Author Archive

Analysts say this is the year of the coupon, with most of our nation increasingly looking for ways to save money and stretch their dollar. And online coupons, with their convenience and targeted display to the user, continue to be a great driver to a brand experience and/or purchase.

Scientists say online coupons have higher impact than print coupons. They test our “Key Neurological Metrics” like attention, emotional engagement, and memory retention. Ok, so eye-tracking and galvanic skin response is exciting for the folks behind that study, but most of us are excited by extra savings in our shopping cart.

Most of us shoppers get coupons from:

•  coupon subscriptions sites
•  links direct to loyalty cards
•  check the wildly popular “mommy blogs” for daily coupons
•  and some like me send them directly to their phone. (I love mobile coupons. But I don’t want to have to print anything out or read cryptic numbers to a store check-out associate.)

Today I tested out two coupon provider companies. First was Coupon Sherpa’s free app for the iPhone. It was super easy to install and displayed coupons available at retailers in my area quickly. After scanning the list, I viewed the Smith & Hawken coupon on my browser. Sadly, the webpage wasn’t optimized for the iPhone (which you would think they could have managed the display size of the webpage knowing I was on an iPhone!?). CouponSherpa also provided the location of the nearest store and the ability to email the coupon. I tried the process again with an AMC Theatres coupon, but in this case the coupon had to be printed to be redeemed, which meant emailing it and then taking a physical print into the store. No thanks.

Coupon Sherpa

Second test was through the Samplesaint website, which offers scannable mobile coupons. My zip code wasn’t supported, but I was able to go through a sample download. I liked the user experience up until I clicked through the offer text message (basically, up until I had to use my phone). They send the coupon via text message. Clicking through opened up a webpage that had THE SMALLEST size layout and text. (Again, funny, since this site was also supposed to be optimized for mobile viewing, and they could easily detect my iPhone). Samplesaint only gives you 20 minutes to use the coupon once you click “checkout”. This is a usage barrier for me, since I will probably complete this process BEFORE I enter the store, rather than while shopping. Still it’s worth checking out. I’m wondering if the service is available for any of you non-Atlantans?

The Samplesaint coupons on my iPhone

I’ll keep testing and providing feedback – and in the meantime let me know what has been your best online coupon experience. And while this entry focused on the front-end, stay tuned for follow-up from an esteemed colleague on the technical side of the scannable coupon technology evolution…

Back to work on a online display advertising campaign that is actually offering a $2 coupon (jackpot!) for an eye drop. Now that’s savings to tell yo momma about!

Have you ever wondered about natural group dynamics, who actually leads them, why we’ve joined the ones we are already in, and how to effectively communicate your brand to them?

This was essentially the platform for a presentation I was fortunate enough to participate in. On Thursday, Oct. 9th I attended a day of the Catalyst Leadership conference here in Atlanta, touted as the largest gathering of young leaders. Sitting amongst 12,400 highly enthusiastic participants, I think the Catalyst folks who claim this position and produce this highly creative event might be right. Switchfoot killed it with an acoustic set.

The experience was tops – I enjoyed hearing Jim Collins, Author, Good to Great and a certifiable genius, challenge everyone with the statement “good is the enemy of great”. Ponder that for a bit. But the speaker I want to share about was Seth Godin, who probably needs no introduction to this blog’s audience. He continues his rich trail of marketing consulting with a new book called Tribes. It releases October 16^th and I received an advance copy yesterday. Also gave an extra one to my colleagues Shannon and Darren (SG fans), and told them to share. We’ll see how well that goes .

First, a definition for you. A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. They are about faith – about believing in an idea and in their community. Now, let’s consider the Internet. It has enabled these tribes to form and flourish – with blogs, social networking sites, Twitter, content, self-publishing and more. It’s eliminated geography and done truly amazing things for creating tribes. For the wine nut who follows Gary Vaynerchuck, or the microfinance enthusiast on Kiva or conscientious giver on GiftCard Giver, you know what I’m talking about.

It’s the people, people!
Seth shared so many awesome examples of the Web enabling tribes to be more effective – some close to home, some totally mind-opening. But it became clear to me that it’s not really about the Internet. I mean it is, in terms of tactics and tools, but don’t we know by now that current ones will fade away and new ones will replace them. What’s really powerful about tribes is the people. The segment of an audience. People who are in a tribe because they all believe strongly in the same cause or movement. People who communicate to each other in their tribe.

Heretics. The new leaders
Seth posited that while the Web can do amazing things to nurture tribes, it can’t provide leadership. He asked the question: Who is going to lead these tribes?

Think about the term heretic and you’ll know why he uses it. Heretics don’t let rules or religion stand in the way of what they want to accomplish. Oh, and for all my Marketing peers out there, I’ll share a simple but loaded equation to you from Seth: Marketing = Leadership and Leadership = Marketing.

He shared 7 traits of a heretical tribal leader:

1. Challenge – they challenge their tribe!
2. Culture – they intentionally create it. And I’ll add a favorite quote of mine from the brilliant Andy Crouch: “the only way that cultures change is when people make more culture”.
3. Curiosity – they’re always probing…
4. Charisma – some inherently have it, but most get it because of their leadership
5. Communicate – they talk with, not “to” or “at”
6. Connect – they make it easy for followers to connect with them and with others
7. Commit – they commit to the wellness of the tribe

Inspire you?? One other thing. You may know Seth Godin is a renowned speaker. I had heard he was one of the best presenters in the business world yet I was still blown away by his impeccable skills. His story (and it really was a story) was illustrated by no less than 70-80 slides. Each slide was a photograph, or diagram, with very few texts, all powerfully aiding his narrative. It’s the type of presentation I always strive to give, but woefully fail at…

So I’ll close with a few questions for you to think about:

• What tribe are you proud to claim membership in?
• Are you a tribal leader?
• Marketers, what are you doing to nurture tribes in your profession and provide relevant brand experiences to tribal members?

I welcome your thoughts!

Well, they say 4th time’s the charm. I finally got my new 16GB 3G iPhone this weekend. I really loved spending early Saturday morning in line at Lenox Mall. Thank you Apple! What else would I have done with those 4 hours?

So let me just say that the phrase “learned behavior” has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I had no idea how ingrained my last 6 years of BlackBerry use was, which resulted in some awkward trials this weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, I am delighted with some of the new features my iPhone offers. But I totally miss the way you speed dial from your BlackBerry by hitting one button (ah, the buttons…), or the amazing battery life (this once a day iPhone charge is never going to work) or the actual keypad where I was a one-handed SPEED typer.

On the flip, the iPhone display is amazing and the fully integrated apps ROCK – it’s particularly nice to consolidate my ipod mini and my phone. The email readability is tops, and I love to finally browse in style. And I thought the BlackBerry was crack.

But why can’t we get the best of breed phone? Wouldn’t that be ideal?

And has anyone else made the switch and still find themselves looking for the blinking red light on your phone?