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Delivering value in the Information Age

Customers have changed.

In the past, sales reps would be tasked with “solution selling“—i.e. being adept at discovering customers’ needs and selling them solutions to those problems. In other words, the sales rep would ask the customer questions to diagnose their problem (need diagnosis) and would “sell” them a product that their company produces which provides a solution to the customer’s problem (need fulfilment).

But in recent times, customers require less help from salespeople to find solutions to their problems. This is likely because:

  1. the wealth of information available to customers has multiplied exponentially;
  2. the access to such information has become ubiquitous [in Western nations] (predominantly due to the internet); and
  3. customers have become increasingly dexterous at researching, curating and analysing information.

The result of these developments is that customers are able to self-diagnose problems and research solutions themselves.

Why does this matter?

Continue reading “Delivering value in the Information Age”

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A message for anyone who’s ever read this blog

Okay, so I’m one day late on the anniversary of my blog. Deal.

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It was merely 6 months ago that I purchased the domain http://whoisadamjaffrey.com/ and posted my 1st blog post. Way back on December 7th, 2009 I posted the goal of my blog, being:

My Goal:

To provide a current, relevant and interesting analysis of Marketing, Entrepreneurial, Technological & Current Affairs topics.

To do this I will keep posts to a minimal length, and only write about thought provoking topics. These will generally be inspired by other blogs, podcasts & my own observations.

I believe that 6 months (and 24 blog posts) later I’ve made many inroads into this. However, I still need to work on keeping my”posts to a minimal length“!

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So, on the 6 month anniversary of Who Is Adam Jaffrey?, I wanted to say a massive thank you to those who’ve ever read my blog; and an even bigger thank you to those who’ve commented and provided feedback. As a young blogger, it’s not easy to continue to pump out regular, insightful (well, I think) content when you don’t know who/if anyone is reading!

Please, leave a comment here to let me know who you are, why you read my blog and any feedback you have.

And please, subscribe via email or RSS!

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What I learned about Marketing whilst skydiving

Nothing.

But, it was bloody amazing! Freefalling from 14,000 feet is the most incredible thing you can experience.

Here are a couple of photos:



(Here’s some link love to the guys at Skydive Nagambie who ROCK!)

Although, I did have a minorly Marketing/Advertising related thought:

Red Bull should do an advertisement containing someone drinking a can of Red Bull whilst in freefall. It matches their brand image (i.e. “Red Bull gives you wings”, etc.), and would look extraordinary! I envision the can beneath the skydiver (held by them, someone else or shots of a combination of both) and they drink the stream of liquid as the wind catches it & it flies upward into their mouth.

Do it like this (watch what happens when the third guy grabs the bottle towards the end of the video):

NOT like this:

And a note to Red Bull GmbH: I’d like a nice compensation plan for my magnificent ad suggestion. I can be contacted via email.

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Manufacturing a ST★R

A somewhat cynical analysis of our emerging young stars:

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How music labels manufacture a ST★R.

Follow these six simple steps:

  1. Find a confident sixteen y.o. boy.
  2. Give them this hair-cut.
  3. Write a catchy pop tune for them to sing thousands of times.
  4. Market the shit out of them to ten-sixteen y.o. girls.
  5. Sell a but-load of merchandise (since no-one pays for music any more).
  6. Count your cash.
Don’t forget to drop them when the cash trail runs dry. They’ll eventually be forgotten and join the halls of one-hit-wonders.
It worked for these once-stars (remember them?):
Zac Efron (formerly associated with the Walt Disney Company)
And more recently, introducing:
But hey, I’m sure it’s good while it lasts. I expect it pays very well, in fact probably more than anyone I know will ever earn!

Thoughts?

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Update: I had to alter some of the text in this post as it was giving me SEO ranks for unwanted keywords…

Update 2: For a much more insightful analysis of why Justin Bieber has been successful check out Why you need to be following Justin Bieber by Julian Cole.

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Wolfram|Alpha finds the answer

Wolfram|Alpha is a mathematical computational knowledge engine. Instead of searching the web and returning links like a conventional search engine, it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base and publicly available data then expresses it in a structured and intuitive manner. It really is quite amazing. Make sure you check out the introductory video, it’s something you do not want to miss!

Back in 2009, Wolfram tested their mobile optimised website as a trial for their iPhone App. Upon the release of the iPhone App shortly thereafter, they pulled the mobile website from free use and were controversially charging in excess of $50 for the Wolfram|Alpha iPhone App! This staggering price was clearly not a successful strategy and failed dismally.

However, over the past few days Wolfram has re-evaluated their strategy and decided to drop the price of their iPhone App. The price drop comes as Wolfram release their new iPad formatted App which comes at the same low price. Also, the mobile website is back!

The announcement comes as Wolfram is uncharacteristically offering to refund the cost of the App to customers who are unhappy with their original purchase. It’s not unusual for companies to amend their pricing strategies, however it is odd for one to offer refunds to customers who paid the high release price. Visit http://www.wolframalpha.com/iwantmymoneyback/ to claim the refund.

Commentary: Kudos to Wolfram for acknowledging their fault and fixing the problem. This is a great way to rebuild broken customer relationships, and gain new ones (I bought the discounted App!). Toyota could take a leaf out of the Wolfram|Alpha book next time to avoid their PR nightmare!

Check out Wolfram|Alpha at http://www.wolframalpha.com/ or try the search box below:

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Coca-Cola gets a GRIP on marketing

Recently in Australia, the Coca-Cola Company has launched its new ‘Contour Grip bottle’ which has already been rolled out across the world. Looking beyond Coca-Cola’s useless claim of being more environmentally friendly by reducing the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in their bottles by 5% compared to the previous design[1] (5% is hardly a commitment to sustainability), I do think that Coca-Cola is onto something here.

There are two reasons why this is a great innovation:

1. The new contour design of the bottle gives the impression that the new bottle contains more liquid.

Sure, consumers are not idiots and realise that it’s still a 600mL bottle as it always has been. However, one of the reasons Coca-Cola gained such a massive market share many years ago was from the visual illusion their contour bottle provided in their original design, released back in 1916[2].

2. I realised that when I used to hold a bottle of Coke, I used to hold it around the neck and/or label. By creating a section to ‘grip’, it essentially forces customers to grip the bottle in that section, and leave the label (i.e. brand advertising) freely unobstructed to the view of onlookers.

I don’t know whether these were two ideas Coca-Cola considered when developing the new design, but well done nonetheless.

______________________________
References:
[1] The Coca-Cola Company. (4 September, 2007). News Release: GET A GRIP ON THE NEW COCA-COLA CONTOUR BOTTLE. Retrieved 21 March, 2010, from The Coca-Cola Company: Press Centre: Press Releases: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/nr_20070904_ccna_grip_bottles.html
[2] The Coca-Cola Company. (26 March, 2008). Get a Grip. Retrieved 21 March, 2010, from Coca-Cola Conversations: http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/my_weblog/2008/03/get-a-grip-1.html

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A few points on contact centres

Firstly, don’t get me started on Indian Call Centres. I find them to be less helpful than the automated voice recognition programs you encounter after being on hold for half an hour to companies which claim to hold their “customers service” as their number 1 priority. Bull-shit!

Furthermore, these are companies which, in many cases, manage telecommunications as their primary form of business – talk about the irony!

However, this post is not simply just a rant of mine.
Please, do read on.

I’m no stranger to call centres. I worked in one for about 2 and a half years. Albeit, I was involved in outbound sales (you know, those annoying calls you get at dinner time wanting you to donate to charity), but the essence of the business and it’s systems remains the same. And I’ve got to say that the big companies in Australia are getting it all wrong.

A Few Points on Contact Centres:

  • Every product or service which you plan to sell needs some sort of support. Nothing is stand-alone perfect. Therefore, you’ll need some sort of support/help/question/customer service line set up for your customers to call. 
  • There is currently a big move towards online support to save costs (for example: F.A.Q. pages). Companies are trying to save employing hundreds of customer service representatives to answer basic questions from their clueless customers. This is a big mistake. Why? The way I see it, having a personal form of contact to the business is imperative. Without a personal contact, customers feel distanced, frustrated, confused and annoyed with your business and your brand. 
  • You also need to have your customer service number easy to find! I recently had great difficulty in finding a phone number to contact Microsoft, which resulted in me being considerably frustrated before even calling with my query. 
  • Encourage your customers to call! The quicker you attend to their problem, the less complaining they’ll do and the more positively they’ll regard your brand. Hell, you might even get some free word of mouth promotion (which is what we all vie for don’t we?)! 

Why Not to Outsource?
Outsourcing is a bad idea to begin with. You may be handing over the responsibility to gain the expertise and equipment of another company, but you’re also handing over control. The is exactly what you don’t want to lose.

When it comes down to it, in the complaints game you want to be quick, efficient and productive. Make the customer happy and lock them in as a loyal buyer.

Indian Contact Centres:
This brings me to the conclusion of my post. A note about Outsourcing.
Outsourcing to India is:

  • the best way to LOSE CONTROL of your contact centre… To ANOTHER COUNTRY! 
  • the best way to PISS OFF customers off because they can’t communicate with you! 
  • in NO WAY fooling Australians that they’re calling another country; even when you train your representatives to use an Aussie accent & use words like “mate”! 
  • NOT a great idea when there is a non-existent customer service culture in India! 

In Conclusion:
The way I see it. Outsourcing your contact centre to India not only irritates customers to the point of leaving you for a competitor (which I did with 3 Mobile, a division of Hutchison Whampoa Limited), but it costs you valuable time, patience and hurts your brand.

Outsourcing to India is a cheaper and more effective method to help your customers fix nothing.
Don’t do it!

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Assistance for Windows customers is Micro-SOFT!

The issue I encountered recently got me less irate than my usual experiences with contact centres, but nonetheless it still prevails worthy of a blog post.

I had a query for Microsoft. You know that little company worth $273.2 billion USD?

For once, I wasn’t calling up to complain. I merely wanted to ask a question about the licensing agreement of Windows 7 as I had specific installation requirements (of which I won’t bore you with the details).

Firstly, it took me a while looking through Microsoft’s maze of a website to find any sort of help on the issue. When I did, I was screened by the F.A.Q. page which was of no use to me. It took some more probing before I could find any scrounge of a phone number to call in Australia. I would’ve thought it’d be much easier to contact Microsoft… Apparently not!

When I called, I was directed though another labyrinth of voice prompts before being redirected to “Kevin”, (of what was a terrible alias name for) a young Indian male with a heavy accent.

After failing to receive any sort of empathy, let alone “customer support” I was transferred to what seemed to be an American contact centre where I spoke to “Angel”. Again, another useless pleb who didn’t know what they were talking about. Angel suggested I search for my problem on the internet (which I had already done, hence the phone call) and directed me to (and I quote):

“w-w-w-dot-bing-dot-com… That’s b-i-n-g.”

Are you serious! What’s wrong with this picture people?!?

This was about the point where I asked Angel:

“Could I could speak to someone with a little more knowledge on the issue who can actually help me?”


That’s when I met Paul. I had been transferred around the world, all the way back to one of Microsoft’s Australian call centres! Why couldn’t I have begun my journey here!?!

Paul was VERY helpful and responded to my query almost immediately.

It just makes me wonder, why do companies make it so difficult for the customer to get help? It’s almost as if they make it as difficult as possible to deter customers from even trying.
Additionally, if you’re simply not committed to “customer service”, don’t make out as if you are. Poor effort from Microsoft who lists “commitment to customers” as one of their company values.

In the future, if you need to contact Microsoft, call 13 20 58 and press 2 then 1. That’ll get you someone who speaks Australian.


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Who is Adam Jaffrey?

Hey bleeps (blogging peeps),

Welcome to my 1st blog post.

My name is Adam Jaffrey (as the URL suggests) and I reside in the suburb of Nunawading, which is in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne VIC, Australia. I’m a Commerce/Science student studying at Monash University in Clayton VIC, Australia. I’m currently planning to pursue my major studies in marketing, which backs up my very strong sales background.

This blog serves as a point of contact to me for potential employers, other marketers, entrepreneurs & the like. That’s why http://whoisadamjaffrey.com seemed an appropriate domain choice.

Before beginning, I’d like to acknowledge a trap of the blogosphere:

Blogging. Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.

Blogging demotivational poster
Image source: http://despair.com/blogging.html

My goal for this blog is:

To provide a current, relevant and interesting analysis of marketing, entrepreneurial, technological & current affairs topics.

To do this I will keep posts to a minimal length, and only write about thought provoking topics. These will generally be inspired by other blogs, podcasts & my own observations.

Feel free to email me any suggestions.

Enjoy!