Aaron Gerdes: Category communication

Your Brand = Your UI

aarongerdes@gmail.com (Aaron Gerdes) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:10:00 -0700

You brand is defined by the consumer, not by you – I think everyone can agree with that. In the same breath, most marketing pundits will add the fact that you can no longer control your brand – an assertion I am not sure goes hand in hand with the first one.

You brand gets defined by the UI (User Interface) of your company, the interface through which your customers and prospects interact with your company. That interface gets determined by pre-sale activities – i.e., advertising, retail layout, retail personnel attitude, telemarketing, sales people’s knowledge of the industry, etc -, as well as immediate post-sale activities – i.e., packaging, ease of use to set up the products, available help options, etc. -, and the long term post sale activities – i.e., telephone support, return policies, warranty policies, on-site support, etc.

Francois at Emergence Marketing totally nails what I was getting at in my earlier post about how the lines are blurring between marketing, product development, and user experience (UX)!

Keep Your Head Up During Crunch Time

aarongerdes@gmail.com (Aaron Gerdes) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:19:00 -0700

I’ve heard that a flock of geese always has one member with its head up, “standing guard”, while the others eat.

It’s “crunch time” at your organization. You’re a few days (read: two weeks) away from launching a new web app. Who’s got their head up?

Who’s prepping contacts to sign up on launch? Who sees that there’s a new beta opportunity? When your competitors blog that they’re launching early, or release that new killer new simplification, who alerts the group?

Keep Your Head Up During Crunch Time

aarongerdes@gmail.com (Aaron Gerdes) — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 11:19:00 -0700

I’ve heard that a flock of geese always has one member with its head up, “standing guard”, while the others eat.

It’s “crunch time” at your organization. You’re a few days (read: two weeks) away from launching a new web app. Who’s got their head up?

"Facts" & Focus Groups

aarongerdes@gmail.com (Aaron Gerdes) — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 19:01:00 -0700

There are few situations where focus groups provide a good return on investment for small or medium-sized businesses. In the past I’ve held this was due to some combination of the Hawthorne, Pygmalion, and placebo effect — people tend to give the sort of answers that they believe are expected, especially in formal settings, where their beliefs about what answers are expected often change.

Malcolm Gladwell recently reviewed Charles Tilly’s book “Why” in the New Yorker. “Why” provides some interesting ideas about how we present reasons and why we present the ones we do. This review sparked a great comment from one of Gladwell’s readers on the how Tilly’s ideas in “Why” may apply to market research.

Read the review here and the comment here.

The essence is this: There are four categories of reasons that we give: Conventions, which are “conventionally accepted explanations” (Accidents happen), Stories, a re-telling of the cause and effect from your unique perspective, Codes, or high-level institutionalized conventions & procedural rules, and Technical Accounts, or expertise-driven explanations.

The insightful commenter notices that the nature of market research compels people to move answers that sound like conventions, and doesn’t encourage the telling of stories.

Which kind of reason do you prefer to hear in feedback given to you? Why?