I’ve become a fan of Tom Mayenknecht of The Sport Market. I catch his morning show on Team 1040 Radio almost every Sunday, and enjoy the business and marketing angle he brings to major league sports. Today, he talked about Toronto-based Sun Life Financial who, in a deal announced January 19th, acquired the 10-year naming rights for the Miami Dolphins’ football stadium for $40 million. The timing of the name change to Sun Life Stadium could not have been any better. Introduced last week as the stadium played host to the NFL Pro Bowl, it enjoyed a coming out party to the largest Pro Bowl audience in 10 years,  with over 12 million U.S. television viewers tuned in on ESPN. Today, that audience number will jump to over 100 million U.S. viewers and over 160 million global viewers. On his blog, Tom goes on to describe the value and impact the Sun Life brand will enjoy from this well-timed launch:

“Depending on the number of times Sun Life is mentioned and its new stadium graphics shown during the Super Bowl telecast, the case can be made that the Toronto-based insurance company will receive media value that is at least equal to the first five years of its naming rights deal. That does not include valuation of the billions of media impressions that Sun Life Stadium will receive this week in print and on the internet, along with radio… The Super Bowl timing is only one example of how this deal is a winner for Sun Life. The low cost of the sponsorship is the headliner here. Sun Life paid about one-fifth the $20 million US per year that Citi Financial has invested in Citi Field ($400 million US over 20 years) for the new home of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. It paid well less than the going rate for NFL stadiums, including the $7 million US per year that Bank of America did for the home of the Carolina Panthers.”

In an economic climate where purchasing naming rights to sports stadiums is a luxury for most corporate giants, this seems like a brilliant move for Sun Life Financial who should enjoy an almost immediate return on their investment, while paying far less for naming right than other corporations in the past.

Network and communications technology giant Cisco Systems has teamed up with Brickfish for a unique program called Heroes of the Human Network which celebrates and rewards small business operators. To enter the program, you’re asked to describe your small business and how technology has helped you to advance or how the right technology could help your small business advance. Your profile will then be posted on their site where it will be ranked amongst other profiles by site visitors. A winner will be drawn after March 3rd, and will be awarded over $10,000 worth of Cisco product in network improvement. Plus, the winner will be exalted to “hero” status in an upcoming Heroes of the Human Network advertisement. There will also be some runner up prizes doled out. If you’re interested, enter here.

Malcolm Gladwell takes live questions through Mingleverse at F5 Expo Launch Party.

I was in attendance at the F5 Expo Launch Party yesterday, January 26th. What a great turnout! The place was packed with over 200 people – and all eyeballs were fixated on the many screens around the V Lounge as Malcolm Gladwell appeared within the Mingleverse online universe (think Second Life) to take questions from the live audience. If this party was any indication of what we can expect of the main event on April 7th, the Vancouver business and tech scene is in for a special treat. F5 Expo is all about online business, marketing, and technology. Hot topics like Search Engine Optimization, social media, video blogging, and cloud computing will be tackled in interactive sessions and panel discussions. I’ve just been added as a moderator on the SEO panel. Should be fun!

If you haven’t registered yet, take advantage of my personal promo code that gives you 30% off the ticket price until Jan 31st.

REGISTER NOW

ENTER PROMO CODE: P1F510

The Internet, and the communications technology that has come with it, has handed small business owners an amazing marketing tool. No longer do middlemen wield a lot of control; instead, the small brands with remarkable products and services have the tools (namely search engines and social networks) to connect them with their ideal customer. But that means having a great website, because first impressions count. Here are a few BIG ideas for making your website a better marketing tool.

Make it a One Stop Shop. You’re putting in a lot of work and effort to keep your brand top of mind with the customer. So why not take advantage of being the business of choice? Partner with others or launch your own additional products and services to bring in some ancillary income. Airlines have done this for years with travel insurance, hotels, and car rentals.  Why can’t you? Web technology makes it easy – just think hard about what would be a good fit.  You don’t want to make it too complicated.

Find What’s Missing. In a lot of verticals, you’ll find customers often complaining about the information that’s missing. Maybe it is a lack of reviews, maybe it’s just a directory of suppliers, or maybe it’s something deeper. Can you find what’s missing?  You might have to launch a site separate to yours, but wouldn’t it be nice to be the only advertiser and sponsor of a site your niche or industry has been desperate for? Make sure it isn’t adding noise or just another layer in the process.

Make It Simpler. We’ve been talking about a lot of extra stuff. But you don’t want bells and whistles, you want value. So maybe, for you, less is more? If you are suffering from an information glut, the winning formula might be a better way to present and sort through all that information.

Build a Community. Yes, yes – the social media pundits have been touting this one for awhile. But they’re right: if you want people to keep coming back to your website and your brand, you need it to be a place where they feel welcome. The easiest way to do that is to give them a seat at your table. Allowing comments on articles and accepting contributions of photos/articles/videos are two easy ways to start. But change your tone as well – why not call them “community members” instead of customers?

Ask Your Customers For Their Feedback. Feedback is invaluable, so why not ask your “community members” (see previous!)– the ones who are the raving fans and active participants in the discussion – what they think? You want to hear about what they like, but more importantly, what’s wrong? As hard as you try, you will never be perfect, but if you are listening to what your most profitable and engaged clients are saying, you can come close.

Guest Contributor – Andy Hayes is a professional writer and published author. He is the managing director of  Travel Online Partners  (TOP), the go-to resource for small businesses in travel and tourism for help with online technology. If you need more BIG ideas for your small business website, he can help.


“How likely are you to recommend <insert your company name> to a colleague or friend?“

The answer to this one question gives you your Net Promoter® Score (NPS), a customer service measurement developed by Fred Reichheld and popularized through his book The Ultimate Question. NPS is now being used by leading organizations around the world as the standard for measuring and improving customer loyalty. Here’s how it works:

1. Ask The Question With A 10-Point Rating Scale

Customers respond on the 10-point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

If you’re not getting top marks (9’s and 10’s), you get a lower NPS and you know your customer service needs to improve. Companies with high NPS are Apple (77) and Adobe (46),  while AT&T (11) sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. The goal is to have far more Promoters than Detractors, and to convert Passives into Promoters over time.

2. Calculate Your NPS

To calculate your NPS, just takes the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtracts the percentage who are Detractors. Formula: PROMOTERS – DETRACTORS = NPS

3. Share

Share with all members of your staff, rally around the behaviors that will drive your number up, and measure continuously – monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually – you decide but stick to it.

Using NPS rather than just relying on verbal feedback gives you an effective measurement that provides insight on how well you are servicing your customers, where you are doing well, and where youe can improve.

I’m already a fan of these types of sites. I’m an avid user of Trip Advisor, which aggregates user reviews and ratings on hotel accommodations around the world. A couple of years ago, I booked my entire European trip based on user recommendations I found on Trip Advisor. Every single hotel I booked was exactly as described, and in most cases, much better. And there would have been no other way for me to discover these hotels without such a site, as all of them were not parts of big chains.

More and more sites are popping up that are crowd sourcing user ratings, reviews and recommendations – and I don’t see an end to it. Who needs to listen to a select few self-proclaimed experts to guide us on which films to watch, restaurants to visit, or cars to buy when you can get the straight goods from everyday people. I can’t remember the last time I followed the advise of a movie review in a newspaper or on television. Not when I can go to Flixster, instead.

1. Product Innovation – offer products that stay ahead of the curve and push performance. Examples include 3M, Intel, and Apple.
2. Operational Excellence – offer the lowest price in the most convenient way. Examples include McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Toyota.
3. Customer Intimacy - offer customized, customer-centric solutions that focus on retaining customers long-term by meeting their specific needs. Examples include Nordstrom, Airborne Express, and Four Seasons.

The question is, which one is your company pursuing? You must pick one and put your stake in the ground, or risk being simply mediocre. This doesn’t necessarily mean you ignore the other two disciplines, but that you balance them in a secondary manner to the one that defines your company. In fact, most companies today can’t afford to ignore the other two. Zappos has made a name for itself in delivering amazing customer service, and yet their main value discipline is more likely operational excellence – the ability to sell name brand shoes online at a low price, ship it fast anywhere in North America with a no-cost return policy, and provide easy to access 24/7 customer service. Or, BMW who adopts a product innovation discipline in continually delivering high performance vehicles, and yet must concede towards operational excellence to ensure their pricing remains competitive. Just look at some of their latest entries in the marketplace, the 1-Series and Mini, that come in under the $30k price point. Or, their flagship 3-Series that now starts at just a little over $30k – price points previously unheard of at BMW.

I highly recommend this book to start-ups, small business owners and enterprise managers. It’s a great exercise to run your company through and can help you get very focused. I’m putting this into practice myself! Thanks Dom for the recommendation.

MySpace has lost a fifth of it’s US traffic since June of this year and there doesn’t appear to be a quick remedy to stop the bleeding. Facebook has overtaken the once mighty social media giant and continues to rapidly grow its user base. In the meantime, new management has come in at MySpace with the goal of regaining it’s early luster. So, I was asked the question, “If you were running MySpace, what would you do to compete with Facebook?” Here was my response as it appears in the article:

“I would fully embrace the counter-culture perception it has, focus on appealing to the 18-to-24 crowd, and create an avenue for major commercial brands and advertisers to use it as a strong vehicle to reach this audience,” says Rajan Sodhi, vice president of marketing and communications at hosting company PEER 1 Hosting.

“[MySpace should] focus on music and art, and support programmes related to furthering both — launching unknown bands, virtual art galleries for artists, clubs, and so on. [It should] accept that the number of users may be less than Facebook, but the usage would be different. Where Facebook focuses on keeping abreast of your friends and what they’re doing, MySpace focuses on helping youth, artists and musicians express themselves and the artist within.”

Read article

Even with the economy in the tank, the people at Apple continue to show outstanding profits and sales, all without pulling the trigger on deep discounts and fire sales to compete this holiday season. Find out four things Apple has mastered to make this possible.

Apple is coming off the best performing fiscal year ever according to cNet, with $1.67 billion in profit – which is a whopping $1.82 per share of earnings. This along with record sales for the Mac and iPhone, I wonder how Apple does it. When other companies struggle to weather the economic storm, how is it that Apple is able to sell a record number of some of the most expensive phones and computers on the market? Why is it that people are willing to put up with AT&T just to have the glorious iPhone?

Dell just came out with their earnings a few weeks ago and missed even the most modest analysts expectations with only $727 million in profit, or $0.27 per share. Not even close to Apple, and the new Netbooks with Windows 7 is apparently pretty hot, right?

1. Packaging. When you buy any Apple product, the packaging is very high end – you feel like you have purchased something very special. When I first opened my new MacBook Pro box, I felt like I was opening a gift from Nordstrom’s. Open an HP box and it’s nothing special. You actually get instructions that look like they were meant for a 5-year old, or those wordless graphics like you see in the backseat of an airplane. Yep – I think I can figure out how to put the battery in – thanks.

2. Marketing. If you visit apple.com from a PC, you see a page really hyping the new iMac. If you visit the page from a Mac, then you get a page pushing new accessories. This is smart marketing. Visit www.dell.com and to find a monitor, you first have to decide if it’s for Home or Office – as if it matters – do they price them differently? The Apple home page is simple, easy to navigate and puts a big focus on the “hero”, which are the products. Their checkout process is refined and brilliantly cross-sells other accessories leaving you no choice but to fill your cart with about $300 of more stuff that you absolutely have to have. After all, that’s great marketing, right?

3. Trust. Apple has spent years building a brand. A brand that you can trust is reliable and where the products will last. The only company that decided it was better to manufacture the hardware and the software all in the same place. That means installing new software or applications will only require you to click and drag an icon, rather than having to scour the Internet for a driver.

4. Innovation. The innovative products that Apple keeps pumping out are a huge factor in their success. If your company doesn’t change, or innovate, you likely will not experience explosive growth, revenue or profits.

So if you have all of these things and you’ve been able to create insatiable demand, you really don’t need to have sales on days like “Black Friday.” Not only would a sale “cheapen” the brand, but it creates an expectation in the mind of the consumer that all you have to do is wait and eventually the price will go down. This is what the cable companies do at the end of every month, and car companies do at the end of every year. Surely you’ve heard the best time to buy a car is at the “end of the year clearance sales” – right? Apples doesn’t need sales, and unless the competition brings, well… competition, they probably won’t even have to lower their prices much either.

GigamOM and PEER 1 Hosting are putting on an event called FutureHosting and broadcasting it live on webstream, Dec 3rd at 9:30am PST. The live panel discussion will be hosted by leading technology blogger Om Malik, and an excellent lineup that includes:

• Byron Sebastian, CEO, Heroku
• Sebastian Stadll, Founder, Scalr
• Jason Hoffman, CTO, Joyent
• Robert Miggins, SVP BizDev, PEER 1 Hosting

They will debate the perfect web hosting environment for early stage entrepreneurs as the hosting market evolves towards an on-demand model. Topics include delivery of platform-as-a-service, and optimizing scalable hosting and cost-effectiveness for start-up businesses. Mark it on your calendar. More details here.

Watch Live Webstream Here