Horizons - Mezzanine Consulting

The Taste in My Mouth

LAndrew
August 27th, 2008

The other day I received an email from a colleague, telling me about a new and interesting social/networking group starting up. It sounded great:

MEMBERSHIP IS FREE!

Become a Member and ACCESS:

Outstanding contemporary theatre

Senior leaders

New social circles

Leadership opportunities

Exciting and unique events!

“Wow” I thought to myself,” this sounds fantastic – I love the arts, I love meeting new people – sign me up!”

So I went through the process, gave a bunch of my information and submitted my form online, only then to be taken to a page where it tells me that members of this new group are expected to make a minimum “donation” of $75 per year.

Now, you’re probably thinking, $75 per year, what’s the big deal? Don’t get me wrong, I know that arts groups need support and need to fundraise and that $75 isn’t a ton, but it’s all about how the message was delivered. On the email message I received, this opportunity was touted as FREE in big bold letters. Getting the “true” message after the sign up felt a bit sneaky, and I didn’t like the taste it left in my mouth.

When building your next marketing campaign, don’t forget to think beyond the initial impression but also to the lasting feeling you will leave with your target audience.

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How Do You Put a Price on Inspiration?

Lisa Shepherd
August 24th, 2008

I was listening to the CBC wrap-up of Olympics coverage this afternoon. The topic was along the lines of “Is our investment in the Olympics worth it”. Apparently Canada spends about $22M on supporting athletes for the Olympics. I didn’t catch if that was for summer sports, winter sports, or both. But I was amazed that there were a few people who called in to say they feel it’s a waste of money. All I could think was that $22M is a pittance. The government wastes many more millions on far lesser programs. And how can we quantify the value of the inspiration that the Olympics provides? If watching athletes - Canadian or other - inspires anyone in the country to aim high, keep working hard on their trade, and be proud of what they accomplish, then surely that investment yields an incredibly healthy ROI.

This fits with marketing when it comes to the idea of ‘creative’. We often preach about the importance of measurement in marketing, because far too many dollars are wasted on tactics and techniques that don’t provide meaningful results. But we have to be cautious when it comes to our ‘measurement, measurement, measurement’ mantra - because sometimes it’s hard to measure or put a value on a great idea that separates a company from its competitors. Just like it’s hard to put a price on the value the Olympics provides to Canadians.

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Tags: Inspiration, marketing measurement, Olympics
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There Is Such A Thing As Communicating Too Much

Lisa Shepherd
August 24th, 2008

Business gurus love to espouse there’s no such thing as over communicating with your customers. I know lots of companies really fail the ‘communications’ test, but I disagree that you can’t overcommunicate. And I just experienced it the hard way.

I was on a 6am flight from Calgary to Toronto. With the one hour pre-departure check-in requirement and the 30-minute drive to the airport, that meant a 4am wake-up call for me and most of the other passengers.

By the time we were all joyfully boarded onto the aluminum tube at 0545, all that anyone wanted to do was to try and get back to sleep. You could see it on people’s faces - please, please, just let me get some more sleep. So when the pilot and the in-flight director made something like 6 public announcements about the wonderful crew we had on board, our planned cruising altidude, the weather in Toronto, the safety features of the aircraft, and on and on, in both English and French, it was too much.

The airlines can take a page from their marketing teams and communicate with passengers in a way that is effective for them, when it’s effective for them. Can’t they use those cool new in-chair TV sceens to communicate the details to us - in silence - before take-off, especially if it happens to be before a civil hour, say 8am? And can’t all the details about the flight, like the weather at our destination, be left for later in the flight when we’ll be cogent enough to care?

Communicating with customers is vital. But let’s start with an understanding of what customers want to know, what they need to know, and - critically - when. If it’s extraneous information and it’s 6am, skip it.