Seinfeld on Marketing: Loyalty programs

Let’s face it; your loyalty program may not be fostering loyalty. In fact, if done incorrectly, your punch card or exclusive discounts and offers may be actually hurting you. Take for example this Seinfeld episode where Elaine it trying to earn a free submarine sandwich at Atomic Sub:

(Elaine is digging into her purse)
ELAINE: Oh, I [...]

Off the Topic: Blog search terms

What is the weirdest search engine term that somebody has used to find your blog?
My weirdest search terms on my marketing blog (which aren’t too weird):

changing a hubcap Pontiac Vibe
bathrooms in Disneyland
I heart my wife
the fugitive the one armed man

I bet that some of you have some very unusual search terms that people have used [...]

Passing the marketing baton

One of the many benefits of word of mouth is that you have a sales force of evangelists that is ready and willing to extol the greatness that this is your company. The downside is that evangelists may not always say what you would want them to say.
What I mean by this [...]

Seinfeld on Marketing: Using Comparisons

What do you do if someone is unfamiliar with your product or service and you market something that must be experienced (like a massage or skydiving) or is highly technical for the non-user (like SEO or biometric security products)? How might you explain your product or service to someone who is unfamiliar?
Let’s look to [...]

Do you have a “Chief Apology Officer”?

Let’s face it. If you’re in business, there’s going to be at least some problems. That’s business. So what do you do when things go wrong?
Southwest Airlines has what has been dubbed as a “Chief Apology Officer”. In reality he is Fred Taylor, Senior Manager of Proactive Customer Service Communications. (Listen [...]

What it takes

Why give out coupons hoping for loyalty in return when what it takes is for customers to have sustained, memorable experiences with your brand?
Why play musical chairs with the organizational chart when what it takes is a dedicated, “show-and-tell” type of leadership from the top?
Why motivate employees with cash bonuses when what it takes is [...]

Someday

It’s amazing how effortlessly we throw around the word “someday” (I’m no exception). With little or no thought, we lazily relegate “create a business plan”, “changing the batteries in the smoke alarm”, “update the menu items for my patrons” and “lose 15 pounds” to the black hole of all lists – the [...]

Seinfeld on Marketing

Anyone who knows me well knows that I watch way too much Seinfeld. So much so that many times during a conversation with someone I remark, “Hey, that reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Kramer are…” Basically it’s a curse.
We’ll that’s all about to change. I have decided to use [...]

Ross the Intern meets the Subservient Chicken

Question: What do you get when you cross the internship of Jay Leno’s Ross the Intern with the interactive obedience of Burger King’s Subservient Chicken?
Answer: You get Trevor from the latest social media experiment from Mentos.
Trevos is a student at the University of Cincinnati and is a summer intern for Mentos. On [...]

To bad mouth or compliment your competition? That is the question.

Thanks to Lord Brar for this one.
Check out this photo of three airlines in India that are using billboards to slug it with each other (Read from bottom to top):
[DISCLAIMER: I removed a watermark for DesignerMinds.com from the bottom billboard because I felt it was distracting and confusing. Click here to see the original image.]
Competition [...]