CMO Club May '08: Marketing as service: shifting from intrusion to invitation

Drew Neisser, CEO of Renegade has been chronicling companies that have successfully pulled off "marketing as service" on his blog. The ultimate goal of marketing as service is to move from intrusion to invitation. Are you making something better for your customer or are you intruding on their existing behavior? Surprisingly he hasn't found that many examples, but here are a few he really liked that he shared with us today.

Nike+
It's a running shoe that connects with your iPod and allows you to track your training runs. You can join a community of runners, learn from trainers, and the goal is to make you a better runner...It's not about selling shoes.

American Express
American Express has a library of information for small businesses to help them build a better brand. Another valuable service was offering AMEX users an early priority two hour window in which only they could purchase Clapton tickets.

Samsung Charging stations
Samsung filled an unmet need. You no longer have to look under people's seats for outlets. Helps reduce the stress for travelers and vacationers. It's relevant to mobile and the business they're in.

Camp Jeep
Motivating the most hard core Jeep customers. It's the ultimate loyalty program. It's a retreat with a road course, a backwoods trail, and climbing wall for kids. It's talked about a lot online and people post pictures.

Charmin Restrooms
They installed 20 pristine toilets in Times Square. Talk about an unmet need. A toilet in Times Square? Let alone one that's clean? More than 420,000 people visited the Times Square restrooms. Attendants are on staff to service every toilet. And according to their marketing materials they say, "Families will be entertained by the fun interactive activities." In the toilet? Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Not only did Charmin set up restrooms in Times Square, they also have an eighteen room porta-potty.

The CMO Club.com Pete Krainik has had 46 dinners so far with CMOs around the country. He's attended 38 of these dinners in person, and now he's franchising it out to other CMOs.

How can you be successful with marketing as service?

• Stop worrying about what you want to say. Actions speak louder than words.
• Start thinking about what you can do for your customers and for your prospect.
• Current customers, measure satisfaction using Net Promoter Score (NPS). If your NPS isn't high enough for your industry, find out why. And what can you do to create evangelists, a.k.a. "brand love?"
• Prospective customers. How do you make them jealous? What do current customers have that you don't have that you want? How can you help them at work, home, or play?