Marketers Grapple With Brand-Bashing ''Badvocates''

GM, American Airlines and others try to win over critics on the Web.

Forbes, October 23, 2009 — During General Motors' financial meltdown this year, politicians, corporate executives and journalists piled on to gripe about the auto-maker's business. Most of the chatter was expected, admits Christopher Preuss, GM's vice president of communications. What surprised company execs was the number of bloggers and social media hounds who chimed in to grouse about the car-maker and its vehicles.

U.K. Wireless Brand Turns Customer Service Over to Consumers†

Users Get Freebies for Marketing the O2's Giffgaff to Others

Advertising Age, October 5, 2009 — You've seen user-generated content, so now get ready for user-generated marketing, technical support and customer service.One of the UK's biggest cellphone operators is launching a new mobile network called Giffgaff whose customers will be able to earn free calls and texts by actively marketing the service to their friends and families.

A Few Good Things to Come Out of the Recession†

Five Accelerating Trends That Will Reshape Marketing

Advertising Age, August 26, 2009 — I'm sure I'm not the first one to tell you: We're in a recession.

The doom has advertisers hanging signs along the lines of "Will Work For Food" on their agency walls, and marketers continue to face facts and figures like these, from Forrester's 2009 Global CMO Recession Survey: 71% of marketing budgets have been reduced this year, and more than half reported reductions greater than 20%.

Now here comes the curveball: I think this might be the best thing that has happened to our industry in decades.

Managing Your Small Business’s Online Reputation

Monitoring the Web conversations, interacting with customers and honing your technical know-how can help your business get ahead.

New York Times, July 29, 2009 — Your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening.

Local review sites are reshaping the world of small business by becoming the new Yellow Pages, one-stop platforms where customers can find a business — and also see independent critiques of its performance.

How do you manage your reputation when everybody is a critic?

Is Customer Service a Media Channel? Ask Zappos†

Brand Turned Cost Center Into Unassailable Asset Even Amazon Looks Up to

Advertising Age, July 24, 2009 — Is customer service a media channel? It's a great time to ask that question, as it comes right smack in the wake of Amazon purchasing Zappos for nearly a billion dollars. That's a big number for an online shoe company.

Best Buy Goes All Twitter Crazy With @Twelpforce

Tech Crunch, July 21, 2009 — This is an interesting one: consumer electronics retailer Best Buy is encouraging hundreds of employees to handle online customer service and company promotions via Twitter, even airing commercials not mentioning their own website but merely the URL of the profile they created on the micro-sharing service (two spots embedded below). The new service, dubbed Twelpforce, was debuted over the weekend but so far hasn’t garnered a lot of online buzz, let alone followers on Twitter (currently at around 1350). I’m sure that will change soon enough.

'United Breaks Guitars': Passenger's revenge video becomes a viral hit

United Airlines says it will meet with Canadian musician Dave Carroll to make restitution

Chicago Tribune, July 9, 2009 — Canadian musician Dave Carroll could have sung the blues after United Airlines workers at O'Hare International Airport smashed his guitar and the carrier refused to pick up the $1,200 cost to repair it.

Instead, he turned the experience into a witty ditty, "United Breaks Guitars," and scored an instant hit on YouTube, his first in a 16-year career. Posted on Monday, the video had been viewed nearly 150,000 times by Wednesday.

Wake Up Call†

Brandweek, November 11, 2008 — Given its recent financial struggles—at the core of which are weak sales that have forced the closing of about 600 of its U.S. stores through the first half of fiscal year 2009—the question many people are asking right now is: Can Starbucks get its mojo back?

Home Depot's total rehab

First the customers revolted. Then housing went into a free fall. Time to slash and burn - unless you're CEO Frank Blake, who thinks an army of orange aprons will save the day.

FORTUNE, September 29, 2008 — The Home Depot's Francis S. (Frank) Blake has one of the biggest jobs in corporate America but one of its least famous faces. Which is what the CEO is counting on one weekday morning when he goes on an undercover mission in Riverside, N.J.: a secret walkthrough at one of his company's 1,970 U.S. stores.

Take Command of Service†

CMOs, You Must Have Responsibility for Training Service Personnel

Advertising Age, September 15, 2008 — There are businesses that provide adequate customer service and have many satisfied customers. This column is not about them. It is about the businesses that cannot or will not get it right.

Every year prominent research organizations such as J. D. Power & Associates survey millions of customers and businesses to gather customer-satisfaction rankings. A June 2008 industry-satisfaction study by that organization shows that Alaska Airlines, Continental Airlines and JetBlue Airways rank highest in customer satisfaction even amid declining overall satisfaction with the airline industry. Pella ranks highest for a second consecutive year in the 2008 Windows and Patio Doors Satisfaction Study. Microtel Inns & Suites is ranked highest in the... continue reading