Category archive: Marketing

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Blogs are business

Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters company, has a blogging CEO, Clare Hart. Euan Semple points to Hart’s latest post, which should ring some bells for those in business:

Factiva prepared a Business Terms index for The Financial Times Deutschland throughout 2005. We saw the term “blog” rise from 9th out of the 45 words we were tracking in January across the German media, and move to number 1 by the end of 2005. As the article points out, the term “blogs” was the most widely mentioned business term in December above terms like Risk Management, Crisis Management, Corporate Governance, Turnaround, ERP and Wikipedia.

This was the German press.  When applying the Business Terms Index across all of Factiva’s sources, the term “blog” moved from number 4 in January to number 1 in December 2005.

Adriana Cronin-Lukas, who is on our advisory board and whose Big Blog Company is an EA-approved supplier of blog consulting services, is also a risk management expert. If you suspect that gives her an edge when it comes to teaching her clients how to eliminate or reduce the risks associated with blogging, you’d be correct.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Stormhoek and social lubrication

Here’s a great quotation (via SMLXL) from Jason Korman of Stormhoek wine, uttered during a podcast conversation with Johnnie Moore and James Cherkoff.

We’ve had a lot of trade press recently. It tends to focus on the free samples to bloggers but they misunderstand what we’re trying to do. It’s like going into a bar and buying someone a drink. You do it not to give them a free drink, but to start a conversation. All we’ve done is use our product as a way to start conversations with people. That’s what marketing today is about: conversations with people. We’re lucky to have a product that is a social lubricant.

Conversing with potential customers via the blogosphere helped Stormhoek to double sales in less than twelve months. Stormhoek is now launching in the US by supplying wine for 100 Dinners in 100 Days - dinners, large and small, given by bloggers. 

Boloco CEO John Pepper: An engaging example

In Boston, there is a chain of restaurants called Boloco (formerly ‘The Wrap’). When Boloco discontinued the roasted vegetables that were on their menu, a customer named Ben wrote to the CEO to complain. The CEO, John Pepper, actually wrote back to him. What follows is a shining example of great customer service. 

"Boloco CEO John Pepper: An engaging example" continued...

Friday, February 10, 2006

The c-word

No, not that one.

Consumer is an industrial-age word, a broadcast-age word. It implies that we are all tied to our chairs, head back, eating ‘content’ and crapping cash.

So sayeth Doc Searls. I’m sure there is room for debate here, but I have found it nearly impossible to use that particular c-word since I read this. (The quotation was also well-employed by Jeff Jarvis, former president and creative director of Advance.net, Condé Nast’s online arm, when he wrote about his Dell hell customer service experience for the Guardian.)

The business case for free wifi

I would love to be at Demo. Or at least I thought I would, until I read this:

After an evening and morning at DEMO in Phoenix, my only observation is:

Great companies. Too bad there is no Internet access here so that we can write about them.

No access in the hotel rooms, no access in the main hall. Only a few lucky people who are allowed into the press room can get on the Internet. I feel like a prisoner.

There is a great story here. 700 people. New innovative companies. Buzz.

"The business case for free wifi" continued...