Not one to miss an opportunity to improve the depth of understanding in a major area of our work, I attended the session at PAX Prime 2011 on market segmentation. I learned some things, including how the industry is beginning to embrace psychographics (what motivates segments of customers to take the actions they pursue rather than who they are) and how it’s OK sometimes to shoot from the hip if you know your audience really well.

How Marketing Segments and Targets Gamers (1:01:55)

Panelists:
Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks
Ed Davis, AKQA
Paul Caparotta, GameSpot

Is fine print really necessary? Make it big and integrate it into your campaign

There may sometimes be gaps in our postings when business is particularly good, as it has been these past several months. But we always try to look for lessons in our work that we can share.

For example: I’ve been doing marketing support for a major technology company. This generally means I do whatever needs to be done to help marketing meet its goals. But one of my unique selling points is that I’m also a perceptive customer advocate. In fact, I find it difficult NOT to see the customer perspective in everything I do. It’s just how I’ve become wired after years of working in this space: interacting with communities, absorbing composite customer personas, watching focus groups and usability tests and, more recently, monitoring reactions to what I do on social media.

Much of what I’m working on right now requires Terms and Conditions: You know, that legalese that people label “the fine print” – usually because it’s so very small. But there’s also a stigma attached to it. Ask most people what the fine print is, and they’ll respond: “That’s where they get you.”

In a recent marketing campaign that I managed, I noticed customers on Twitter complaining that they didn’t know how they would get their bonus items. The answer was right  there in the Terms & Conditions but it was so tiny that many folks couldn’t read it. So I asked our designers to start making the fine print larger.

It’s an idea that I believe really should catch on. The days of hiding “gotchas” in teeny tiny type are mostly over, or so I’d like to think. If there’s something shady going on, the Internet usually sniffs it out and spreads the word quickly and aggressively.

Instead, I think that Terms & Conditions should be easily read and consumed as part of any offer perusal. In fact, knowing all of the limits and fulfillment details may actually help sell customers, and could even earn their trust. For one thing, it shows the seller has nothing to hide. And second, it should answer any key concerns the customer might have.

Ideally, all of these details should be part of any carefully considered marketing pitch. In the glory days of advertising – which I studied intensely to improve my skills as a headline copywriter – ads were text laden and often filled two or more pages. And advertising studies show that more text can actually be more convincing than less. So let’s put it all out there for everyone to see.

Now if we could just do something with all of those impenetrable End User License Agreements – which arguably are TOO LONG and could use a good summary and be easily reviewed, browsed and, dare I say, skipped. But that’s a fight for another day.

Here are six tips to help you give gifts that won’t end up as next year’s White Elephant:

1. Avoid the gimmicks. I received some astoundingly bad client gifts when I worked for a major corporation, many of which wound up at White Elephant parties or Goodwill. These were often the “hot” gift for the holidays or an attempt to show a sense of humor. The worst violators: a Chia pet and a mounted, singing fish. Both were heavily advertised on TV and both were given in an ironic, isn’t this funny manner. Both also wound up at Goodwill. (I wasn’t going to inflict either on an unsuspecting coworker, even they were potentially funny White Elephant entries.)

 2. Avoid the gender stereotypes. I have had several clients and management chains that bought two separate types of gifts: one for men, the other for women. Example: one year males received a flashlight that opened up to reveal assorted screwdrivers, while women received a set of scented candles that reeked before they were even opened. Another year, men received a deluxe grilling set while women received… I honestly don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure you can find it at Goodwill. Another popular stereotype is the plant – specifically, the dreaded poinsettia. I have received these plants as my holiday gift (and one time in lieu of a holiday bonus!) countless times, and I’ve never once taken them home. Poinsettias are dangerous for animals, and with two house cats, they will never darken my house. Also, for some reason they always seem on the verge of death by the time they arrive at my desk, leaving lots of detritus that set off my allergies.

 3. Make it functional. Look around your car, your desk, even your purse – odds are you have a pen with the name of a service or store you patronized. While that store or service may not be at the top of your mind every day, the business owner is betting that you will be reminded the next time you do a crossword in pen or, perhaps, scribble a To Do list that contains the service she provides. That level of branding reinforcement is invaluable – but a pen is hardly a great holiday client gift. (Not the plastic ones, anyway.) We’re big fans of the branded bistro mug. They are larger than the average coffee cup, have a distinctive sensual shape and can be used on a daily basis. We’ve also given branded, reusable totes that can be kept in the car for regular trips to the grocery store. For added value, consider adding a personal note and a lovely edible treat that can be enjoyed right away!

You can find numerous vendors online that offer bistro mugs with your branding. Just remember to use BOTH sides of the mugs. As a lefty, I have looked at the blank side of a mug many, many times over the years. My mom, a fellow southpaw, once had the printing done on the opposite side, creating a “lefty” mug as a holiday gift for her client base that both amused and distinguished her company from other, similar gifts.

4. Quality counts. A gift that breaks after one trip through the dishwasher. Print that fades (or worse, smudges). Gifts that just smell “cheap.” These will not win clients or provide positive brand reinforcement. Find the best quality products within your budget.

 5. Unless you’re Oprah, don’t give “favorite” things. I once had a client present me with a lovely CD wallet and a collection of his 10 favorite CDs (all removed from their cases and inserted into the wallet). Each was personalized with a private story about why it was a favorite. One CD was included simply because it included the “first dance” song from his wedding reception! I kept the wallet (functional) and took the CDs to a Half-Price store. The music was not to my taste (I’m not a soft jazz fan) and I didn’t have the emotional connection to the music that he clearly felt. Worse, he asked me what I thought of the music a few months later during a meeting. I felt terrible, but also wanted to be honest with him. I admitted the music was not my taste, but thanked him again for the CD case. I got the “women’s gift,” a bright pink scarf, a few months later. I would have rather have gotten the men’s travel mug.

Finding the right client gift can be difficult, but by following these simple guidelines, your odds of success will go up. If all else fails, consider the client gift that anyone can appreciate:

6. Offer to make a donation in your client’s name to a charity. Choose 5 charities and allow your client to pick where to send the money, or if you happen to know someone is passionate about a cause (they do walk-a-thons, are on a board of directors, etc.) consider showing that you’ve been paying attention by proactively making a donation on their behalf.

Not only will you make an impression, you will truly be giving a gift that keeps on giving.

They wanted to know where I lived:

Why do you need my address? What's my motivation to give it to you?

When I first signed up, they didn’t require this infomation. My account existed, yet the only details it had when I logged in this time were my name and e-mail address. That’s all they had required previously, and rightfully so. I had signed up for a free download, and they needed to notify me about my “purchase.”

On the surface, it makes sense. A fair trade of software value for valuable personal details, right?

Certainly, some customers will buy into this. They’ll pony up their mailing address and other contact details for a freebie with perceived value of $5 or more. But others will question why they need this information. They’re not sending a physical CD in the mail with the game on it. They’ll send me an e-mail notification when it’s time to download it. What are they going to do with the address? Direct marketing? Sell my information to a third-party? Either way, I don’t want it.

So some people – maybe the majority – will submit a fake address. 1234 Noneofyourdamnbusiness Lane, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., or perhaps a choice expletive or two.

And now you have a problem: data integrity. A significant part of your database has bad data in it. Supposing you did have a use for the mailing address that most customers would love – say, you decide to reward them with a free disc-based game or promotional (yet adorable) sticker set that everyone would love to find delivered to them free of charge via postal mail – you’d have to do a lot of scrubbing to only send to the addresses that appear to be valid. And, even then, expect a lot of returned mail!

There’s really no good reason to ask for a mailing address unless you need it right here and right now to fulfill a customer’s order.

To be fair, Telltale does sell t-shirts, posters and shotglasses – but I wasn’t ordering those. If I had, then the transaction flow should be modified to require my shipping address. And if I was buying something – even a downloadable game – with my credit card, I’d expect to be hit up for my billing address to validate my identity and complete the transaction. In those cases, the customer will supply these details readily and, most of the time, accurately because they understand the need for it and want to receive the product they ordered.

Any time you ask for information that’s NOT needed to fulfil a transaction, you’re asking for trouble. It may be a little extra work to build that logic into your shopping cart, but it’s worth it – both for the customer’s peace of mind about your company and the quality of the data you collect.

But it all started with this tweet, which at first glance seemed to be a random venting of frustration by a faceless social media plebe:

But this tweet seemed much more calculated after the events of the next few days.

Two days later, the online storefront was gone – apparently shut down and replaced with a short message:

We have recently had to give serious thought to whether we could really keep GOG.com the way it is. We’ve debated on it for quite some time and, unfortunately, we’ve decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form. We’re very grateful for all support we’ve received from all of you in the past two years. Working on GOG.com was a great adventure for all of us and an unforgettable journey to the past, through the long and wonderful history of PC gaming. This doesn’t mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We’re closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await.

GOG.com kept tweeting:

The news about the site remaining available for people to redownload their games was a tip off. Why would a company keep the site live for people to redownload past purchases if they had no new revenue coming in to pay the server bills?

That same day, rumors spread that the site shutdown was a hoax. And people were angry!

On September 20, the site message was updated:

First of all, we apologize everyone for the whole situation and closing GOG.com. We do understand the timing for taking down the site caused confusion and many users didn’t manage to download all their games. Unfortunately we had to close the service due to business and technical reasons. At the same time we guarantee that every user who bought any game on GOG.com will be able to download all their games with bonus materials, DRM-free and as many times as they need starting this Thursday. The official statement from GOG.com’s management concerning the ongoing events is planned on Wednesday.

The news was finally broken on Sept. 22 that the shutdown was a build up to the site launching out of beta. Anger still washed over the social media streams:

GOGcom apologized, but some feared too little, too late:

But the next day, it was business as usual – actually, more business than usual:

GOG.com seems to have generated the buzz it wanted and even earned back some customers’ trust with the addition of two popular classic games and a large sale on “favorites.” Time will tell if the stunt hurts them or served its intended purpose.

But as a social media manager who aims to understand customer needs and perspectives and strives for transparency in communications, I have to wonder if hoaxes and stunts that anger customers are ever a good risk.

Here’s how I might have handled it:

GOG.com is going down for maintenance. We’ll be shut for 5 days as we prepare to launch the new site with exciting new features!If you make a GOG purchase today, download it right away. If you don’t complete the DL you’ll have to wait til the site comes back on 9/23.

Don’t worry, your GOG.com purchases are safe! You’ll still be able to redownload everything you’ve ever bought! Big announcements coming!

Here are some new features you’ll enjoy when GOG.com comes back on 9/23: More news, community features, quick browse catalog and reminders! 

Feel free to speculate on the game news. We can’t confirm yet, but watch our Twitter on 9/22! We think you RPG fans will be pleased.

While the site is down, how about we give away a few copies of the mystery RPG. RT the following message for a chance to win!

GOG.com is back up. You may see hiccups as we continue to add servers and manage 5 days of pent-up demand. Tell us what you think!

I found both of these discussions fascinating – true highlights of the show despite the general lack of gaming content (my passion!). Fortunately, I recorded both from the front row with generally good results (there was a fidgety person next to me at the second panel who makes a few stray sounds early on, but she finally settled down).

Please note there is explicit language in the second panel (NOT safe for work, at least not without headphones!). I don’t recall any cursing in the first panel.

Becoming a Community Manager (1:01:23)

Panelists:
Jay Frechette, EA/Visceral Games
Jennifer Kye, Gameloft
Sam Houston, formerly with Perfect World and GamerDNA
Arne Meyer, Naughty Dog Studios
Collin Moore, formerly with Irrational Games
James Stevenson, Insomniac Games
Allison Thresher, Harmonix

Twittering for the Man (59:36)

Panelists:
Dan Amrich, Activision
Jeff Green, formerly EA
Larry Hryb, Microsoft
Jeff Rubenstein, Sony
A.J. Glasser, GamePro magazine (moderator)

Did these panels offer you any lessons you can apply to your job, either inside or outside of the games industry? We’d love to hear what you think.

Cable network TNT sent its marketing team in the wayback machine this week to send out a “sneak peek” at a new show, Men of a Certain Age. Which, based on the cast (Scott Bakula, Andre Braugher and Ray Romano) is somewhere in the late 40s to early 50s. Presumably, these men of a certain age made romantic mix tapes for their would-be loved ones in their youth. Or a mix tape to enjoy while driving around. Or, and I’m just guessing here, to enhance getting baked in their mom’s basement.

The “mix tape” is an iconic touch point for anyone of a certain age, especially those who know what a “tape” is. (Was.) These men of a certain age most certainly spent some quality time in mom’s basement making mixes to celebrate love, mourn getting dumped and generally show off their masterful knowledge of hot jams. (For the ultimate example of this male prototype, see John Cusack in High Fidelity.) Naturally, these men are now older, but somewhere deep inside each one, an insecure teenager is dying to find audio perfection.

Which brings me to the marketing experiment that arrived in our snail mail this week (for no apparent reason!). TNT has spent at least a few bucks to create a giant faux tape box containing a tiny-but-heavy rubber “mix tape” that’s really a flash drive that plugs into your computer’s USB port. The drive contains three songs in a play-only Shockwave format (alas, no MP3s) that presumably represent the three men at the heart of the show. I say presumably because I can’t imagine any person on Earth putting “Up Around the Bend” by Creedance Clearwater Revival, “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake and “The Best of Times” by Styx on the same tape voluntarily.

My expectation is that these songs will play while the three men bond in the car, driving in the perfection that is the Magic Hour (right before the sun sets). Or perhaps while smoking weed they stole from one of their children in the basement. I’m pretty sure they won’t be playing any of these songs while holding a CD player over their heads. I just don’t see wooing the Mrs with Whitesnake.

I’m just guessing, of course, as I didn’t bother to watch the core marketing piece on the tape: a “sneek peek” for the show itself. I just can’t get excited about a show revolving around middle-aged men who like Whitesnake, CCR and Styx. I’m also curious as to how I was targeted to receive this particular piece. The best theory I’ve had to date, based on the name used on the address label: cable cousin (via Time Warner) HBO sold/lent my name to TNT.

I purchased a True Blood tee directly from HBO.com earlier this year, and fully expected to get marketing from at least HBO. They have not disappointed, letting me know every single item that has entered the store related to every show on the air. Every HBO touch has been via e-mail, however.

TNT clearly spent at least some marketing dollars to get attention for their show. The question is, did  it work? Yes and no. No in that I still don’t have any interest in the show, and in fact any chance I might have given it (based solely on the cast) pretty much died when presented with these music choices. (I now have a mash up of “Up Around the Bend” and “Here I Go Again” stuck in my brain. I fear I may go insane!)

On the plus side – at least for TNT – they got exactly what every show desires: a free plug.