Alan See
The Mark of Quality: Are You Using Permanent Ink or Temporary Tattoos?
The April 2008 issue of Quirk's Marketing Research Review noted that research company Harris Interactive conducted an online survey to learn if having a tattoo made people feel or act differently. The article was interesting to me because my dad was 18 years...
Healthy Gains When the CMO and CIO Are in Tight
Did you happen to see the front cover of the April 7th copy of "InformationWeek?" The picture was related to the article "The end run around IT – and how CIO's can prevent it" by John Soat. Of all the executive level...
Are You One Step in Front of Your Competition?
Got HAL? I was reminded this week of an old story that once surfaced about the Heuristically programmed Algorithmic Computer (HAL) in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." The story suggests that HAL was so-named to indicate that he was one step ahead...
Social Group Management: Are You a Gatekeeper in the Social Network?
Does your LinkedIn profile look like a NASCAR logo display? I'll admit that mine has nearly 50 signs displayed. I should also add that after 25+ years of spinning around the business track that my association with the represented organizations is real...
The Value of Positive Service Outcomes During Stressful Events
Weather officials have not yet determined if the snowstorm that hit my hometown this weekend will be officially classified as a blizzard; but I can tell you that 40 mph winds and 15 inches of snow is close enough for me. It's starting...
Plutoing Quality in a Down Economy
Pluto got bumped from the line-up. According to a committee of scientists the small solar-system body failed to meet planet-standards, so they downgraded the former planet to an asteroid. Plutoed; chosen as the 2006 Word of the Year by the American Dialect...
A Call to Action–and No Follow Up
The cabinet refacing ad copy contained all the key motivational phrases. • Installed right. Guaranteed. • Reliable service and quality installation. • Fresh new look without the disruption of a major renovation. • Most jobs completed in 3 days or less. • Call 1-800-555-XXXX for…
Focus on the Customer Is Driving Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)
We recently released the early results from our Seapine Software Quality-Ready Assessment, a survey that evaluates key indicators of quality within software development organizations. After collecting data from nearly 300 respondents, the results indicate that the top two factors driving development organizations to focus...
Quadrants and Other Analyst Evaluation Systems
It appears our recent success has put us on the analyst's radar screen. In fact, we were just placed in the 2008 Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management. My point of contention is our debut in the niche quadrant. ...
Feedback Will Help Turn Employees Into Ambassadors for Your Company
I recently posted an A as the final grade for one of my students. I've had other students earn top grades before, but this situation was a little different. First, let me say that the grade wasn't the result of a bell curve...
Marketing Craplets
Childhood ear infections resulted in a loss of hearing in my wife's left ear. To compensate for lower volume she learned how to read lips as she was growing up. Of course, you didn't need to be able to read lips to...
Learning Methodologies and Customer Retention
Research shows that we tend to remember: • 10% of what we read • 20% of what we hear • 30% of what we see • 50% of what we hear and see • 70% of what we say • 90% of what we both…
Buggy Customer Experiences
In the early 80's I was a marketing director for a small west Texas oil field service company. It was electrifying to be on location when a wildcatter hit oil. If investors happen to on-site during the discovery they would literally break...
Dale Carnegie and Marketing 2.0
The CustomerThink.com editorial calendar proclaims 2008 as "A New World of Customer Engagement." And January's topic of interest kicks-off with "Harnessing the Social Web to Grow Your Business." Blogging, word of mouth marketing and social networks are certainly hot topics for marketers. As...
Are Your Customers Caucusing?
I grew up in Iowa which is generally considered a pretty low key State. However, this week Iowa gets the keynote because Thursday is caucus night in Iowa, which is commonly recognized as the first step in the United States Presidential nomination process...
Quality and Business Performance
In Search of Failure. That's the title of chapter seven in Frederick Reichheld's book "The Loyalty Effect" (©1996). In that chapter Reichheld points out that an investor who built a stock portfolio out of the companies profiled in the book "In Search...
The Day You Start Losing a Client
In episode 10 of the AMC primetime drama "Mad Men" ad man Roger Sterling of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency is informed their agency has lost the Dr. Scholl's account. His first reaction is to say, "The day you sign a client is...
Putting the Pressure on Marketing Officers
I've noticed that I'm a target. Now hold on; this is not another one of those posts talking about the short tenure of the average CMO. It just so happens that I control the marketing budget … yes; I'm holding the checkbook....
The Quality-Ready Advantage
In passing my bookcase last night I felt compelled to pull out Peters and Waterman's 1982 classic "In Search of Excellence." I found what I was looking for … in chapter six ("Close to the Customer") I came across this golden nugget; "Service,...
Using Marketing Booth Babes
When Dilbert and his peers poke fun at marketing trade-show tactics they're often referring to the use of "booth babes." Now, in recent articles by Don Tennant (Editor's Note - COMPUTERWORLD) he first expressed his offense ("Using Women" – November 5th) at Vanco,...