Down Und-ha Marketing

Today’s post is being written sometime in the future, 37K feet above the earth over the international waters of the Pacific – alright, the time difference accounts for the “future” crack, I’m obviously in a plane and Tokyo is somewhere below… Sundeep and I are embarking on the second leg of our trip, a 29-hour trek from Bangkok to Columbia, SC.

We are finishing speaking engagements at two Teradata Universe events – Melbourne, Australia and Bangkok, Thailand – where we’ve met tons of great people, seen foreign lands and probably spent more time on a plane than is good for one’s sanity. While abroad we’ve seen a few unique marketing opportunities – the one featured in today’s post is from Optus, a mobile phone provider in Australia. Part of our international routine is to buy a pre-paid SIM card and insert into an unlocked cell, it typically costs a few dollars and completely pays for itself inside of a couple calls. Thankfully, the international cell market is less restrictive than the US, so the Australian number ported over while in Bangkok and the whole while, the folks at Optus were marketing via text message.

After activating the card and receiving a number, the first text message arrived thanking us for the transaction. When switching on in Thailand, there was another message acknowledging the activity and naming their partner (the mobile network provider.) There were text messages when the balance got low, alerts on how to add more funds to the pre-paid card and then another thank you for adding – I even won a free ring tone for the renewal transaction. They delivered a targeted message stream, balancing the medium, action and timing for a customer that they knew very little about (all I needed to activate was a credit card number).

Think about what you can do to balance your marketing mix, odds are you have infinite more data than the guys from Optus have on me. Be sure to check out some of our photos from the trip around the world.

Identity Crisis!

Two weeks ago I was flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco, assigned to seat 7C. When I reached my seat, there was another person sitting there – no big deal I thought, until I saw her ticket, it had my name on it! This female passenger didn’t speak English, she checked in with the ticketing agent using her passport, she checked in a bag under my name and to top it all off – she walked through security without any problems.

My airline is not alone, last year Sharmila got her monthly statement from her favorite airline – it had beautiful offers and her point balance. Two problems, she was thanked for making a trip to Jacksonville (which she never made) and the point balance was associated with another person’s account.

John, another member of our team, closed an account at a bank in Memphis two years ago. He gets an email from his old bank every month with a link to online banking. He obviously can't log in, so he calls the bank, is always put on hold and after about 15 minutes of investigation and is promised that he will be removed from their email list.

Reagan purchased a pair of strappy sandals to wear in a friend’s wedding two years ago from an online shoe store, it’s the only purchase she’s made from them but she’s the lucky recipient of a weekly email offering her men's shoes. Not to be outdone, her favorite coffee company makes “back to school” offers to her, for her college bound children – for those of you who don't know Reagan, she has no children.

My daughter Shivani was subscribed to a children's magazine, the subscription ran out but we kept getting emails. Soon we got a survey, with a thank you piece offering a high point value credit card. This email offer led to an unsubscribe; the unsubscribe put her onto a direct mail list. The direct mail list has resulted in more than five different companies offering her a credit card – she’ll turn 12 in September.

As eMarketers we have the opportunity to sizzle with personalization, yet we see so many bad examples of how it can go bad. A simple suggestion to remedy this is to ask for information and then track the recipient’s activity and preferences. A personalized email can make a very powerful statement, but when it goes bad you loose all credibility with your customer along with the faith of the CSRs who take the complaints.

Until then, I’m still waiting for the airline to explain to me how they let someone else into my seat.

Oh Beatrice

Traveling as much as we do, you look for ways to simplify as much as possible. One of the must haves is the in-car navigation system which we have affectionately named Beatrice. Unfortunately Beatrice was having an off day while we were in Seattle last week – maybe it was the cloud cover… but we couldn’t help but muse about how Beatrice could stand a makeover.

We thought about different accents, throwing in a few colloquialisms and then mused about the ability to personalize with a celebrity voice – imagine getting Beyonce, Carlos Mencia or Ryan Newman to give you turn-by-turn directions (although Ryan would suggest a lot of left turns.) Think about how neat it would be to have a couple city-specific items peppered throughout the trip based on the celebrity’s experience there; it could even keep your attention while on the drive.

Maybe we can’t inspire the company that makes the navigation system, but you could apply the celebrity-touch to your campaigns. Create your own celebrity or expert, your brand champion that promotes your offering consistently throughout all channels. It could be a fabricated persona (i.e. Betty Crocker) or a real person who has developed a following, like PJ Hamel from King Arthur Flour, who was pictured in their last campaign.

Busy Week

Thanks to all of you who participated in our Panel of Peers Workshops – the Yogi and I were part of four this week! We were in Atlanta on Wednesday with John, conducted two specialty workshops with Sharmila in Chicago on Thursday and then made it back home for a POP in Columbia this morning. Check the Panel of Peers site for info on upcoming workshops.

We’ve used our travel time to strategize about next week’s posts… be sure to check in, we’re compiling our eMarketing Bucket Lists for 2008.

NCDM 2007: Creating Interactive Conversations

The Yogi spoke this morning at the National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) conference, focusing on Creating Interactive Conversations. He highlighted a number of our customer’s successes including:

AEG – The Yogi talked about the preference gathering this group does, their tracking that allows them know which types of offers to extend – concerts, sporting events, kid’s shows etc. He even worked in the Spice Girls’ (playing at the Mandalay Bay tonight) song letting attendees know that these techniques help you determine what your customers really, really want.

1154 LILL Studio – Lilly (their chief blogger) will be pleased to know that her blog was on display this morning. He even showcased the Yogi Bag that he uses as a messenger bag and talked about the group’s ability to personalize the creation experience in addition to the bag itself.

Dog.com – Following Lilly’s intro, he moved on to talk about the online community that the folks at Dog.com have formulated (Community.Dog.com). He mentioned their work with blending blogs, videos and dog profiles together for phenomenal success.

King Arthur Flour – The Yogi shared their SweetStakes and survey tactics to help grow your email list, he also referenced their success with F2F (a previous blog post on this site).

Paul Fredrick – He focused on their email collection process, referencing their reasons to sign up and shared their Why Sign Up campaign.

Overstock.com – He talked about their work with segmentation, making offers to the recipient based on click and purchase history. The example shared was for their recent bedding campaign, where recipients received bedding based on bed size.

SmileMakers – The Yogi shared info on how this SC-company arms their call center reps with special campaigns and offers to help grow their list and send callers an instant email – a strategy that has proven very successful for them.

Read more about the Yogi and other NCDM speakers on the NCDM Blog. In the spirit of Vegas, there may even be a chance to win something.

The Yogi's Long Journey

Congratulations to Michelle from Concord, she guessed correctly… we're in London attending ECMOD (European Catalog tradeshow/ conference) and eComm Expo (European equivalent of Internet Retailer). Outside of these two shows we’re meeting with customers and picking up some UK slang.

The photo posted on Wednesday was taken in the China-Town area off of Piccadilly Circus; Thursday’s photo was in a tube stop in the UK Underground.

Cheers to our four winners; and thanks to our loyal readers. Here's a more recognizable photo to top off the contest.

The Yogi’s Long Journey

Third City, Second Clue…
No guesses? Maybe this pix will spark a couple guesses... this was snapped on our way to the tradeshow.

Game & Rules

To play, visit the blog and then be the first to email or post a comment with your guess – winners will receive a $50 gift certificate from one of our customers. There will be one winner; NCR employees/ contractors, their spouses and children are ineligible. To win, be the first to email/ post your guess – city and state.

To play be the first to email (RT185035@ncr.com) or post a comment with your guess. Happy reading!

The Yogi’s Long Journey

Third City, First Clue…

We’ve decided that the last round was a bit too easy – so we’re going to make you work for it now… here’s your first picture clue, it’s purposefully misleading.

Game & Rules

To play, visit the blog and then be the first to email or post a comment with your guess – winners will receive a $50 gift certificate from one of our customers. There will be one winner; NCR employees/ contractors, their spouses and children are ineligible. To win, be the first to email/ post your guess – city and state.

To play be the first to email (RT185035@ncr.com) or post a comment with your guess. Happy reading!

New City

Be sure to watch for this week’s clues – we’re embarking on our next venture, visiting cities for tradeshow and workshops.

The game is the same
To play, visit the blog and then be the first to email or post a comment with your guess – winners will receive a $50 gift certificate from one of our customers.

The Rules
There will be one winner; NCR employees/ contractors, their spouses and children are ineligible. To win, be the first to email/ post your guess – city and state.

Good Luck!

The Yogi's Long Journey

Congratulations to Nicole from Boston and Jeff from Raleigh – they each guessed correctly within moments of each other… we were at the DMA in Chicago, IL. We’ll be in touch soon guys to finalize details about your prizes.

Thank you to the others who also submitted guesses – your next chance to win will begin on Tuesday. Happy reading.

The Yogi's Long Journey

Second City, Second Clue…

No luck with the first picture clue? Here's another, we've past this location a couple times now.

The Rules

There will be one winner for each city; NCR employees/ contractors, their spouses and children are ineligible. To win, be the first to email (RT185035@ncr.com) or post your guess – city and state.

Good Luck!

The Yogi’s Long Journey

Second City, First Clue…

Ready for your first picture clue? The Yogi and I passed this location last evening on our way to dinner.

The Rules

There will be one winner for each city; NCR employees/ contractors, their spouses and children are ineligible. To win, be the first to email (RT185035@ncr.com) or post your guess – city and state.

Good Luck!

New City

Be sure to watch for next week’s clues – we’re embarking on our next venture, visiting cities for tradeshow and workshops.

The game is the same
To play, visit the blog and then be the first to email or post a comment with your guess – winners will receive a $50 gift certificate from one of our customers.

The Rules
There will be one winner for each city; NCR employees/ contractors, their spouses and children are ineligible. To win, be the first to email/ post your guess – city and state.

Good Luck!

Go Yogi, Go!

It’s not everyday that the Yogi gets to present to such a large crowd – thank you to everyone who was able to attend the Email Yogi’s session, Creating Interactive Conversations.

The Email Yogi secured one of the closing day sessions at the Teradata Partners user-group conference in Las Vegas. To capitalize on his insider tips and tricks – contact us, we’ll gladly send you a copy of the presentation shared. Be sure to visit our other sites:

Service In Action – Monthly Call on eMarketing best practices, our next call is October 19
Panel of Peers – Workshop series focused on eMarketing best practices, our next workshop is October 14, in Chicago.

Creating Interactive Conversations

Teradata Partners Attendees:
Yes, we know Hootie & The Blowfish will be playing this evening – but tomorrow is your chance to see a real celebrity!

The Email Yogi is presenting in Mandalay K; his presentation will focus on creating Interactive Conversations. Join us tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM (PST).

The Yogi’s Long Journey

Congratulations to Dave from Minnesota; he correctly guessed the Yogi’s location – we’re in fabulous Las Vegas, NV, home this week to Teradata Partners. For more information on the 2007 Teradata User’s Group, visit their program site.

We’ll be in touch soon Dave.

The Yogi’s Long Journey

First City, First Clue…
Ready for your first picture clue? The Yogi and I walked through this place last evening.

To play be the first to email (RT185035@ncr.com) or post a comment with your guess. Happy reading – there will be three winners… one for each city. No NCR entries allowed!

Mine & Shine

I ate breakfast this morning with Spiro from Medco; we were among the first people and got a chance to chat. Spiro recounted an experience that would make most marketers cringe. He reached Vegas last night with over two hours to check in, register for the conference and go to the welcome reception. Sadly it took him more than three hours to check in to the hotel! It wasn’t the hotels fault – it was his credit card company and it really wasn’t their fault… they were trying to protect him.

Spiro spent a few weeks in Greece last month, he used his credit card there and was now attempting to use here. Apparently the scoring system for this credit card company worked to perfection – i.e. use a card internationally, then use it in “this city” (and if you are not a traveler) you will be flagged.

Poor Spiro spent a lot of time with different people trying to resolve the situation. The credit card company shouldn’t be blamed for blocking the original transaction – they should be held accountable for the aftermath. Not till he got the right representative from the credit card company with the hotel check in clerk – were they able to resolve the situation effectively.

We have so much information on our customers, their profile, their transactions and even profiles of people with similar preferences so we can customize the information. Yet this information sits in different silos and typically NOT in customer service.

To counter, you have to create a series of conversations with your customers, this will help you succeed and let your customers need to know you care. You need to do this across multiple channels. And if your human channel is touched – you need to arm your reps with the best possible information – so they can win the customer (serve them and sell them more). Instead, data is housed in disparate systems with very little being made available to people who talk to people.

I am attending a user conference that facilitates data into actionable information – a solutions that supplies the insight to serve customers and allow you to deliver on your promises. So the lesson to be learned – mine your data well and you will shine.

Spiro, thank you for sharing your story & hope you have a great conference.

The Yogi’s Long Journey

The Yogi and I are embarking on a huge trek for the month of October, visiting cities for tradeshow and workshops. To boost blog readership, we’ve devised a little game; over the course of next few weeks, I’ll post picture clues to give you hints of where we are.

To play, visit the blog and then be the first to email (RT185035@ncr.com) or post a comment with your guess. Happy reading – there will be three winners… one for each city.

No NCR entries allowed!

Best Practices Workshop

The Yogi and I are conducting a best practices workshop in Atlanta today – visit the Panel of Peers site for additional Yogi Tour dates, we may be in your city soon.