Roy Dahl on Management, Trends and Marketing

Subscribing for a newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:25:00 +0000

Late evening yesterday I read an article I was recommended by Paul Sherland, my LinkedIn friend. The article was published on EMarketer. EMarketer also has a free newsletter which I wanted to subscribe to.

I tried to sign up for their newsletters at least 10 times but could not pass the security code. I thought;
"How many times do they expect me to try?" I should want to read their newsletters, but it seemed to me it was not possible. And I thought; "This is not very good in the perspective of WoM."

So I wrote an e-mail to Jennifer Pearson at EMarketer regarding my problems. She replied within a few minutes and I'm now registred to receive their newsletters.

That's WOW from a WoM perspective, and should be something everybody should learn from..

By her very quick action she turned a dissatisfied "customer" to a satisfied "customer". And - of course - I'm looking forward to receiving the newsletters.

Facebook - A Great Opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:16:00 +0000

From the Timeline of Facebook you can see that the number of registred users has doubled from January 2009 until September 2009. The number of users has increased from 150 milliion to 300 million active users.

From the Statistics of Facebook you can read that the average active user has 130 friends on the site.

Think of these figures and how it may help you in your day to day marketing. This is a great viral marketing opportunity not to be missed.

Ideavirus Persistence

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:19:00 +0000

It’s amazing how things change. In year 2000, when Seth Godin wrote his book “Unleashing The Ideavirus”, one of the viruses in his examples is Palm. The handheld electronic diary which we couldn’t be without.

When writing about “Persistence” in the aforementioned book, Godin writes:

Compare this (the laser pointers) to the Palm virus. Every day, somebody else marches into your office, declaring their undying love and devotion to his new pocket wonder. And unlike laser pointers, people who love them keep using them. They persist.

I wonder how many use Palm today when you have all the same options in your cellphone.

Palm once filled a vacuum, a vacuum now filled by cellphones. I don’t see anyone uses Palm anymore, but it happens that I see someone using a laser pointer….

Pleasurism – the act of having pleasure

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:11:00 +0000

According to Dictionary.com the definition of pleasure is “enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one's liking; gratification; delight.”

What does this definition implies?

“Enjoyment derived from what is to one’s liking”
Meaning we first of all should know what we like. And that shouldn’t be too difficult. And if we participate in something we like and enjoy it, we have pleasure

“Satisfaction derived from what is to one’s liking”
We still know what we like, and should have satisfaction from participate.

Some of us like music, other like theatre or watching a movie. So – we sit at home in our sofa, listening to some music we like, or watching a movie or a play on television. This gives us a sort of enjoyment. That’s the reason for listening or watching, isn’t it. But we are not fully satisfied. What if we could have been to a concert with our favourite artist, been on a great theatre watching a good play or a marvellous musical. Or – what if we just went to the city where we could watch the great movie on a cinema. A movie is best watched in the cinema, they say. Which is perfectly true. Watching a movie in a cinema, or going to a concert not only gives us enjoyment. We are also more satisfied after having a good and nice evening. We’ve had pleasure.

Faith Popcorn in her book “The Popcorn Report” tells us about Small Indulgences, A small reward – a little luxury which sometimes is enough to make us happy and delighted, even if it’s only for a very short time. Because, as Popcorn says, sometimes it is only the moment which make it happen. Going to a café is a sort of a small indulgence. Paying some coins for a cup of coffee gives us a moment in peace at a table where we can sit an watch other people passing by or sitting in the café. Or we can sit together with friends and acquaintances having a chat, or we can sit by ourselves reading a newspaper or a book. To be honest, this is something we could have done at home to a small percentage of the cost. But we go out. Cause when going out, we get enjoyment and satisfaction and it’s worth the cost of the cup. “We’re looking for an emotional ego-trip, without having to worry about the costs or the risk of really having to pay an overprice far beyond what it’s worth (even if an overprice is part of the enjoyment). Hey – paying too much is part of the enjoyment? And gives us satisfaction? Ok – we have a pleasure doing it.

And since our wages all differ from person to person, small indulgences for one person (Bill Gates buying a new Rolls Royce) will be a great indulgence for most people, e.g. me.

On the other hand there may also be pleasure in anger and naughtyness. Again Faith Popcorn tells us that “Pleasure Revenge means we’re fed up with self-deprivation in the sanctified name of Health and Correct Behavior. As consumers we’re ready, willing, and able to Click into the pursuit of pleasure. Not sweet and pure, but the dark side of pleasure, the underbelly pleasure. We’re boomeranging back to fun …. with a vengeance.” (Clicking / Popcorn, Marigold) “In Pleasure Revenge, there’s an anger, a distinct decision to go ahead and be naughty, a vengefulness.” (The Popcorn Report”) In Norway it’s prohibited to smoke on your working place if it’s inside. It’s prohibited to smoke on a pub or a restaurant, or in a cinema or a concert hall. So the smokers have to get out, even if it’s below 20 degrees Celcius. The smokers stick together outside, often hiding in a dark corner for no-one to see them having their pleasure revenge.

The same happened when drinking alcohol was prohibited during the 1930’s. At that time people made their moonshine whisky which was no good for the health and made you break the law. That gave some kind of pleasure. An underbelly pleasure. When you drive your car too fast on the motorway, it is just the same. You know you are breaking the law, but you have done your calculations regarding the risk of being stopped by a police, and you are enjoying yourself having the satisfaction of testing your car. You have pleasure, Pleasure Revenge.

How do marketers act upon pleasurism? How do they make it an advantage? Or do they take advantage of it at all? What are your thoughts with regards to this?

The author, Roy Dahl, is the Festival Manager of 11musikk (http://www.11musikk.no/) a music festival in Larvik, Norway. Some years ago he did articles about Servicism and Narrativism on PSFK.

Larvik - The Boring Cow

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 18:16:00 +0000

This is the "Welcome to Larvik" sign. Looks just as boring as the town itself.

Alas. It doesn't have to be that way. Larvik has a lot of cows that can be made purple. Just look at this, our Lake Farris, almost in the mid-city. Great - isn't it?

The photo is taken this winter, but in summer the lake is crowded by people. Very nice - indeed.

How do I sell ads for a hardcopy book?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Does anyone have an advice on how to do this?

Please feel free to make a comment.

Creating Evangelists

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:03:00 +0000

I read the blog of Creating Passionate Users on how to create Evangelists the authentic way. This is what they say about what you should have and what you should do.

1) You have a product or service or cause that helps users learn and grow and kick ass at something.
2) You give users tools to help them evangelize.
3) You do not ever, ever, ever pay users for doing this.

Creating Evangelists is about how you can get someone telling their friends about your product in a way that is truthful. Creating Evangelists has nothing to do with asking "cheaters" to go on the street telling "everybody" about your product, a product the "cheaters" may not even have seen. This is what separates the good from the evil, the true ones from the cheaters.

Then, of course, there are certain remedies which may be used to help your evangelists evangelize your product. These may be

Give-aways DVDs so the ones that receives the DVD may see why this product means so much to the one the got the DVD from
Posters and stickers to raise attention to the product. Speaking for my self, I'm a true evangelizer of the Skagen Festival , a music festival in Skagen, Denmark, and I often get posters to put up in my city just before the festival starts.
Free tickets to an event arranged by the manufacturer of the product
Friends and Families Nights; three weeks ahead of the Skagen Festival me and my wife arrange a Skagen Vorspiel where we invite the friends of ours who we will be going to Skagen together with.
Testimonials from credible people. Speaking once again for myself, I talk about the Skagen Festival round the year, telling all my acquaintances about what a remarkable experience it is to go to Skagen and listen to all the wonderful music, and not by least, how much it adds up to your marriage.

This is how YOU can help your true users to evangelize YOUR product of service.

Will We Go Green?

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:48:00 +0000

It's great to see so many bloggers will go green. It's not so great to see how one of Tom Peters' contributors, John O'Leary, is not that concerned about going green. This is what Tom O'Leary writes:

Yet before we get ahead of ourselves, there are scientists who remain skeptical that greenhouse gases (human-caused) are the major source of global warming. They argue that this warming is due to natural cycles or other variables, such as sunspot activity. While the number of these skeptics is shrinking faster than the polar ice caps, we shouldn't forget that a majority opinion is no warranty of scientific truth (ask Copernicus). And ideological claims ("they're all paid off by Big Oil") are no substitute for fact-based discourse, even if the big clock is ticking.

A heartly warm thank you to Gil Friend who in his blog really makes a statement with regards to the profoundly effect of releasing CO2. In his blog yesterday he wrote:

The options for action -- for governments, companies and, yes, each of us -- should now be clear, if they weren't already:
1. Slow and reverse any and all contributions to global warming
2. Minimize, mitigate, deal with, adapt to the daunting and inevitable impacts
3. Do #1 and 2 in ways that build economic benefit
4. Do #1, 2 and 3 in ways that build reputation
(#4 is especially pertinent for companies -- but I guarantee you it will impact politicians as well.)

The Prime Minister of Norway is also deeply concerned about this. In his speech for the New Year he stressed the fact that the polar ice is melting.

Still we see the President of US hesitating to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and that he has a lot of American followers in not ratifying the protocol. Probably people who runs a business which will have to make investment in CO2 reducing gadgets.

I think most of the population on earth is really concerned about this very serious topic. It is also my opinion that all these human beings will seek not to buy products from manufacturers who is releasing a heavy load of CO2. Faith Popcorn calls this "The Vigilan Consumer" and "The Trend of Surviving".

The consumers will take action. Will the manufacturers follow suit?

OLGA is Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:48:00 +0000

Dear Olga,

It has come to my understanding that you have left us - may be for ever. What a pity.

Through the years you have been a reference site for many trying to learn new tunes on their guitar. You have been like a friend which could be visited to learn something new on the guitar. Like old friends for years and years having learned from each other, you have been there. Now you are gone.

What does this mean? When you, dear OLGA, is gone, many guitar players will ask, WHY. Because there have never been illegal to learn a new tune on the guitar from a friend. The lyrics can often be found in the booklet of a CD, and what the friends have to do is to put some letters (and numbers) between the lines showing which chords to be used, and perhaps add tablature now and then. This is how a tradition on playing guitar has gone like a legacy from guitar player to guitar player. From grandfather to father to son. In the old days there was no tablature, there was no internet, there was no other way to learn new tunes on the guitar than learning from someone else or be teaching one self.

Dear OLGA, what if I write a lyric, put on the chords and give it to my friend, will I then be in conflict with the law? I don't think so.

There are millions of guitarists who would love to see you back again, dear OLGA.

When will you be back?

The Many P's of Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:55:00 +0000

From my days in school - a long time ago - we learned that you should pay attention to the 4 P's of Marketing. These 4 P's were:

Product
Price
Place
Promotion

Today I have received a book telling me about a 5'th P -

Purple Cow.

The book is called Purple Cow and is written by Seth Godin. I have now started reading it, and will now and then give you my thoughts from what I have read.

Using Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:59:00 +0000

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. (Anonymus)

It seems to me that the US is good at using people whome have gained experience through the years of dutyful working for a company or government.

John Murtha (74) is now back in his old role as chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, where he will be using his experience which he gained by being a Vietnam veteran.

Condoleezza Rice (52) became Secretary of State on January 26, 2005. Prior to this, she was the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, since January, 2001.

In Norway we have a tradition for not using people who have gained experience. Are you older than 40 years of age, you will have trouble in getting a new job. In Norway we may say it is an age discrimination as seniors are more or less "out of business".

Is this good politics for the Norwegian corporate world?

Evangelizing Customers

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:11:00 +0000

Church of the Customer is announcing the new and revised version of Creating Customer Evangelists in paperback. What about it?

Well, this is a "new" way of thinking marketing. Take for instance the Brewtopia case. Brewtopia did not spend a dime on advertising or other strings of traditional marketing. They, deliberate or not, used the six tenets of customer evangelism, even before the book was released.

In short the six tenets are:

Customer plus-delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
Create community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
Make bite-size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or your industry, better.

And what did Brewtopia accomplish?

From initial 140 contacts, customer base is now 20,000+ in 27 countries
Turnover; 2,000 cartoons per month average
90% sold over the web, 10% in traditional outlets
First full year in sales expected to top $ 1 million
64 of 100 referrals to www.blowfly.com.au register (up from 32 in 100)
Sales: 1 in 2.25 members buy the beer or merchandise (up from 1 in 9)
Licensing deals being struck in UK, US and NZ
Customer feedback initiates new lines of business, e.g. Corporate label beer
STILL never advertised, owned a brewery or had more than 4 staff

The full report "Testify" can be downloaded here.

I have read it. And what did I do next? Ordered my paperback copy of "Creating Customer Evangelists" on Amazon.com for about US$ 10 only.
Hopefully you will do so also.

TIME Kept The Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:40:00 +0000

On saturday I received my TIME Vol. 169 No 5 just ahead of the weekend. Now TIME has proved that the promise can be held. Hopefully it will.

My apologizes (for now) to TIME.

TIME - Not Keeping The Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:41:00 +0000

In TIME Vol. 169, No. 3, in the Managing Editor's "To Our Readers" Mr. Stengel writes in his column;

We' ve changed our production schedule because the news environment has changed, and because we've been listening to you. Over and over, we've heard that our subscribers put the magazine aside to read on the weekend. The solution was pretty simple: let's get you the magazine when you want it.

Yesterday, on Wednesday after the weekend, I received my copy of TIME Vol. 169, No 4.
Mr. Managing Editor; don't you keep your promises?

Be "The" Expert

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:22:00 +0000

How often do we phrase: "We need an expert to do this or that"?

Why don't YOU be THE expert to be called on when your expertise is needed.

Seth Godin refers to an article in Times and writes:

"For the past couple of years Jun Kaneko, the ceramic artist..."
It didn't say "a ceramic artist." No. It said, "the ceramic artist".
The entire tone of the piece changes. It's so much better to be a 'the' not an 'a'.

What about you? Are you the expert?

How to make a trackback

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:37:00 +0000

Thanks to Robert Lindsay I can hereby disclose how you make a trackback.

Robert Lindsay writes:

I use the Wizbang Trackback Pinger. It's a rightwing blog, but what the heck. The Kelsey Trackback Pinger is also listed there but I have not used it for a bit. The Wizbang Pinger is quite reliable and I highly recommend it. It's the one I use on a regular basis.
Click on the Wizbang Trackback Pinger to open a new window. There will be 5 separate data boxes there. The first one says, "Trackback url". This is the trackback url of the blog post you are trackbacking to. Copy-paste the trackback url into this text box. The next says, "Your permalink url". This is the url of your post
where you linked to the post you are tracking back to.
Go find the post on your blog page and either click on the title, if you have clickable titles, or go to the end of your blog piece and find the "Posted at (Time/Date)" hyperlink at the end of the post. That is your permalink. Copy-paste that into the permalink box. The next box is "Your Blog Name". Write the name of your blog in there. The next box says, "Title".
This is the title of the blog post, the one you gave the url to in the permalink box. Next says "Excerpt". You can put anything you want to in here, but it's considered polite to only put in the part of your post where you reference to post you are trackbacking to. If you want to be sleazy, you put in some other part of your post designed to get surfers to click your trackback.
Now that you have all five fields filled in, click "Submit Trackback". Wait a bit, and if it is successful, it will take you take a page that says, "Error message 0". That dumb message means the trackback was successful. Anything other than that means your trackback did not work for a variety of reasons. You can only make one trackback to the same post from the same post.

TIME's Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:10:00 +0000

Having just renewed my subscrition for TIME, but being too late for continous delivery, I guess it may take some weeks before the subscription starts again. For that reason I went to the newsstand and bought a copy (Vol. 169, No. 3).

Reading the Managing Editor's "To Our Readers" I got a pleasant surprice. Mr. Stengel writes in his column that

We' ve changed our production schedule because the news environment has changed, and because we've been listening to you. Over and over, we've heard that our subscribers put the magazine aside to read on the weekend. The solution was pretty simple: let's get you the magazine when you want it.

I really must say I'm looking forward to receiving the magazine before the weekend and not at the time I have received it for 6 years - on thursday after the weekend.

8 Stepping Stones to REMARKABILITY

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:51:00 +0000

In our everyday lives we struggle through our dailies in order to keep up with our work, friends and families. We somewhat are in the sea of sameness to everybody else. We are part of a gray mass, and we are not being very remarkable. Time to change. This is how YOU will stand out from the crowe and be - yes - REMARKABLE:

1. Be positive.
2. Be supportive, encourage and appreciate.
3. Be enthusiastic, energetic and upbeat.
4. Be active, take action, be bold, be courageous.
5. Smile...laugh - laugh at yourself, laugh with others.
6. Learn, stretch, grow, challenge yourself.
7. Believe in yourself, believe in others.
8. Love all, serve all, be patient, be kind, be generous.
Do these more often and you will be "REMARKABLE".

And by the way - THANKS to Ken Brand who wrote these 8 Stepping Stones in his blog.

Business Should Be Going Green

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:35:00 +0000

Honda is having its hydrogen-fuel-cell concept car. Toyota is having their famous Prius.

Saab is having cars using bio-power; bioethanol, and by that giving the car an extra 30 HP. By using bioethanol, the Saab cars are making an impact on reducing harmful emissions. The use of bioethanol does not significantly raise atmospheric levels of CO2 which is a major contributor of global warming.

Other companies are following suit.

In his speech for the New Year, the Norwegian Prime Minister stressed that the polar ice is melting, and that the polar bears soon will be erased from earth if the seals that they have for dinner is disappearing. In the north we have a great challenge because of the global warming. When the polar ice is melting, the water level is rising. That is not of any good. All owing to the raise of CO2 atmospheric levels.

The President of the United States did not want to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Is his mind absent from reality?

We - the consumers - have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, at least in our minds. The consequences of this will be that a lot of manufacturers will see to that also they will be more engaged in the politics of an environmentally friendly world. If we - the consumers - see that a certain company is not complying with the Kyoto Protocol, we will not buy the company's products.

Manufacturers - beware.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 16:47:00 +0000

I wish you all a Happy New Year.

May the year 2-007 be a prosperous year for us all

Green is the new Green

noreply@blogger.com (Roy Dahl) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:29:00 +0000

Seems like it is money in making "green" ads. According to International Herald Tribune advertising agencies specialized in environmental issues are having great success. The five green agencies in 2003 have now become more than 50.

This is also a confirmation regarding the trend called Save Our Society in which we are obsessed in saving the world we are living in.