United Breaks Guitars

Since I just finished dealing with Continental Airline's rudeness and bend-em-overness, I thought this word-of-mouth win was particularly outstanding. It's also a good proof of concept: No matter who you are, screwing over the little guy will end up smacking you like a bawling baby.

I'll let the YouTube description fill in some of the gaps, but definitely give this video a view (I've also included the contact info, websites, etc.).

Full Story: http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story... - In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didnt deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise. Follow me at http://twitter.com/DaveCarroll. Video Produced by Curve Productions of Halifax, http://www.curveproductionsinc.com.

Free as a business model, boobs as an objective

I've always been a big fan of "free." I'm the guy who cut the back cover off of dozens of would-be-valuable comic books so I could get a set of free GI Joe dog tags, a "collector's edition" Transformer, and, of course, X-ray specs.

No boobs were seen in the process of my adolescence.

Later in my life, "free" became more than just a passion, it became a business model. I started a magazine specifically geared toward providing me with free stuff. And it worked. As long as I could supply credible reviews, along with proof that they were being read by the buying public, then I got to keep all manner of free goodies.

After all these years of being the Friar of Free, it's refreshing to see it catching on with the rest of the world. Books, blog entries (ironic), articles in "Wired" ... the Free Movement is everywhere.

So how can you use free to help boost your business? Take a look at how Google did it.

Google gives it away
When Google wanted to expand its brand and create greater user awareness, one of the approaches it used was to offer its search engine for free to website owners. Not only did they let people embed the search engine at no charge, they also paid them three cents per search conducted.

Google benefited in three ways.

First, they gained more and more brand recognition as web users found the Google logo on various sites and came to associate it with "search." Second, the data generated by user searches helped Google to refine and improve their product, making it even better. And third, Google's targeted text-based ads reached a more refined and specific audience, making the ad service more attractive to prospective advertisers. Google thought of this approach as being similar to the network television model, where major networks use affiliates to broadcast their programming (though the fee structure is different).

The lesson
Take a look around and see what services or products you offer that could, potentially, be offered for free. Take the time to figure out how giving it away can benefit you. Maybe you can improve your product using feedback from your clientelle. Maybe you can build brand recognition. Or maybe you can use your freebies to create a demand for your paid products or services. Consider Gillette.

When the disposable razor was invented, the decision was made to give them away for free. That way, there would be a market saturation, wherein tons of bristly and stubbly men would have the product and get a chance to try it out. And, of course, they liked it. So when the blades wore out, they were more than willing to pay for new ones.

Give away the razor. Charge for the blades.

Spend a little time considering what you do or what you sell, and pinpoint those things that you could offer as free incentives. Put no restrictions on it ... free should mean free. But that doesn't mean it can't be part of your overall marketing strategy.

By the way, in case you're wondering ... the marketing advice I give here is free. My little gift to you. And the benefit I get is credibility, a body of work about marketing, and a chance to dig deeper into my field of expertise, all of which cost me nothing but the time it takes to tap words onto the screen.

Money well spent.

Lessons from a hunchback

In my other blog, I'm talking up the perks of being in Paris for a week. In the Day 5 entry, I mentioned that we got a private tour of Notre Dame, and found out how Victor Hugo's book "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" managed to save the cathedral from being torn down.

I love being a writer.

So here's the thing ... this was a dilapidated building that was crumbling all around the Arch Bishop's head. It was expensive to maintain. It was becoming an eyesore. The good Parisians thought, "Why not a shopping mall? Or perhaps a nice movie theater?" Or whatever the 18th century equivalent may be. Disco?

But along comes Victor Hugo who goes and writes a popular novel of all things, and suddenly the public wants to keep the ol' girl around.

There's word-of-mouth marketing for you. One guy generates nostalgia for some real estate that's on the verge of collapsing, and now the whole world tours it, reads about it, and watches Disney versions of its story.

That kind of makes Quasimodo an early advertising mascot. Kind of like Jack from the Jack-in-the-Box commercials, but without the huge deformity. You know ... the big head?

Hunch-what now?

Anyway, as marketing goes, this kind of thing is ideal. I'm not certain anyone was even in the market to save the cathedral in the first place, but you can't argue with the results of a well-placed "campaign," nonetheless.

Charities, take note. Maybe the way to save that historic landmark is to take a few bucks and throw it at a novelist. Or, in this day and age, a well-known blogger, tweeter, or YouTube video maker. But don't overlook these tips:

1. Tell a story. Don't preach, don't whine, don't beg. Give the public a character and a tale to identify with so they'll feel a connection to what you're trying to save.
   
2. Don't worry about telling "the truth." It's a relative term anyway, where history is involved. Use your landmark as the central location for something fantastic. Fantasy trumps reality nine times out of ten. Of course, if that tenth time trumps fantasy, tell it. Just don't get locked into "facts."
3. Spread the news far and wide. Don't worry too much about making a profit from book sales (or video sales, or whatever). Profit, as far as this piece is concerned, isn't the goal. You are best paid by attention. Encourage people to tell the story to others, to mention the landmark, and to generally generate buzz about your project.
4. Be kind to your writer. We're an underpaid and under appreciated lot. Give the writer full reign to tell the best story they can, in their way. Don't censor or dictate. This isn't about ego, historic preservation, or keeping something within boundaries. This is about generating buzz with a good tale. Let your writer do his job, and when people start dropping in for tours you can "set the facts straight." Take a look at "The da Vinci Code" to see the power of fiction in drawing people to study real history.
5. Give the story away. You can sell copies in your gift shop ... that's a time-honored tradition. But your audience will be limited to those scant few who already know and care about your project. So instead, give copies away. Go to book stores and place copies with stickers that say "Free book! Take me!" on some of the stacks. Hand them out as gifts to everyone you've ever met. If it's a film, offer free screenings. Ask local theaters to run it at no charge to them and let them set a ticket price. In other words, give this thing away as much as possible, because your goal is to generate buzz.
   

Whatever form of media you choose, make sure it fits the broadest possible audience. A film, a television special, a novel, a YouTube viral ... there's virtually no end to the permutations. Just post an ad on Craigslist or elance.com and you'll find plenty of people willing to write your story for you. Then your job becomes easy: put it in as many hands as possible. The word-of-mouth you generate from this can make your project a success.

20 percent time -- or "Never forget the gopher flies"

One way that companies like Google and 3M encourage more innovation and creativity from their employees is by offering them 15 percent or 20 percent time. The best way to explain this might be to share this quote from the 3M Website:

To foster creativity, 3M encourages technical staff members to spend up to 15 percent of their time on projects of their own choosing. Also known as the "bootlegging" policy, the 15 percent rule has been the catalyst for some of 3M's most famous products, such as Scotch Tape and — of course — Post-it® Notes.

Google implemented the same concept early on (making it 20 percent). This resulted in the creation of such Google services as Google News, Gmail, Froogle, and more. As stated on their site:

We offer our engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut are among the many products of this perk.

I believe this concept could work for almost any company. Giving the employees access to company resources plus time each week to dedicate to their own ideas and projects, for the benefit of the company, can lead to a flood of new ways for your to grow. And it gives employees a chance to shake out the cobwebs and stretch creative muscles in new and interesting ways.

If you're a small business owner just trying to keep soup and saltines on the table, don't fret. Giving yourself fifteen or twenty percent time can actually help you be less busy while making more profits. Start by blocking out a few hours a day, or a day a week, for exploring new ideas, doing research, trying out new software, etc. Treat this like paid time. It's sacred. It's blocked out for a reason, so it's not the time to check e-mail or work on other projects.

Once you have your time set aside, don't limit yourself. Explore every crazy idea that comes into that sweet, sweet melon on your shoulders. Mmm ... melon ... <>. Just let the ideas flow and see where they take you. Call someone you think might have the skills to write that program you dreamed up. Write a letter to a grant committees to do that study on the Southwestern gopher fly. Talk to a few experts in the field of lost dental retainer retrieval about your new concept. Whatever the idea, use your 20 percent time to explore it without guilt or pressure. It might just lead to new and bigger opportunities to grow your business and maybe fatten your wallet.

Courtesy marketing?

I'm reading "POW! Right Between the Eyes" by Andy* Nulman. The two-second synopsis is that it's about using surprise to boost consumer interest in your marketing. Sounds boring when I put it that way

A segment I just read was a story Nulman tells about being in a Chapters bookstore during Christmas, waiting in a long line to buy a stack of books. While waiting, an employee festooned with Christmas garb taps him on the shoulder to offer him a chocolate while he waits.

I don't have the exact passage, but to paraphrase, "They created a story that would later be told in a national best-selling book and in numerous public speaking engagements across the country. How many people have now heard of Chapters, for the cost of about ten bucks worth of chocolate?"

I've worked in marketing for some time now ... in fact, you could almost argue that I've been in marketing for all of my adult life. I recognize genius when I see it, and this is it.

For some reason, when I read this story, it brought up a memory from about fifteen years ago. I was at an Earth Day concert with a girl I'd been dating for a few months. We were still young enough in our relationship that I had let her convince me to see a live performance of Lisa Loeb.

To be fair, there was one really good moment where the crowd was actually chanting "Stay! Stay!" in an attempt to get her to do the one song anyone had ever heard from her. Without missing a beat, she said, "It's ok ... I'm not going anywhere." Badump-bump.

That day, the temperature was certainly in the triple digits, and the sun was brutal. People were being carted out in ambulances. Random concert goers were bursting into flame. And, of course, the vendors saw this as an opportunity to rake everyone over the glowing coals that made up the parking lot at our feet.

Water, suddenly the most in-demand substance around, was selling in small, two-ounce bottles for a startling five dollars per. Also, they ran out of water around the end of hour two of the ten-hour sweat-fest.

So, what does this have to do with free chocolate at a Chapters bookstore? I was just thinking, what if some enterprising company had said, "Hey, people like to live! Let's go buy a truck load of ice-cold bottled water, park our company-branded truck out front of this huge gathering of people, and give out free bottles to anyone who comes by!"

Imagine if they'd had the foresight to get vanity bottles, and put their name and Web address on them. Imagine if they'd done this while asking nothing in return, with maybe the hearty slogan of, "Continue to live ... compliments of Kevin." Or insert the name of someone or something YOU'D like promote ... this is my blog, after all.

Imagine that ... marketing through courtesy. That's certainly as surprise. I'd love to see more of it.

Let me know if you have examples of this, or if you are using something like this in your own marketing (or plan to). And remember the Kevin motto: Awesome is as awesome does.

* D'oh. I accidentally misspelled Andy's name. Because I'm a schmuck like that. Oh well ... Surprise Andy! Everybody gets an R!