Marketing Today

Faking product reviews backfires big time for Carbonite

This week, online data storage company, Carbonite had some explaining to do when a New York Times article exposed the fact that employees of Carbonite had actually written fake reviews praising the Carbonite backup service and had posted them on Amazon.com back in 2006.  If you read the article, you'll learn that a customer who was using the Carbonite service backed up his PC using the service and then had his computer crash.  When he went to use the backup to restore his computer, he found that it didn't work and that customer support kept him waiting on hold for an hour.  A quick search on product reviews on Amazon led him to discover several suspicious ones all praising Carbonite that were all written around the same time.  One review that gave the service 5 stars was published by the VP of Marketing for Carbonite.  Yikes! 

Fake Reviews Would Be Bad

When the service that you market is responsible for backing up people's computer files and when the tagline under your logo posted at the top of your home page reads "Because your life is on your computer", you want your service to work right every time.  You hope no one has to write a review about using your service, because you hope your customers never lose their data and have to recover it.  If they do, you certainly want them to have a good experience.  What does it say about your service when people discover that your marketing team has been posting fake reviews?  Not much.  Did you really think no one would figure it out?  And, while Carbonite has pulled the fake reviews off of Amazon, the angry customer has all of the screen shots posted online in Picasa where anyone with access to the Internet can still find them.

Carbonite CEO Apologizes

In one story in Xconomy, the writer spoke with Carbonite CEO, David Friend, to get his company’s side of the story.   The article reads "He didn’t try to spin or shift blame for the episode: He says it was “totally wrong” for Carbonite staffers Swami Kumaresan and Jonathan Freidin to post positive reviews of Carbonite’s service on Amazon without making it clear that they were Carbonite employees....The Amazon case was an isolated incident.  Some people are alleging that this is a pattern of behavior.  It isn’t. It was just one thing that happened back when Carbonite had eight employees and there were a bunch of young guys who didn’t know any better…This was just two overenthusiastic employees who decided to post these things on their own. To be honest they thought it was cool.”

The article goes onto say that since January of 2007 Carbonite has had a policy requiring anyone affiliated with the company to disclose that relationship whenever they contribute to blogs or review sites.   Really?  Might have been nice if that policy had been expanded to take all fake reviews that presiously existed down.  A quick Google search might have helped to find out where some of them lived out there on the Internet.

What Did the Carbonite CEO Think Was Going to Happen in the Blogsphere?

What interested me in the Xconomy article was this sentence "But while Friend is apologetic, he’s also a bit miffed about Carbonite’s treatment in the blogosphere over the past couple of days."  Hello?  Welcome to 2009 and the new world of PR where you can't control your message the way you'd like to online.  It's great to come clean and admit a problem, but understand that there are plenty of citizen journalists with blogs and cynical journalists on deadline with a beat to cover who write their own stories, not yours.  A quote like that is just catnip for journalists and new marketers.

Given the nature of what Carbonite does with online backup, it's important to note that all these journalists and their readers might be customers.  If they're not impressed with the way that you understand how media works today when you respond to a crisis, it's pretty easy for them to switch the method they use to back up their systems -- especially when the cost of your service is about $50/year.  And, they have the methods to suggest that others do so as well.

It's also interesting to note as of the writing of this blog entry, that there is no mention of the fake reviews or the company's response to it on the Carbonite website.  Seems kind of like putting your head in the sand, doesn't it?

Technorati Profile

Hey, Hubspot Gave Me A "C" With Their Twitter Grader!

I really like the folks at Hubspot except that when I use their tools, this high achiever gets what I consider to be a "C".  Imagine my surprise when I googled myself over the weekend (yes, I'm a geek) and found that my twitter page, cgunst, had received a 76 out of 100 with the Twitter Grader. 

Actually, not bad for someone who is fairly new to Twitter.  How did I get my grade of 76?  Hubspot calculates the number as a percentile score. It's based on a few observations like:

• The number of followers you have
• The power of this network of followers
• The pace of your updates
• The completeness of your profile
• ...a few others

So, who's at the top of the class in Boston?  Well, a woman who calls herself Pistachio who is a local expert on microblogging.  With 16,277 followers as of today and a business built around uses for Twitter for business, it's a good thing to see that she scored 100 with the Grader.

The Hubspot Website Grader

I have to say that I feel a lot better about my Twitter grade than I did about the grade I got using the  Website Grader on a site I helped create for The Art Connection, a not-for-profit that I'm on the board of, this past August.  You may have seen my blog entry "Hey, my website was graded a "C".  Guess I should have been happy, because I just ran the grader again and we've dropped to a "58 out of 100".  Yikes!  I guess we've got a little search engine optimization work to do before we run the website grader again.

What grade do you think you'd get?

Don't be shy.  For more information on how your press releases, website, and Twitter page stack up, head to http://grader.com/.  Try out some of the great tools that Hubspot has to improve the ways that people find you or your business on the web.  And, if you're pulling down the scores that I am, you might want to check out the products and services offered by Hubspot too!

Boston Globe Starts Front Page Print Advertising

This week, The Boston Globe placed its first ad on the front page of the paper.  The ad was for the movie "Defiance" and it ran on the bottom of the front page the day after the inauguration. Their parent company, The New York Times, printed their first ad on the front page just two weeks earlier.  Neither paper is  exactly doing cutting edge stuff here as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal have had printed ads their front page of the paper much earlier. The New York Times and The Globe simply held out longer.

A lot of the publications we depend on for our news are in big trouble.  In fact, a group on Facebook is organizing National Buy A Newspaper Day for Monday, February 2nd in an effort to encourage people to buy a local newspaper on that day.  The group says that "the biggest [newspaper] chains are deeply in debt. Major cities that have had at least two daily newspapers for more than a century, such as Chicago and Seattle, might soon find themselves with only one source of news. Other papers, such as those in Detroit are no longer providing daily home delivery."  

I certainly hope we can keep our home town papers afloat as they figure out how to remain competitive online/offline.  I like reading the news in print with a Boston slant to it and am very interested in what's going specific to my neighborhood.  Sadly, my lifestyle just doesn't accommodate that except on weekends when I have a little more time to spend reading and thinking about what I just read.  During the work week, I'm afraid all I have time to do is scan online headlines or RSS feeds.  The only time I focus on online advertising is when I'm analyzing it to see how it might work for an upcoming marketing campaign that I'm involved with.

Are Infomercials the Future of TV Advertising?

As marketers for all types of products and services change their marketing strategies and advertising spend, it's amazing to see who advertises on TV and print these days and who isn't.  It's getting to the point where more companies are moving their marketing spend from traditional advertising venues to the Internet where they think more and more of their customers are.  Just this week I read where Century 21 was pulling TV ads  in favor of marketing on the Internet where their customers are.

Is it becoming a time when non-Internet savvy people are going to be forced to watch infomericals for the George Forman Grill and the Snuggie just because their only connection to the outside world is through cable TV or print newspapers?  Will the rest of us do our shopping on the Internet using search engines and tools that help us find the best information and the best price?  It's sure looking like it.

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Have you voted for your favorite infomercial of all time yet?  It's not too late to choose the Chia Pet over the Clapper or the Flobee.  All you need to do is go to CNBC and vote online.  The voting for the final match-up will take place on Monday, January 26th. A winner will be declared the following day at 9:30 a.m. e.s.t.

Marketing Maker's Mark Bourbon

Maker's Mark believes in building the brand by building the brand enthusiasts.  You do this by nurturing your loyal customers and distributors and making it easy for them to help spread the word.  I love watching their success doing this for three reasons.  One, I'm a marketer.  Two, Maker's Mark bourbon is made in Loretto, Kentucky where many members of my family have lived all their lives.  And, three, I'm a Maker's Mark customer and an ambassador.  Here are a few ways, Maker's Mark is successfully marketed:

Market the Distillery

Tens of thousands of people drive out to map dot Loretto, Kentucky every year to see the Maker's Mark distillery which is a national historic landmark.  I took the photo above at Thanksgiving and it shows the former gift shop decorated for the holidays.  The grounds are kept up beautifully.  There are tours of the distillery so that you can see how the bourbon is made.  And, there is even a small restaurant on site if you want to grab a bite.  The new gift shop is amazing and features a tasting bar (part of the tour) and many items fans would love such as golf items, t-shirts, cigars, and glassware.  If you are out in Lexington or Louisville, I recommend the hour drive down to Maker's Mark to experience this.

Build An Online Presence and Keep the Content Fresh

The Maker's Mark website features the history of Maker's Mark, national, local, and industry press Maker's Mark has received, recipes, a blog, and an online store. The site is written so that it tells the tale of the seven generations of Samuels who created Maker's Mark and it keeps up that specialness of the distillery and the people who make the bourbon.  It's a place to learn more and stay up to date.

Reward Your Customers with a Loyalty Program

I'm a Maker's Mark ambassador.  This means I get regular e-mail updates from Maker's Mark from time to time with information they think I'd find useful.  I get gifts every year around the holidays like coasters, cocktail shakers, or this year, it was wrapping paper which was very nice.  Most importantly, I get invitations to special events that are held in Boston where I live and to the annual Thoroughbreds and Redheads weekend held in Kentucky in April.  This event starts on a Friday at Keeneland where horses run the Maker's Mark Mile followed by a party in Lexington, KY and then a luncheon and tour of the distillery the following day.  I have gone the last two years and have enjoyed it.  Hopefully, my schedule will allow me to make it down again this year.

And, There's More

Maker's Mark has always run creative ads in print, billboards, and throughout the Louisville airport (at least that's where I've seen them) and the distillery is going green.  I can't comment on any changes to the percentage of print based ads to percentage of marketing focused on social networking as I'm not privy to the company marketing strategy.  I'm just an observer and a satisfied customer of the brand who tries to promote it wherever I can.  I'm very grateful for all they do for Loretto, Kentucky and the Commonwealth of Kentucky through their generosity and the strength of marketing the brand.

What'll Change When the "Marketer of the Year" Moves Into the White House?

Can Barack Obama's presidency make a difference to the venture community?  How will Ad Age's "Marketer of the Year" for 2008 change things over the next few years?  This week, I headed up to the Vilna Shul synagogue on Beacon Hill with my friend Chris Hartman who writes a High Tech History blog for an event called "Boston Area Venture Capital:  Looking Back on 2008 and Looking Forward to 2009" to hear local experts answers to those questions.

Galen Moore, Mass High Tech News writer, moderated a panel with three leading Boston area VCs:  Larry Bohn of General Catalyst, Jonathan Seelig of Globespan Capital Partners, and David Aronoff, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners.

The first question of the night was about how a new president in office who understands technology would affect the venture community.  The panel agreed that having someone in office who "gets it" and who puts people in his cabinet who "get it" could lead to innovation which could move the economy forward.  Its quite possible that new technology and alternative energy ideas could come out of this administration that would stimulate growth.

The panel agreed that there is no shortage of ideas out there, but that investors are sitting on the sidelines with a bit of "deer caught in headlights" syndrome going on.  The deal flow is up and will continue to go up as folks who lose their day jobs will start shopping ideas around that will lead to new companies being built.  The challenge to investors will be turning a suitable profit.  As the lifetime of venture-backed companies has moved from 3-5 years to 5-8 years, many companies can't offer the high return on investment back to their investors because they've had to take on too many investors to keep their firms afloat.  With the IPO market drastically slowed down, we'll see several privately held firms snapped up by larger firms this year at bargain prices and we'll see some more simply shut down. 

So, what's an entrepreneur to do? 

Keep up your optimism.  If you've got an idea, don't be afraid to shop it around.  People are willing to listen to you even if they don't jump in to invest right away.  Networking is good as long as you're not wasting people's time.  Take a page from our new president's handbook.  Start small.  Build a great team.  And, stay on message.  Use the Internet to take your message directly to your base.  It's America and anything is possible.

Is that Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the radio?

This morning as I was headed out to work, I heard an ad on the radio that made me think "It sounds like these people are talking about speech recognition software.  Nah!"  Sure enough, it was an ad for Dragon NaturallySpeaking on the radio.  When I got to thinking about it, I thought I'd seen the product advertised on TV as well.  A quick search on YouTube unearthed a TV commerical along with several other product videos. 

Why do I care? 

Well, I was the product marketer for Dragon Naturally Speaking about 10 years ago.  I used to be responsible for all of the consumer products or as we liked to say "Carole markets everything we sell for $199 or less."  While the concept of talking to your computer and having it type for you was revolutionary, it was never mainstream enough to be marketed to the masses on TV and radio. 

We mostly sold the product in the software section of stores that sold computers and electronics.  Although, one of the coolest things I got to do was work with AOL to sell the product in their online marketplace.  And, sell we did.  As one of AOL's most popular products, we worked on all sorts of pop-up ads.  Remember how obnoxious they were?  We used to test whether a blue background or a green background pulled in more sales.  We tested headlines, body copy, and price points.  It was a blast.  For a while there, we even had a section on AOL using keyword "Voice Center" and I used to host monthly chat sessions with speech geeks who wanted to chat about the product.

I'm glad to see that the product line survived all of the craziness of Dragon Systems getting bought by L&H (our main competitor) and then watching L&H go bankrupt and all of those patents eventually sold for a rock bottom price to the company that is now Nuance.  Pretty cool to see the product evolve to become easy enough to use that it can be sold on TV and radio.

Check Out Internet Phenomenon "Cute Things Falling Asleep"

Earlier this week, my friend Vickie was telling me that her stepson, Nick, was going to be interviewed on CNN about a website he'd created called Cute Things Falling Asleep.  Pretty cool, huh?  It didn't stop there.  I sat down this morning with my coffee to watch the Today show and got to see Nick interviewed live.  Sounds like yesterday, he got over 250,000 hits to this site he created in his spare time and he's getting press calls and all sorts of requests to advertise on his site.  How fun is that?

Howard Stern fans will remember Nick Malis, who is now a successful comedy writer in LA, as "Nicky the Intern".  Others may have seen his producer credits on another NBC show called "The Biggest Loser" which he worked on during the recent writer's strike.  But millions of other people are going to remember him for organizing video clips of cute things falling asleep online with a rating system for "cuteness" and "sleepiness".  And long after this latest Internet craze dies down, his parents will remember the angst it cost him when his computer started to choke given all the web traffic he was getting.

Frankly after all of the gloom and doom that we focused on during the recent long election process and the grief we get when we look at our own retirement accounts these days, I think people are ready for a little lighthearted good news.  This week, it's all about cute things falling asleep.  I look forward to the next Internet phenomenon that helps take everyone's mind off of things and wish Nick, who I've never met but have been hearing about for years, much success as he rides this wave of success.

I Know Why The Mighty Mend It Man Screams

Over the holidays, I watched a fair amount of news on CNN and MSNBC.  It amazed me how quickly it would go from intelligent news cast to a commercial featuring a crazy man standing in a wind tunnel promoting Mighty Mend It (glue to "sew" your ripped clothing) and then back to the news.  Two major questions came to mind.  One - why is this man screaming at me?  Two - why does my six-year-old nephew have this commercial memorized?

I Know Why The Mighty Mend It Man Screams

Pitchman Billy Mays can't help himself!  He's made a career screaming at people.  According to the highly reliable source, the Wikipedia, this fellow started his sales career hawking products on the Atlantic City boardwalk before moving up to home shows, auto shows, and state fairs across the United States selling various tools, cleaning products, and food choppers.  It was really just a matter of time before he headed to the Home Shopping Network and onto Infomercials.  You probably remember some of his products like Oxiclean, the Fixit car scratch mover, or the Bloomin' Onion Maker.  Screaming is his brand.

I Think I Know Why My Nephew Knows His Commercials

My 6-year-old nephew is not very interested in what's going on in the Middle East or who Obama has chosen for his cabinet.  He likes noise and action.  He is interested in watching a man screaming in a wind tunnel or watching someone drop out of an airplane with a recently glued parachute.  The fact that the product name is repeated constantly helps him to remember Mighty Mend It as one of his favorite commercials.

Bottom Line:  Who Buys This Stuff?

I'm clearly not a likely customer as the very sound of Billy Mays voice makes me jab the mute button on the remote.   With "As seen on TV" products seem to be advertised all over cable, someone must be buying this stuff and a lot of it.  Who knows, in a down economy, with more folks staying at home, watching TV,and making our cars and other possessions last longer, the collection of stuff this man shouts about might be just what the market is looking for. 

When's the last time you recalibrated your ego?

I talk to so many people these days who are challenged by the way things are vs. the way that they think they should be.  This gets back to your ego or sense of self as you react to the changes in your environment whether it be your job, your personal relationships, your social status, or something else.  Without the ability to readjust, you just make things harder.

In this economy, investments in people and new technologies aren't happening at a pace that they once were.  If you used to be riding high as VP of whatever at the coolest company around, you may not be living that dream now.  It doesn't mean you can't again.  Recalibrate your ego for today and keep planning for where you want to be tomorrow. 

Study the market and see where the new opportunities are.  I hear that sales of lottery tickets, cheap wine, and canned soup are up today.  If those markets that you're interested in, keep looking.  Maybe alternative energy is where you should be focused.  

Learn to leverage the Internet for information searches and to manage your own online reputation.  Moved on from your punk rocker days?  People looking for information on you may not get that concept if you're still marketing yourself for your old persona.

Sigmund Freud once said that "Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise."  Hanging onto the way life used to be and not adjusting to the times, can just make it harder to get back to the way you believe that your life ought to be.