Submit Your Own Content: The Boxing Day Tradition Continues At The MineThatData Blog

For the second consecutive year, you get the opportunity to publish content on The MineThatData Blog, courtesy of my Boxing Day promotion.

Are you a catalog marketer with something to say? An e-mail marketer who wants to provide a different point of view? A search marketer looking to dazzle a new audience? An Executive or CEO who wants to pen an anonymous or authored post about relevant business issues? A business intelligence, web analytics pro or SAS programmer looking to share key insights? Then this opportunity is for you.

Submit your article to me (via e-mail) by December 22. If your article is appropriate for this audience, I will publish it on December 26. This is a good opportunity for you to have your insights considered, please take advantage of it!!

Boxing Day and Customer Service

Welcome to the Boxing Day edition of The MineThatData Blog! Today, in Boxing Day tradition, we switch roles. Readers Jim Fulton, Jeff Larche, Michael Gamma and Don Libey contribute content. Please read their columns, and comment on their topics. Thank you Jim, Jeff, Michael and Don.

As you may know, Boxing Day is about switching roles. A recent post from Seth Godin illustrates an employee at CVS talking on a cell phone, standing in front of a grease board that says "We cannot provide service if you are on your cell phone."

It is so, so easy to find an example of a customer service associate making a mistake. Maybe today, on Boxing Day, we switch roles, and consider what it is like to be a customer service associate. We assume that this employee is talking to a friend about an evening activity or a party. What if the associate is talking to her doctor about her biopsy? Do you feel differently about her if that is the case?

What would happen if somebody walked around our offices, snapping photos of our daily activities? Would the photographer ever find us reading blogs during the workday when we should be working? Would the photographer find us sending e-mails to friends, or find us using the phone for non-work-related calls? What would the photographer find if she walked through our offices?

For one day, can we switch roles, and try to have a little empathy for the folks who provide customer service for all of us? Can we try to understand what it is like to make $8.00 an hour working the counter at CVS, working without breaks, while the reader of this blog earns four or five times as much sitting in front of a computer on the day after Christmas? Can we, as business leaders, try to provide a work environment that is rewarding and enjoyable, paying a living wage with benefits, so that the these photos do not need to be snapped?

Jim Fulton: Mr. Krabs Is A Database Marketer

Jim Fulton is Principal of Customer Metrics, Inc. His contribution to the Boxing Day edition of The MineThatData Blog is entitled "Mr. Krabs Is A Database Marketer".


If you have

a) a newer vehicle with a built-in DVD entertainment system, and;

b) children under the age of 8

then you will

c) spend a lot of time listening to – but not watching – Sponge Bob DVDs.

And if – like me – you have worked in database marketing for twenty something years, then you will probably start wondering which, if any, of the Sponge Bob characters could be industry colleagues.

Having pondered this question for more time than I would care to admit, I write to present a case that Mr. Krabs – Sponge Bob’s boss and owner/manager of The Krusty Krab – shares many personality/intellectual traits with people in the database marketing world.

“Nay,” you say? “Where is his end-to-end CRM solution?” you ask? Consider the following, gentle reader:

1) Mr. Krabs is cheap

I have noticed that good database marketers and finance types tend to get along rather well. Obviously, there can be some tension on particular tactical decisions – and a little bit of honest skepticism can be useful for all involved -- but on the whole, good database marketers and good finance people both inhabit a world of real numbers, and their personalities tend to veer to the cheap side of the spectrum. DMers obsess about managing tenths of a cent in per-unit postage expense, will push the e-envelope in managing and limiting search engine optimization and affiliate expenses and will generally obsess about incrementality in a way that baffles many in the organization.

Database marketing tends not to be the part of the organization that sends staff members off on “multiweek journeys” to “develop a more holistic appreciation of the customer experience” and spends many hundreds of man hours clipping out photos from magazines and assembling them in montages on conference room walls to try to gain insight into customer behavior.

2) Mr. Krabs is tone-deaf on the “atmospherics” of the brand

Direct marketers are not without their faults (and cheapness can be something other than a virtue), and in our immersion in the heavy quant details, we do sometimes lose sight of the intangible “atmospherics” of the brand. (And I suppose some of those magazine photo montages can provide some insight on this point).

In one episode, “Patty Hype,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Hype) Mr. Krabs belittles the idea that a customer would come to the Krusty Krab for “atmosphere.” “They come here for food!” he declares with a certain crustacean curmudgeonliness.

Let’s face it, Howard Schultz’s genius was using Starbucks’ “atmospherics” to successfully charge people $4 for caffeinated water. (And I for one think that’s generally a fair exchange). Victoria’s Secret’s genius was to elevate lingerie purchasing from the schlocky to the sensual. A Motorola RAZR’s atmospherics…well, you get the idea. Suffice it to say that a successful direct business needs database marketers, but not just database marketers.

3) Mr. Krabs does not fully grasp the economics of cannibalization

In “Sponge Bob: The Movie,” Mr. Krabs opens the second Krusty Krab right next door to the first one. When asked why by Bikini Bottom news reporter Perch Perkins, he replies “Money!”

The idea of putting more investment in the areas that you’re making the most money is well-intentioned and superficially somewhat plausible, but unless one speaks the language of incrementality, it is ridiculously easy to over-invest in segments that do not provide adequate incremental return.

The idea of the Krusty Krab II next door to Krusty Krab I is funny because even an eight year old can recognize that it’s silly. Is it really THAT different, however, from a decision to do an expensive catalog remail to an audience that just got the original catalog six days before?

4) Business = customer base.

Perhaps the greatest evidence that, down deep, Mr. Krabs is a direct marketer is the fact that in episode after episode, Mr. Krabs repeatedly – almost obsessively – notes the criticality of “all me paying customers!” At a strategic level, database marketing establishes strategic equivalence between the business and its customer/prospect base. And Mr. Krabs understands this from claw to tail.

Are ya ready, kids?

Don Libey: Futures And Presents

Don Libey of Libey Incorporated, offers us this Boxing Day discussion titled 'Futures And Presents' to the readers of The MineThatData Blog.


If the present is any indicator, the future needs to be reconsidered.

The consulting year 2006 is over. I had the privilege of advising and consulting with 35 companies this year, almost all of that work at the request of the CEO or the board.

In only one of those 35 companies, was the consulting engagement focused on the future. In the other 34, it was remedial work; analyzing and advising how to fix what was wrong. In the one exceptional company, the question was, “How do we leverage all the things we are doing right and grow the company to a billion dollars?” That was a remarkable experience. That is a remarkable company.

Yesterday, after reviewing the year and the final assignment before getting ready for an extended trip to Sonoma and Napa and the splendors of the vineyards for Christmas, I emailed a trusted colleague and asked, “Why is it we see so much under performance by so many major direct marketers in so many sectors of business-to-business?” The paraphrased response was, “I don’t know. It has always been like this. And there is so much opportunity everywhere.”

So, why are so many direct marketing companies performing at half of their potential? And why are only a handful performing at or above their potential? What makes the difference?

The first thing I see is passion. Top performers have a passion for what they do that most of us only dream about. These people love business and they love their business. In one way, they are truly fortunate. Passion of that kind is rare, and very successful people invariably possess it to extremes. In another way, they are cursed. They can never get away from that passion and their lives are shaped by it almost totally and almost constantly. I always ask these passionate, extraordinary people, “What do you read?” The answer has always been, “Peter Drucker’s books,” or “Jack Trout,” or some other business titan. It has never been Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy or John Steinbeck.

Because passionate business owners and leaders are mono-focused on the business, they often re-invent themselves and the business to assure they remain at the leading edges. Others (the 34 others) enjoy the familiar groove, the familiar niche, the same familiar SICs. They maintain the past and the present; the passionate ones create the future. And that is the difference: maintain or create.

The second thing I see is the use of money. The passionate creators spend money; the maintainers take the money out of the business and make it earn every step of its undistinguished way. All investment has to be ‘self-funding.’ The exceptional business knows the value of talent, technology, facilities, investment prospecting, advanced logistics, integrated enterprise operating systems. The unexceptional companies have only enough talent, technology, facilities, prospecting, logistics, and operating systems to get by without having to invest anything in the future. Consequently, they often don’t have one.

The third thing I see is ideas. The exceptional owners surround themselves with more ideas than they can ever accomplish. But, they have options. The average company spends a lot of time pushing ideas away, mostly because they require investment, but also because they might be dangerous, especially if they aren’t the owner’s idea. All of the original ideas are monopolized in the marketplace by the exceptional companies; the average companies haven’t had an original idea since the first one that got them their niche.

The fourth thing I see is people. The extraordinary company has extraordinary people and all of them are also passionate. The average company has average people and none of them are passionate. Extraordinary attracts extraordinary; average attracts average. And when average companies inadvertently attract an extraordinary person, the result is painful and short-lived (and the extraordinary person moves on).

The fifth thing I see is attention to basics. While leading in innovation, technology and ideas, the extraordinary company is also totally grounded in and proficient with all the direct marketing basics. They know the numbers off the top of their heads—and they are accurate numbers—to the penny and the percent. The average companies are struggling to cover or discover the basics. They are employing entry-level people to manage the circulation plan because they are cheaper and—after all—all you have to do is tell Abacus what it is you want and they do everything. The extraordinary company is running circles around its competitors in every channel because they have a seasoned, confident and proven circulation pro working with a seasoned, confident and proven broker and everybody’s feet are held to the fire for performance and productivity. And the extraordinary company doesn’t ask for a discount; in fact, they often pay their broker a higher commission for delivering higher prospecting performance.

The sixth thing I see is elegance. The extraordinary company has an elegance of mind as well as an elegance of style. The owner wears custom made or designer clothing and has a custom analytic and perceptive mind. The restrooms and the minds are well-decorated and fully furnished, one with choices of soaps and linen towels, the other with concepts and open-minded reasoning. The warehouse and the personality are neat, orderly, clean, automated and totally organized. These people are their business; the business mirrors the person. And the management team in these extraordinary companies lives that elegance. The average company is—well—average. Things are a little dusty, a bit wrinkled.

The seventh thing I see is boldness. The extraordinary companies are fearless; the average companies are fearful. One attacks the future; one defends the past. One is comfortable with challenge and the unknown; one is comfortable with only the known and what once worked. One leads; one follows. One takes risks; one is riskless.

The eighth thing I see is inclusion. The extraordinary company includes all of their trusted advisors in their research and decision-making processes. The conference room for a strategy session may have 10 or 15 vendors, suppliers, consultants, all charged with the objective, “Help us leverage what we do well to become a $1 billion company.” And every one of these Trusted Advisors wants to be innovative, wants to find a breakthrough, wants to create, wants to uncover a hidden opportunity. The average company doesn’t trust its vendors; bends them for another 2 percent; spreads the business among as many as possible to assure the lowest possible price, and often lays failure at the feet of the vendor. One is inclusive and thrives on the combined intellect of many; one excludes and wastes away on the squandering of intellectual opportunities.

The ninth thing I see is rule breaking. The extraordinary companies do almost everything differently than they should; they disregard what should be for what is. While attending to the direct marketing basics and truth, they also only believe what the customer tells them. And if what the customer wants requires breaking direct marketing conventional wisdom—out goes the conventional wisdom! The average company plays by the rules, takes no chances, hasn’t talked—really talked—to a customer in years. Chiseled above the door is the time-worn motto: Status Quo.

The tenth thing I see is questioning. The extraordinary owner or leader questions everyone they come into contact with. These are not accuracy questions, rather questions about what is new, how others are changing pagination, what landing pages are working, whether video is getting prospecting response in search hits, how much fall off in pay per click there was in October, whether long term response is eroding in co-ops . . . and a thousand questions aimed at people with knowledge that can be utilized. The average company asks few questions and—frankly—usually doesn’t know what questions to ask.

And, I guess that is what I see after the 2006 consulting season. I wonder what we will see next year? Imagine . . . . What if we waved a magic wand and gave every average direct marketing company the ten attributes of an extraordinary company?

Wow!

Michael Gamma: Potentials And Pitfalls Of Database Marketing In 2007

Michael Gamma of Direct Marketing Solutions can be reached at mgama@teamdms.com. Here is his Boxing Day submission to The MineThatData Blog.


It was in the early 1980s that I actually encountered a sophisticated form of what we have come to call database marketing. I attended a conference of some sort in Portland, Oregon and there was fortunate enough to hear a presentation delivered by the folks from Harry & David and Bear Creek catalogs fame.

Prior to this I had long wondered why – if the feds could “predict” all sorts of things such as the unemployment and inflation rates well into the future – why couldn’t I, as a direct marketer, also predict things such as response and conversion rates?

Well, by the end of the Harry & David presentation, I was convinced that even if I couldn’t, at least these guys from Bear Creek could! At the conclusion of the presentation, I ventured forward and inquired as to their “secret.” As I learned, their “secret” of all this was as unattainable for me as it was simple. Simply put, these two database-marketing pioneers had one PhD in statistics and MA in computer science and math between them and had painstakingly custom programmed their way to this Promised Land.

As such, entry into such lands for more pedestrian marketers such as myself was not to become possible until much later. And come it has, as we now can perform database marketing exploits from the desktop that these two early birds could only have main-frame dreams of in those days.

This said, the potentials of this database management, manipulation and marketing are now well known. And in some circles, even well used.

I would like to now propose two possible pitfalls of our newfound prowess. It would be good, I suspect, to be aware of and to therefore avoid these as we enter a new year. They are simple, and related.

First, we must work to avoid mistaking the technology for the “thing.” If we learned nothing from the dot-bomb experience, we should have at least learned this. Again, as wonderful as technological solutions (and capabilities) might be, we must always remember that technology is not the customer. Nor is it the relationship. And not the sale. And certainly isn’t the bottom line. At best, technology is a neutral facilitator, which may be used well or poorly used. I suspect it falls into the latter category when we mistake it for the central issue in the commercial exchange.

Related to this, the second pitfall we must avoid is that of doing something just because we can. Or simply because the technology enables it. Foremost in our minds at this point must be the centrality of our customer. Does this technological gizmo (or bauble) bring value to the customer? Or, are we simply doing something just because we can, hoping all the while that the customer will be “wowed” by our technical prowess and respond in the only fitting fashion – by heaping upon us his hard earned treasure.

Perhaps an antidote to each of the above pitfalls (to horribly mix metaphors not to mention splitting infinitives!) is to work hard to think of our customer first. Before we consider ourselves, before “sales” figures even, and certainly before our latest technologies. It seems that if we work hard to keep this focus, we will be more likely than not to successfully miss the twin pitfalls indicated above.

It’s not rocket science – thinking of others first – it’s just that it’s still among the most difficult things we may ever do, whether in our personal or business/commercial lives.

My suspicion, though, is that our success in both will likely be tied to our ability to do just that – think of others first. People – our clients included – know when we’re genuine and when we’re guilty of considering ourselves (our technologies, or profits or bottom lines) ahead of them. In other words, using them as ends.

Inasmuch as it is the holiday season, a thought from St. Augustine will make this business point. “Evil”, once said the saint, “is to use what we should love and to love what we should use.”

Reduced to its absolute bare metal minimum, heads-up database and successful marketing is simply – “simply” – one’s ability to marshal latest technologies in the quest to know and serve people (i.e., our clients) better. Keeping this focus, I suspect, will allow us to avoid the pitfalls outlined above.

Conversely, consistent self-focus will certainly land us in the above pitfalls, and perhaps even deeper ones. Making this mistake a few too many times could result in that dreary possibility of landing face down in such a pitfall with no one left to drag us out!

Jeff Larche: Online Use Of A Primal Reaction To Eye Contact

Jeff Larche hosts the popular blog, Digital Solid. Here is his Boxing Day contribution for The MineThatData Blog.


We mammals celebrate Mother’s Day more deeply than other classes of creatures. We’re born in need of nurturing. The debt that humans (and the other 5,500 species of mammals) have to parents and community begins at birth and marks us for life. I suspect this is why we have an unconscious reaction to being watched.

In a previous post, An online ad tip from an eye-tracking expert, I described how the only consistently successful online advertising tactic found by one researcher was the use of a pair of human eyes staring directly back at the web page visitor. These ads drew visitors’ attention like magnets — an important factor, since you must attract viewer attention before you can do anything else (like generate a click from that person).

Now a study conducted by Newcastle University in the UK finds that being “watched” by a poster showing a pair of eyes has a startlingly large influence over consumer behavior. It suggests other ways that images of eyes (whether they are on a wall or on a web page) can have an effect over those in their “gaze.” Here’s an excerpt:

We all know the scene: the departmental coffee room, with the price list for tea and coffee on the wall and the “honesty box” where you pay for your drinks — or not, because no one is watching.

In a finding that will have office managers everywhere scurrying for the photocopier, researchers have discovered that merely a picture of watching eyes nearly trebled the amount of money put in the box.

Melissa Bateson and colleagues at Newcastle University, UK, put up new price lists each week in their psychology department coffee room. Prices were unchanged, but each week there was a photocopied picture at the top of the list, measuring 15 by 3 centimetres, of either flowers or the eyes of real faces. The faces varied but the eyes always looked directly at the observer.

In weeks with eyes on the list, staff paid 2.76 times as much for their drinks as in weeks with flowers. “Frankly we were staggered by the size of the effect,” [reports] Gilbert Roberts, one of the researchers.

Your Boxing Day Opportunity!

Remember, you have three more days to submit your article for inclusion in my "Boxing Day" promotion on December 26. Anybody (bloggers or non-bloggers) who has something to say about marketing or database marketing can submit their content to me, and I will post it on Boxing Day. I have three submissions so far, so there's room for more!

Also, we have five weeks left in our challenge to help the catalog/online industry measure advertising effectiveness. The dataset has been downloaded more than two hundred times, and we already have a valid answer to the challenge. There's still forty days to work on the project, so have at it, and help us do something good for the catalog/online industry!!

Boxing Day --- Submit Your Article By 12/25

Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26. Those of you who spent your formative television years in the 1970s know that an episode of MASH dealt with Boxing Day. In that episode, folks like Klinger made all the decisions, while Hawkeye, B.J., Charles, Margaret and Colonel Potter did all the real work required to run a camp.

So, let's try out Boxing Day at The MineThatData Blog! Here's what I am going to do. Anybody who has content appropriate for the readership of The MineThatData Blog (any marketing profession, database marketing, multichannel marketing, web analytics, direct marketing, the catalog/online industry), and is not trying to sell something is welcome to participate. Send your article to me prior to December 25. All submissions that "pass the filter" will be published on December 26.

Do you have something you have always wanted to write about, but don't have an outlet for your content? Give this forum a try. Send your content via e-mail (kevinh@minethatdata.com), in Microsoft Word format or PDF format (or even send the content in the body of the e-mail). Include your name, title of your article, and your website/blog if you have one.

Good luck!!!