Take a view at this video with prof Hans Rosling, probably one of the most engaging presentations on “boring” world data. Marketing has it’s unfair share of mind numbing data points - CPGAs, KPIs and ROIs. So, it is refreshing to see innovative attempts at making data more accessible, user friendly and inspiring. You can also check out the
Gapminder website online and play around with the data yourself.

But, more important, Rosling’s presentation demonstrates that despite overwhelming daily challenges the world, on a macro level, is improving. A hopeful sign as 2007 ends with another reminder that we’ve still got a ways to go.

Once considered laggards in the online marketing world packaged goods companies are starting to surge online. Excerpt from adage article —

Unique visitors to package-goods brand websites soared 10% (in 2007) compared with a year ago in the third quarter to 66.4 million, according to data shared exclusively with Ad Age by ComScore. The tally is double the 5% rise in the U.S. Internet users to 181.9 million.

According to ComScore much of the new activity on these packaged goods websites is driven by an increase in their online display ads - such as appearing on the yahoo home page.

Makes sense to consider increasing your online marketing activity, especially when the majority of consumers who are watching TV tend to be online at the same time. According to a recent Burst Media study, nearly three out of five Internet users watch television while online. The eMarketer chart below details the range of the multitasking, adult home Internet user.

About 62% of Americans think companies “don’t care much” about their needs. That’s a big increase from 52% in 2004, says Lexi Hutto, senior consultant for Yankelovich, a consumer research outfit in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Yankelovich’s study, “Consumers in Control: Customer Service in the Age of Consumer Empowerment”, found that what consumers hate most of all are the automated phone trees, for instance, 92% say they have tried to circumvent an automated phone tree to find a real person, futilely jabbing at the zero and pound sign. “And 58%, when prompted, say ‘agent’ or ‘representative’,” says Hutto.

The Opportunity: Consumer dissatisfaction levels are reaching epidemic proportions providing a clear opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves and curb defections through decent customer service.

Or as Seth Godin notes, “The Discipline of One Ring”
So, some companies have decided to answer the phone on one ring. Fedex did this for a long, long time. Rackspace still does, which is exactly why we chose them (and they’ve made enough from one account with us to pay for dozens of people to answer the phone…).

Expensive? Well, it’s more than you’re spending now. But it’s cheaper than advertising and cheaper than losing a customer to the competitor who had the discipline.

Looks like Netflix got the message…
“And Netflix took an unusual step for a Web-based company in July 2007,” Yankelovich says. “It eliminated e-mail-based customer-service inquiries. Now all questions, complaints and suggestions go to the Oregon call center, which is open 24 hours a day.”

Here’s an excerpt from the “American Gangster” script. Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) tells one of his distributors (Jackie) not to mess with his “brand” of heroin, Blue Magic.

FRANK:
Brand names mean something, Jackie.
Consumers rely on them to know what
they’re getting. They know the company
isn’t going to try to fool them with an
inferior product. They buy a Ford, they
know they’re gonna get a Ford.

Not a f***in Datsun.

(his look says, right?)

Blue Magic is a brand name; as much a
brand name as Pepsi. I own it. I stand
behind it. I guarantee it and people
know that even if they don’t know me any
more than they know the chairman of
General Foods.

JACKIE:
What the f**k are you talking about,
Frank?

FRANK:
What you’re doing, as far as I’m
concerned, when you chop my dope down to
five percent, is trademark infringement.