QR Codes are everywhere from business cards to movie posters. I encourage those who sell physical products where you have the opportunity to include a label and where there is any sort of authentic backstory or marketing spin on the product to think about using a QR Code on the product labeling and integrating it with a social media campaign, email marketing and a dedicated website. There are an endless range of products with which you can tell a positive story and make a further connection between consumer and brand post purchase. From organic food to clothing you have an opportunity to engage your customers when they are considering their purchase, but even more post purchase. Check out how the Detroit Red Wings engaged consumers of programs at a home hockey game.Using a shoe company as an example, the amount of marketing support that goes into hyping a shoe product pre-purchase is amazing. However once a consumer purchases the shoes the connection to the brand is certainly felt in wearing the product, but the connection to the hype and the ability to make the customer feel warm and fuzzy about their purchase is lost. Why not include a little toe tag on the shoe that has a QR Code and informs the consumer that purchasing the shoe is just the beginning, they are about to enter the “insert shoe company family“. The shoe company could then use the QR Code to link to both a social site (Facebook) where there was an exclusive group for shoe owners only. Within the group the company could offer new videos, product information, create local events and best of all cross-sell and upsell products. Taking the idea of an integrated marketing campaign further, by using the date the QR Code was activated as a guide, the company could trigger an email marketing program that culminated with a coupon to get the next pair of shoes after “x” months. This would allow for the company to keep consumers connected to the brand for the months after purchase and give them an opportunity to become a repeat customer by giving them a feeling of exclusivity with the VIP coupon. You could even combine this with my advice to Non Profits regarding “Sponsored Stories.”

If your product is even more unique and you make it yourself or the backstory is genuine and compelling, you can and should find a way to use QR Codes to drive customers and potential customers to those stories. With websites being so cost effective to create and consumers rewarding brands who give them a reason to feel connected, you have the right ingredients to create brand experiences for your customers post purchase. I would highly recommend you check out some of the amazing way companies and individuals have used Moo cards to create labels and tags that are attached to products. With a little creativity and some technical savvy you could create a stand out product tag that also linked to your Facebook campaign which was of course integrated to your microsite and email marketing.

Using technology to help you connect your customers post purchase will make your level of repeat customer and therefore lifetime value of each customer that much more attractive. For more information on creating your own QR Codes here is a good start. Here are five unique uses for QR codes from Mashable

Your comments and thoughts are always appreciated…So are Retweets and Facebook likes or shares.

Post photo credit - http://www.flickr.com/photos/osde-info/4582939293/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Brent Leary recently wrote a post on the launch of Hearsay, the new social media company from former Facebooker Clara Shih (also author of The Facebook Era) and I thought it was most interesting to note that companies like State Farm and Farmer’s Insurance Group have already begun using the service. I’ll give a little upfront on Hearsay and then explain why I think it has found a real sweet spot that is missing in the Social CRM, Social Dashboard arena and why it makes for a perfect for tool for franchises and other similar business that have a head office and distributed local establishments.Hearsay says it is “the first social media platform for businesses with many local branches or reps.” It was built so that businesses and associations that have a head office location that wants to centrally control brand message can do so while still allowing local establishments of that business to leverage the social web with their customers, partners and prospects. This is especially important in regulated industries like finance, insurance and healthcare. With many local businesses and individual employees (including finance and insurance professionals) using social media with little to no oversight and when compliance is at issue you can understand why there is a need for corporate head offices to take some action and control.

With the ability to set corporate policies on social media accounts across the locally distributed businesses, companies have the ability to remain compliant while still allowing their employees to engage on social media. Further, by centrally distributing marketing content but allowing it to be localized by region, companies can run integrated campaigns and have real metrics upon which to build ROI and improve future campaigns. For the latest on Hearsay visit their Facebook page of course.

This is a big development in the area of Social CRM and Social Media Management because it really hits in a sweet spot, (that of a central command center for the enterprise that still allows for localization) that was missing a top notch product. While I can’t speak to the effectiveness of Hearsay in practice I can speak to the fact that it comes at a time when businesses in regulated markets are struggling for how to embrace social media in a way that is not cold and corporate while at the same time recognizing the ongoing usage by employees with very little corporate involvement. It may seem like a stretch but what if my broker “likes” a post on Facebook from a publicly traded company or favorites one on Twitter, did she just recommend that I buy that stock? While not every example is that dramatic there is a need for HQ to put controls in place and at the same time allow for individual usage. Hearsay seems to fit right in that niche.

Further, the ability to run a national social media campaign with localized content really gives companies the ability to tie social media metrics into their marketing and sales dashboards. The localization angle is important for many reasons. Of course language is among the top localization traits but it will be in the way that companies allow their local teams to utilize corporate assets where I think companies will reap the most benefit both in brand control and ultimately use of best practices.

Hearsay is an interesting company to watch and I think will be one that many companies – whether they be large enterprises, franchise or simply in regulated industries – will be looking to for unification and centralization of their social media marketing.

Check out the introductory video from Hearsay below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsupAdjvt5s

I was fortunate enough to hear Lee Lefever of Common Craft speak recently at Mesh Marketing in Toronto. He spoke eloquently about his business (a fascinating story) and described that he has been able to achieve success through what he termed “Mass Democratization”. It is a world where cheap tools combine with a home based business and a web only audience to produce a real revenue generating and full time income stream.

Lee has a fascinating story and there is a full post coming on his “Explainer Network” but I wanted to focus on a few of the many great communication takeaways from his presentation.

Starting with the fact that expectations are changing, there are too many sources of information and we care about too much stuff to digest it all, Lee and his team realized that the key to getting increasingly complex messages across to an increasingly disinterested audience was short web videos in “Plain English”.

The presentation contained some brief looks at some of the videos Common Craft have done and a discussion of the fine line between giving too much away on YouTube and wanting to license some of that same content but at the end of the day the key point was how much time is spent on the script and exact messaging of a three minute (or less) video. You need to really have discerned what you want to get across to a tight message and then let someone like Lee help you shape that into a package of ideas.

An amazing statistic Lee quoted a study at the University of Western Ontario (I would love the link if anyone has it) where by subjects both read information about a product and watched a short video about a product – after 72 hours only 10% of the readers could meaningfully recall what they read but 62% of the video watchers could recall something meaningful.

It seems to be a common theme for me but if you have something worth getting attention for then find great professionals to work with who can help you shape that message into something people will pay attention to.

Photo credit – http://www.flickr.com/photos/walleyjm/

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A1l4Jn6EY

If you live in Canada I certainly do not need to tell you about the level of anticipation, excitement, passion and collective hopes that were riding on yesterday’s men’s Olympic hockey team selection. For my non Canuck readership the things I can compare it to include the lead up to a national election or for the techies, speculation on the next product from Apple all with coverage more intense than that of the flight of Balloon Boy. Just the selection of the team is a national moment and one which I’ve decided to turn into 5 business lessons you can learn from Steve Yzerman and crew.

So here goes my attempt at 5 business lessons from Canada’s Olympic Hockey Team selection.

1. The Roster Announcement – Build Buzz By Being Quiet

Of course not everyone is able to garner the media attention that Hockey Canada achieved but one of the major take aways from Yzerman and crew is that regardless of the amount of speculation (again think Apple Tablet hype) surrounding the Team Canada roster there was a set time and place where the team would be revealed and nobody from Hockey Canada would remotely comment on the roster before yesterday’s press conference. The secrecy only lead to more people talking about the press conference and just like an Apple media event, the take away is that giving pre-interviews or sharing tidbits prior to launch might be appealing, if you can build a buzz by setting a firm date and time for the magic reveal, then allow your launch (roster announcement) to truly be an event by sticking to your guns and not letting loose lips sink your ship.

Take Away: Pick a launch date and stick to it, it might be tempting to talk to reporters or analysts about your product pre-launch but nobody’s interested in the launch of a product that you’ve already essentially launched via a collection of bits and pieces in multiple spots. Build a buzz and make your reveal the main event.

2. Players In Uniform – Show The Product & Have Media Available

People all across Canada were not only excited about today’s roster announcement but were instantly given a jolt of national pride by seeing all the selected players pictured in their red and white Team Canada jerseys. I can’t tell you the number of times I saw news orgs using these photos and of course they were flying around the blogosphere.

In the same way that people were clamoring to not only hear the Canadian roster but actually get a glimpse at what it looked like, you too should never launch a product with a flashy video or presentation and not have product shots and other media ready for press and blogger consumption. In fact, the more you can provide, the better. Taking a page from the playbook (and they’ve provided a good one) of the smart people @Hubspot, you want to provide as much media and as many inbound hooks as possible. Dropping a press release is simply not good enough, you should be prepared with images, a podcast (why not use video), something for YouTube, a blog post, at least a few Tweets (try CoTweet for the ability to allow multiple people to Tweet under your corporate identity – there is power in using different voices) and at least one custom landing page on your website.

Take-Away: If you want people – reporters, bloggers, customers etc – to talk or write about your product (and why wouldn’t you) then make it easy for them. By giving them media to share with their audience you not only make it easy for them to tell your story, but as importantly you get to have way more control over the way (wouldn’t you rather people see your high quality product shots than something a blogger shot on his iPhone) in which that story is told.

3. Balance Your Roster – Surround Yourself With Greatness

Looking up and down the Team Canada roster one of the things that becomes apparent is that there is a mix of young (Sidney Crosby) and older (Scott Niedermayer) talent, players with pure speed + finesse and those who don’t mind grinding it out with some physical play. The team is comprised of not only terrific players but also players that compliment each other’s skill-set and looking at your own management team, why should it be any different?

While the Olympic roster needed to be set by a certain date and is not supposed to change, in business you want to always be evaluating your team and it is important to get the right people on that team and get the wrong people off it – more on that in Jim Collins “Good To Great”.

Taking the analogy a step further, although the Team Canada alternates (in case of injury) have not been named yet, it is safe to assume that a couple of those spots will be filled by young up and coming players like 19 year olds Steven Stamkos and John Tavares. These guys are not quite ready to crack the roster today, but they’ll be counted on in 2014 and so giving them some experience now is in both the team and their best interests That same idea easily applies to business and your management succession planning. Evaluate your company and find out who your future 50 goal scoters are, who will you want at the table in the future? It’s not only an important exercise to identify these people but it’s more important to let them know you recognize their talent and to offer them experiences, training and other ‘perks’ that not only benefit them but will pay off for you and your company down the road when they’re ready to fill the shoes of someone heading out the door via free agency (i.e. another job), waivers (i.e. necessity when they’re not right anymore) or retirement. By recognizing this young talent today you signal to them and the rest of your organization that you’ll always reward top talent and will both cut the risk of losing that talent and have the benefit of more fruitful recruiting of other young budding superstars.

Take-Away: You can’t do it alone in either hockey or business and in both it’s extremely important to ensure your team has a mix of levels of experience and skill-sets. It is also vital to your business that you too identify your future superstars and start bringing them along today, in doing so you will be positioning your company as one that not only can challenge for your equivalent of a gold medal today but (like Team Canada) is a contender each and every time you compete.

4. Everyone’s A Critic – It’s Best To Have A Passionate Base

In the months leading up to todays roster announcement everyone had an opinion on who should wear the Maple Leaf and who should be watching from their couch. In the weeks from yesterday’s selection all the way to beyond the Olympics (especially if Canada does not win gold) the decision of Yzerman and Hockey Canada will be as hotly debated as the ongoing US healthcare reform.

My point being that whether you’re Barack Obama making decisions of national importance or Steve Yzerman picking a team that feels nationally important, people will always second guess you or be quick to point out what they would have done differently and it’s not necessarrily a bad thing. First, remember why you became the boss. At some point wasn’t it so the buck would stop with you and you’d be able to stand up and say this is my decison and I stick behind it? Second, I can’t imagine anything better than having passionate consumers (fans), employees and other stake holders. The people who comment on blogs, review your service on Yelp or converse with you via Twitter are your equivalent of Canada’s army of hockey fans – these people are the ones that will be first to tell you when you piss them off or they disagree with a decision you’ve made, but they’re also fiercely loyal and given the alternative of having people who just don’t care trust me when I tell you that you’d rather have a few pieces of opinionated feedback than a business that is full of yes men and women.

Take-Away: Creating a brand where your customers, employees and other stake holders are passionate is one of the biggest achievements you can strive for. With passion comes opinion and while you might not always appreciate being second guessed remember that it comes with the territory and it’s a thousand times better than nobody giving a damn about you or your brand.

5. Go For Gold – Second Place Is The First Loser

While we might be ok telling our kids that there are no winners or losers in life, let’s be honest and say that there is indeed a scorecard in hockey, life and business. Someone is going to win the gold medal (or be the global market leader in your space) and if you’re going to go to the trouble of putting together a team it should be with the goal of being number one. Yes I am sure there are teams (and businesses) that are content or even thrilled at just getting a medal, but ask any elite athlete (CEO) what they’re striving for each time they lace’em up and the answer will always be the same – “I (we) play to win”. Your business is no different, you should get up each morning with the goal of taking one step more towards the goal of market leadership.

The other major point to note here is that while Hockey Canada has not always returned with a gold medal that has never changed the goal for the next Olympics. Again this applies directly to business in that the recognized leader in a space today is not necessarily going to dominate that space forever – heck of the 500 companies on the Fortune 500 in 1995, less than half remain on the list.

Take-Away: Always go for the gold and strive to do better each day – you may not win today’s competition but you’ll certainly lose tomorrow’s if you’re not in the mindset of a champion.

I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t end this post in true Canadian fashion and let you know that it’s gold or bust for our boys in Vancouver so Go Canada Go!

Thanks for reading, your comments, feedback and Twitter retweets (here is the tinyurl – http://tinyurl.com/ybvmwz7) are always appreciated.

I have to admit that I quite enjoyed my own open letter to Starbucks, so I thought I’d bring back the format in this my open letter to Motorola.

Dear Motorola,

I don’t work for you and to be honest I haven’t owned one of your products for a while, but I know enough to know that you are undoubtedly the leader in bluetooth headsets for mobile phones.  I say this not to flatter you but to remind you that your market dominance is always at stake and that you can and should use your power in the market to continue to dominate. To that end, I’m here with a little suggestion for you and it goes something like this.

With all the states, provinces and other jurisdictions enacting laws that prohibit the use of cellular phones without a handsfree option there are going to be a mass amount of people who need to get in the market for your products quickly. Now of course you could take the traditional approach and offer some deep discounts right around the same time these various pieces of legislation pass, and I suggest you do. But here is where I think you can use your deep pockets to both make yourself look good and garner new customers. First why don’t you reach out to every law enforcement agency that is going to have to hand out tickets and offer them a coupon for $25 off any of your bluetooth headsets and $50 off any of your in-car setups. Talk about Guerrilla Marketing, you end up making the boys and girls in blue your street team, literally! Now while, we’re at it, why not tell the same police and governments that you will do a joint awareness campaign with them and get them to foot 50% of the marketing campaign that you were going to run anyway?

Nobody (just ask Maria Shriver) is going to be happy getting pulled over for using their phone, but I’m pretty sure that those same people will be picking up a bluetooth device sometime shortly after getting the ticket. So there is a completely new customer base up for grabs and I’m happy to give you what I think is a leg up. Since you don’t pay me and I’m quite confident that I’m not going to get any swag in the mail from you as a result of this suggestion I’ll let you do the math on the budget and break-even for this type of campaign, but I’m a betting man and I’m betting you can’t go wrong.

So with that, I thank you for your time and if you’re feeling generous after reading this letter I am happy to take any and all payments for the marketing campaign suggestions contained herein. You know where to reach me.

Michael G. Cohen