Posts tagged marketingasaservice
avin narasimhan
often rambling, but hopefully always interesting
Last Minute Airport Movie Downloading Made Easier
Just noticed this for the first time. While boarding a flight in Portland earlier this week, caught this smart and seemingly simple idea near the gate. Best I can tell, it appeared to be the product of a company called FSH, and surprisingly enough not connected to Netflix, Blockbuster or any other more widespread rental/streaming company (or in blockbusters case, perhaps not that surprising after all). Anyway, basically it’s a small kiosk at the gate, not some elaborate ‘entertainment’ store somewhere far off in the terminal, that allows you to wire up your laptop and grab movies for the flight in case you forgot to ready yourself with iTunes content/airport wifi not cooperating/etc.
Easy step by step process for the traveler who can barely see straight, let alone deal with a kiosk that isn’t built to just plug in and work.
Sure, not the most high tech option, or prettiest tech in the world to be sure, but really as long as it works, that’s not really a major (or at the least, not the only) criteria at that point in time and for that need.
Good way to make the miserable flight experience a little better for the weary biz traveler who forgot to prep themselves with entertainment. Nothing flashy, no major show about it, just simple idea and simple tech that makes the flying experience better. Not much more to ask for. And a smart idea on Portland Airport’s part, rather than waiting for Netflix’s seemingly slow airport expansion of Redbox, or Blockbusters forthcoming airport kiosk system.
Southwest And The Little Things That Matter
Got this email from Southwest after flying with them a few days ago:
I never really used to like Southwest (namely because of the herding cattle boarding process), but have been increasingly impressed with them (and judging by recent financial performance, I’m obviously not the only one). It’s a relatively small thing, to track when customers fly and follow up, but as far as I can tell not something any other airline chooses to do. In an industry where service is almost non-existent and the best you can usually hope for is a flight attendant who doesn’t seem like they are about to spit on you, the small stuff southwest continues to do goes a long way.
Puma + Fuseproject = Clever Little Bag
Another fantastic example of an idea that can be advertised vs an advertising idea. Perhaps Puma isn’t the first to address this issue, but I have to admire a big(ish) shoe brand taking a stand and acknowledging that there must be a better way than the status quo. (caught via @lukeiscrazyman)
Starwood hotels + marketing as a service
No one in this business today is a stranger to the ongoing conversation around how we can better use marketing as a service, something that provides value to people beyond just words. One company I have personal experience that does an exceedingly fantastic job of that is Starwood Hotels- specifically my starwood preferred guest card. Obviously this connection comes through AMEX, which has a long track record of great customer service that has clearly filtered into SPG. No matter what the situation is, I’ve never been disappointed by the service I receive with this card- the few issues I’ve had have been immediately resolved. When I have an urgent request (such as asking AMEX to put my account under watch while out of the country), it took me no more than 20 seconds to get someone on the phone (compare that with waiting on hold with Bank of America for the exact same request, for 15 minutes before I finally said f*ck it).
Anyway, I got an email from Starwood over the weekend about my ‘new social circle’ and for a moment I cringed. Was Starwood trying to forcefeed me some new social network in an attempt to ‘create’ community around their brand? I always took them as one that understood people better than to do something like that, so I was a bit surprised.But that turned out not to be the case at all. What they’ve done actually is pretty simple- aggregate activity from across the social spaces where they are engaging with their customers in (customer service on twitter, facebook as a place to collect and share vacation photos, a blog for travelers to share stories, etc) and where their customers are engaging with each other, in one place.
Feeds update in real time so you can see that there actually is some vibrant life in the community across different spaces. And, if you see activity from somewhere that you’re not a member of (say you’re a fan of SPG on facebook but don’t follow them on twitter), it gives you an easy way to connect up. In just a few minutes of playing around with it, I already got great value out of the SPG insider in particular, which highlights local spots as seen by others in the SPG community.
I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a traditional ad from SPG, but it’s this kind of thing (not to mention the service, though I’ve mentioned it many times already) that keeps me loyal to them. Useful things that make my travel and credit experience better, without hard selling me on stuff I don’t need. And those times when they do try to sell me, I’m so much more willing to listen because of all the other things they do for me that simply make my life easier. And I guess that’s really the point of why they do it— they get that establishing a true quality relationship makes the product/service sales pitch infinitely easier. Just as I’m willing to listen to a friend recommend a product, if a company proves to me time and time again it’s value, even when it’s not actively selling, it makes my likelihood to purchase that much greater. And I think it’s safe to say I’m not alone. Seems so simple, yet still feels like a hard sell just to convince some that this is the right mentality.
