Marketing and branding are vitally important for any organization.
A brand is about trust. It's a promise that what is expected in terms of quality from that brand, is what will be delivered.
Every time. Without fail.
Marketing is about providing the products and services that meet the needs and desires of the customers.
These very basic concepts were ignored by some recent Carnival of the Capitalists hosts.
As you know, the Carnival offers links to some of the many interesting and informative postings in the areas of business, blogging, entrepreneurship, sales and marketing, law, technology, economics, politics, and many more related areas.
The posts are submitted by the various bloggers, for inclusion in the next edition of Carnival of the Capitalists. Each week, the honour of hosting the Carnival moves to another volunteer host.
Understood among the entering bloggers is that all posts meeting the Carnival criteria will appear on the traditional Carnival Monday. The only posts omitted from inclusion are either entirely unrelated to any accepted topics, contain no discernible links, or are simply spam cluttering the Carnival e-mail box.
Also understood is the volunteer host will include all proper posts, and hold the Carnival in one installment on a Monday.
Those are the promises of the brand for part of the customer base. That partial base is formed by the many bloggers who are entering posts for inclusion. While this group of bloggers is relatively small in absolute numbers, as Carnival customers, they form the core.
As the core customers, the regular posting bloggers are also the Carnival's brand evangelists. By means of viral marketing, blogging style, this core group of bloggers advises their readers of the new Carnivals. By word of blog, the concept of the Carnival of the Capitalists is spread far and wide.
A second, and numerically larger group of Carnival customers, are the people who read the posted entries, but do not submit posts themselves. As a group, these readers appear to enjoy the variety and one stop post shopping offered every Monday.
A third and potentially very large customer group, are the casual readers. Often arriving from a major link, like Glenn Reynolds' famous Instapundit for example, these customers are often one time visitors. Many of them turn into regular Carnival readers, and a few might even join the core group.
It appears in recent weeks that the various customer bases were ignored. In what is often a cardinal sin in business, the hosts unilaterally decided to make changes in the Carnival format.
The concept of change is not a bad thing in and of itself. In fact, innovation and creativity are essential to business growth. In this case, however, the changes were implemented without even the most basic market research or pilot project being undertaken.
In effect, no one knew if the customer readers even wanted any changes.
Instead, the unrequested alterations were put into place anyway.
The predictable result was huge customer dissatisfaction with the Carnival of the Capitalists brand.
In the first instance, the entire posting of articles didn't appear on the expected Monday. No warning of the eventual two part Carnival was given.
In the second case, fewer than one half of the entered posts were selected for publication. No selection criteria was provided for the inclusion or rejection of a post.
The classic error of concern with the needs of the company, and not the wishes and desires of the customers, was the inevitable result.
The host's ideas were placed ahead of the needs of the customer base. In particular, the core base of Carnival brand evangelists was especially upset.
Instead of praise for innovation, the experimental hosts were treated to criticism ranging from polite to harsh.
A manager implements changes that are more for the convenience of the business, than for the needs of the customer base, at their own peril.
In the case of the Carnival of the Capitalists, basic and fundamental branding and marketing concepts were ignored.
Fortunately for everyone involved, the Carnival of the Capitalists is a very strong brand. The core customer base of entering bloggers believes strongly in the principals of the Carnival.
The free market of ideas was tested, and proved its strength.
Good ideas continue to grow and prosper, while less valuable ones fall by the wayside.
The power of the customer evangelist was proven, as several bloggers took it upon themselves to publish omited posts on their own blogs. In a free market, like we have in the blogosphere, similar entrepreneurial type concepts can emerge from almost any source.
In this case, the unrequested publication of posts appeared on more than one blog.
Such strong support for helping the Carnival, is proof of the strength, of a core customer group.
From these real life case studies, a stronger Carnival can emerge.
Let's turn this experience into a postive, and help Carnival of the Capitalists to grow and prosper.
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