ECMW

If you log onto http://www.TheBorgata.com The Borgata hotel, casino and leisure complex in Atlantic City, the website says “Take me to my happy place” just above the menu of things to do there. 

Only six words, but shows a real understanding of how to see yourself through your customer’s eyes and be clear on the part you are offering to play in their lives. 

Starbucks positions itself a The Third Place (a respite between home and work). The Borgata presents itself as ‘My’ Happy Place (more personal and also a lot clearer as a proposition than ‘The Third Place’, which means nothing to most people and is a bit pseud-y, to be honest). So, what part do you play in your customers’ lives? What place are you, from their perspective? How do you fit into their lives? This is the new marketing. It’s not about you as a product or service or company. It’s about you as a piece of someone else’s jigsaw, and about how you make them feel.  

http://www.PhilDourado.com Phil Dourado

There’s increasing evidence that going for the extremes – being bold – gains more attention and loyalty from customers. In over-crowded markets, bold stands out. If you want ‘fans’ instead of customers, then to gain that kind of extreme reaction you need to provoke strong emotion. And for that, you need to be bold, not bland. 

Richard Branson, who will be with us at European Customer Management World next month, knows all about being bold.  His latest bold venture is to take the brand literally out of this world. He has teamed up with aviation designer and inventor of ‘Spaceship One’, Burt Rutan, to launch Virgin Galactic.   

If all goes to plan anyone with £100,000 to spare can fly Virgin Galactic into space (or you can use your Virgin frequent flyer miles!) 

So, just how bold is your business?  Take part in my short online survey, which is part of the research for my new book with my co-author Andy Milligan, called Bold Business.  All participants receive a summary of the survey findings. Click here to take the Bold Business survey.   

Richard Branson will be interviewed by One Minute Manager author Ken Blanchard in the Annual ECMW Keynote on Wednesday 14th May   

Shaun Smith will be running a Case Study & Q & A in The Customer Experience Summit, Monday 12th May, and will be chairing the Brand & Marketing Innovation Track of ECMW 2008 on Wednesday 14th May.  

More detail on this link: European Customer Management World 

Back to the story of my bike. I wanted a racing bike suitable for triathlon, I thought it would be easy but my experience was bewildering.  After visiting dozens of retailers, my enthusiasm had waned and I was drifting into frustration and despair.  Then I found Freddie and the cycling emporium in
Barnsley that changed my life.  Freddie greeted me as I walked in and stated the obvious – ‘you need a bike that fits’.  Three hours later I was lighter of pocket but well on the way to having a fabulous new bike. 

So how did Freddie succeed where all others had failed?  Freddie really knew his stuff, he had a big range in stock and he had the technology to measure me up properly. All this is important but not unusual and many other retailers offer the same.  The difference was that Freddie made an effort to get me to engage with his company, the company who made the bike I wanted to buy and with cycling in general.  I was hooked.  I would not go anywhere else and (as here) would recommend Race Scene to everyone.  For those familiar with Net Promoter Score (http://www.netpromoter.com) I give them a 10.