teachthe4ps.com - teaching the 4 ps

Have you been following Zappos over the last few years?  Well we have.  The online retailer (not just selling shoes anymore) is known for its “Wow” customer service and quirky culture (see “Zappos knows how to kick it,” Fortune, January 22, 2010).  They have recently come out with a new television advertising campaign (see below) and they are moving into video sharing.  Looking for more?  Link through to read more about Zappos and its founder, CEO and “2009 SUCCESS Achiever of the Year,” (Success Magazine, March 2, 2010)  Tony Hsieh.

I like to talk about Zappo’s when I get into retailing.  I like to show students how one or two retailers have developed marketing strategies that work — and walk through the target market and four Ps.  I start by confessing to my students that fifteen years ago I told students that shoes would probably never be sold over the Internet because of the need to try them on (what did I know?).

You can walk through the marketing strategy — starting with big efforts at customer retention — so a major target is current customers.  Especially with shoe buyers, customer retention is key — since their returns will be much lower than new customers.  They keep customers with phenomenal customer service.  Prices are reasonable.  For Promotion, the great customer service generates word of mouth.  Promotion also utilizes advertising (see example below — that probably targets new targets and customer acquisition) and now I can add a discussion of online video.  Place befits a quick tour of the Zappos website – where you can demonstrate more Promotion with the customer reviews of several products.  you can also talk about free shipping and returns when you are talking about Place policies.  And Product is interesting as the firm has a very wide selection and now sells a lot more than shoes.

If you subscribe to BusinessWeek, this issue will probably hit your mailbox very soon.  I found it online this morning.  I have only skimmed the articles, but the issue always has some great stories.  This year’s list includes the usual cast of characters – see “World-Class Customer Service” for links to all the articles.  This year’s issue highlights L.L. Bean and USAA –plus you can find a slide show  and the “Top 25.“   Many great examples to use when discussing customer service and retailing.

My former colleague Jim Pailin, who was in the PhD program with me at North Carolina, worked on a dissertation in this area almost 20 years ago.  And it is still true, “Happy Employees Create Better Customer Experiences” (Customer Experience Matters blog, February 1, 2010).   Jim was particularly interested in looking at this for services — and I am sure that happy employees matter even more in service businesses.  From Bruce Temkin’s blog post you can find a link to Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for.

This is actually “old news” by now (it was hot in spring 2009) — but I missed it the first time around and maybe you did as well.  It shows how the web can amplify the voice of a single complaining customer.  The video has more than 6 million views!  The story is best told by the protagonist, musician Dave Carroll, in his own words, copied from his website and quoted below.  I have placed the first video “United Breaks Guitars” below that.

“In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.”

This short article from the Investor’s Business Daily “Lift Employee Customer-Service Skills To Raise Revenue,” November 27, 2009 fits nicely with our discussion of customer service (in the personal selling chapter) or if you use Basic Marketing in the cross-functional chapter.  A few simple ideas and good examples.

Best Buy is one of the most innovative retailers around in its use of social media.  They are always experimenting.  In “What Best Buy Learned About Service as Marketing and Empowering Employees“AdAge, November 24, 2009 (subscription may be required), we hear how the company has found a creative way to use Twitter.  I still question the value of Twitter to most marketers — I guess it depends on your target market.  What do you think about Twitter?  Should marketers be using it?

This is the viral army of 2,200 Best Buy employees who answer questions and solve customer problems via the customer-care channel we know as Twitter. Self described as “a collective force of Best Buy tech pros offering tech advice in Tweet form,” the program has nearly 15,000 “followers” and it’s growing. Think Apple Genius Bar but without the physical counter.

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