Category archive: Marketing

Monday, February 27, 2006

Overstock.com CEO plays dirty - allegedly

Patrick Byrne, CEO of embattled Overstock.com, looks like a younger, more innocent version of Tim Russert. According to Consumerist.com, looks are deceiving, and Byrne’s business tactics are anything but engaging - unless by ‘engaging’ you mean ‘engag[ing] in a systematic campaign of intimidation targeting dissenting journalists’. Allegedly!

EA Podcast No 2: Perez Hilton

When I think of emergent branding, I think of Perez Hilton. Born Mario Lavandeira, the Miami native decided that, after a spell as an actor, he’d try to make some money doing something he was really nuts about: taking to the web with a one man show named in quasi-homage to Paris Hilton. If she could be famous for being famous, surely he, Perez Hilton, could be famous for doling out online scoops about the escapades of her and her fellow celebrities.

Lo and behold, Perez has gone and done it, building his one man online show into a brand of his own - it emerged from everything he did, no overpaid Madison Avenue ‘brand strategists’ necessary.

How strong is his brand? Strong enough to bring in even more readers than the weekly celebrity magazines. Strong enough to pay his rent in New York and LA. Strong enough to get him showered with free clothes from the likes of Ben Sherman, VIP trips to Sundance, Amsterdam, Hollywood awards parties, and all the hottest hangouts on both coasts. Strong enough that, as well as counting Paris and contemporaries like Lindsay Lohan as readers, Perez is now hanging out with them in ‘real life’. Strong enough to be regarded as a threat by PR flacks and other celeb bloggers who don’t like to be beaten at their own game by a shameless upstart. (Gawker threw the term ‘scum’ Perez’s way recently; surely nothing to do with the consistently higher traffic he is able to pull with far less investment and resource behind him than the Nick Denton-backed operation.)

The offline extension of the one man show has been something spectacular to behold; Perez may not like the word ‘blog’, but the network effect of the blogosphere has pushed the life of this self-proclaimed media whore and entrepreneur into lucrative overdrive.

I called Perez in LA yesterday, from my home in London, to ask him about his new reality TV show; the real reason he’s so harsh on Nicole Richie; the legal threats from Colin Ferrell, Britney Spears, and Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, and the utter explosion of his self-made career as figurehead of “Hollywood’s most hated website”. To quote the man himself, “I’m glad I didn’t say anything I’ll regret!” You be the judge of that.

Engagement Alliance Podcast No 2: Perez Hilton - Download this podcast (size: 23MB, run time: 28:20)

Links to the people, blogs, companies, and articles mentioned in this podcast:

"EA Podcast No 2: Perez Hilton" continued...

"Your call should be important to us, but it's not"

That’s the title of a New York Times story on the weakness of customer service via telephone.  The piece links to Get Human, a website which sets out principles for the right ways for companies to interact with customers, encourages visitors to rate their experiences (the site is to issue a monthly best-and-worst list), and publishes many more secret codes unearthed by members of the movement. As of last week, the ever-expanding cheat sheet offered cut-through-the-automation tips for nearly 400 companies.

As the article says of the often maddening, unproductive telephone systems:

It would be funny if it weren’t so depressing — and such bad business. Countless chief executives pledge to improve their company’s products and services by listening to the “voice of the customer.” Memo to the corner office: Answer the phone! How can companies listen to their customers if those customers have such a hard time reaching a human being when they call?

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Engagement Alliance Podcast No 1: Ristretto Roasters

Ristretto Roasters is a café and artisanal coffee roasting company that sells small-batch, super-premium coffee hand roasted by Din Johnson. It’s a great example of a small business that was founded on passion and is thriving, all while offering excellent value - amazing coffee, superb baked goods, free wifi, and a comfortable place to conduct business or bring the kids. (Check out the Ristretto Roasters fan blog for a small sample of the reviews their customers are putting online.)

*

From my home in London, England, I called Johnson’s wife and co-captain at Ristretto, Nancy Rommelmann, last night in Portland, Oregon to talk about Ristretto: how it started, how Din roasts the coffee, where he sources the beans, and how great it is for him to be channelling his passion for roasting the perfect batch of coffee into a living. (Din was actually roasting the beans, which means no interruptions, not even for podcasts.) We talked for just over thirty minutes; for the coffee buffs interested in listening, all of the hardcore java-related content - including Nancy’s outrage over a Starbuck’s employee’s contention that “Ethiopian coffee is just bitter” - comes at the beginning of the conversation.

Engagement Alliance Podcast No 1: Nancy Explains It All - Download this podcast

Links to the people, blogs, companies, and articles mentioned in this podcast:

"Engagement Alliance Podcast No 1: Ristretto Roasters" continued...

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Re-invigorating bars and eateries in the online age

New Media Age editor Michael Nutley - who I deal with professionally and also on a friendly basis (we have a mutual friend in Engagement Alliance advisory board member Adriana Cronin-Lukas) - has a surprisingly negative post on the NMA website. The headline proclaims:

Online shopping damages specialist retailers

The piece talks about how the increase in online socialising is hurting the revenues of restaurants and bars. I couldn’t resist dropping Mike an email about this, and here’s what I had to say in response to the piece and his headline. 

"Re-invigorating bars and eateries in the online age" continued...