Raison d’etre

all rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 Kathy Sierra rocks. She does. If you don’t read her blog regularly, you’re missing out on some seriously good stuff about passion. Passion in business. Passion in design. Passion in your customers. Passion in the world. Today’s post is definitely worth a read. If there is one thing I [...]

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Microventures & Global Microbrands

all rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 I was driving back from the veterinarian’s office today, pondering a new business opportunity I kind of tripped on, when the term “microventure” popped up in my buzzing little head. I did a quick google search as soon as I got home, and of course, the term had already [...]

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Blog Appreciation Day

all rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 Okay. Some days, I don’t have anything really all that relevant to write about. It isn’t so much that I didn’t do anything interesting today (I did), but… I’d rather yield the floor to fellow bloggers whose posts were particularly good. First, grab a cup of java and go [...]

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Fear Is Irrelevant.

All rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 “Dear President Jackson, Thecanal system in this country is being threatened by a new form of transportationknown as “railroads” . . . If the canal boats aresupplanted by railroads, boat builders would suffer, and towline, whip, andharness makers would be left destitute . . . God neverintended that people [...]

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Top 25

Ooooooooo!!!! Look who made Technocrati’s top 25 list of Branding blogs: 1. gapingvoid 2. Johnnie Moore’s Weblog 3. Thinking by Peter Davidson 4. The Social Customer Manifesto 5. Media Culpa 6. everyhuman 7. Influx 8. superchefblog 9. Piaras Kelly PR 10. IF 11. Advertising/Design Goodness 12. Emergence Marketing 13. Brand Infection 14. Cherryflava 15. 360east [...]

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Substance vs. Flash

In his latest post about viral marketing, the always dead-on John Moore serves us another platter of wicked wisdom tapas: “My advice to clients is to spend dollars to make the product more remarkable, not to make the word of mouth tactic more remarkable.” So yeah, while BK’s subservient chicken and the “Wake Up With [...]

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That Bond Called Trust

All rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 In 1998, I decided to get back into running, so I grabbed my old Nike running shoes and hit the road. Of course, it didn’t take long for me to develop some aches and pain. Not the kind that you can just brush off, mind you. The kind that [...]

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word-of-mouth marketing vs. word-of-mouth marketing?

all rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 It was bound to happen sooner or later: WOMM is under attack, and this time, the FTC isn’t far.As Yoda would say, “Begun, the semantic wars have.” Tuesday, Commercial Alert issued a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), asking them to investigate alledgedly fraudulent “buzz marketing” practices by [...]

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Innovation Starts Here

all rights reserved, olivier blanchard 2005 Innovation begins with insight, not advice. It begins with curiosity and an open pair of eyes. Or ears. Or hands. Or a few thousand taste buds. At its core, it begins with people with a talent for both observation and creative problem-solving. These people aren’t “inventors”. They aren’t necessarily [...]

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Happy Employees = Happy Customers

All rights reserved 2004, Olivier Blanchard Interesting point made by Brains On Fire’s Spike Jones today in regards to the link between employee happiness and customer service: “Happy employees make happy customers. That’s where a good identity lives and breathes – and grows from. If any of the (wireless) carriers had the buy-in of their [...]

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The Good News

The good news is that service seems to be getting a little better. Companies are starting to pay attention to their customers more, and I am seeing more smiles now than a year ago. Or five years ago, for that matter. The bad news is that too few companies are catching on. Example: The Good [...]

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Blogosphere Heaven

All rights reserved 2005 Olivier Blanchard Here’s what I love about blogs: They foster discussion. They promote dialogue. They bring ideas together in one place. Natural evolution for the web? You bet. Natural evolution of word-of-mouth? Yep. Case in point: Brains On Fire – The blog. I just discovered it a few weeks ago. Brains [...]

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"I was sitting on the toilet…"

Brilliant article on FROG Design’s website this week: The iPod and the Bathtub:Managing Perceptions through Design LanguagePersonally, when I look at an iPod, my mind doesn’t immediately make the connection with toilet bowls and bathtubs, but that’s probably the result of conditioning. Or rather… “sensitization”. Instead, I think back to the perfectly clean white plastic [...]

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Tips for Flight Attendants?

All rights reserved Olivier Blanchard 2005 Also read Friendly Skies? (previous post). Before I start, I want to say that I have run into some fantastic flight attendants in my travels. Professional, friendly, funny, caring… They’re out there. They’re rare, but they’re out there. I wanted to start with that because where I am going [...]

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The Truth about WOMM

Soundbite of the week: As WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz pointed out marketers have three choices when it comes to word of mouth: They need to choose to participate in it, they need to choose honesty in their communications and they need to choose to make it easy by working with products and services that are [...]

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Friendly Skies?

Happy, shiny, smiley people. Once upon a time, air travel was a glamorous adventure. Think back to the super caravelles and their lavish bathrooms. Think back to the professionalism, poise and attention to detail that were as much a part of being a flight attendant as were their perfectly tailored uniforms. Think back to comfortable [...]

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Lessons From Starbucks

Brilliant series from John Moore at Brand Autopsy this week: Tribal Knowledge – Lessons Learned from Working Inside Starbucks.As I write this, John is only on Lesson #5, but let me recap what he’s covered so far: (Click on the lesson link for the full version.)Lesson1: Building the Business Creates the Brand“Your business creates your [...]

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New Spokes For An Old Wheel

If you spend any amount of time on a bike (and by a “bike”, I mean a bicycle), you know that even the best wheels get a little out of true over time (as in “wobbly”). At first, you can just tighten or losen the spokes a bit, but eventually, somebody comes out with a [...]

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That Magic Feeling

Image copyright 2005 by Olivier Blanchard Buying a product. Taking it home. Taking it out of the box. Pressing PLAY. Turning the first page. Pulling the cork. Clipping in. Hitting the ignition. Biting into the first slice. Slipping into it. Walking into the new store. Spraying it on. Plugging it in. Connecting the pieces. Reading [...]

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The Hertz Guy

Image copyright 2005 Olivier Blanchard Remember that thing we talked about yesterday? Treat your customers really, really well? Okay, here’s a little story about Hertz: Imagine that you’re tired after having bounced your way across the country from one airport to the next. You finally land in LAX and take the shuttle to the Hertz [...]

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