Quality is the best marketing tool

In another post I reported my experience with Ritz Carlton Hotels while when I talked about the 25 components of the DNA of market oriented companies we discovered real "customer obsession" like in  Siebel Systems (CRM company) or in Newman Marcus  (luxury brands retailing) where sales assistants run the company, reporting not to their bosses but directly to their customers.

Every small Hotel, Consultant, Restaurant, café, shop, ... any service related company needs to make the personal experience its major differentiator to create satisfied, loyal customers, evangelists.

In tourism, big chains like Four Seasons or Amandari are able to create this feeling in any resort they manage; Singapore Airline, the best airline in the world but also Jet Blue and Southwestern Airlines are doing pretty good in this sense.


Apple is not an exception: on one side it is a closed, gated, high walled environment, managed by the most arrogant CEO in the world, but since Jobs return they offered great experiences and insanely great quality in whatever they touched. Quality is its culture. Quality is its brand.

Starbucks Coffee created a huge chain of smiling barista crews: "latte" was unknown everywhere but in Italy and Europe and they added quality and personal touch.

There is no further marketing tool as quality to satisfy customers and make them come back.

Do what you love

If you are afraid to start up something, it means you have no real passion for it. When you have the luck to know what you really love, you must do it:  play violin, a professional sport, cooking, ... or starting up a company to make a meaning, solve something that is wrong, changing the part of the world you do not like.

The reward is doing what makes you really happy; the risk is failing while learning and doing what you most like, if you have this luck, to know what you really love.

Steve Jobs in his famous speech at Stanford reminded us we all will die one day, thus any other risk is minimum against this certainty: nobody will escape this fate.

Thus, failing, making the ridicoulos in a public performance, bankrupting your start up, ... are all minor things versus our sure death: failing is the best that can happen to you, sometimes.

There is a famous spot by Nike where Michael Jordan, probably the best basket ball player in history, reports how many free shots he missed, how many points he failed, over and over again: this is why he succeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc

Life is too short to spend it in doubting: if you have a passion, just do it: what is the worst thing that can happen to you? Is this (low) probability worst than sure death?

You are marvellous, your life is marvellous: please do not spare it in a job you do not like, in a life it is not yours but somebody else's.

The contrary of "excellent" is not "bad", it is "very good"

The contrary of “excellent” is not “bad”: its contrary is “very good”.

This is the mantra of my division when I was in charge of the International business of Amper. We were all obsessed about performing a great service to our customers, the only thing we had to really differentiate us in a world of tech products and engineers.

We were different. We thought differently even before listening to this great spot of Apple.

We delivered “insanely great products and services” before reading Steve Jobs biography.

This allowed us, a tiny company from a small country in the tech business to win the most important contract in the payphone world in Australia.

I remember one business retreat at the Ritz Carlton: when I explained to the Hotel manager I wanted to start up a workshop for my people (Phds, engineers, phisics, …) given by their waiters, porters, room managers and assistants, he thought I was crazy.

I loved their approach of listening to each customer, collecting her/his preferences and reproducing them in every Ritz Carlton they would visit later. I loved this concept of seeing a customer as part of our tribe, of our family, globally. Thus when you enter your room in a Ritz in Rome, Paris, New York, … you find your preferite flowers, your pillow is sinthetic because they know you are allergic to duck feathers, they serve you green tee by default because they know you do not like coffee, …

They make you feel at home: only somebody who loves you remember you do not like tomatoes or you prefer your beef almost row: your mother, your sister, your fiancé, your granma, … and at the Ritz.

I married my wife on July 25th, 1997 at 12:00: all my customers were invited and knew it but the Australians could not come.

At 11:55 I received a call on my mobile phone: I was entering the church but I picked up the handset for “a customer with a problem” was my priority then; she was Janet Sayer, Australian Telstra payphone CEO. She said she just won a dinner with her boss for she bet that my mobile phone would be on even during my wedding ceremony. Then she said: “Antonio, please swithch off the mobile now or pass me through the priest in order not to marry a crazy guy like you with this poor girl”.

That was my compromise: I was happy to serve my customers. I considered a privilege and an honour to do that.
In our house in Madrid we had two spare bedrooms for hosting my customers when they visited Madrid (now they are my kids rooms). I cooked for them with pleasure, fixed a lot of problems and I considered them as partners: a sale was not good until it was good for my customers.

It does not really matter if your business is small or big: your company, your brand importance will be proportional to how big are your promises, the ones you respect and deliver, even though you have to loose some money sometimes.

The Chinese say:” If you can not smile, why are you opening a shop?”

Thailand

I lived in Asia few years and we opened a subsidiary of my company in Bangkok: one day the CTO went to see me almost crying; he said to me he loved me, the company, his job, ... but he wanted to use his right to be on leave (for up to 7 years) to become a monk.

I was furious and delighted at once: then in Italy you had to make military service for at least one year: in Thailand companies had to respect their employees wish to meditate and live like a monk for up to 7 seven years, while keeping their jobs for them ....

In another occasion I went to Bangkok from Jakarta to buy antiques with Sergio, an Argentinian diplomat: we found a beautiful, 16th century, human size wooden Budda and Sergio bought it immediately.

At the airport he refused to send his Budda as a wallet and we moved to the check in: we were flying Thai Airlines; the officers did not know what to do for it was impossible to pass the Budda through the scanner machines.

Sergio asked for to talk with the captain of our flight: after negotiations, the captain asked for his assistant if there were available seats on the plane and when he knew there was a first class seat available, he said: "Please bring the Budda on board, seat him and fasten his seat belts: he will protect our flight".

So we came back to Jakarta in our couch seats while our beautiful Budda made his trip in first class, enjoying the legendary great service of Thai hostesses. I love this country.

I will never forget that experience: I thought what would have happened if I would have bought an old cross and flying to Rome with Alitalia instead, ...

Picture by Dennis Jarvis

Matar a los intermediarios

Una queridisima ex-alumna que trabaja en el emundo del entertainment me envió ayer un enlace a esta charla en el TEDxRiodelaplata que se hizo en Argentina el 1 de Noviembre de 2011.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VEYn3bXz34

Hernan Casciari, escritor bohemio, hincha del Racing y Catalan de adopción por amor, cuenta su historia desde que en 2001 montó un blog por soledad que llamó "ORSAI", fuera de juego, al sentirse así entonces: escribía pequeños cuentos, relatos vivenciales que llenaron su blog de seguidores y evangelistas.

Debido al éxito, la industria editorial le contrató para ofrecerle una colaboración profesional: libros, columnas en periódicos, etc. a cambio tenía que dejar el blog para poder vender en el mercado lo que hasta ahora se regalaba. Hernán dejó su blog para dedicarse a ser autor de pago.

Por razones comerciales, sus libros se editaban sólo en España, México y Argentina al no ser negocio hacerlo en Centro América, Bolivia o Paraguay (donde él si tenía lectores y fans).

Las Editoriales y el Periódico (los más grandes del mundo en Castellano) le pagaban a él el 8% del valor  de venta mientras el distribuidor se llevaba el 50%; además le robaban, pagándole derechos sobre una fracción de lo vendido, al no tener acceso a las cifras de ventas reales.

Hasta que un día, arrepentido por su decisión mercenaria, ofendido por la explotación sin escrúpulos de los dueños de la cultura escrita, públicamente "les mandó a cagar", volvió a abrir su blog y a tener un contacto directo con sus lectores, utilizando el crowdsourcing para buscar financiación y apoyos que le han llevado a publicar una revista sin publicidad, ORSAI, donde escriben y diseñan grandes autores, desde el pequeño pueblo de Cataluña donde vive y que sus propios lectores distribuyen en todo el mundo; la revista es trimestral pero esperan hacerla bimestral: 6 ediciones al año, 100 gramos de literatura pura, sin publicidad e intereses interpuestos, SIN INTERMEDIARIOS.

La revista se vende por el precio de 15 periódicos en la zona de destino, desde los 16 euros a los 8 dólares,pero AL MISMO TIEMPO también se publica un contenido en pdf en el blog, para aquellos que no quieren o pueden pagarlo.

La revista y el blog quieren ser una editorial: necesitan 5,000 suscriptores de pago para montarla (tienen ya 2,831) y tienen 10.000 seguidores en Facebook.

http://editorialorsai.com/

Lo mas curioso es que para facilitar la distribución de la revista los propios evangelistas de la marca están en contacto y esto ha dado pie a crear un bar en Buenos Aires, ORSAI, lugar de tertulia y vino, también financiado por los propios lectores (un loco ofreció 80,000 dólares para el proyecto, otros pintarlo gratis, ..) y han decidido crear otro bar en Barcelona y otro en México, para triangular cultura hispana, volviendo quizás a las experiencias literarias que hicieron famosos al Café Gijon en Madrid, un slow-drink con Neruda, Márquez y Vargas Llosa.

La historia de Hernán es la historia de todos los creadores que hoy dudan si apoyar al mundo de los "derecho de autor",  la ortodoxia que le da algo de comer, a sabiendas que les explotan y roban, o echarse al monte y luchar contra las SOPAs y todas las Leyes SINDE del mundo, entre lo malo conocido y lo bueno por conocer.

Por un lado autores mediocres, famosos pero con las pilas creativas ya descargadas y que no entienden el nuevo mundo digital, tienen todo el interés del mundo en apoyar el "statu quo", cobrando sin ruborizarse dinero que deriva no de sus creaciones, sino de las tasas impuestas sobre los medios informáticos vírgenes (CDs, pen drives, etc.) que recauda una empresa siniestra como la SGAE, con al frente personajes rancios como Batista, con un pie en la cárcel.

Hernán ha demostrado que publicar en pdf el contenido digital de su revista no sólo no quita ventas a sus revistas, sino las aumenta, por el efecto viral; ha entendido que la gente que descarga gratis la revista nunca se la compraría y por lo tanto no le quita nada al autor, haciendo al mismo tiempo un mundo mejor y más culto para todos.

Naturalmente es mucho más fácil empezar nuevos caminos cuando eres un desconocido que cuando eres famoso, al no tener nada que perder, pero sospecho que cada día más autores de verdad seguirán el ejemplo de Hernán y de Alex de la Iglesia: confieso que hasta ahora no había visto ninguna de sus películas pero al ver su ejemplo, las he comprado todas.

Cork Marcheschi

Cork Marcheschi es un gran escultor de la luz: Californiano de la banda de Andy Wharol: le conocí este verano en San Francisco y tuve el privilegio de visitar su estudio en la playa de Pacifica. 


Me enamoré de sus obras y adquirí unos "bowls" encendidos que cambian de luz cuando se tocan y tienen en su fondo unas piedras (en efecto son leds) que se iluminan al tocarlas, al cerrar el circuito eléctrico. 


El efecto es mágico y la sensación en los dedos increíble. Para mi representan el "Fuego" del hogar de los antiguos romanos, trasladado al siglo XXI.

Cork es profesor en Berkeley, tiene obras en todo el mundo (lugares públicos, museos, colecciones privadas, ...) y es una gran persona: le encanta cocinar el "Timballo" (una pasta Italiana complicada y pesadísima) y tuvimos una charlas increíbles en su casa de Potrero Hill.

Pongo mis obras (las bowls) a disposición de Instituciones y Fundaciones que quieran hospedarlas para compartirlas con su público.

Os adjunto su página web donde "pasan" sus obras públicas http://www.corkmarcheschi.com, unas fotos de sus creaciones (las bowls son las de la ultima foto)  y un link a mi canal de Youtube para ver un video con las 4 bowls encendidas.

Marketing for non profits (NPO)

Marketing is an unfamiliar concept for many nonprofit organizations.

It's important these organizations understand that marketing is more than just the old sense of making a sale or obtaining a donation. 

Marketing is a way to satisfying the consumer and donor needs, but where does the nonprofit organization start?

Below are eight steps that will get you started in brainstorming marketing ideas that could make a significant difference in the bottom-line of your organization.

1. Define your target market, research similar organizations and associations.

2. Determine the desired outcome of your marketing efforts.

3. Using the information gathered in Step 1 and 2 develop brochures and marketing materials that describe the benefits, services, donation opportunities, and values of your organization.

4. Develop a social media marketing strategy. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook can provide you with ways to reach out to those interested in your organization in a low cost and effective way. Social media works great when it comes to reaching those who are passionate about causes that individuals hold dear to their hearts.

5. Develop and maintain a professional internet marketing presence by creating a web site. You can use a web site as a great resource to display useful information, news, monthly newsletters, events, create community, share alternatives to donating money, and showcase the benefits of your organization.

6. Research and maintain your prospect and customer databases. Do not let these resources be wasted. Use them for special mailings, follow-up telephone calls, event invitations, alliance development, research profiling, and market segmentation.

7. Show and advertise the results and objectives that your organization achieves. You fill find that it is effective to showcase those that are receiving benefits, inversions, activities, and projects.

8. Always actively search for alliances with other organizations, commerce, government, advertising media, and business. This step alone often brings the most benefit to nonprofit organizations.

USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR NPO BRANDING

It is no surprise that in a recent study, it was shown that nonprofit organizations have been setting the pace for the use of social media in marketing since 2007.

Social media is a cost-effective option for Nonprofit organizations to market themselves without needing an exorbitant amount of funding.

The report showed that nonprofits were leading both corporations and universities in the use of social media tools, while they were more familiar with the tools and were using them significantly more often.

Nonprofits had even delved into monitoring attitudes of others with regard to the use of social mediums, which is light years ahead of even some fairly large-sized businesses.

An updated study showed that even today 89% of charitable organizations are using some form of social media in their marketing.

This includes the use of blogging, podcasting, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis. If this research isn't enough to convince you that social media is a viable tool for your nonprofit organization, consider that 45% of these organizations stated that social media played a very important role in their fundraising strategy.

Why does social media work for Nonprofit organizations?

Stakeholders take an interest in causes that relate to them and social mediums create an overall integrated experience with those very same stakeholders.

Additionally, social mediums enable nonprofit organizations to create relationships and engage with their constituents. This allows them to nurture their online communities which, in fact creates, a viral marketing affect with little or no effort. 

Moreover, the costs associated with this marketing effort are often less expensive with better return-on-investment than traditional marketing efforts.

The realm of social media helps equip individuals with an outlet and tool to help in growing their own nonprofit organizations, as well as enabling individuals who have a specific interest in a charitable organization and who want to share it broadly.

Social mediums provide a central place for nonprofits organizations to collaborate and connect. And, as touched on earlier, they help Nonprofits gain feedback from constituents and stakeholders in the organization.

As a nonprofit organization it's important to take the proper steps when delving into social mediums but, as you can see it, has proven to be beneficial to many organizations just like yours.

How can you get started in the social media marketing of your nonprofit organization?

It's important when entering into social media that if you decide to do it internally you'll want to create a social media policy and a marketing plan that uphold the core principles of your organization. Your policy and strategy plan should include the following:

1. Who will be your spokesperson and the voice of your organization?

2. Will the voice of that spokesperson be personal or professional - what does that split look like?

3. Who will be in charge of responding to conversation and social media buzz that is created?

4. Who will be monitoring the social media effects?

5. What, if any, monitoring tools will you or should you use?

6. How will you protect the brand of your organization?

7. Which vehicles in social media will you use? Your choices include blogging, podcasting, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis.

This will get you started in creating your policy as well as your strategy.

The worst thing that could happen is that you start a social media marketing campaign, but do not interact or engage with constituents and stakeholders.

Finally please find attached a BLOG DEDICATED TO NPO MARKETING by Jocelyn Harmon as a reference.