Author: Drew Neisser

Nikon launched an entertaining integrated campaign recently that several people called to my attention. Conveniently enough, MediaPost covered it today:

This is quite the feel-good campaign. Nikon gave 200 of its D40 cameras to residents of Georgetown, S. C. in an effort to show that anyone can take high-quality digital pictures. For eight days Georgetown became Picturetown, and the residents, along with their pictures, became part of a TV, print and online campaign. The TV spot begins with residents collecting their cameras. From a child’s first haircut to a cheerleader mid-move, activities are captured digitally. Click here to watch the ad. Print ads show residents holding blown-up pictures they’ve taken. The Web site is well worth a visit. Written profiles of Georgetown residents are featured, along with the best part: a wall of pictures captured by the residents.

I’m stretching a bit to call this campaign Marketing for Good.  It is not uproariously funny but it is entertaining.  It was certainly engaging for the 200 or so residents of Georgetown who got to play with the Nikon D-40 and visitors to the website are certainly engaged by the pictures and the video stories.  Some people may even be inspired to take up photography as an art form given how easy the folks in Georgetown made it look to take beautiful shots. Celebrating the potential artist in everyone is certainly not a bad thing. If this campaign inspires more people to express themselves via photography then indeed some good will come from it. Perhaps it is simply a lower case good campaign–which is more than I can say for most.

A fellow Renegade (thanks David) saw this interesting post on Treehugger.com about Staples’ new recycling program:

Today Staples launched its national “Computer and Office Technology Recycling Program.” Thus becoming the first national store to offer everyday, in-store recycling of pretty much any sort of electronic equipment. Just bring in your computer, monitor, printer, fax machine, scanner, etc. and they’ll recycle it “in accordance with environmental laws.”

Of course, we haven’t yet hit the golden moment…when a big box store will recycle a computer for free (or better yet, pay you for all of those nice expensive materials inside your old equipment). Staples will gladly accept your equipment as long as you give them $10. They will, however, recycle mice and keyboards for free. Frankly, it’s worth $10 to me. I’ve got two broken down printers sitting in my basement, but I’ll be darned if they ever see the inside of a trash bin.

From a Marketing for Good perspective, Staples is smart to start down this path as both a service to its current customers and as a way of generating new customers. Current customers, especially those wanting to be more green, will be more engaged resulting in stronger brand advocates. Those in the market for new equipment may be more inclined to visit Staples since they can drop off the old and pick up the new all in one visit. I can’t imagine this will be an easy program for Staples to execute but it is certainly makes recycling easy for their customers–providing an engaging extension of their “that was easy” campaign.

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My father sent me an interesting article from the LA Times that was reprinted from the Financial Times that reported on a new book that essentially says “do your homework.” As a parent who is constantly haranguing my beloved children to do their homework, the irony is not lost on me that my father continues to remind me to do the same. Clearly none of us can stop learning and the rewards of studying consumer behavior are evident in Erich Joachimsthaler’s new book, Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Find and Execute Your Company’s Next Big Growth Strategy.

The book according to the article tracks past and present case studies including Apple’s iPod, BMW, Mastercard and Tesco’s unfolding approach to bringing new grocery store concepts to the US:

The author, in considering “how to find and execute your company’s next big growth strategy,” has set out some basic principles for what he calls the Demand-First Innovation and Growth model (with the convenient acronym DIG). The book might well have been subtitled “innovation in the age of customer-centricity” because its theory is that the secret to success is to look at things from the perspective of how customers behave. Rather than focusing on the product and how to improve it — or focusing on what the competition is doing — ask instead what you can do to get a larger share of the 1,440 minutes that make up every customer’s day.

Since I haven’t read the book yet, I can’t tell you whether it is really worth reading or not (you may recall I vastly prefer historical fiction and rarely finish my non-fiction books!) What I can tell you is that enhancing products/services by finding and fulfilling unmet customer needs is a fundamental tenet of Marketing for Good. Some times these product enhancements make someone’s life a little bit better (like Direct TV in JetBlue seats for parents with kids on long flights) or a whole lot better (like Jet Blue’s incredibly easy online reservation system) or help to save the planet (IBM’s Big Green Project). Regardless of the scale, the result is usually the same–gaining competitive advantage by delivering a demonstrably superior product/service. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it usually takes a lot of hard work to find the insight that leads to the idea. Sorry kids.

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First we had the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. (Well maybe not first but who has time to prove me wrong?) Then the ADA Seal arrived just in time to certify Crest’s cavity fighting fluoride. Energy Star has helped us find more energy efficient appliances for the last ten years or so. And soon we will have B, which is intended to be the first letter in corporate goodness. Here’s what Robin told me about it:

B Corporation is a new entity that will be certifying “good” companies.
“Good companies” meaning ones that are financially motivated, of course, but
are dedicated to higher standards in regards to social and environmental
concerns.

In this age of companies like Wal-Mart and GE waving the eco-flag, the idea
of B Corporation is to give consumers and investors a true idea of who is
truly “good” as opposed to a company that just has “good marketing”.

Thanks Robin for the head’s up. Sounds good to me. Can’t wait to see B in action and until then, all I can recommend is that you… B good.

I had the pleasure of seeing Arkadi Kuhlman, Chairman, President and CEO of ING Direct speak this morning. ING Direct has been remarkably successful building the largest direct bank in North America. I now understand why. Mr. Kuhlman noted that like consumers he hates bankers and this has inspired a renegade view across his company. For example, while big banks are outsourcing, ING keeps the jobs local. Banks push 800 numbers and phone trees. ING has real people answering the phone right away. Banks try to cross sell at every opportunity. ING favors focusing marketing resources on new customer acquisition.

ING has challenged conventional wisdom at every turn. While the 16,000 largest banks in the US focus on the 30 million richest Americans, ING is concentrating on the 270 million less-affluent consumers. They have found the “Main Street” customer easier and less costly to service than the more demanding super-affluent crowd. They have taken strong advocacy points of view versus the usually demure banking industry. Rather than use focus groups, ING takes advantage of every consumer interaction to learn from its customers. ING’s non-traditional cafes also provide a relaxed environment to gain customer insights and feedback.

Mr. Kuhlman spent a lot of time talking about how ING’s value system drives employee productivity and informs its business practices. One such value is total honesty and he noted firing three employees recently who did not follow up on promises made to consumers. He called this behavior “lying” and completely “unacceptable.” He noted that ING employees go through a rigorous training program called the “Orange Journey” much like Marine boot camp. He also described his highly unusual interviewing process that included hand writing analysis and reviewing photos of one’s closet. His search focused on character and drive not education or past training.
He described seeking people to join a “mission” to change banking as we know it. The result of this highly customer-centric business approach has been double-digit growth for several years adding 150,000 new customers annually. Mr. Kuhlman proudly referred to the fact that 40 percent of its new customers arrive from word of mouth . Not surprisingly, ING tracks Net Promoter Score carefully to make sure customer satisfaction and referrals remain strong.

ING Direct’s focus on the enhancing the customer experience at every turn (i.e. humans answer phones, online forms are short and easy to complete, eliminating annoying fees) is a terrific example of Marketing for Good in action.  What’s really interesting is that while a number of banks have tried to copy various aspects of ING Direct’s approach few have made a dent.  ING Direct has gained competitive advantage by making customer satisfaction part of its DNA and continuing to enhance their offerings with missionary zeal.  This spirit of “good” is not easily replicated.

Marketing for Good has no limitations. Once you start looking for ways to do well by doing good, the avenues are virtually endless and can even extend all the way to good old company picnic. The New York Times wrote about an emerging trend to “foster teamwork by taking on social projects” at company outings. Instead of the usual company picnic, enlightened companies are spending the day building homes with Habitat for Humanity or putting up playgrounds with Kaboom.

One organization, Impact 4 Good, makes it easier for companies to find the right volunteer opportunities. In the Times article, the executive director of Impact 4 Good, Alan Ranzer, noted that the number of requests he has received has gone up 50% in the last year. Ranzer explained that companies “see value in it for image purposes. Consumers are out there looking for companies that care and that goes a long way.” I would also add that enlightened human resource managers know that employees are more likely to stay at a company that they believe is committed to doing good and actively demonstrates its goodness. Given the on-going battle to retain and inspire top talent, replacing potato sack races with volunteer projects is just plain good business. The fact that it may also burnish your corporate reputation is not so bad either.

The big idea behind all this is to stop thinking about isolated marketing activities, whether internal or external, and start focusing on the notion of all communications as service. Ads the educate are a service to those looking for the information. Ads that shriek “buy me now” are not. Company picnics that entertain are a service but perhaps not as profound a service as ones that empower employees to do a little good for their community. More on this soon…