Marketing Nonsense

Clear Differentiation Marks Thriving Pizza Chains

Examples include Little Caesar's value positioning, exemplified by its $5 Hot-N-Ready; Pizza Fusion's healthy, "Fresh, Organic and Earth-Friendly" positioning; Pizza Hut's complimentary catering (Pasta to Go); Papa Murphy's and Homemade Pizza's "take 'n bake" offerings; ZPizza's and RedBrick Pizza's emphasis on quality products and experience; Pizza Patron's ethnic consumer focus (Pizza for Pesos); and Cici's all-you-can-eat buffet

via www.mediapost.com

It's more obvious to some marketers than others differentiation is THE biggest contributor to brand value and, ultimately, bottom line financial performance. Here's a perfect example of how a multitude of players in an established category have clearly differentiated themselves. It also makes me want a pizza.

Etsy Continues to Impress Me

via tv.etsy.com

I've been a big fan of Etsy ever since my wife started selling her handmade creations on the site a couple years ago.  (Check out her latest store, shoprhubarb.etsy.com if you're interested in helping out with my daughter's future college education.)  Etsy has created a community for people that love to make and buy handmade goods.

It turns out the Etsy community is pretty good at creating promotional vidoes in addition to jewlery, scarves, and countless paper goods and Etsy was wise to tap into its creative customer base. 

The finalists for Etsy's promotional video conference produced videos that are on message, benefit-oriented, and strike at the emotional center of gravity that's at the core of the Etsy brand.  Check them out for yourself and vote for your favorite at tv.esty.com.

How Not to Use Facebook

MARTINSBURG - The popular online social networking site Facebook helped lead to an alleged burglar's arrest after he stopped check his account on the victim's computer, but forgot to log out before leaving the home with two diamond rings.

via www.journal-news.net

Needless to say, Jonathan Parker won't be writing about his social media best practices anytime soon.

Southwest Continues to Delight Me

It's sad that people's customer service expectations continually decline.  I understand staffing a world-class customer service team is expensive and being customer-centric organization takes a lot of work.  That's why I love brands that "get it" when it comes to customer service, like Southwest Airlines.

Southwest always finds ways to delight me.  Sometimes it's the ability to change flights without paying a fee.  Other times it's the mostly friendly flight attendants and gate agents.  Today it's the phone system.

Like almost every customer service phone number these days Southwest has an automated system.  What's nice is I didn't have to wait though five minutes of prompts and press ten buttons -- or just keeping pressing "0" over and over again until I break the system -- to get into the queue to talk a real person.  I simply waited through 15 seconds of a voice recording and was immediately told I could wait on the line for representative.

This was a great start but I had to wait to actually speak to someone.  Some companies tell you how long the wait will be so you know what to expect but Southwest goes one step further -- they offer to call you back!  So instead of waiting on hold for 20 minutes I could go back to what I'm supposed to do (work) and someone will CALL ME in 16-26 minutes.

Sure it would be nice to call and get a person right away but I know that's not always possible.  Southwest does the next best thing.