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C-to-B Marketing & Social Media Tips to Buy Vacuum

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I thought myself very clever over at Queen D’s blog yesterday where she had crowd sourced whether to buy an iPhone 4 of wait for 5 and all we spoke about was the iPad2. I shared in comments I was going to implement a little C-to-B marketing to crowd source and social media my need for a new vacuum.

You know how I love to coin words; I went to look and saw two previous mentions of C-to-B marketing (yet it’s not a trendy term). And, so, this effort is to replace my 10-year-old Kenmore canister which finally burned its motor (great hardworking machine).

I’m researching as a consumer using other consumers and asking businesses for their recommendations. I’m using social media only as my due diligence channel, and trying to avoid websites in the beginning. So, to recap, the purchase decision includes a consumer-to-business strategy, a consumer-to-consumer strategy, identifying Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for vacuum products, while absorbing word-of-mouth-tips from total strangers. (This is more fun than buying a car last year.)

My Expectation

  • Want direct interaction with a vacuum manufacturer to give me its sales spiel.
  • Want consumer recommendations for what they’re using today and why they’re happy with product.
  • Want to see social media engagement with the products I’m researching.

The Research

Step 1: Crowd Source

Twitter. I posted a question on two Twitter accounts about brand, quality, price, and longevity. The tweeps responded well – six votes for Dyson,  two for Kirby and thumbs down for Hoover and Eureka.

I looked for Twitter accounts for Dyson, Hoover, Kirby, and Miele, a German brand. Only @MieleUSA has a Twitter account! I posed a question this evening (“why should I buy”), and may not get a response as it’s after business hours.

Facebook

** I posted a question to my personal and business pages. On the personal page, I got 7 replies (mostly for Dyson) and one response on the business page. People are loving the Dyson Animal. One peep said she loves her Miele (and I’d never heard of that German brand before!).

** I did a search for company Facebook pages for Kirby, Hoover, Dyson, and Miele USA. I found nothing!!

Google+

** I posted a question to all circles on this channel. I got back a glowing recommendation for Miele with a link to its site and a second comment that this peep has had a Miele for 10 years and loves it for its great quality and high-end manufacturing.

Websites

** I finally succumbed to one website review with all the vacuums in one place. I learned that upright vacuums are perfect for wall-to-wall carpeting while canister vacuums are best for hardwood floors, ceilings, walls, stairs, and furniture.  (I didn’t know that.)

Conclusions

** Crowd sourcing in advance of a purchase decision is the way to go for something as expensive as a vacuum. I learned I’m going to spend $300 to $500 to get a high-quality machine that lasts 10 years or I’ll suffer like one peep did with three less-than-quality models (Hoover and Eureka) in five years.

** The vacuum product makers are absolutely nowhere on social media! This is astonishing to me! There is ample opportunity for companies to engage with consumers on Facebook, especially, with something that is a staple for every household in the world. Where are the marketing departments? Where is the PR team to advise these companies they ought to engage with consumers?

** I learned enough from consumer-to-consumer marketing within two hours to direct my buy decision. I also got sound advice about using coupons at Bed, Bath & Beyond and shopping online (after I went to a physical store to touch and feel the product).

I’m disappointed with the businesses; appreciative of those peeps who took their time to provide opinions and point me to the store.  (Any last-minute recommendations before I shop?)

The Sales Lion Inspiration: Business Confidence

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Oh, man. I’m hot for this topic today. Thanks to Marcus Sheridan who deserves ALL the credit for what’s just below. Combing my reader to find some inspiration, I landed on The Sales Lion just this moment. And. Read. The. Whole. Post. With. Relish.

Marcus shares that he is the subject of a documentary and whilst filming he turned down a major inbound query that could’ve been a sale for his swimming pool company. The cameraman was befuddled, and Marcus shares that he was less than interested because he is not all things to all people. That caller needed a concrete company and not The Sales Lion (I don’t know if his pool company is called that or not).

Then Marcus takes it one notch further and asks his community to “promote yourself…come on…tell me about you as a blogger; do you know yourself; can you turn down a sale that’s not right for you?”

Marcus’s insight for the cameraman is that “you don’t know yourself or what you represent to be able to turn away business.”

Do you know yourself as a blogger?

Marcus is asking all of us to fess up to this question — if we can’t define who we are and what service we offer and to whom, then we will fail in business and in blogging. I love this hard knock question. Let me try, Marcus, to answer it here instead of in your comments section as you’ve invited. I encourage everyone to visit your house and try to do the same:

My business is public relations at its core. As I review the sphere, I see that I’m not traditional or typical. I cross boundaries squarely into marketing; in fact, I’m a chief marketing officer for one client and a marketing brand manager for another. That blend also includes new media which I’m challenged by every day to keep abreast of what’s new.

As a service business, I need to know my capabilities and expertise. There are few if any products I offer and when I do attempt to sell message mapping to clients for added value (and this is so critical), clients don’t understand the need or the worth.

That’s the other thing — knowing that what I offer is a specialty business and showing clients that value. New media has altered the perception of public relations, and many clients think they know how to DIY PR. Not so, and it’s a fine line to prove to clients they need my services.

Have I ever turned down business? Not really, but what I did do was turn down money.

Recently, I took on a client who wanted to pay me $20,000 monthly on retainer. They had no idea. I suggested something more palatable like $7,500 a month, and then I looked more closely at the business and knew I would reduce that retainer even further to a manageable and not over- promised, high-expectation budget. So, I knocked off another $4,000 and am proving that my team is worth more money at the end of the initial three-month engagement.

That example is as much a lesson as what Marcus shares in his blog post — are you confident enough in your talents to either turn away a valid sales lead or suggest a reduction in retainer until everyone is in sync?

Thank you, Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion, for this automatic inspiration!

 

What Is A Refugee?

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Today is World Refugee Day, and there is an organization, called USA for UNHCR that is working to raise awareness for the plight of refugees from across the globe. They’ve been fund-raising with the sale of $5 #BlueKey(s). Together the power of cause-related marketing is being executed to promote the fund-raising and sale of blue keys — I bought four and donated more to their cause. Cost is merely $5 each sold in the U.S. only.

An admirable woman I know, Shonali Burke, has begun working this this group and has implemented the broadest, most impressive social media campaign strategy I’ve seen in awhile. (I must give kudos to colleagues’ work.)

But, what is a refugee?

This word conjures up Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Madonna, George Clooney and Bono, among other celebrity faces hitting Sub-Saharan Africa and other poverty-stricken regions of the world to raise awareness of the problem that is so far removed from other corners of the world, yet so critical.

It’s truly easy to ignore this situation, isn’t it? To turn your cheek and resume remoting the channel changer? Do you remember Sally Struthers? No greater humanitarian back in the day, and she asked us for our money all the time. Who gave to her? Now’s your chance to rectify that and help the United Nations. You can convince yourself that the plight of these people does not affect you in the least. But, you’re wrong. Refugees come in all shapes and sizes and from all countries of the world.

Violence is an overriding factor that causes people to be uprooted from homes, villages, and comfort zones. Invaders, dictators, war, and poverty become issues for women and children who are victims of rape, violence, kidnap, and murder while husbands, fathers and sons watch helplessly the slaughter of their families.

The victims of the Haiti earthquake now living in shanty towns; are they considered refugees? Probably not, but their choice is to leave poverty and seek refuge in the Dominican or the U.S., but they can’t. Semantics.

For those people seeking asylum from various homelands, such as Iran, for example, to escape a dictatorial regime operated on the theme of Islamic fundamentalism, how shall we define them? Is asylum seeker a higher-end, more affluent and non-poverty oriented moniker for refugee? Semantics.

The UNHCR is one of the most respected not-for-profits across the globe. Its brand and credibility are second to none. America is the land of the free. So, free your vision from your immediate surroundings and open your heart to help and give. When you spend $5, those 500 pennies will be shared with people who believe $.25 is a treasure.

Please consider buying your #BlueKey right now, and when you do, look around. You do know a refugee you can touch in your life today; it’s just that you’ve never wrapped your head around how to define that word — migrant, immigrant, illegal alien, asylum seeker, refugee. It’s semantics, and regardless of the label you put on one another; we’re all human and each of us deserves a safe place to make a home.

 

Pushing the Sharp Edge of the PR Envelope

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I’m restless. There’s something brewing on the blogosphere and I can’t tap it. It’s a new energy driven by bloggers who are asking questions about the status quo; they’re pushing the envelope on common thought and traditional practice, and they’re encouraging people to improve, excel, respect, and change.

I can’t begin to capture it all here, but I need to cut loose with this observation and ask, “Is anyone following this train of thought in the least?”

We can count on Gini Dietrich at Spin Sucks, to consistently be leading edge and contribute to the tipping point on all things PR and marketing. Her blog has been a hot bed of debate about whether PR’s rubber is meeting the road, or whether marketing influence is driving the mother ship regardless of the influence of PR.

At Shakirah Dawud’s house, the comments are rich and she’s expecting me to write a blog post about my rant relating to PR and measurement. Numbers have always been PR’s nemesis; it’s how we used to be trained back in the day. Today, being more marketing savvy would do many a PR person good; add business sense to that equation, and voila, a star is born.

Shonali Burke has had a two-day running post (thank goodness the comments were not as high in count as Marcus The Sales Lion who fried my hard drive almost) about a bad PR pitch that disrespected her influence and social media reach.

And, Shonali has been implementing a #BlueKey campaign for global refugees igniting social media for her cause to earn 6,000 Blue Keys by June 20. The campaign is brilliant, the metrics are already impressive and amazing, and she’s got every channel burning up. (Major kudos to this woman for her absolutely should-be award-winning campaign still in its throes.)

I got a call today from a salesperson at a major corporation. She is familiar with my brand based on the work I do, although she was unsure what exactly I do. In the back of my mind, I’ve known that sales is the final frontier for PR, yet “marketing is in the way.” Heh. I’m not truly serious, it’s just that in my opinion, sales people are a brand and they represent a brand. They need to become representative of a brand and use public relations to build it, build community, build trust, and build reputation. PR is how that’s done, more often than not.

We spoke, and I spelled out a strategy that was heavy on LinkedIn and community building along with how we might incorporate nine touches with her new clients who don’t know she exists. Is that PR or marketing?

The lines have blurred so confusingly that I ought to write a message map about my offering. There’s lots I do; there’s more I don’t and that’s where you come in. Together we make a team; each of us is helping one another achieve some sort of goal — whether it’s building confidence, learning the ropes of social media, trying to find someone to visit on your next holiday, earning an invitation to Triberr, hiring someone to round out a team (I’ve hired three people off Twitter and sent business to another).

I wrote a post awhile back, We’re All Talking to Ourselves. It got many head nods and an ouch on the hand by major blogger. I’m raising this again because we who are in debate, casual conversation or heated discussion about the aforementioned have little luck raising the bar or changing the status quo until we get business on board to chime in. We’re spinning wheels, talking in circles, passing the head nod to the next one in line, and where’s the change? Those business owners who show dissent against PR rant and rave once and then disappear; no way can they enter the lion’s den and survive (heck, no one has skin that thick!).

Can you see why I’m restless, antsy, on edge, and trying to maintain balance as we all worry if we’re a Syrian Lesbian Blogger or Weiner? (Wanted to send a bit of link love to the best headline of the week.)

What say you? I’m all over the place; there’s a lot being fired up.

Heavy Metal, Teens & Marketing

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You know that jingle you’ll never get out of your head? Mine is “588-2300…EMPIRE!” It’s ingrained in my brain cells from years of waking up to WBBM-AM in Chicago after college. I know you have one, too, and so do your teenage kids.

Apparently, there’s a new study by Emory University scientists and neuro-economists (have you ever heard of a professional with these creds before?) showing the correlation to new music (read that metal) and brain response. Teen brains react positively to various tunes they hear, and according to the study, the popularity and commercial success of a song can be predicted. The study story appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Songs Stick in Teens’ Heads; Research Shows Hit Songs Activate Pleasure, Reward Centers in Adolescent Brains.”

Get this:

* “The researchers usually could tell from the strength of brain activity alone which songs would later sell at least 20,000 copies.

* Five songs in the teens’ neural top 10 sold more than 50,000 copies each.

* Three songs that were not among the top 10 eventually became gold records selling more than 500,000  copies.”

Apparently, there’s a burgeoning field “in which psychologists and economists are using fMRI medical scanners and EEG brain-wave monitors to probe the automatic judgments people make below the surface of awareness that help shape decisions including purchasing and political choices.”

OK, WOW!

Not so sure this research is akin to why the Empire carpet jingle will forever be engraved in my brain; however, it certainly gives one pause when you associate the ability to predict commercial popularity with the synapse of a teen’s brain.

  • As parents, we ought to be careful about how our kids are used as guinea pigs in science projects, especially if your kid’s brain becomes tapped as a major predictor of product success.
  • As marketers of music (could the science of scent be that far behind?), run to Emory University and engage their team of neuro-economists (how do you earn that title, anyway) to learn how you can predict the next gold record.
  • As advertisers, get the list of top 10 new bands and songs that elicit the strongest brain response (here are five) and get those tunes incorporated into all the interactive ads you can produce:
  1. Job for a Cowboy, “Knee Deep” (metal)
  2. Lucky Boys Confusion “Atari” (alternative)
  3. Underminded, “Bring on the Flood” (metal)
  4. Tricosta/Fat Joe, “Make it Rain”  (hip hop/rap)
  5. Locash Cowboys, “Boom Boom” (country)
  • As public relations professionals, can’t you just see the possibilities with this? The marriage of technology and science is producing a scourge of opportunity for everyone in our profession. The only way you can ignore it is to unplug, and that still means making music.

Whaddya think?

(image: zazzle)