Mindshare Marketing

I get a lot of spam in my inbox.  At least 20-50 items per day, to be exact.  Most of it consists of offers to work from home for reputable companies like Google and eBay (and most of them are scams).  Considering I already work from home about half of the time, I’ve always wondered how I got put on that particular mailing list.

This past week, though, I’ve been forced to work from home the entire time.  Snow in Oregon is usually fairly predictable: a few hours of flurries leads to an inch or two on the ground.  This leads to slow traffic and panicked commuters for the next day.  The snow quickly turns to slush and is gone within a day or two.  No big deal.

I have studded tires, so I can typically get around in just about anything.  I was going to add a set of chains to my collection this year, but friends and family talked me out of it.  Well, we’ve had a week now of “maybe we’ll be open, maybe you’ll be working from home, maybe you’ll close early.”  On Saturday the big storm hit.  After I made it home, I was stuck there.  The Department of Transportation put out a “chains required” restriction in the area, so now I can’t even leave the house (except by foot).

Not that I’d want to.  Here’s a view of my driveway circa yesterday morning.  Now add another inch of ice and another 6 inches of snow … then you’ll have today.  Oddly enough, it’s still snowing!  Everyone I know is being given the day off due to the weather, and most people are struggling to find things to do at home.  Of course, I still have the luxury (?) of being able to work, from home, in inclement weather.

This makes me wonder.  Why exactly is working from home the sought after holy grail of industry?  You can no longer call in sick.  You can’t use weather as a reason to take a day off.  And you can never be late to the office because you slept in.  Living in your office removes all barriers to being able to work … so why would a world that dreads Mondays and spends as much time at the watercooler as their desk want it so badly?

We’ve branded “working from home” well.  Perhaps too well …

The other day I ordered a copy of the graphic novel, The Watchmen, from Amazon.com.  I like to bargain shop, so I picked a “new” copy on sale at a lower price from another member of the Amazon.com community.  I picked this specific seller because their price, plus expedited shipping, was about 10 cents less than the normal retail price of the book.  I figured it would be worth it to save 10 cents and only have to wait two days for my book.

I ordered my book on the 9th.  Everything was paid and I was excited!  Then I got my email confirmation from Amazon.com:

The seller has agreed to ship by 11-December-2008. This message serves as advance notification of your shipment–most sellers will NOT send a separate shipment confirmation.

Your order will be shipped via an Expedited Shipping method. The arrival expectation is 3 to 6 business days.  If your shipment does not arrive by 19-December-2008, please contact the seller to check the status of the shipment. Your seller should provide the same level of customer service you expect from Amazon.com.

The expedited option on Amazon, as we all know, seems to promise 3-day shipping.  It doesn’t promise 3 to 6-day shipping after a 2-day wait for the seller … a total of 5 to 8-days if everything happens on time.

I’ve been to the bookstore twice since then (I go fairly regularly) and I could have easily picked up a copy on the 12th, which was when I originally expected I’d be getting my book.  Or I could’ve picked up a copy yesterday.  Instead, I’m waiting for the invisible hand of a seller somewhere else in the country to finish packaging and delivering something I thought would be cheaper and more convenient.

Moral of the story?  Amazon made money on a promise that they had no obligation to keep.  Whenever I order products with expedited shipping from them it arrives on time … some times early!  Through the Amazon Marketplace program, though, they paint less reputable sellers with the same classy image … and make money even when other people fail to live up to Amazon’s steller reputation.

This is the power of a brand.  I bought online because I trusted the Amazon.com brand (I still do for the most part) and trusted a brand I’d never heard of because of its association with Amazon.com.  Co-branding can be a powerful way to bolster a growing new entrant to the market.  You can transfer equity from one body to another and improve sales and market power far more quickly than with advertising and costly brand development campaigns.

The lesson to learn from this story, though, is one of care and foresight.  Transfering brand equity can be easy, but make sure you know who you’re transfering it to and that they actually deserve it. If your new partner won’t live up to your reputation, co-branding can actually hurt you more than it will help them.  You never want to sacrifice your brand.

Yesterday we had a wonderfully wintery day in Portland.  The snow was falling, the temperature was dropping, and cars were spinning out everywhere.  It’s amazing how unexpected weather can catch everyone off guard and make them behave erratically.

Driving in the snow isn’t really that hard.  1) Make sure you have some kind of traction device (snow tires, studs, or chains).  2) Make sure your traction device works (chains are useless if they stay in the trunk).  3) Drive slowly!

You don’t need to go about town at 5 MPH, but make sure you have control over the car at whatever speed you’re going.  Usually about 20 MPH is good for residential streets, no more than 40 MPH for clear-ish highways.

These rules are fairly simple, but yesterday I saw hordes of people not following them.  Only one car would get through the green light at the intersection because it was spinning out the whole time.  Chains were put on improperly.  One person was even talking up his snow tires at the grocery store … then remembered he’d forgotten to actually put them on!

Sudden changes in the environment can incite panic.  We frustrate more easily and forget the simple lessons we’ve already learned over and over again.  It’s easy to see this with weather, but what about when the climate turns towards business?

Your brand has (or will) come upon a time of sudden climate changes.  Maybe a tough economy challenges your business model.  Maybe a high-profile PR case forces an internal scramble for control.  Maybe you earn sudden positive notoriety through a magazine or newspaper featurette.  In any case, the steps you take to manage the changes are important.

1) Make sure you have some kind of plan for handling the unexpected (a person in charge of figuring out what’s going on, what needs to happen, and who projects need to be delegated to).  2) Make sure this plan is actually being followed (a plan or idea is worthless without execution).  3) Don’t get ahead of yourself!

Other companies and brands have been there before.  Look to their successes and failures for example of what to and not to do in times of distress.  Navigating foul weather can be easy if you know what you’re doing.  Just make sure you follow the rules.