonder, with technology today making collaboration and delivery faster and cheaper, can we finally get all three?
I wonder, with technology today making collaboration and delivery faster and cheaper, can we finally get all three?
Monday, December 12, 2011
Quitting
I am reading Seth Godin's The Dip right now and finding the simple little book is really quite nerve-rattling and disturbing. I think that it is because it speaks such truth! In the 40 pages I have read so far (about half of the book) he has me rethinking a lot of the truths I held self-evident up to this point! I encourage you to check it out. I am attaching a link to the blog that discusses the concepts of the Dip. I will write more on this soon!
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Put a Stamp On It
So let me get this straight.
The Postmaster General told Congress that the Post Office is losing revenue because more and more people are using email instead of first class mail.
So his solution out of this crisis is to slow down the mail, and take away a delivery day. In other words, the Postmaster General's answer to the lure of email, is to make first class mail even LESS desirable to use.
Are you kidding me?
The Postmaster General told Congress that the Post Office is losing revenue because more and more people are using email instead of first class mail.
So his solution out of this crisis is to slow down the mail, and take away a delivery day. In other words, the Postmaster General's answer to the lure of email, is to make first class mail even LESS desirable to use.
Are you kidding me?
The Dragnet Approach
A while back, when I worked at an ad agency, a client told me one day that he wanted an ad that didn't sound like an ad. Actually, I think that is what most clients want from their ad agencies, but this guy was the first one to express it so succinctly to me.
There is a very simple strategy to writing an ad that doesn't read like an ad, a sales pitch that doesn't sound like a sales pitch, an excuse that doesn't sound like an excuse. Tell the truth. A colleague of mine used to call this the Dragnet Approach. Just the facts, ma'am.
The truth, told in a straightforward and direct manner, will resonate with the reader or the listener. More advertisers don't use the Dragnet approach because it is harder. In the short term.
There is a very simple strategy to writing an ad that doesn't read like an ad, a sales pitch that doesn't sound like a sales pitch, an excuse that doesn't sound like an excuse. Tell the truth. A colleague of mine used to call this the Dragnet Approach. Just the facts, ma'am.
The truth, told in a straightforward and direct manner, will resonate with the reader or the listener. More advertisers don't use the Dragnet approach because it is harder. In the short term.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Words Matter
"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." -- Rudyard Kipling
Words matter. The world is full of anonymous geniuses who didn't have the words to express their brilliance. The difference between a great leader and a manager is not much more than the ability to generate and excite followers through the right words delivered in a skillful, emotional way.
Pay attention to what you say and write, because the words you use determines what people think of you. Pay attention to how you say it, because the delivery of your words is how people remember you!
Words matter. The world is full of anonymous geniuses who didn't have the words to express their brilliance. The difference between a great leader and a manager is not much more than the ability to generate and excite followers through the right words delivered in a skillful, emotional way.
Pay attention to what you say and write, because the words you use determines what people think of you. Pay attention to how you say it, because the delivery of your words is how people remember you!
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