Demand Satisfaction!

People are writing reports about us. They’re analyzing us. And we don’t even have to pay them!

First up: Tippingpoint Labs. According to their Web site, Tippingpoint Labs is a “digital content creation shop.” I think they’re selling themselves short. In addition to creating content, they release very interesting, very free reports that are designed to help companies make smart decisions about where — and how — to participate in online spaces.

From reading their recently released report about Get Satisfaction, I’d say they’re a pretty savvy bunch of marketing folks. What impresses me about them, apart from their obvious design sensibilities (to be expected from a firm that creates content), is the system they’ve created to analyze businesses and trends. They call their methodology “New Media Lifecycle Analysis.” It’s similar to the kind of thing you’ll get from Gartner, although it’s more approachable and granular — and definitely more readable — than a Gartner Hype Cycle analysis.

I notice that New Media Lifecycle Analysis is a trademarked term. Lots of companies try to trademark a methodology or system like this, but many of them are, well, lame. Not this one. Their take on marketing is a bit more thoughtful than most, and I think that’s exactly what’s needed in today’s social-media-obsessed business climate. If you’re in charge of your company’s marketing or PR or customer-facing projects, you need smart, tailored advice — not just boilerplate social-media consulting advice. These guys seem to do what they do pretty well.

Here’s a collection of reports and other valuable documents they’ve shared on Scribd.

Here’s their report about us, as a downloadable PDF.

I think it’s well-written and provides a different take on customer service and social media. You could use it as a model for a report about your own business.

Or, why not hire them? Someone needs to pay them for all this valuable content.

We have a winner!

The idea behind our “mom” contest was to give away something everyone would want — a $150 gift certificate to Zappos. We wanted to make the premise as simple as possible, so that it would be insanely easy for people to enter. I don’t know about you, but when I stumble across a contest that wants me to spend ten or fifteen (or more) minutes jumping through hoops to register, compile and enter information, read a bunch of fine print, etc. — well, they lost me at step two. Here’s the kind of contest I like: Do one simple thing that takes less than a minute. You guys get back to me if I win, mmm-kay.

So, we simply asked you to explain Get Satisfaction to our moms. And, you did. Quite well, actually. We had a lot of chuckles around the office at some of the creative entries, and we hope you did, too. Our super lightweight contest got a great write-up in one of our favorite blogs, we got a lot of thoughtful user-submitted verbiage that we can maybe even use in the future to help describe our unique brand of service, and we had fun asking our moms which ones they thought should win.

That’s right: We asked our moms to help judge the contest. We lined them up, blind-taste-test style, and got some great feedback. One of my favorite mom responses:

OK ~ IF THIS IS A SERIOUS SURVEY, I CHOOSE #2………….IF IT’S BEING “DONE IN FUN” AND MEANT TO BE FUNNY, I CHOOSE #4…………I LIKE THE “SAD FACE” TO INCREASE THE GUILT THING!!!!
 
HOPE THIS HELPS ~ LOVE ~ MOM

Notice how moms always close with “love, mom” even in email messages — feels even better in all caps, doesn’t it? After all the tallying, the moms clearly settled on one entry as the best. This one:

And, I think I agree with the moms. I especially like the metaphor of the phone conversation that everyone’s listening in on. Creative, different, fitting.

So, congratulations, Sam E. Lawrence (@samelawrence on Twitter). You’re our winner. Your $150 Zappos gift certificate is on its way.

Now, go buy yourself some shoes! And kiss your mom the next time you see her.