BrandBrains

During the past few weeks, I’ve been giving my eBay reputation a lot of thought.

A couple of times a year, I get rid of the stuff laying around my home office that might be of use to other people and that I can turn into cash (for more gadgets, of course). Mid-November of this year was one of those times.

I sold an original Gameboy, a 1U Rackmount Server, an Atari Lynx, a couple of cordless phone systems and a couple of cell phones. One of those cell phones sold for only $1.99 (really).

Just before the auctions closed, I rolled onto a last minute project that required that I work on-site at my client’s offices, so my eBay shipping was delayed a few days. Plus, keep in mind that by the time the auctions closed, the holiday season was in full force. As a result, it took a few days longer for things to arrive.

Without warning, I got an email from eBay informing me that I had received negative feedback in my eBay profile - from “$1.99 Phone Guy”, of all people. I was aghast. The guy never even contacted me to see what might be wrong. His knee-jerk reaction was to tell the world that I’m not worthy of their financial transactions.

Now, you might be wondering why I should take this so seriously. After all, it’s just eBay, right?

Think about this: imagine a customer bought a product from you. They were having problems getting it to work properly, so they called into your service center and they were kept on hold for hours and ultimately didn’t get the answer they needed to solve their problem. When the whole situation ended, you suddenly found that your sales had begun to decline, but just as oddly, your credit rating was lowered.

Welcome to the eBay economy.

You see, on eBay, your feedback rating is everything. In addition to creating skepticism among potential buyers, a negative feedback rating may bar you from making purchases. It’s not uncommon for sellers to plainly state that “buyers with negative feedback need not bid on this auction.”

So, back to $1.99 Phone Guy. I have no idea where his phone is and I don’t really care. What I care about is this negative feedback rating I now have. I want to get rid of it.

How can I accomplish this? Well, your feedback rating is based on a percentage of your total transactions. So, I could buy more stuff or sell more stuff and effectively decrease the weight of the negative transaction on my feedback rating. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of time.

However, in the real world, that’s the kind of effort you need to put into repairing the effects of a poor transaction and the ill will it creates - before the story of that transaction spreads. And in the real world, the actions required to complete the repair are not always as clearly defined. There’s just as much qualitative effort as quantitative.

Unlike the hard work required in fixing your reputation in the real world, eBay offers a somewhat faster remedy: the “Mutual Feedback Withdrawal.”

Basically, you and the other party agree to mutually withdraw the negative feedback that you’ve left for each other. The feedback still appears on your feedback page, but it’s no longer weighted numerically in your rating and is clearly marked on the page as “withdrawn.”

So, after some dialogue (all by email) I’m just waiting for $1.99 Phone Guy to accept my withdrawal request before I refund his money.

And the phone? He can keep it with my compliments. My reputation is worth more than $1.99…

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I’ve been watching the news reports on U.S. network television and frankly, I’m appalled at the coverage of the Tsunami.

I mean, following the fall of the Trade Center, there wasn’t even advertising on television - television execs thought it would be inappropriate to be “commercial“. Yet, this is probably the most disastrous natural occurrence in known history and our national media is covering it alongside choruses of Auld Lang Syne and ads for the iPod.

The real kicker is that the U.S. State Department has the gall to comment on the “12 Americans believed to be lost in the Tsunami.” Who cares how many Americans were lost!? More than 70,000 people are dead and they have to release a statement about 12 Americans?

I’m sure it’s painful for the loved ones of those 12 people, but show some sensitivity to the rest of the world, please.

I’m not normally a critic of america (Well, except for the Shrub…) and I think that the negative American sentiment amongst members of the international community is generally unfounded, but based on our media’s behavior in this situation I could see why people might become disgusted with Americans.

Show some tact!

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You can usually tell a lot about a person by the gifts they receive. (I’m not talking about gifts you receive from business associates, but the people that really know you.)

With that in mind, here are some of the things that Santa left under the tree for me this year:

iPod mini (In Silver, to match my Powerbook ). I already have a 2G iPod with a 10 Gb drive, but my wife overheard me say how much I like the iPod mini form factor. There’s buzz about a refresh for the mini, so I may return it and wait until after Macworld.

iTunes Gift Card (from my MIL).

(Another) Long Beach Island long sleeve t-shirt. You can never have too many of these, as far as I’m concerned.

A Scott eVest Version Three.O Fleece (Stealth). Why is it called “Stealth?” It took me a minute to figure it out myself. The regular version has shiny zippers while the Stealth model has black ones to match the jacket. Go figure.

This is an awesome product. It has pockets for all my gadgets and the Scott Personal Area Network so you can run cords for headphones and handsfree phone headsets.

A Croton Watch. Beautiful, classic design, nicely made.

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As the father of a two-year old boy, I’ve become fascinated with Upromise.

Have you seen the latest estimates for college tuition in the year 2021!? Estimates put tuition for attending a public school at over $100K and private school at more than twice that amount.

Enter Upromise.

Buy stuff - the same stuff you might otherwise buy - and get cash back for college. You can even set up a Upromise 529 plan and have your cashback savings immediately deposited. Very cool, very efficient.

Acquiring a college education is one of the most significant undertakings in both a parent’s and child’s life. There’s a ton of goodwill created on the part of a brand by helping parents send their kids to school.

Here’s where it gets interesting for marketers: I believe that it’s got to drive sales. I haven’t seen any data yet, but anecdotally I can say that of the parents I know who participate in the program, they are more likely to shop at stores or purchase products that support Upromise than any other.

Any other. Now that’s power.

I know that my wife and I now start our online shopping adventures at Upromise.com. We check the directory for those companies that might have the products we need and usually buy from them. After all, if I’m going to buy something, I may as well help kick-in for my child’s education.

And don’t forget the residual effects of having your brand around the house. In addition to driving sales, you’ll also be creating loyal lil’ consumers of your products and services, which will ultimately find their place in the dorm rooms of the kids whose education you’re helping to fund.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow.
Now, you might say that this program doesn’t create true brand loyalty and you’d be right. It’s heavily incentivized.

However, this incentivized loyalty gives you the opportunity to convert passive consumers of your brand into active ones. Active in the sense that they will routinely seek out your product or service - even after their child has graduated summa cum laude - because they’ll appreciate the consistent brand experience that your company provides. (You are paying attention to your customer’s brand experience, aren’t you?)

Here’s the rub: yeah, I’m more likely to select one quality product over another if it helps sends my kid to college, but that’s just it - it’s got to be of significant quality.

For instance, I’d buy Gateway over Dell if Gateway would put cash in my kids 529 account after I bought a shiny new gaming PC. But, if the machine was in for service 4 or 5 times during its warranty period or I had to remain on hold for an hour while waiting for the next customer service rep in Bangalore, then I may just decide to put my own money in the 529 fund and buy a Dell, thankyouverymuch. It’s just not worth the pain of poor customer service. (Of course, this is a completely hypothetical situation, since I use a Mac.)

Incentivized programs provide your brand with a competitive edge, but you can lose that edge in a flash if you don’t keep quality high.

I know plenty of people who left thousands of frequent flyer miles on the table because they just couldn’t stand to fly with Airline X anymore….

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I’ve had a couple of blogs over the years, but none to which I’ve ever posted to with any frequency. That’s probably because I’ve spent so much time trying to “craft” something that was “on message” or “within a genre” that it became a forced exercise and ultimately, not too much fun.

So, here’s a new twist (for me, not for everyone else): a place for all the stuff I actually find interesting, and other people might, too. Or not.

This is a Wordpress blog, using a straight Kubrick theme from Michael Heilemann (Thanks, Michael.) without any modifications (yet). Stay tuned.

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