“My pleasure” is a response that doesn’t elicit a feeling of favor from the receiver.  This makes all the difference in customer service and enables their employees to learn why it is so important to chose words carefully.  Now people who learn this may not understand immediately, but having the knowledge that it is possible and justified to spend time thinking about what words to chose provides the ground work for structuring the thinking of a person.

Then this morning, I woke up to find an email from a co-worker with the following quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

The first time I heard the words “structure” and “thinking” in the same sentence was via a finance professor who provided two semesters worth of my education at Miami University.  Thus, with my collegiate experience and this quote, I couldnt agree more with the purpose Dr. King provides for education.

My experiences and discussions with friends and coworkers are continually challenging me to structure my thinking – because as I have learned, it is just as valuable to learn how others think as it is to learn what others think.

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Good Customer Service Enables Structured Thinking

Note:  For internal use only and not for distribution outside the company.  The information contained in this message is private and confidential, is the property of [THE COMPANY], and is solely for the use of its intended recipient. If you are not the person to whom this email is addressed, or if it has been sent to you in error, please notify the sender immediately. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that permission to use, copy, disclose, alter or distribute this message, and any attachments, is expressly denied.

Last time I checked, putting this at the bottom of an email doesn’t render my copy/paste or email forwarding button useless.  Why do we bother with such pointless language? (and because I copied the anti send along info, does that mean passing along this end of email note is “expressly denied”?

Unless some legal department makes you put this on your email, take it out. Its time to trust everyone!  If you don’t trust them, just don’t send the email.

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Those Pesky Legal Disclaimers Are Useless

TechCrunch made a huge deal about how Facebook is acting evil in the name of  “user privacy.”  Facebook did make a huge snafu. They went all web 1.0 on Burger King when Facebook is supposedly the poster child for Web 2.0 and the marketing with meaning that has derived from it.

It is my hope that Facebook didn’t quash this because of user privacy, but because they found a business model.  Offering creative development of marketing with meaning applications.  Facebook should buy an interactive marketing firm and go to town with using the data they have as a backbone to create specialized marketing applications a la Burger King’s masterpiece.  

There is a take home lesson for Facebook here:  This is a revenue model.

Will Facebook invest in the new marketing?  I don’t know. But what I do know is that they still struggle to find additions to that top line especially with the declining trend in ad rates and they are now officaily ”put on notice”.

I would hate to waste such a great learning opportunity!  Perhaps they need to use this opportunity to learn how to respond to negative feedback.

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Facebook’s Huge Learning Opportunity: The Burger King Snafu

1. Agile – they are able and willing and have proved to change strategies when necessary.
2. Information Focused – These companies use information, not hardware or goods, to power their next generation of innovations and revenues.
3. Relationship focused – The new trend in the media industry, which i believe will transition to all businesses, is the focus on relationships.  Information is presented, retained, and engaged with most effeciently when relationships link the message and the reciepient. (social media tools are the basis for these interactions to occur and be measured.) 

I think the first two points are quite clear, but I will expand on the third, Relationship focused business in my next post!

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Three Market Trends to Watch in 2009

Some of the Speaker Lineup:

• Pete Blackshaw from Nielsen Online
• Bob Gilbreath from Bridge Worldwide
• Tim Schigel from Share This who happens to be operating out of my current town and my home town!

I am quite upset that I have to miss this awesome opportunity to learn and discuss digital issues, so someone will have to fill me in on all the awesome details afterwards!

Make sure you register by Oct. 31st for the discounted rates!

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Go Cincinnati Alert! Digital Hub Initiative Non-Conference

The core competencies needed to succeed in digital media
If content becomes increasingly commoditized, and fragmented among many distribution vehicles, then what happens next? I’d argue that the new skills required to succeed in this era are NOT:

• Understanding how to best own/operate pipes, like cable systems, satellites, radio towers, etc
• Strong-arming partners and distribution to lock content into place
• Finding media synergies to cross-promote content and “make” hits

Although Andrew’s items may seem like the strategy is not focusing on driving revenue from the content, they are still strategies that focus on controlling the content. Media companies need to realize its about setting the content free and getting residual and higher margin revenue off of associated products. 

Do you think they will ever learn?  What frustrates you about media companies?

Photo: Suck in Customs

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Analog to Digital: Crisis in Traditional Media Distribution

On vacation in San Francisco last week, we stopped at a restraunt called Poggio’s.  As we were sitting down at a great table with a great view I mentioned that it was perfect for our anniversary dinner.  The hostess asked if was our anniversary and wished us a happy one. She then returned with an anniversary card! 

10 cents of paper and 2 minutes of work set a splended tone for our meal!  I am pretty sure that the note put me in such a good mood that I ordered an entire bottle of wine when I hadn’t planned on it.

Marketing with care at a local level makes little things into a big thing for the consumer and the business.  Thanks Poggio for making our Anniversary special.

Leave a comment with how and what you do to help increase action by your clients or consituents!

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

All Marketing is Local, Easy and Inexpensive

Teach. Coach. Lead.

These are important actions to take in any brand’s life, be it a person or a company/product. They can be the basis of your marketing or PR plan for the life cycle of any product. How?

Teach

At some point someone(be it a company via ad’s or a person) had to teach you how to use Microsoft’s SYNC. Ford runs the commercials…

This is the Teach stage of a brand’s life cycle. People have to know and understand your product/brand before you can use it productively. 

Coach

Darren Rose over at Problogger has written his blog for quite some time by coaching new bloggers. Just recently he released Problogger, the book.  This book represents the coach stage of Darren’s Problogger brand. The book can stay with you and guide you as you go along your blogging way.  Both the blog and the book coach bloggers who have already been taught the what and why of blogs. Coaching happens after the audience understands the brand/product’s concept and extends the experience of the audience with the brand/product.

Lead

Apple taught the mainstream how to download music via iTunes. They lead by continuing to add content to a platform that had already gone mainstream. They added tv shows, movies, rental movies, and most recently started renting and selling movies the same day DVDs are released. Leading shows logical extension into new markets and new areas where teaching and coaching can occur.

As a brand, I want to have posts on this blog that acomplish all three stages depending on the subject. I as a human hope I can teach those who are new, coach those who are seasoned, and lead by staying on the edge and blazing new paths with new ideas.  

But for brands to accomplish these things and do so with resonance, they must, as my friend summarized this transition our conversation, “Be intentional, be authentic.”

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Is my Brand’s Attitude the Right one?

What really irks me about it is that my mom planned a family trip to Florida via Skybus for an april weekend. Well, that has gone by the wayside.  So, all that stinks.  Tons of people are stranded, out cash, and out future trips. That doesn’t even include those folks scrambling for new tickets on other airlines who on a week’s notice have prices that are enormous. 

But, JetBlue has decided to issue a press release inviting all employees, customers and crew members of skybus to fly standby on their flights for 10 or 50 dollars one way. Amazing. JetBlue has figured it out. Will these folks being assisted look at JetBlue first next time they fly? They sure will.

JetBlue has shown a human side to the company and has come alongside its customer base to improve their brand and brand recognition, for little to no marketing money, but a way to ensure their planes for thenext few weeks are full and maximizing revenue as much as possible. Too many positives have come out of this. Where is Delta? Where is American Airlines?JetBlue has set itself above the competition.

As a airline customer, thank you! Perhaps they should be on the top of the list for Good Company Day ’08! 

#GPD08 

Post from: Joe Budde Jr. More about business operations and Joe can be found at his blog.

Skybus Dead, JetBlue Alive and Human