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The value of information
I was recently on the phone with Comcast working on a router problem when I was informed that I had experienced more than a hundred and something consecutive days of uninterrupted high-speed internet service. Was that information of value to me? I'd say, yes it was. It reminded me of something that I typically take for granted, and helped me feel good about my brand choice (despite the circumstance).
A few weeks ago I was planning a trip that required multiple connecting flights. So, I did what any savvy frequent flier would do: I ruled out the airports that I knew, through personal experience, were service and logistical nightmares (like Philly). When I was unsure about a particular airport, I checked it out at flightstats.com. But I wondered why the information wasn't displayed on the results page of the flight search engines. And why couldn't I opt out of particular airports during my search?
Information can be an important marketing component, both for experience enhancement and for reminding customers how smart they are for considering and choosing your brand. For example, take a look at the MacBook Pro info page.
But most marketers don't strategically use information in those ways. Instead, they use information and copy to cajole and convince. They believe that they're in the persuasion business. And today, with consumers that likely know more about your products and services and their impact on both their lives and the world than you do, that's a big strategic mistake.
Posted April 28, 2009
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"cajole and convince" - very nicely put.
Like any corporate website maybe? If you remove the brand/product specific in it, more or less they all look the same. Even some brands go as far as putting reviews on their site but scrubbing out the negative ones (mmm makes sense) without realizing it's easy for prospective buyers to find those negative reviews somewhere else and having only positive ones will create distrusts.
Posted by: laurent | May 07, 2009 at 11:42 AM