Kellogg Days

So you want to be social?

sn — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:12:33 +0000

As companies clammer to become “social” there is a certain internal dynamic that they need to recognize and respond to. Companies can only be as social as they are OFF the grid or OFF the Internet. Firms that demonstrate the right touch, sensitivity and sensibilities in ALL customer engagements are the only ones that can truly pull off the value from ‘going social’.

And get this … even IF a company were 123% social + environmentally ‘perfect’ and meets every criteria of every shade of criteria on what constitutes social responsibility, 1 or 2 emotionally guided nay misguided responses can fan a fire of consumer or activist fury that can drown out the Brand.

Check out the recent spat involving Nestle. While I am definitely NOT anywhere close to an expert on the palm oil-kills-orangutan issue, my business sense tells me that Nestle is also struggling with this new media meets marketing channel like many other organizations, large and small. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20000805-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Tweet your way to a solution

sn — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:20:38 +0000

As Twitter has taken the pole position in the social media race, companies are finding themselves increasingly having to respond to one customer at a time – under the public glare of a million, billion or more consumers and onlookers. I can only imagine how the Galdiator like theater must be when a single customer with a legitimate (or not!) grief can literally make or force a large company to not only respond but also resolve their complaint.

Here are my 3 points to ponder for today:

- As much as companies get grief for “bad” customer experiences, do they get enough credit for the “good” ones?

- Is this model of 1:1 response sustainable as larger numbers of consumers go online and Tweet everything from waiting time in queues to episodic chronicles of their product use?

- And finally, are consumers themselves going to find this newly found medium become less effective as more consumers use this channel – i.e. will you be lost in the proverbial “you are the next caller” kind of queue?

All said, the most encouraging element to me in all this debate is how the new medium has also empowered individual employees of these companies to do the right thing … and that can ONLY be a good thing!

IPL Cricket – Youtube missing a $$$ opportunity in the US market

sn — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:54:34 +0000

so it was too good to be true when early reports suggested that Youtube would be live-streaming the 20-20 IPL cricket matches around the world … apparently the United States is not part of the ‘global deal’ and we here are left watching snippets of an already much shortened version of the classic game, wow. so i dug in a little deeper into this mystery of why viewers in the US cannot access the video streams and apparently (from what i could find at least) it boiled down to royalty and revenue sharing issues. well … here is my question to youtube and the IPL team … could you have not provided a pay per view option on youtube?

its funny that as much as social media and P2P content aggregation and distribution sites like youtube fret over the monetizing problem, they seem to miss the golden geese that literally fly into the San Bruno offices. now Google having paid $1.65 B for this asset should surely be smarter than missing a simple business opportunity here – lets see how the math adds up:

1) customers in the US have a willingness to pay for your service,

2) there is a large enough segment that can make a difference,

3) and most importantly you can gain a toehold and establish yourself as a leader in an ethnic niche broadcasting segment – afterall thousands of south asian in the US pay anywhere from $20 to $200 a month just to keep the cultural umblical cord connected …

i recognize this is not a billion $ segment but a region of the world that has hundreds of millions of its people on every country on planet, i would think they ought to think outside the proverbial box … come on google and youtube, you can do better, much better indeed. my back of the napkin math tells me you can get more revenue from this than from virtual gifts, virtual cows*, branded elements and even display ads. now i recognize there are ip, broadcast and a host of other issues but dont tell me that THE leader in online media cannot resolve this with a bunch of law-school grads.

folks @ youtube and google: if you need a soon-t0-be Kellogg MBA to come and give you fresh perspectives and lead the charge on monetizing south asian Web viewership, give me a call … seriously, i want to see IPL ‘live’ and will even pay for this live-streaming web content!

de-accelerate … slow down … end the quarter … with breadsticks at target

sn — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:01:27 +0000

okay … so another quarter just came to an end today … 10 fast-as-usual weeks, packed with new lessons, new team mates and a bucket load of new insights … now its time to do the customary post quarter routine – eat breadsticks at the watertown target, call mb from the store while eating breadsticks and then start talking about what i would do to fill up the next couple saturdays at home … i dont quite recall when or where the target routine started but ever since it did, it has been a nice way to end the quarter … bon appetit …

too big to fail

sn — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:49:27 +0000

a few weeks ago i met andrew ross sorkin, the famous new york times m&a reporter at kellogg. his book ‘too big to fail’ is a treatise for any general manager and especially recommended reading for those in the financial services industry. i have read about half the book and i must say its one of the ‘fastest’ big tomes i have read in a long time .. a gifted writer with a fascinating story and the result is a book you cannot just put down till the last word ..

information asymmetry @ the car dealership

sn — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:38:11 +0000

used car dealers and dealers repair shops probably do not rank on the top of your ‘trusted vendors’ list but today i had an experience that radically redefined my views on how even this category of service providers can win, retain and build trust with their customer base. a case of classical asymmetric information creates an agency problem where the interests of the firm and its customers are totally misaligned …

earlier today my 7 year old German car went into the repair shop for the nth time in the last 12 months and this time i had a low 4-figure bill. just as i reconciled myself post the 7-stages of repair-grief, a trusted consultant at the dealership walked up, said hello, took a quick look at the bill and shook his head. a few minutes later, without a word said he returned with a new bill for a low 3-figure sum – a whopping 30% taken off the bill. a quick word of sincere apology and he walked me to my car … wow. the interesting part is that i could never had figured out the extra $$$ given the multi-page bom and invoice that only another auto technician could decipher let alone read.

if only all car dealers and auto repair shops all resolved the agency problem in this way, firms can only gain from greater trust built with their clients. thank you mr. d for setting a new definition for car-dealer service, you deserve a shout out.

of bubbles, economic cycles et al

sn — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:23:35 +0000

a few weeks ago we had the distinct privilege of listening to prof. sergio rebelo (http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/bio/rebelo.htm) – the tokay bank professor of international finance at the kellogg school of management. i had heard that prof rebelo’s lectures are often packed to the roof and students walk out with a billion lightbulbs lit up in their heads … this was no different. in about 90 minutes he gave us a primer on the recent economic crisis, evaluating the data from various angles including consumer price, home value and other indices … now, here is my question for you … do you buy this New Yorker blurb … I have heard mixed opinions already … do weigh in.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2010/02/this-is-what-a-bubble-looks-like.html

my simple take on voice of the customer – it ain’t binary

sn — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:49:12 +0000

earlier this evening i read an article about how some companies weigh whether the voice of the customers they hear is “true voc” or not. i paused at the mention of the word ‘true’. here is my simple wednesday night take on this – what our customer feels is her ‘true’ voice – there is no binary state of true or false. it is what it is. in fact she perhaps would not even venture to question whether her opinion is true or not. whether a particular customer engagement / experience was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is for the sevice provider to examine through the lens of their operations including the spectrum of acceptable service standards, in-house systems, customer facing capabilities and a myriad other organizational lenses. while the ‘firm’ might very well define what is an acceptable level of service (ex. wait 20 minutes for your checked bag at Logan on a quiet Sunday night) or not, as far as our customer is concerned its not and will never be a binary decision – she has an opinion and it matters. i believe that the sooner firms understand (and remember!) this simple notion of ‘not binary’, the faster they can move towards their timeless goals of customer loyalty, retention, share of wallet growth et al. so while firms may have binary or even gradiated response scales, our customer is always right – whether we believe it or not. so that’s my simple wednesday night take on ‘true voc’ (and no, i am not talking about opinion-stuffing, perception-clouding, noise-inducing or other malafide methods of prolifirating ‘untrue’ voc here)

patent app # 6/6 …

sn — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:39:38 +0000

just reviewing the paper work for patent app #6/6 … wow, what a learning experience this has been …

looking fwd to keep this engine running, onward and beyond to the next challenge now!

FlingBins … new product development

sn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:17:40 +0000

prof. conley’s new product marketing class has been an interesting smorgasbord of intriguing readings, spider webs, 2-d matrices, industry speakers and a truck load of ideas for flingsbins, our client for this quarter. our clients have been very generous with their time and have shared many nuggets from their many decades of cpg marketing experience … i have really enjoyed the challenge our team faced around designing and defining a new product design strategy for a product category as ‘old’ and established as trashcans … i think Joe said it best when he said ‘who knew trash can be so much fun’ … well it sure has been a rich learning experience, and the fact that our clients really liked some of the elements of our overall recommendation at our latest review meeting means that all of our hours of store visits, intercepts, product design debates et al were well worth it … now its time to hit the road and get a sniff test done at the iParty down the street … are you ready Catherine? thanks team, it was great working with y’all and like the starbucks cookie said it … ’twas a lil light, a lil dark but sweet overall … hmm… poetic prose time i guess