MOBILE: Where the Web Is Headed.

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Four years from now, where will the majority of us hop online?

If Morgan Stanley analysts are correct, more users will access the Internet in 2015 via mobile devices than our computers.

Impossible, you say? Or at the very least, hard to imagine? Not really, when you consider the widespread acceptance and exponential growth of smart phones; the proliferation of faster 3G mobile service, combined with affordable pricing; and the rapid rollout of innovative and exciting new mobile applications, technologies and uses.

From its introduction in June, 2007 via the iPhone and iTouch, mobile web in less than three years has become the standard for anywhere and anytime access to friends, games, video, entertainment, shopping, sharing, mapping, research, wireless home appliances and much more tomorrow. In fact, the average iPhone user today spends less than half of his or her on-device time making phone calls!

As the landscape changes for web marketers, the challenges will be many. But so are the opportunities. So charge up your smart phone now.

SOURCE: Morgan Stanley, Mashable, NOISE

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CUSTOMER SERVICE: Where DuPont Fails to Shine.

Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

DuPont HIgh Gloss Sealer & Finish is hyped as a premier tile or stone surface treatment and color enhancer that provides a “long lasting wet look that protects against stains.” The product’s recommended for (among many surfaces) slate, concrete or travertine with an anticipated life expectancy of three to five years (remember this fact). Plus, it’s water based, so applying it while actually breathing won’t kill you.

Sounds like a winner for anyone looking to turn up the sheen of their flooring, right? Well, it did to me, even at $30-plus per gallon times six.

But the best advice that I can give you today is: run away, run away! That is, if you dare run on such a poor-performing sealant as DuPont’s.

Despite following all the instructions, using the proper application tools, applying the product per instructions to a recommended surface and waiting the appropriate time period between my three applications (two to four are recommended) upon more than 2,000 square feet of travertine (which consumed more than 20 hours of my life over the course of two weekends), it took less than four weeks before surface blemishes began to appear on our “three-to-five-years-lasting” finish. And appear here. And appear there. And appear appear everywhere, with every drag of a chair or scrape of a heel to the extent that our floor today looks distressed and, frankly, ruined.

Upon my complaint to the manufacturer, DuPont was ready to provide a full refund — with or without receipt — almost immediately upon mentioning the product name. All I had to do, they said, was return to the retailer (in my case, Lowe’s) and explain my dissatisfaction.

Guess what Lowe’s told me? It’s not our problem. And they’re right.

Here’s what I think. I think DuPoint continues to sell a product that they know should be recalled; why would they be so very quick to offer up a full refund almost without question otherwise? I think DuPont has a blame-shifting problem as well; why would they try to push the onus for refund to Lowe’s, when Lowe’s logically explained that a DuPont “return authorization” would be required? I think DuPont is oblivious to the value of a consumer’s time, too; why would they dismiss the 20-some hours I invested in applying their product, by seriously suggesting that my best solution would be (get this!) using a DuPont stripper to remove their product (which I would have to buy)! I respectfully or maybe disrespectfully declined, by the way.

In the end, I think DuPont fails to shine in customer service, just as much as their $30-per-gallon product fails miserably to shine a “recommended” surface.

Opportunity opened. Opportunity closed. Too bad DuPont. Let the stone sealer beware. Let all other marketers take note: if you screw up, fix it. People will forgive you.

Source: NOISE

Tags: ad agency, ADVERTISING, brand, BRANDING, customer, dupont, florida, internet, loyalty, milwaukee, noise, public relations, sanibel, service, SOCIAL MEDIA, wisconsin