Missing Link Marketing - UPDATED

The New Landscape - It's an ocean out there. 

The new landscape into which advertising and marketing programs are launched today is dramatically different from the "old world" of one-way media such as TV, print, and radio advertising. 

The "ambient information" available today also empowers customers to do as much (or as little) research as they want before they decide to make any purchase. 

The "always-available-ness" of this information makes it more useful to consumers because they can find it when they want it rather than be hit with it when they don't -- e.g. when checking email, watching TV, etc.

The Modern User's Expectations and Habits - Give me what I want, when I want it, where I want it. 

That said, "too much information" also presents a challenge for modern consumers -- how to hone in on the right bit of information that he or she needs at that moment in time from the ocean of available information. 

In the new landscape, modern consumers have developed habits and finely tuned skills to help them find and use information as well as cope with its abundance, variety, and differing levels of trustworthiness and timeliness. 

Consumers ... if they can't find your information on the first few pages of search results, you don't exist. 

If answer to the missing link is not found, they may simply not buy, postpone buying, or just buy what they know (previously purchased product, service, or brand). 

The right info, at the right time, to the right person, through the right device.

So, couldn't every person have a different missing link? Yes. Doesn't that mean that it would be very hard if not impossible to identify every customer's missing link, let alone solve it? Yes. And even if we could identify each user's missing link, wouldn't it be cost-prohibitive to get a message out to each individual addressing his missing link? Yes.

All of the above would be unfathomable in the age of one-way media. But in the new digital landscape there are new tools, services, and methods which can help solve these missing links

continue reading....

Original article from October 22, 2007. 

http://mktsci.com/missing-link-marketing-executive-brief.htm

Read More...

Summary only...

Bringo: Phone Tree Killer. This Is A Genuinely Useful Service

Augustine: this is what I call useful innovation

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

Bringo solves one of the most frustrating problems that we encounter daily: phone trees. Call a customer service phone number and end up in automated operator hell.

I've memorized the keys you have to hit for United Airlines to get to an operator as fast as possible. With other companies I just keep saying "operator" while hitting # over and over again. Sometimes it works. With Bringo, none of that matters any more. You don't even need to dial your phone. Just find the company you want to talk to in their directory, type in your phone number, and a couple of minutes later Bringo calls you and connects you to an operator at that company. I tried it with Air Canada and it worked absolutely perfectly.

They need to create a stripped down mobile version of this as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the tip Narendra (Biz Stone also mentioned them recently).

Read More...

Summary only...