business

remarkable companies – who makes your list?

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Seth Godin is inviting people to contribute 200 words about a company they see as being remarkable for the updated version of Purple Cow. You can’t work for or with any company you put forward and entries need to be in by midnight EST on 24th may so you haven’t got long now!

I just had a go.

My purple cow is Howies, you might know it.  Whether it gets in or not, I think they are a remarkable bunch.

http://www.howies.co.uk/

Howies clothing is a truly remarkable organisation.  It makes and sells clothes.  But it provides brainfood.

Howies partners with charities, views its business through truly sustainable eyes and makes the most beautiful brochures I have ever seen.  The reason it can do this is because it understands its customers. It also understands they care about the future of surfing, the battle for clean beaches, the world’s coolest skate parks, sustainable organisations, ethical supply chains….you get the picture.

Howies is one of the few organisations that manages to completely personalise its company by making every employee “the brand”.  So they photograph the stories for the catalogue.  They write the blog.  They hold charity debates in their local stores.  Howies features its product by showcasing it in a world its customers care about.  But it does this from the roots of the company, not just out of the marketing department. And although it shouldn’t be, that is still pretty remarkable.

Which company is remarkable enough to make it onto your list?

Seth’s Blog: Do you have customers or members?

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Do you have customers or members? If you changed your model to have members instead, what would that look like? If people had to subscribe, or be admitted, or apply… and if you had to please the membership, not convert new strangers. The web likes businesses that have members.

via Seth’s Blog: Do you have customers or members?

How would your business change if you removed the word customer from your strategy or model and started building a strategy around your members? A greater focus on customer service? More importance placed on members understanding you and valuing the products you offer? A focus on building advocacy, renewals and references instead of adding heaps of new people to the list?

As usual, Seth provides food for thought.

Cluetrain plus 10 – why common sense never goes out of fashion

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

To celebrate the Cluetrain Manifesto turning ten years old, a group  of marketers and bloggers have got together to update the essays and my colleague Ged Carroll (Renaissance Chambara to many) has written one over on our agency blog, here’s a taster:

Before I started my first job, my Dad told me that ‘common sense never went out of fashion’ and the same could be said for the Cluetrain Manifesto ten years on. I had signed up to blog about one of the theses (number 83) in the book via this site.

Ten years later and providing the media with preferential treatment in comparison to consumers seems more ridiculous. My friend Paul Armstrong’s Twitter feed @themediaisdying chronicles the slow death march of traditional news media.

As people are updating the essays, they are posting them here so worth checking back for a full set over the next few days.

Lucy Kellaway on Twittering executives

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

While Ashton Kutcher, husband of Demi Moore, is the first to have 1m followers on the strength of posting pictures of his wife in his knickers, the chancellor of the exchequer had only 1,800 takers for his plans for the British economy.

Yet his tweets last week were perfect – short, clear and informative. They made me think that if the Budget can be done on Twitter, it must be possible to do all corporate communications the same way, and put e-mail in the dustbin forever. …Not only would messages be quicker to read and easier to understand, most would not get sent at all….To communicate this way – either on Twitter or on Yammer, which is a similar service aimed at companies – would have another advantage. It would make clear who are the really powerful people in a company. Humble employees who happen to have good ideas could easily have more followers than the chief executive.

via FT.com / Columnists / Lucy Kellaway – Twittering executives reveal too much.

Good example of how you can reveal too much whilst revealing way to little.  Back to my colleague Ged’s mantra…don’t just be nice, be useful.