Starbucks Doesn’t Deliver. Just Plug and Pour.

If you're using social media and specifically Twitter, chances are you've heard one of the people you follow on any giving morning Tweeting something along the lines of, "I'm soooooooo tired this morning. I wish Starbucks delivered." While there are no plans to change their business model to include delivery, they did recently prove that they've been listening to their customers by responding with a Tweet with a link to this image:

We've written quite a lot about how powerful social media can be as a tool to engage with your audience in meaningful ways, and this is a classic example of how it can be done right. By listening to their loving customers and responding personally in a creative and playful way, Starbucks has really shown that they take their customers wants and needs into consideration, even if they can't directly satisfy them. Plus, they reaped the benefit of the tons of buzz this promotion created.

Well played, @starbucks, well played!

by Garret Ohm

Post a comment Email Garret Ohm

User Experience and Corporate Decision Making

As @c2austin pointed out yesterday, Fast Company's Twitter stream recently rehashed an ongoing debate about website user experience design in large corporations and the potential havoc having too many departments involved in the design process can have. The Fast Company article, which you can read in its entirety here, describes how a peeved designer wrote an open letter to American Airlines blasting such a high-profile company for having a website that is incredibly difficult from a usability standpoint. He wrote:

If I was running a company with the distinction and history of American Airlines, I would be embarrassed--no ashamed--to have a Web site with a customer experience as terrible as the one you have now...Your Web site is abusive to your customers, it is limiting your revenue possibilities, and it is permanently destroying the brand and image of your company in the mind of every visitor.

To prove his point, he even donated some time and offered up a solution, seen here as compared to the original:

His open letter actually received a response from a member of the user experience team at American Airlines explaining that, unfortunately, it's not their lack of abilities, but rather the sheer size of the company and numerous corporate layers and that inhibit them from delivering a positive user experience.

Sad. But true. It highlights a problem that we wrestle with often when clients come to us to deliver a new interactive experience for their business: Too many cooks in the kitchen. While at times we understand the need for more than one party within a company to be responsible for making design decisions, we also feel strongly that the best designs come from a clear, singular vision. This vision, combined with a solid understanding of user wants/needs, and an interactive design team adept at creating the best possible solution will always result in a stronger end product than anything that comes from design by committee.

by Garret Ohm

(2) - Post a comment Email Garret Ohm

Is this the future of magazines?

I'm going to be short on the commentary and let the video I found do the talking, but could this be the future of magazine publishing?

We're torn on this. On one hand, we have a deep-seated love and respect for print as a medium. After all, it's where we started back in 1987. That said there's something about holding a tangible printed piece in your hand that the digital media just can't convey. On the other hand, we're a full-service marketing firm with a serious command of interactive media and we love exploring ways that we can use new technologies to communicate our clients' brands (and hey, who knows, maybe yours someday...).

Is it possible to be both a little sad and positively thrilled at the same time? That's where we are right now.

by Garret Ohm

(1) - Post a comment Email Garret Ohm

Email and email subject lines

With a number of our clients coming to us with holiday email campaign requests around this time of the year, we've got email marketing on our minds. And since we not only create the designs for these email campaigns but create the content as well, we've been thinking specifically about one of the most important part of a great marketing email: subject lines.

In doing some initial research on subject lines, we came across a great article written by Mailchimp, one of the leaders in low-cost email marketing services.  They have some great metrics on which subject line strategies work, and which don't. You'll be surprised by the results, which you can read in their entirety HERE.

Mailchimp is a great service, especially for small businesses that need to bring their email marketing to a new level of sophistication at a low-cost; however, for our larger clients that have more robust email marketing needs, we typically recommend Blue Sky Factory, a company located in nearby Baltimore. Blue Sky Factory is by far the hottest email service provider in the industry, providing an acclaimed, feature-laden platform and beyond amazing service. Their platform, Publicaster, does things no other email platform can do. These folks just plain know email better than anyone. Make sure to check out their website, and follow them on Twitter!

by Garret Ohm

(2) - Post a comment Email Garret Ohm

Federal Contractors - What About Your Brand?

As a marketing firm that makes its home in Lanham, Maryland, which is right outside of Washington, DC and in close proximity to Northern Virginia (all prominent locations for Federal contractors), we have found ourselves doing quite a bit of work with government agencies and government contractors in our 20+ years. That's why when I read an Examiner article recently, I found myself nodding in agreement with what the writer was saying in reference to brand building for government contractors.

Among the conclusions she drew was that the time is NOW for government contractors to invest in building their brand to differentiate themselves from the competition. With competition tighter than ever and new firms emerging almost daily, the only firms that are able to elevate themselves from the fray are those with brands that differentiate them in a meaningful way.

We couldn't agree more-After all, the parties responsible for evaluating proposals and choosing vendors at government agencies are people too, so just like everyone else they're motivated to choose a firm that has a brand that speaks to them.

The lesson? Define what it is about your company that stands out in terms of what your customer is seeking (as the author notes, it's not your disadvantaged status...). Then engage a creative team to execute that positioning throughout your branded materials. That's the recipe for a successful government contracting business.

by Garret Ohm

Post a comment Email Garret Ohm