Engaging People through “Cultural Loyalty”

Engaging People through “Cultural Loyalty” Piers Young, 2005 Source

The Next 15 Minutes • Constraints of Names and Numbers • Cultural Loyalty • Rules of engagement • Organisational approaches and tools • Case Study: Winter’s Tale Source

Constraints of Names and Numbers • Gulliver’s Travels • Joint US/UK production • The key negotiation: • Keeping Gulliver a sad story (UK) • We know what our users like and it’s not “sad” (US) • The compromise: • Getting a ratings god to play Gulliver (US) • The result: • Earned the highest ever ratings for the last episode. Source

Television Break • Has anyone seen this iPod advert? Source

Cultural Loyalty: What loyal customers can do • Not Apple, no Big Ad Agency but … • Mr. George Masters • 36 year old high school teacher from Orange County • Enjoys playing around with visuals and likes his iPod. • One loyal customers can create more loyal customers. • How does this “Cultural loyalty” relate to behavioural loyalty? Source

Cultural Loyalty: What loyal employees can do • Robert Scoble “balled out Ballmer” in front of millions “Steve, I personally am not happy with what it appears went down in this case -- even the APPEARANCE that a church is pushing around Microsoft is just wrong in my view … One of the reasons I came to Microsoft is because of its very strong stance on human rights… The fact that Microsoft is even in this position makes me want to leave and join a different company that won't be pushed around by religious folks. Is that the message you want to send?” • Loyalty to “the company” or Loyalty to the people in it? Source

Cultural Loyalty: What loyal organisations can do • Royal Dutch Shell – “Tell Shell” • “To whom do I complain about the completely DISHONEST way, Shell operate their 'loyalty' scheme ? Having applied in March 2005, on the basis of a 250 BA miles reward, as of today and more than half a dozen calls later, the miles have not been allocated to either my wife or myself. ” • Why publicise this sort of thing on their website? Source

Rules of Engagement:Helping cultural loyalty take root • Brand loyalty is the corporate version of going steady, but the breakup is inevitable—and coming fast. Because they are networked, smart markets are able to renegotiate relationships with blinding speed. - The Cluetrain Manifesto • “Marriage Guidance Counselling” • Markets are conversations • Transparency • Trust • Openness • Individual voice not “the company line” • Authenticity Source

Approaches and Tools: “Social Computing” • Business is catching on to social software • “The teenagers are on to something” – March 2004 • “Blogs will change your business” – May 2005 • Adoption by Fortune 500’s (Source: ensight.org) • Social Computing is “humanising” corporations, inside and out. Source

Approaches and Tools: Stonyfield Farm • “We have a certain "personality" in the world--we care about the environment; about healthy food; about supporting family farms. With growth, we fear losing touch with what is a very loyal and committed customer base … blogs are a way to continue to personalize our relationship with our customers.” -Christine Halvorson, Stonyfield Blogger Source

Approaches and Tools: Lego Mindstorms • 1997 – Lego launches “Mindstorms”, a build-it-yourself robot development system • 3 weeks later - 1,000 hackers had downloaded the operating system, vastly improved it, and posted their work freely online. • Long stunned silence later - Lego accepted the merits of this community's work and supports it. Source

Case Study: Winter’s Tale • John Dean Winter is trying to visit every Starbucks in the world • 4,122 North American stores • 114 in Britain • 53 in Japan • And Starbucks don’t want to know • Draws attention to ubiquity in “No Logo” anti-globalisation times • How does that affect “cultural trust”? • Customer Awareness? Source

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Engaging People through “Cultural Loyalty”