Last week, Rubin and I made a quick search for shirts that go with a tux (no, we didn’t know previously that they’re different from regular shirts). So we hit three shops in the immediate vicinity, the first two were totally aiming to make the sale. Everything from trying to get you to commit to an order, introducing “premium” materials and lowering prices to make it seem like a “discount”.
The third, we felt was more authentic right off the bat. He showed us the “normal” material and “premium” material and told us to verify for ourselves that there was no discernible difference in texture (there wasn’t), and that the important thing that tailors bring to customers is the service and customisation.
I think this approach is really about customer lifetime value. Do you go in with an affordable, knock-them-off-their-socks product that keeps them coming back for more, or are you concerned about making that one sale, and forgetting about the trust and relationship that can be formed, especially in businesses that are service-oriented?
Very different marketing approaches, but in the long run, I think aiming for retention will get better results than just attracting new customers. More word of mouth, more loyalty and more trust, which money can’t buy.
A week and a half ago, I had the privilege of being invited to the National Museum of Singapore for the launch of the brand new Sony Vaio P, Sony’s venture into the realm of ultra mobile computing. This blog post is more about the social media/communications standpoint of the event, rather than the actual product itself because I had to leave early and didn’t actually get to “play” with the product.
The Unveiling
First up, I have a video of Mr. Kazutoyo Araki (Senior Manager, Area Marketing Group, Global VAIO Direct Department Business Planning and Strategy Division, VAIO Business Group), telling us a little about the history of Sony’s innovation from the Walkman, and unveiling the actual product. Now I was expecting someone to walk on stage and flash it or a curtain to be swept aside to show the product, but how he did it was way better. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it:
The Message Tech 65 has their interpretation of the Vaio P from a pure technology point of view, but I look at the communication of the message. Whether it was Mr. Araki or Ms. Janice Yang from the VAIO Product Marketing Department of Sony Singapore, the key message was clear: It’s a premium, portable device, for the road warrior who needs regular access throughout the day (or on trips), but won’t necessarily use it for extended periods of time.
Word Of Mouth
One thing I think Sony did excellently (at least for the bloggers) was to provide us with a pamphlet the exact same length and width (but obviously not depth) as the Vaio P. While I was working on this blog post, I had that pamphlet with me and invariably, many of my friends asked to have a look and were oohing and ahhing over the size. Excellent way to reach the tertiary crowd.
Sony Vaio P
The pamphlet also allowed me to take a “real” representation of how small the Vaio P is with the picture to the right. Barely the length of three business cards. All this is proof that you don’t need expensive, crazy collaterals to make an impact, just the right one.
All in all, as an unabashed Sony fan, I have to say I think the Vaio P has chosen the right time to enter the market because everyone wants to be mobile without carrying around a 2kg laptop, and with their clear messaging to the public, they just might have a silent winner on their hands.
To close off this blog post, I leave you with the models strutting their stuff, as well as the Sony Vaio P at the product launch:
[Disclosure: A family member works at Hill & Knowlton, the PR firm behind this event, and as such, I have opted not to comment on their role in the event.]
It’s the wrong move, but ad spend, marketing and PR are the first things to go when budgets get cut, especially in recessions. Which means it’s never been a better time to look at social media tools as a great alternative.
In those small pockets of time that Plurk is down, some of us still go over to Twitter, and Brian Solis gives a great rundown of tools available, which is worth reading if you’re using Twitter for business or community management. (ps: I’m on Twitter too)
Community Management
Speaking of community management, Corvida over at Shegeeks.netrecounts her lessons as community manager for Read Write Web. Most important for people thinking they’re community managers, “Everyone wants to be our friend” is a very terrible misconception. Get with the programme.
Word Of Mouth
Andy Sernovitz aka the word of mouth guy has a post called “Give away your buns” which brings home the lesson: “Every spoiling asset is a marketing tool”. I’ve seen this - or rather the lack of this - at work too many times. It’s time for companies to start utilising word of mouth more effectively.
Did you read anything mindblowing this week? Would you care to share? Share it with me on Delicious.com, or post it in the comments below! Did you find the links useful? What type of links would you like to read more of? Love to hear from you as well.
So I’m not trying to re-tell you why this analogy works, but an instance locally (ie back home in Singapore), that I feel it was done well.
The salesman at a party analogy is used a lot in blogger outreach and social media. The idea is if you’re at a party and everyone’s talking about the latest episode of Lost (and why wouldn’t they, it’s awesome), then if you’re the salesperson who jumps in and starts giving your insurance pitch, people generally get turned off.
I have to say, I am flat out impressed by what I saw. A decent venue, engagement, no “in your face” stuff, a contest that was fun and not overly campy, and what I feel is most important: generating media (and by that I mean real world media) out of something like this.
Photos the bloggers took remain on the Samsung wall. (Picture from Nadnut.com)
So the man behind this is Daniel from Samsung, who came from Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 2, but I didn’t get to talk to until Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 3, which in itself says a lot about not being pushy. When you consider the time it was from SMB2 (May) till the first Samsung Social Media Night and the effort put in to attend two SMBs (on Saturdays, no less), I think it’s safe to say they did their homework, worked on those relationships, and reached out properly.
I’m going to put it right out there: I don’t own anything from Samsung, and I don’t know if I ever will, but the fact is by reaching out to bloggers (and make no mistake, they are influencers), there are a few positive effects for the company, delivered through the readers of their blogs.
At the very least, you’re spreading the word about your new product launch that they might otherwise not read (don’t forget, we’re not reading the newspapers).
Even if they aren’t a current consumer of your product (like me), you still gain mindshare.
Even if they don’t necessarily buy your product, they can certainly talk about it to someone else who might be looking for, oh, I don’t know, a new phone.
One thing I also need to bring up, is that when I last talked to Daniel in August, he told me he was doing all this independently, without an agency. I don’t know if that’s still true, but if so, it says a lot about the state of agency work back home.
And on that note, you may have noticed that this blog post starts with “doing it right”, rest assured I have a “doing it wrong” case study (from an agency) to share. I’m just in the process of deciding whether or not to reveal names.
In related news: Social Media Breakfast | Singapore 4 is happening tomorrow morning. Are you missing an opportunity to meet people interested in your brand?
Everyone wants something “viral” these days. But the thing is you never really know when something is viral and truly will catch on.
Let me say it’s been two days after the HP TouchSmart PC Blogger’s Nite, and the song for the TouchSmart “Do You Wanna Touch?” has still been ringing in my head. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this 1:29 video.
I’m going to be a little bit candid here. Of all companies, would you have expected one like HP to come up with something this catchy? Melvin blogged about it from Berlin and I hadn’t experienced it first hand and wasn’t convinced how “catchy” or “viral” it was until the blogger’s nite and how everyone is still talking about it:
I have to say, speaking as a social media blogger, that I give HP Singapore full credit for going all out with their blogger outreach programme. The first time they did it I wasn’t invited, but still gave them some praise, the second time they did it I was a part of it (full disclosure: I work with the PR firm that handles HP’s digital strategy and helped conceptualise and organise the event), and the second time I could really see first hand how the HP execs were willing to engage freely with bloggers. There was no “we are executives in the real world and you are bloggers” mentality.
My blog coverage with many many photos is up over on my personal blog if you’re interested. The one thing I wish could be better was to credit the band that did it, or make it available for download. Tying this in to my thoughts on social media in the local music scene, the right social media/digital tie up could just really make your song take off like wildfire. Do you like the song? Let me know!
I’m trying to get through the local (Singaporean) “friendlies” first, so the third person to be featured in “Adventures In Social Media” is Claudia from Claud Talking.
I can’t remember how I actually got to find her blog but I’ve been impressed by the usage of social media for sharing information, word of mouth and gathering feedback. All in all, a good change from the usual Singaporean Meepok blog.
On top of that, I’ve discovered ping.sg via her, which I really enjoy using. I’d recommend that site to anyone who blogs locally too.
People have different ways of deciding where to eat:
convenience (that’s me)
price
food quality
service
length of queue (if you’re Singaporean)
How about scent/smell of the place as you pass it?
There’s this eatery tucked away at Serene Centre and I swear we’ve eaten everywhere in the building, but that place. Two nights ago, we walked past fully intending to go somewhere else for dinner, but the aroma coming out of it was superb and we decided to give it a try. True enough the food was excellent.
I like food, but I’m nowhere near the foodie that Amelia is. So naturally this tale takes on a more marketing/advertising perspective for me. How much does the smell come into play when you decide to eat? Granted, it’s not a typical foodie metric, but it seemed to work in this case, right? I gotta look for other instances where restaurant aromas have translated into positive word of mouth.
One aspect where the restaurant’s branding didn’t quite work out: I remember the smell but not the name of the place, so sadly my directions can be no more specific than “the corner of Serene Centre, opposite the videogame store”. oh the irony.
