Category Archives: Personal

A collection of personal thoughts and stories

European Vacation – August 3

I’ve been on European soil for a little over 48 hours now and a few things are notable. We escaped from the Hell that is New York in the midst of a heat wave. 100 degree weather that we were told “feels like” 120. All I know is that it was an oppressive wall of wet heat that made everyone in the Big Apple really. really bitchy. Despite that, the day was pretty much jam packed. Thanks to Anton at Acronym for slipping us past the crowds at the Empire State Building. The view was fantastic, if a little hazy. After, we discovered the benefits of a well air-conditioned museum on a really hot day, as we slipped inside the confines of the Met for a few hours of reprieve.

We had promised the kids a real “New York Slice” and we realized whilst sitting in Little Italy that there was no way we could get back to the hotel, get our bags and get out to JFK. We gulped the pizza down in eight minutes flat and headed out to try to catch a cab. On the way to the airport I asked the cabby if he thought we could make it to the airport. There is no breed of animal on the earth more pessimistic than the New York cabby, unless of course it comes to their ability to do the impossible. Any mere mortal would be hopelessly mired in the steaming and volatile stew that is Midtown Manhattan, but this individual (I believe his name was Anwar) could not only get us to JFK, but get us there close to on time. Of course, there was a small price to be paid. A quick calculation on my part indicated that although pricy, the cost was not totally ridiculous. With a shrug to my wife in the back (the heat had sapped her strength to protest) we put ourselves in the hands of Anwar. The cab was air conditioned and as long as it was heading in the general direction of JFK, I decided it was a better place to be than the street.

Anwar proved to be a good as his word, and got us to the airport in good time. On the way, we got a lovely guided tour of Queens, including what Anwar assured me were “the really nice” parts of Queens. I remained unconvinced. Then, we traded the hell of Manhattan in a heat wave for the hell of International Departures from JFK. One thing confused me. Why with all that is possible through computers and centralized reservations systems, would Delta Airlines be unable to figure out that 4 international departures within 15 minutes might require more than 4 people working a 12 position counter. Why do airlines continually do this to us, installing ticket counters that are at least 4 times larger than they ever intend to use? Also thanks to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for insisting that JFK keep the temperature at a nice refreshing zillion degrees. It was a wonderful way to cap off our day. We got on our flight (delayed for two hours) and with relatively little additional adventure, were on our way to Milan.

We landed in Milan, where it was cool and raining. I’ve never seen us more welcoming of crappy weather. This wasn’t rain; it was sweet nectar from the gods. We arrived at the Una Hotel Century, steps from the Stazione Centrale in Milan (where we had our first experience with Trenitalia, the Italian train system, as we made reservations for tomorrow’s journey to France. It took us an hour just to figure out which line we were supposed to be waiting in). A quick check in and several moments of confusion as we tried to figure out the hotel room. For some reason, none of the lights seemed to work. Finally, my 10 year old daughter Lauren told us to put our room key in a small slot near the door. Voila..light! Smart kid..I think we’ll keep her.

We grabbed a quick nap and then set out to explore Milano. The metro brought us to the piazza in front of the Duomo and we were immediately accosted by several swarthy Italians who grabbed our hands, jammed bird seed in them, after which we were swarmed by pigeons who proceeded to have a food fight while perched on our arms, shoulders and heads. My other daughter, Alanna and my wife, Jill were the first to be swarmed, then it was my turn. Lauren kept her hands firmly on her camera, establishing her place as our photographer, making her exempt from the pigeon mugging. My wife was not terribly impressed, with thoughts of bird flu running through her head. My initial reluctance was overcome by several assurances of “Free! Free!” Apparently that word doesn’t translate well in Italian, because after we’d had enough of our version of “The Birds” and tried to escape, a hand was quickly extended for money. My offering of a euro was treated with disdain (and what I suspect were a few Italian curses). We quickly retreated from the Piazza.

We wandered the streets for a while, gradually making our way up the Via Dante to the Castello Sforzesco, a rather imposing castle. Opposite the castle we grabbed a panini (sandwich) and our first gelatto. Oh my god! This is what ice cream is supposed to be. Do me a favor, go directly to your freezer, take the 45 gallon drum of that crap we call ice cream out, and throw it in the garbage. I’m not sure if you ever saw the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where they go to Italy and Robert, upon trying gelatto, says ‘It’s like I never tasted a peach before”. I had to try it for myself so I also ordered Pesca (peach) and I can tell you it’s one of the few cases where Hollywood didn’t stretch the truth We walked back to the hotel along the street where the main fashion stores are. My memories of Milan will always include men coming from work in Armani suits, hopping on a Vespa (scooter) and zipping through the streets. It was everything I ever imagined Milan to be.

I’m Back…Finally!

It’s been forever since the last blog post, I know. I have really good excuses. I’m actually on vacation now, going to Europe with my family, so the past month has been a concentrated effort to try to wrap up everything before leaving.

One of the “wrap up” items was to try to finish the first draft of the new eye tracking study. I didn’t quite hit that goal, but it’s well along and I’m hoping I’ll be able to steal the odd hour to keep nudging it along in the next 3 weeks. I’m also hoping to get the odd post in as well. Then, September, its back to a regular posting routine, I promise!

So, to ease back in, some miscellaneous comments about a mixed bag of topics.

A few weeks back, I wrote a column about a theory we had called “Pre-mapping” of search results. Well, we managed to test pre-mapping with a panel of about 80 people. We split the group into two, one with a scenario that would lead to using a search engine to book a hotel room, and one that would lead the group to use the search engine to find out more about the hotel in question. We expected to find the second group much quicker to skip past the top sponsored ads and head for the top organic listings. The idea of pre-mapping is that you have a predetermined concept of where you’ll find the most useful results on the search page and you relocate there quickly. We thought the scenarios we created would lead to distinct pre-mapping activity. But when we looked at the results, we were surprised to find there was very little difference in the scanning activity of the two groups. Both started in top sponsored, and spent some significant time there. In fact, the research group even appeared to linger there a little longer, spending more time reading the listings. More about this as we sort out the data a little more.

If you happen to be in San Jose for Search Engine Strategies, make sure you catch Bill Barnes from Enquiro, pinch hitting for me on the Search Behavior Research Update panel, kicking off the show on Monday morning. He’s got a fascinating time lapse look at side by side heat maps of the two groups. Very cool stuff. He’ll also have some never before seen slides on a fascinating little side by side perceived relevancy test we did. Check it out and say hi to Bill after.

Speaking of SES, for the first time in 5 years, I won’t be at the show at all. Normally I try to balance the show with a summer family camping trip, but this year we opted for Europe instead (more on this on the Thursday Search Insider column). Of course, that means this year I got invites to all the really interesting parties. I’ve had to send my regrets to at least 5 different invitations. It looks like it’s going to be a packed show, with 5 different tracks over 4 days. Danny Sullivan is a mad man! Some day he will explode, driven over the edge by excessive amounts of Diet Coke and one too many donuts.

One monumental regret is that I won’t get a chance to see Matt Cutts. I saw a blog post somewhere (I think it was Barry Schwartz) that pointed to what may be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen…a virtual paper doll of Matt, complete with costumes of Inigo Montoya and Super Spam Cop. And this is legit..it’s not a spoof. Thank god my daughters are past the age of playing with this site. The idea of my little princesses dressing and undressing Matt would send me into psychotherapy for at least 6 months. But unfortunately I won’t have the chance to accost Matt on this. Please do me a favor, if you see Matt at the show, please bring this up and tell him Gord sent you. Thanks.

Well, that’s probably enough for the first catch up post. I’m on a flight right now to New York (105 degrees tomorrow..ouch!) and after a sweat soaked day in the Big Apple (first time for my girls) it’s catching the night flight to Milan tomorrow night from JFK.

For those interested, on my reading list this trip is Small Pieces Loosely Joined by David Weinberger. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s also one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto. It looks fascinating and was recommended by Mitch Joel of Twist Image. I’ll let you know what I think.

Dear Google Search History

First published July 13, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

In the 1600s, Samuel Pepys became history’s most famous diarist. From 1660 to 1669, this English Member of Parliament kept a detailed diary, which was published posthumously. In it, we gain a fascinating eyewitness account of the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Most passages were not so monumental, however. Here’s one example from July of 1663:

Up betimes to my office, and there all the morning doing business, at noon to the Change, and there met with several people, among others Captain Cox, and with him to a Coffee [House], and drank with him and some other merchants. Good discourse. Thence home and to dinner, and, after a little alone at my viol, to the office, where we sat all the afternoon, and so rose at the evening, and then home to supper and to bed, after a little musique.

Sounds like Sam pretty much polished work off by noon and spent the rest of the time drinking, gossiping, playing the ol’ viol and listening to some tunes. All in all, not a bad life! No wonder he had the free time to write about it.

The Diary I Didn’t Know Existed…

I never considered myself a diarist. I’m much too busy actually trying to get through my life to spend time writing about it. I suppose the odd blog post would be autobiographical, but other than that, I didn’t think I was leaving an account of my day-to-day thoughts. I was wrong.

Some time ago, I signed up for a Google Analytics account for my blog and at the time, I somehow activated Google’s Personal Search History function. Because I have a laptop, and tend to use the same computer at work and at home, I was unknowingly capturing a pretty complete snapshot of all my search activity. Just a few days ago, I realized I was still logged in. Today, I took a look back at two months of search activity.

…A Day-by-Day, Search-by-Search History…

First of all, in the past two months, I’ve searched 540 times. That’s an average of 9 searches a day. In looking at the log of day-to-day activity, I can pretty much tell exactly what I was doing, and what thoughts preoccupied me, on any given day from May 11 to today. The topics are a little scattered. In a one-hour period on June 5, I went from looking for what an average winning percentage was on Freecell (don’t ask), to looking up the details on a new business contact, to looking for a new design template for my blog, to looking for GPS software for an upcoming trip to Europe. Can you say attention deficit?

In a quick analysis of my activity, it seems that 59 percent of my search activity is work-related, and 41 percent is personal. Twenty-eight percent of my searches were navigational (I knew what site I wanted to end up on, and was using the search engine to get there) and 71 percent were what I call “mapping” searches (where I was looking for the search engine to suggest sites I was previously unaware of). And in 34 percent of my searches, I never actually clicked on a result.

…And That Was Just Mine…

The point is not to go on about how I search. You could care less. The point is that search history gave me a snapshot of just what I was thinking about, at an average of about nine times a day. In looking back, I could remember what I was working on, what products I suddenly thought I needed, how much planning I was doing for an upcoming vacation, what new acquaintances I suddenly decided to Google to find out more about, and what arguments needed to be settled. I’d see queries come up, disappear for a few days, then suddenly re-emerge later, either in the same or modified form. It made me realize how integral online is to my life, and how much I depend on search to connect me to the vast and diverse content that sits out there. It mirrored my thoughts about upcoming purchases, life events, things that were bothering me, issues at work and just plain old time-wasters.

Now consider the implications of this. I’m one person, who actually lived the life in question, and I was amazed by the insight gained by looking back. Consider this data in aggregate form. No wonder John Battelle was blown away by what he called the “database of intentions,” this gargantuan deposit of data that is owned by the search engines, providing intimate glimpses into individuals at the micro level, and incredibly granular macro mosaics as we step back. Based on the search trail and clickstream I looked at, Google, if it chooses to, would know more about me than my wife (keep the snarky comments to yourself). And remember, search history is just the data Google chooses to make public. Through the tool bar, it’s capturing a lot more clickstream data on you.

…What About Yours?

The whole “Big Brother” aspect of this has been commented on numerous times in the past. Sure, it’s frightening, but I think it’s tied up in the new reality of our online world. Is the fact that it sits in the hands of a private corporation any more troubling than the huge amount of personal information that sits in government files? Theoretically, we have democratic recourse with the government, but we all know how much weight that holds. Take some comfort in the fact that Google, with all its billions and resources, has exactly 1.5 people working in its sales and market research department (although I’m hearing rumors of a new addition). For the foreseeable future, Google might have a frightening amount of data, but it doesn’t have anyone with the time to look at it.
Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/45508/dear-google-search-history.html#ixzz2ZoaFoUTS

Keillor and Altman Fans Rejoice!

I’m very excited, and it has nothing to do with anything online. A Prairie Home Companion is now playing. I’ve always been a huge Garrison Keillor fan, for 3 reasons. First, I grew up in a Norwegian prairie town (Sundre) that seems to be the Canadian equivalent of Lake Wobegon. Secondly, I started my career in radio. And third, he’s probably America’s greatest living humorist.

So when I heard he and Robert Altman were teaming up on a movie version of a Prairie Home Companion, I couldn’t wait. And what a cast! Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones…those are four of my favorites right there. Granted, it also has Lindsey Lohan, but apparently she’s pretty good in the role.

Not sure how many share my tastes, but if you do, check out the website.

Tales of Mobile Woe

First published June 1, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

On Tuesday night, I was wondering aimlessly through the streets of Old Montreal, staring in hapless confusion at my Pocket PC. Prior to the trip, I thought I had passed into the elite of the technologically advanced road warrior. With Pocket Maps loaded, my hotel location pinpointed and a plethora of enticing little dots to explore, I set out on the cobblestoned streets, secure in the knowledge that the entire streetscape of Montreal was magically captured in my trusty iPAQ.

Exploring old-world Quebec, new-world style

I’m a pretty savvy traveler. I have a great sense of direction, usually study a map ahead to get the “lay of the land,” and can keep north and south straight in my head. My wife’s family often wonders how I do it, as they have no sense of direction at all.

I remember one trip to Vancouver with my father-in-law. I was heading for the Second Narrows Bridge to cross over into North Van, and was on the street that would take us right onto the bridge. My father-in-law asked where I thought I was going, and when I told him the bridge, he said I was way too far west; it was at least two miles further east. As we stayed on the road and eventually ended up on the bridge, he harrumphed and said they must have moved it. Obviously one of those migratory bridges.

So, with this innate ability, enhanced with my newfound technical navigational advantage, I figured there should be no stopping me. This was the trial run for a family trip this summer to France and Italy.

 

Input and output: kaput!

 

I got one block from the hotel and was totally lost. I had no idea where north and south were. The tiny 2.5- by 3.5-inch screen held no clues for me, as I zoomed in and out and helplessly panned around, looking for a street with which I could get my bearings. Street names sometimes appeared, and sometimes didn’t.

And the huge church in front of me, which I recognized as Basilique Notre Dame, one of Montreal’s most famous landmarks, for some reason didn’t show up on my diminutive map. Instead there was a little blue dot labeled “Vieux Seminare,” practically obliterated by hundreds of restaurant and hotel icons. I scratched around helplessly with my stylus as I slowly walked down the street, trying to pan to a section of map that looked familiar.

If you’ve never tried using a stylus while walking, be forewarned, you need the steady hands of a brain surgeon and the dexterity of a Cirque du Soleil performer. It’s not for the faint of heart. I would just get to a section of the map that looked promising when I would have to look up to avoid running into a lamppost or person and suddenly my stylus would leap across the screen and transport me to the nether regions of Montreal, miles from my current location. Once it accidentally opened a map of Manhattan, and I was halfway to Times Square before I realized what happened.

As I reached a square, I saw a map of Old Montreal conveniently placed for tourists, a real map, 3 feet by 4 feet, with icons that didn’t disappear and street names I could read. It was at a scale where I could look at more than a block of the map at a time and still see the points of interest. I pocketed the iPAQ, got my bearings and happily explored the rest of the Old City (which is fabulous, or as they say here, tres merveilleux) as the iPAQ dozed silently in its holster. Its wandering days are over.

And here we have the biggest problem with mobile. Getting information into it, and getting information out. We are not Lilliputians. My fingers can pretty much wipe out an entire family of BlackBerry keys in one swipe. And my thumbs are even more dangerous. This was not the way a 6-foot, 220-pound guy was meant to communicate. Give me a durable, beefy keyboard that can take my not-so-subtle advances.

The only thing meant to be seen on a 2.5- by 3.5-inch screen is Dr. Phil, because just when he gets to the peak of his self-righteous “I can’t help you unless you help yourself” diatribe, you can pretend you’re squishing his head between your thumb and forefinger. This also works with Donald Trump on “The Apprentice” and Simon Cowell on “American Idol,” by the way.

I dream of a heads-up display embedded in my eyeglasses, and a workable voice interface. You say what you want, and it instantly springs up in front of your eyes. Now that would be sweet. Hey, if anybody out there is working on this stuff, let me know. I’d like to buy stocks.

The wireless ransom

My first lesson with mobile data roaming came soon after getting the iPAQ. We hopped in the motorhome and headed to California. Of course, we experimented on the way with how nifty it was to check e-mail, look up Web sites and, for my wife, to chat on Messenger for several hours between Lincoln City and Florence (Oregon, not Italy) with her sister back home. We reached San Francisco and, in trying to locate Molinari’s delicatessen (a place you just have to get a sandwich, by the way), we just searched for the Web site, found the address and walked right to it. This was what being wired was being all about!

Then we got home and found out what being hosed was all about. We got the mobile bill: $800 in data charges for two weeks! Looking up the restaurant probably cost us more than the meal itself. I figure each of my wife’s Messenger chats averaged about 30 dollars. Since then, I’ve learned to not keep bringing up this point in domestic discussions.

Until we get some broadband upgrades, standardized rates and roaming agreements that cost less than the GNPs of most small countries, we’re scared to death of going online on a mobile device. It’s like going into your lawyer’s office. You get in, get what you want to say said, and get out. You don’t comment on décor, mention children or bring up holidays. At 300 bucks-plus an hour, it would be cheaper to call a 900 number and chew the fat about female self awareness with Jenn and Barbie at Dial-a-Date.com.

Convergence soon, please!

The third leg of the mobile conundrum is the usefulness of the apps you use. At first glance, they look great, but anemic features, lack of computing power and restricted storage space make you realize their limitations all too quickly. The concept is great; the execution leaves a little to be desired.

Case in point: although you can find points of interest in Pocket Maps, you can’t link them together with suggested routes. I realize the data to calculate the routes is a little much to expect from a Pocket PC, but why does it have to be that way? Isn’t technology here to solve our problems? Anyone trying to create an itinerary on the fly will soon give up.

Also, the points of interest and landmarks you find just give the title and address–nothing else. Even if they did give you a Web site link, you’d be afraid to click on it because Web sites get totally hacked on the small PDA screen, take forever to load and cost you a small fortune to access.

The promise of things yet to come

I want a smarter mobile navigational and search experience. I want to be able to indicate my starting point on my GPS-enabled mobile computer, feed in my interests, get a real search online function to help me find locations (Pocket Map’s 2006 is an improvement over 2004, but leaves a lot to be desired), have the best routes indicated, give me one-click access to information, menus, entertainment, prices and reservations for restaurants, integrate reviews and best- of lists like CitySearch and TripAdvisor, and switch to a satellite view if I wish.

Better yet, I’d like to indicate times I’d like to take a sight-seeing tour, a time I want to stop for supper, and have my PDA work as a smart assistant for me to take my likes and dislikes and provide me with a list of suggestions for my approval. Upon approval, it would lay out the best route and point out landmarks I should look for on the way. As always, search will be the functional layer that ties it all together.

Or think what shopping with a super-smart PDA would be like. You are in a shop and see something you absolutely love. You scan the label with your PDA and see if there are any others in a four-block radius at a lower cost. There is, in a store two blocks east (the map is already drawn) and in different colors. You send a request to the store to set them aside. You start delivering mobile functionality like that and you’ll leave desktop -bound PCs in the dust.

I’m sure most of the capabilities I dream about lie here and there in development, tiny little fragments of a yet-to-be-integrated solution. When it comes, it will be a wonderful thing. But for now, when I’m on the road, the iPAQ will probably spend more time in the holster than out of it. I haven’t totally given up yet, though. The Bluetooth GPS receiver I ordered from eBay is on its way, if it didn’t get lost!

Canada’s Wired!

It’s been a few days without a post, so I thought I’d get a quick one in tonight before I call it a night. I’m in Montreal for the InfoPresse Search Marketing Event (catch my Search Insider this week for more adventures from Old Montreal) and as luck would have it, happened to see an article from MarketingSherpa about how wired Canadians are. I’ve been trying to tell people this for years. I read somewhere that Canadians were the best shoppers in the world. We research more before the purchase than anyone else. We also have more broadband penetration than the US. Add this up and it seems like a match made in heaven for search marketing, but Canadian business has been slow to jump on the bandwagon. The big brands are either not present in search at all, or are just toying with it. The good news is that Canadians marketers are beginning to wake up, as was seen by high interest rates at SES Toronto and at today’s event in Montreal.

Well, I’ve got an early flight tomorrow, and it’s almost midnight, so I’ll cut this short. Just wanted to thank Thomas Gobeil at Infopresse for the invite. The city was amazing and I’d love to come back. Thanks to all who attended the session as well and who bore with me through my acute unilingualism. Also had a chance to meet Mitch Joel from Twistimage and had a spirited discussion about “melt your brain” ideas that keep us both up at night. Check out Mitch’s blog. And thanks to Jonathon Markoff from Acquisio for the conversation over dinner. A great visit, all in all!

 

Day of Reckoning Coming for Big Brands; or, to Hell and Back on United

I’ll start with a caveat: I’m PO’d. I spent a night from hell on Tuesday trying to get to Toronto from Chicago. But I hope in the midst of my spouting I get a valid point across.

First, the story of why I’m PO’d. I was flying United on what was supposed to be a one hour hop from Chicago to Toronto. By the way, United asked over $500 for this hop.

I start off by grabbing a sandwich at a little express counter by the gate from a place called Reggio’s To Go. A basic ham and cheese cost me about 8 bucks. This is an airport, so I’m not expecting great things from the 8 dollar sandwich, but even with those low expectations set, I was surprised by how abysmal the sandwich actually was. I had to check twice to make sure it was the sandwich I was eating and not the packaging. It tasted like it had been sitting in the display case since the early Bronze Age. I happened to glance at the sign for Reggio’s, which is obviously a franchise. The brand message is “Fresh and Ready to Go”. “Ready to go” in the garbage seems to be what they meant.

We’re on board by 6:15, the scheduled departure time. The plane is packed, leg room is negligible, and to make matters worse, the person sitting to my immediate right is just coming back from Japan. There’s no room left in overhead, so she tries to jam a roller suitcase, a backpack and a large shopping bag under the seat. None of the 3 fit, so she piles them on the floor between her legs, hoping no one will notice. Nobody does..or at least, nobody mentions anything. This makes the already scarce leg room even more restricted. By this point, I’m resigned to a miserable one hour trip, but then again, it’s an airline, so I didn’t really expect anything more.

The plane is unbelievably hot, but no worries, we should be in the air soon, and hopefully the plane will cool down. We wait, and wait, and wait. After what seems like a century, the pilot comes on and let’s us know they’re having a problem with the fuel gauge. They’re going to try to fix it to know how much fuel we actually have, and then we’ll be on our way. I think it was about this point I passed out from sheer heat exhaustion. After another 20 minutes or so, I woke up, my neck screaming in agony, my legs dead from the waist down, and sweat starting to drip from my forehead. The fuel gauge is still not working, and there’s no progress in sight. After another 30 minutes, it appears that the fuel gauge is thwarting the best efforts of United’s top maintenance crew, so they at least let us off the pressure cooker, 90 minutes past departure time and no closer to Toronto. Somebody insightfully wonders aloud about what they used for a fuel gauge on the flight in?

We get to the gate and are told to stay close for updates. The passengers with connections try to get rebooked. They’re understandably upset. But United’s gate agents seem to think the best approach is to meet rudeness with rudeness. The agents are short tempered and surly, snapping at passengers who have the nerve to see if they can somehow get to Toronto before the clock strikes midnight. “Is your luggage checked? Yes? Sorry then, I can’t do anything for you. Go sit down.” I swear to God, that’s the exact quote I heard.

After another hour and a half at the gate, the recalcitrant fuel gauge gives in and we get back on the plane. We finally get in the air by 10, almost 4 hours after the scheduled departure time. The pilot came on to thank us for our patience and assures us we have 3 of United’s finest flight attendants looking after us. There’s nothing wrong with them, but there’s nothing very right either. There was absolutely no attempt to make it up to us. No gesture of apology. If these are United’s finest, the hiring standards must be pretty low.

As we touch down in Toronto, the pilot comes on again and thanks us for flying the friendly skies. Friendly skies? Frat house initiations are less painful than what I just went through!

And here’s my point. Brand messaging has to be more that a cool line for your ads. It should be a promise. It should drive every aspect of the company. It should embody the unique value you offer. I had the chance to share the keynote spotlight at a recent show with David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue. David quipped at the beginning that when they started JetBlue, their goal was to raise the bar of the airline industry. Quickly they realized that within the industry, the bar was set so low that you could crawl over it. They soon had to look outside the industry to find examples of best practices that meant something.

The brand relationship should be built at every customer touchpoint. I had a number of touchpoints with the United brand on Tuesday, and the sum total left me feeling like I’d been mugged. If United really believes they offer a friendlier experience, then every employee should embody that attitude. None of the ones I met yesterday seemed to have been let in on the secret. The attitudes ranged from indifferent to downright surly.

United has probably spent billions getting their brand message out through advertising. But do you think they could spring a few hundred bucks to treat us all to a drink, or even a free cookie when it really mattered? Brand is built on the front lines, face to face with a customer. It’s delivering when the chips are down. It’s taking responsibility for a positive customer experience, and doing what it takes to fix it when it’s not. United abdicated this responsibility, so their brand message became nothing more than a brand lie. It’s worthless to me. In fact, it’s worse than that, because United just dug a hole for themselves with me that they may never get out of. I will avoid United like the plague from this point forward.

The same is true, to a lesser extent, with Reggio’s and the world’s worst sandwich (somewhat ironic, because I had one of my best sandwiches in Chicago the day before). If their slogan is to be any more than another brand lie, then they have to deliver edible food. The brand has to mean something. How do they expect it to mean something to the consumer when the company itself doesn’t believe the brand message?

Up to now, companies could get away with this. You could screw over the consumer and their circle of influence was limited. Sure, they’d complain, but as long as you kept bumping millions into slick TV ads painting idyllic pictures of brand nirvana, you could keep the ruse going. It was the “sucker born every minute” approach to advertising. But those days are coming to an end. Now, when I call bullshit on a brand message, I have an expanded reach through the internet. Some call it consumer generated media. I call it Bitching 2.0.

There’s a new ecosystem developing online. Marketing theorists have long known of mavens. Mavens are a key component in social epidemics, as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in the Tipping Point. Traditionally, they’re the ones that have been entrusted to keep brands honest. They are the uber-consumers that the rest of us look for guidance to. They tell us what’s good, and what’s not. Traditionally, they needed social connectors to spread the word.

But what happens when you give a maven a blog? Suddenly, connectors are built into the infrastructure of the web. I would argue that the new mavens are the ones with the most read blogs. They’re thoughtful, they’re well informed, and many of us have them pegged in our feed readers. Suddenly, the scope of their influence expands exponentially. As an example, my blog is only a few weeks old, but most of my posts are read by hundreds of people. If I get a link in another blog, the viral impact starts to take over. My rant against a bogus brand message could reach thousands. And there were at least a hundred other passengers on that United flight, just as PO’d as me, any of which could be a blogging maven. The web puts the spread of word of mouth on a dramatically expanded scale, on a compressed timeline. Also, it makes word of mouth, traditionally a fleeting thing, into a permanent fixture online. This blog post will live in perpetuity on the web, searchable by any search engine. Suddenly, the big brands can’t take the reach of a single consumer for granted.

To me, this shift of power to the consumer is one of the most exciting aspects of the web, and it’s long overdue. Now, we have the power to force corporations to keep their brand promise, or perish.

And to the staff of United Flight 1110, let me pass this along. The definition of “friendly” is:

  1. Of, relating to, or befitting a friend
  2. Favorably disposed; not antagonistic
  3. Warm; comforting.

Please pass it along to every United staff member you know.

Notes from Chicago

My session is over at ACCM and the crowd was pretty search savvy. The show is the Annual Catalog Conference and the search sessions were slipped in before the main show started. Also, the search track was relegated to a room that was pretty much in the back alley of the McCormick Center. Seems like search is still having difficulty gaining respect. You’d find it hard to believe based on the profile at this show that this one channel is driving the majority of online spending of the attendees. Still, great to see some old friends, including Detlev Johnson, Matt Bailley, Bill Hunt and Mike Moran, the incredibly perky Heather Lloyd-Martin and the ever thoughtful Amanda Watlington. Kevin Lee also kept us on the edge of our seats right to the last minute as he got held up at the airport. Kevin is obviously still adjusting to “Dad Time”, where it seems you’re perpetually late for everything. Still, Kevin’s got a great reason to be late.

By the way, if you’re in Chicago, try out Potbelly Sandwich Works on State. Slipped in for a quick Italian sub yesterday and it was awesome.

Off to Chicago

Next week, I’m in the windy city for the Annual Catalog Conference. Fair amount of search on the agenda. I did the show last year in Orlando and found a real mix of expertise, but I’m constantly amazed at the difference a year can make in the “savvy index” at these non-Search focused shows. I’ll try to get a post or two in between the Giordano’s pizza.

Speaking of shows, just traded emails with Jakob Nielsen who’s busily getting ready for his Usability Week Summit Series. Jakob and his team are wrapping up a pretty extensive eye tracking study. I’m hoping to catch up with him at the San Francisco show to compare notes. The agenda looks amazing, so if usability is your thing (and it should be) you might want to check this out. We’re sending Cory Bates, our usability consultant and eye tracking go-to guy to soak up some wisdom.

Finally, a weekend wrap up note from SEO PR’s Greg (“have I mentioned I’m a Democrat?”) Jarboe. Upon learning that I finally started blogging, Greg gave me the following stat:

According to Technorati, there’s a new blog created every second — and 55% of new bloggers are still posting three months later. So, the trick isn’t becoming a blogger. It’s finding something new to say 13 weeks down the road.

I’m not at 13 weeks yet, but I’m a week and a half in and this is post 13, so so far, so good

Danny Sullivan: Tim Horton’s Poster Child

Us Canadians have long known the pleasures of donuts and coffee from Timmy’s (Tim Horton’s) but this week at SES Toronto Danny Sullivan became a true believer as he stocked up on his typical conference diet of donuts and Diet Coke. Danny’s verdict: better than Dunkin’ Donuts, and there are few more experienced donut afficianados than Mr. Sullivan. If you’re not familiar with the chain, run the name past any Canadian, any where in the world and I guarantee it will generate a fond grin!