More targeted marketing on Pandora

Listening to Eric Clapton on Pandora, Best Buy offers me a Fender guitar. The model, of course, is Eric Clapton's legendary Stratocaster.



This is what you get when you click on the link. Not quite flashy as the add, but they offer free shipping...

A variation on Amazon's recommendations

A couple of days ago I was browsing through Amazon, getting to know more about how their gift certificates work. Today I got this in my inbox:


"Thanks for visiting Amazon Gift Cards"... wow! they know...

Mixing the right amount of images and words, this short, catchy email is a masterpiece of simplicity and effectiveness:

• Clear value proposition: spread the smiles
• How it works: email, print it, mail it...
• Actionable: buy a Gift Card button, Quick Gift Idea, Pay with Points
• even Cross-selling!: Amazon Gift Cards are redeemable at endless.com

I do not know the cost of the technology that tracks the pages I have visited and determine that I didn't buy a gift card. The rest is simple, dirt cheap, good marketing

Marketing strategy "Zildjian's Own Way"

This afternoon I bought tickets for Fleetwood Mac's concert at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. Then I surfed youtube and while watching "Go Your Own Way" I realized of something...look at the upper left corner of the following image:

Zildjian. I do not know how much you like music, whether you go to live concerts or you prefer to wacth videos on TV or the Internet but I am sure that logo sounds familiar. In fact it has always been there, as far back as I remember watching a drummer beating on the drums, Zildjian was there.

If you check out the video you will realize that the logo in the cymbals is strategically placed so it is always inside the frame of the camera that follows exclusively Mick Fleetwood, the drummer. Nice case of product placement, isn't it?

On the other hand, many cymbal manufacturers probably never thought of visually branding a product that (a) is valued for its acoustic properties, not for how it looks; and (b) only specialized demand care about. My bet is that in its early times Zildjian also signed up star drummers to win their prescribing influence over potential buyers. It smells like a great marketing strategy in a niche market.

Dreamforce and Salesforce.com's secret potion

There are many factors that help explain salesforce.com's success. For the sake of clarity let's explain that in a world where expensive proprietary software solutions with low customer adoption were the norm, salesforce.com turned the tables by delivering easy-to-use enterprise software on the web under a pay-as-you-go subscription model. The end of software.
Marc Benioff, salesforce.com's CEO, is an absolute genius pitching the big picture and building the "No software" story against the dark, old software "evil" guys. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market would not be the same without this Star Wars-like communication strategy. No wonder salesforce.com's software development platform is called force.com. Yes, may the "force" be with you.

salesforce.com and...the evil guys

From a marketing perspective I think one of salesforce.com's most differential features is its customer-centricity. Let me approach it this time from the point of view of communication: corporate software companies sell to...eh...corporations. Duh!. Here are a couple of random snapshots about how SAP and Oracle "sell" their CRM through their websites.

"SAP maintains status as leader in CRM solutions"

"Differentiate for strategic advantage with the latest release of Siebel CRM 8.1.1"

Well, salesforce.com sells to corporations too, but they talk to people. Whether you are the CEO or the CIO, messaging is clear and straight-forward. Especially they are really good at talking to the people who are going to use their product 8 hours a day. Customer success stories play a key role in salesforce.com's communication strategy. Testimonials are pervasive all through their website. They are prominently displayed at events such as Dreamforce or Tour de Force. The "CRM Success Heroes" campaign is not on anymore, but the following screenshots can still give a you a bit of a taste of the difference in communication styles.

"Join the crowd. The trusted choice of 47,700 companies"

"Now Force.com can run my corporate website? Wow... Mike Wolverton. Cathedral Partners"

Dreamforce is a perfect example of the importance that the end user has for the company. I was there last Monday and I could witness the amount of resources dedicated to make this annual reunion with customers a blast. Impressive keynotes, sessions and workshops, training, demos... And on top of it, they throw a party with the Foo Fighters.