http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/03/48-boeing-guilty-of-shoddy-back-end.html
Posted by Denny Hatch
BOEING: Guilty of Shoddy
Back-end Marketing
Back-end Marketing
One of the absolute worst, dumbest
things a marketer can do is make a
sale—bring an enthusiastic and trusting customer into the corporate family—and
then leave him twisting in the wind.
Example: Boeing.
“The sale begins when
the customer says yes,” wrote freelance copywriter Bill Christensen.
Once a sale is made
and the product delivered to the buyer, it is imperative to make absolutely
sure the customer is taken care of throughout the life of the product.
This is as true for
the manufacturer of jet planes as it is for the publisher of a magazine or the
seller of stamps to stamp collectors.
These two short quotes tell Boeing’s tragic story.
"For many new airplane models, pilots train for hours on giant,
multimillion-dollar machines, on-the-ground versions of cockpits that mimic the
flying experience and teach them new features. But in the case of the Max, many
pilots with 737 experience learned about the plane on an iPad.
“'We would
have liked to have had a simulator from the start,' said Jon Weaks, the
president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. 'But it wasn’t practical,
because it wasn’t built yet.'”
—Natalie
Kitroeff, David Gelles, Jack Nicas, Thomas Kaplan and Maggie Haberman, The
New York Times
“As the
pilots of the doomed Boeing jets in Ethiopia and Indonesia fought to control
their planes, they lacked two notable safety features in their cockpits. One
reason: Boeing charged extra for them.”
—Hiroko
Tabuchi and David Gelles, The
New York Times
The result: 346 passengers and crew were killed in the
two crashes of brand new Boeing 737-MAX jets.
Is Boeing spoiled by its success
as America’s premier exporter of American-built products? Have they become lazy
jet plane builders who believed they no longer needed serious back-end marketing?
Perhaps their business philosophy is from Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”
Could Calamity Have Been Averted if Boeing Had Seen
The 85-Point
Checklist lede is the story of Boeing’s October 30, 1935 catastrophic crash at
Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. As a result of this tragedy, Boeing created its
greatest contribution to Government, Industry, Medicine and War—the very first
checklist in the history of the world. (This original Boeing document is
illustrated my Marketeer’s Checklist.)
From my 85-Point Checklist:
31. Another
marketing screw-up I absolutely hate: Instructions in teeny-tiny sans serif
mouse type translated directly from the Chinese.
• Are absolutely foolproof instructions included with the
shipment—illustrated, written in simple, readable English and (if need-be) well
illustrated?
Continually Working With the Customer Can
Be as Essential as Getting the Initial Sale!
I made my
bones writing/designing offers to acquire subscribers for magazines and
newsletters. A typical offer:
Take the first monthly issue FREE. If you like it pay just $9.95 for the
next 11 issues. If you decide to cancel any time, your money back in full.
Once you send that free issue, a whole lot of back-end marketing kicks in. You
have to keep sending issues and billing efforts until the dude pays. After payment,
you have to start sending renewal efforts starting 3 to 6 months later.
Let’s talk stamp collecting.
Two of the
most brilliant proponents of after-marketing creativity were Prescott
Kelly—proprietor of the Stamp Collectors Society of America—and his creative
director, the late Malcom Decker.
Kelly and Decker did not offer traditional stamp collections.
Instead they put together unique “themed” collections. These were continuity
series of 33 or 47 stamps from around the world that featured railroad
locomotives, great automobiles or a series of 58 gold stamps commemorating the
treasures of Tutankhamun.
Included would be a handsome (free) album to house these unique collections.
Included would be a handsome (free) album to house these unique collections.
The Treasured Transmittal Letters
Accompanying
every stamp shipment was an enthusiastic transmittal letter signed by George
Worthington (aka Malcolm Decker). Each was chock-a-block full of fascinating nuggets
of information and historical tidbits about the stamps in the shipment.
Decker-cum-Worthington wrote a one-page letter of 200 words with every stamp
sent out. Plus George offered Christmas, Easter and other special stamps along
the way so that by the time collection is complete, the customer would have
received about 50 letters from George.
Mal Decker (aka George Worthington)
All the letters were personalized (“Dear John Jones”) and all were signed with
a printed reflex blue signature.
George Worthington had a voice. To the collector, he was a real person.
“We send George on trips (he went to London for the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles
and Lady Diana),” Decker said to me. “He visits famous museums and galleries
and regularly spends time with the artists, artisans and craftsmen who create
our stamps. He even presented our Tutankhamun collection to the Egyptian
Ambassador to the United Nations.”
Decker also had help. For the "grist" or background
information, world-renowned experts were hired. For the automobile stamps,
automotive editor Beverly Rae Kimes ("The Grande Dame of Automobile History") wrote the
letters with Decker doing the editing and polishing.
Railroad historian Thomas T. ("Tommy Trains") Tabor III was engaged
to supply the background material for the locomotive stamps. And for Tutankhamun,
Yale professor of Egyptology Virginia Lee Davis was the consultant-writer.
Decker continued:
"We put as much effort into Transmittal Letter Number 4, 14, 24, or
54—word-for-word and page-for-page—as we put into the four-, five- or six-page
letters in our full-dress direct mail packages that brought these subscribers into
the program.”
”Send me the other 57 letters or I’ll cancel.”
"Once
in a while one of our subscribers gets a windfall and buys the whole balance of
his Collection at once,” Decker told me. ‘But what's odd is that after he
receives his stamps, he oftentimes insists on getting the whole set of transmittal
letters from George Worthington. He perceives the transmittal letters as having
value and being an integral part of the collection.”
George’s letter makes each stamp “come alive.” When showing off the collection
to friends, family or business colleagues he can impress the visitor with
stories of the stamps.
Malcolm Decker’s Decision Tree
A serious, caring marketer should never allow a
back office clerk to write a letter to a customer.
Above is the Flow Chart of correspondence requirements for one Stamp Collectors
Society of America promotion. Each line represents a letter that must be
written either as a transmittal effort, follow-up letter or response to a
collector’s question or problem. Each of these letters was written by Decker
with precision, care and warmth.
If a new situation arises that is not part of the Decision Tree, Decker would
write a letter, add it to the flowchart and work with the clerks to make sure
they understand which letters go out under which circumstances.
Takeaways to Consider
• The
sale begins when the customer says, "yes."
—Bill
Christensen, Freelance copywriter
• As
direct marketers we're not here primarily to make a sale; we're here to get a
customer. Sales are important, of course. (Where would marketers be without them?)
But the name of the game is repeat sales rather than one-shots. And to have
that you need a customer.
—Joan
Throckmorton, Legendary direct marketer
• "People have forgotten this truth," the
fox said. "But you mustn't forget it. You become responsible forever for
the things you tame."
—Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
• A
serious, caring marketer should never allow a back office clerk to make marketing
choices or write letters to a customer.
• “Build
it and they will come is bullshit.” Build it, sell the hell out of it and they
will come.”
—Willard
Rouse, Developer of Faneuil Hall and Baltimore Inner Harbor
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