The call came into my office and the voice on the other end was very energetic, almost giddy: “I have finalized my marketing budget and need your help launching an advertising campaign for my new product,” he breathed. “Congratulations,” I replied, “but before we implement an ad campaign, I want to make sure you have explored potential PUBLICITY opportunities that could generate some cost-efficient media exposure first.” Then, silence. “I never thought about that,” he sighed. “Frankly, I don’t know much about it.”
Can Your Prospects Feel the Benefit?
I met Rod at a Chamber of Commerce function in 1998. While everyone else took turns introducing themselves to the other business owners at the table telling them about their business, Rod was massaging my neck and shoulders. By the end of the morning I was asking him for his phone number.
Self-Service Requires People To Deliver Full Benefit
Convenience is a major reason why people use the Web. It’s faster and more efficient than getting in the car or picking up the phone. Many organizations see the Web as a self-service environment where labor costs can be reduced. Self-service and convenience are not always in sync. Where that happens, nobody benefits.
Benefit from the Hawthorne effect
This is a phenomenon first noted way back in 1924 – several years before the era’s leading “can-do” guru, Herbert Hoover, led the nation into the Depression. Elton Mayo was trying to study the effect of lighting on productivity at a Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois. He divided workers into two groups. For the test group, he increased the illumination in their work area. Productivity went up. For the control group, he left the lighting the same. Productivity went up.
That made no sense to Mayo, so he tried another study. He took a group of female workers, gave them regularly scheduled rest periods, company paid lunches and shorter work weeks. Productivity went up. Eighteen months later, all those perks were eliminated. And productivity? It went up once again.