Is this Bing thing a fad?

Well, it has to be widely used and popular before it’s technically considered a fad but we’ll let that slide for now.

Bing really does bring functional advances to the table that other search engines (I’m looking at you, Google) need to address in order to remain competitive. But that’s not the reason people are using Bing at all. In fact, Microsoft’s new search engine only accounts for a little more than two percent of all online searches and I think it would be even less if wasn’t for an advertising blitz with a budget that would almost make the budget for war in Iraq blush.

I believe any increases that Bing gains in market share are no different than the favorable bounce a presidential candidate gets following his party’s nomination acceptance speech. Bing is enjoying special face time with the public thanks to a an advertising blitz that includes everything from prime-time TV spots and radio ads to online banners and a sponsorship on the Jay Leno Show.

Anything to get people to think “Bing it” instead of “Google it” right?

Like any publicity campaign, I predict Bing will suffer in the long run from as a result from mass advertising. Nothing beats word of mouth and earning the trust of the people you are trying to reach, which is the beauty of how Google got to be in the position they are in today. That takes time, however, and Microsoft is trying to earn it like it’s a race to the finish line.

Money can buy you a lot of things but, as the Beatles famously proclaimed, it can’t buy you love.

So will people start to “Bing it” before they think to “Google it”? Maybe for a split second but not not several years from now. No money in the world can buy you that—unless they can back it up with some real differentiation from their competitors and keep bringing innovation to the table.

That takes a huge side of R&D to go with your PR and that’s more money than even a giant like Microsoft is willing to pay.

Can you take the McHeat?

I’m loving this (get it?) image depicting McDonald’s locations throughout the United States. As a visual person, it’s tough for me to imagine what 13,000 Big Mac-flinging restaurants looks like.

If you didn’t know better, the picture could just as well be a disease outbreak. It’s not, but ironically just as deadly.

(Image courtesy of Weather Sealed)

Nothing should be ok

I had a miserable experience at the dentist yesterday. My insurance recently changed, which means that my dentist changed. Gotta love the private health care system.

After arriving 15 minutes early for my 10:30 am appointment, I sat in the waiting room for an hour before being called in. I asked the receptionist if I would be out in time for a noon appointment, which she assured me I would.

Another hour and a half later, I was out the door. The cleaning only took 15 minutes, but the sitting in an exam chair took well over an hour of my time.

Yes, this was a bad experience and I had to cancel my meeting. But that isn’t the point of this post.

The point is what happened when I checked out at the main desk before leaving. The reeptionist, in the kindest way possible, asked me how everything went.

“Just ok,” I replied in my most deflated voice.

“Oh, good,” she responded as she handed me the card for my next appointment.

The problem is that so many people are content to accept a passing grade. If my satisfaction meant anything at all, the receptionsit would have been alarmed by my response. She would have figured out what prevented me giving them a grade that was anything less than stellar.

She would have taken a moment to figure out how to exceed my expectations.

A little bit of extra effort in the end would have gone a long way to lift my sour mood. Fortunately for me, my insurance network offers plenty of other dentists within a small radius to easily replace them. Unfortuantely for them, they only got a one-night stand with me.

It’s Starbucks, but not Starbucks

It’s already been reported in blogs and newspapers in the last week, but I find it really interesting that Starbucks is experimenting with localizing their stores. In fact, these new test locations are so immersed in culture of the local community that Starbucks dropped its ubiquity (and brand equity) by ditching its own name and logo.

New menu.

New drinks.

New products.

I, for one, am torn between the move toward a more personalized experience and the seemingly inauthentic masked parade of being something that they aren’t. Frappucinos and mild coffee are as polarizing as they are popular and Starbucks knows they can’t diversify every one of their existing stores to cater to the needs of every local culture.

My hunch is that Starbucks wants to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to playing a specialty coffee house and Wall Street sweetheart. It’s the game of catering to the lowest common denoninator while claiing to be what made you great in the first place.

Either way, the move toward localization is telling of Starbucks’ forecast on the economic future: there’s still plenty of room in the premium market and people are still willing to trade up for a personalized experience.

However, in addition to national adversiaries like McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks has a new serious competitor in the coffee market: the independent cafe. It takes 100 percent all-beef authenticity to win that game and Starbucks has a major uphill battle to convince people that a Starbucks without the name Starbucks really is not a Starbucks.

Did you follow that?

Falling off the remarkable map

Marketing guru Seth Godin often (okay, frequently) encourages business to be remarkable. Set yourself up to be unique and intriguing so that people will have something to say about you.

It can be positively remarkable. It can be negatively remarkable. Either way, getting people to notice and talk about you is key for standing out in the crowd. Chances are, the thing that makes you stand out is what makes you appealing to a very niche group of people. And that’s exactly who you want to go for because it’s their opinions that count.

That’s why I love the above photo. The updated version of Internet Explorer falls nowhere on the map of being remarkable, except that no one wants to play with it. By creating a product that was all smoke and mirrors, there is nothing unique and intriguing about it that makes it worth any kind of remark.

Obviously, they tried to something that was different from the pack. But if failed.

It’s boring. It’s not adding value. It’s not coorperating with anything else.

Microsoft would have been better to do exactly what everyone else was doing than to put this out. Actually, it would have been better to not put anything out at all and start by creating a remarkable story that they could use as a platform to create something worth talking about.

Then everyone else might be begging to play in their treehouse.

(Thanks to John Martz for posting the photo.)

Making the shoe fit

Going through my inbox, I noticed a headline that famed fashion designer Jimmy Choo will collaborate with Swedish retailer H&M as a guest designer.

Did you catch that: guest designer.

Labelling Choo as a guest designer got me thinking about other collaborations between big name designers and big name retailers like Michael Graves and Target, Martha Stewart and K-Mart, and Miley Cyrus and Wal-Mart, among many others.

The difference between Jimmy Choo and Miley Cyrus (besides artistic integrity) is the way H&M is spinning the collaboration. He isn’t designing an exclusive line of shoes, but is acting as a guest to the H&M staff, collaborating on new designs together under the H&M name.

It’s smart because it doesn’t hurt Jimmy’s reputation as a premium designer. His brand value remains intact if he is helping another brand increase their value by lending his helping hand. There’s nothing wrong with his product and he doesn’t need to cheapen it by mass producing of less expensive version of what he’s already making. What changes is the value he adds to the H&M brand by just being there.

It’s a win-win. Jimmy gains access to an audience that can’t generally afford his products and H&M gains the help and value of a premier designer.

On the back end of things, there is probably little difference in the way Jimmy Choo signed on to work with H&M than Michael, Martha and Miley agreed to their deals. The difference is the storytelling.

And sometimes that is the difference between long-term and short-term success.

Did VH1 get jacked?

Yeah, they’ve got their differences, but the concept is the same. If VH1 had decided to give their branding a facelift before Jack in the Box, I imagine it would have looked very similar.

Face it, VH1. Whether it was intentional or not, you got jacked.

The taste of friction

Marketing guru Seth Godin posted an interesting blog recently on the value of friction in a business strategy. In short, he suggests that adding barriers to entry can actually save, rather than hurt, your business. He points to email as a dying medium because its free cost is too small to discourage anyone from using it—to the point of spam.

And, he warms, Twitter is next. The more people and businesses that join the medium, the more prone we are to meaningless white noise and, ultimately, the more likely we are to be super-selective to what we listen to or just ditch the mendium altogether. Friction (e.g. cost) rewards intentionality.

I would even take this a step further and argue that friction enhances experience. For example, where most Mexican restaurants hand out chips and dip for free, Chipotle has always charged a price for the sides. The cost is extremely small, but just enough to make you think twice about it when you get to the register.

Chipotle’s chips are nothing to write home about, but there is something that tastes better about having what no one else has. That taste is scarcity and it’s so good because it’s exclusive. If everyone else in the restaurant had it, you’d probably eat each chip mindlessly and ignore the taste, just to pass the time before your order comes up. But add a little cost, and the result is like a special sauce that dances in your mouth. I’d bet that more baskets of free chips go half uneaten than baskets of chips that were paid for.

The same is true for toll roads, iPhone apps and online news content. Free is good, but a small added cost attaches an experience to the product that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

And that’s the taste of a little friction.

You’re not for everyone

There, doesn’t that feel better?

The problem is that companies often feel that it’s their obligation to be everything to everyone. You have a great idea, an awesome product, the best service and everyone and their mother should want in on it.

Only they don’t.

And that’s okay because the things that make you remarkable to some people will turn off others. In fact, being remarkable implies that some may be remarking negatively about you. I’m not convinced that’s a bad thing, either. If you try to win everyone’s approval, you will ultimately dillute your brand to the lowest common denominator which ultimately strips you of any branding or personality altogether.

So there you have it. Offend, frustrate, challenge and never settle. Chances are that someone out there is going to get what youi’re doing and will appreciate it more than all the people you would possibly please if you made something boring. Plus, you’ve earned a raving fan, which is never a bad thing.

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing application that gets this. They’re testing a new homepage that gives users a choice whether or not to enter their site. If you’re a designer, great, you’re in because this is the product for you. If you’re not, that’s fine as well, but we’ll point you toward some other companies that can probably serve you better.

Is it a little offensive? Yes. But they know they’re audience, they’re not wasting anyone’s time and, in the end, it ensures they are not dilluting their own product.

And that’s remarkable.