Galileo and the Importance of Integrated Marketing Communications
July 20th, 2009 | Author: Beth Harte
You might be wondering what an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher has to do with integrated marketing communications (IMC). Well, I consider Galileo a dot connector and integrated marketing communications is about marketers connecting dots so that your customers, prospects, communities, etc. don’t have to. And you know me, my marketing brain only thinks one way, integrated. But there’s more to this post than that…
A few weekends ago we drove past a billboard for the Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy exhibit at The Franklin Institute. I hadn’t heard about the exhibit so the billboard did its job, I was hooked, I checked it out online and we made plans to see the exhibit this past weekend. (Amazing, isn’t it?! A billboard! See push marketing still works.) I even talked about it on Twitter.
Even though I have lived my entire life only 25 miles from The Franklin Institute I had never been there (true!), so I was really excited to check it and the Galileo exhibit out…the notion of history, politics and science intrigued me to say the least.
To prepare for our trip we checked out The Franklin website and made a list of everything we wanted to see in addition to the Galileo exhibit. The one other thing that we were completely jazzed about was seeing “The Sky Tonight” at the Fels Planetarium. Just think about it, sitting under the night sky during the day, how cool, right?
The weekend rolled around, chores were done, and errands were run. We set off for The Franklin. Finding parking was a breeze (which is never the case in Philly), we didn’t have to wait in line to buy tickets, and everything was perfect!
And then it got a little bumpy…
After we bought or tickets, the girl behind the ticket counter shoved a little schedule towards us and we immediately looked for the 4:15 time slot for The Sky Tonight, but it wasn’t listed. Surely this had to be wrong, right? We checked their website schedule twice during the week and once before we left. It was listed on their site…they even offered the ability to add it to my calendar. But no. The girl said that was the schedule for the day. We were so bummed, but off we went to the Galileo exhibit and we picked another show at the planetarium.
Wait! What’s this? The sign above our heads as we entered the planetarium said “4:15 The Sky Tonight.” Excellent, she was wrong! It was back on.
So, we sat through Cosmic Collisions, which was amazing and actually made you feel like you were moving, which was a bit freaky. Afterwards, I figured I’d ask the guy “in the know,” the one running the planetarium shows. It was one of those typical “Hey Mister!” scenarios. I asked and he said, no it wasn’t showing. Naturally we asked why the sign said it was…he said “good point, I guess we never changed it.”
Hmmm, interesting. Onward and upward as they say. We left the planetarium to see what other goodies we could find to entertain ourselves with.
Organizations, like The Franklin, that require flexibility typically have a “subject to change” on their website. While I get that as a marketer, but as a consumer, I really don’t. I wanted to see what was advertised. It’s that simple.
What’s the point to all of this? It’s the little things that matter. Organizations need to make sure that they have all areas of marketing integrated…no matter how small the details. Because if you don’t your customers will notice.
If it’s Twitter, tweet me back and let me know that you’re excited for me to come visit (The Franklin didn’t); if it’s website make sure your schedule is reflecting the very latest, up-to-date information (honestly, we would have picked another weekend to go); if it’s a lobby sign, make sure that’s up to date too (don’t tease me!).
While the overall experience at The Franklin was a great one, it would have been excellent if only The Franklin delivered on what they advertised.
And as you know, it’s also a lesson in customer satisfaction and social media. I have a voice and, for better or worse, I am using it here on my blog. Will I go back to The Franklin? Absolutely. Even if annoyed, we still want to see The Sky Tonight and we’ll give them another shot to make good on their advertising. Will I tell others how cool The Franklin is, you betcha! But I’ll offer this word of advice, if there’s something you really want to see…call first to check the daily schedule.
What do you think? Should we marketers worry about every little aspect of integration? Is it the little things that create or enhance a customer experience or affect a brand?
[Image: Discovery Magazine]
Tags: 14 Responses to “Galileo and the Importance of Integrated Marketing Communications”
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Beth,
Thanks for taking me down memory lane. I can remember walking through the huge HEART in the Franklin as a kid.
Yes – marketers should be concerned about the little things that affect the overall experience. The aim is to be seamless, but the real goal is to surpass expectations. Most businesses miss the ‘lagnaippe’ factor . . . that little unexpected extra or gift given to the customer.
Best,
Stan
Stan Phelps´s last blog ..Differentiate . . . do it or die
This is kinda freaky b/c I have the idea that ‘there are no small parts’ running about in my head today…!…So, yes, I would emphatically agree that it’s little things that make a HUGE difference!
Aside from pointing to the obvious (current post), I do recall reading once about Chris Brogan’s experience (believe it was him) who had commented on how the attentiveness of some housekeeping really made a difference with a hotel stay he had once.
Think it even came down to a bottle of water – the way it was presented, provided, etc. made a tremendous difference for him!
So, like you the more buttoned up your approach (not spit-n-polish shine), the more room you leave for your audience to have MEMORIES and less complaints.
Narciso Tovar, Big Noise Communications´s last blog ..There Are No Small Parts
Speaking from a consumer point of view, the little things ABSOLUTELY make a difference. You know when something about your interaction is a just a little bit off, whether it be an inconsistency or omission. And often, “just a little bit off” is enough to sway an impression from good to neutral, or possibly from neutral to bad.
@m_dunn
You’re more forgiving than me! When a business provides me information for planning purposes and that information is false in a disruptive way, I usually send a polite email and don’t plan any future business with them for a while. Not sure if there’s any point, though. I can never decide if life’s too short to care about things like that, or if life is too short to let businesses waste my time that way.
Yes, absolutely yes! All aspects of marketing should be integrated. You may have been willing to over look some mistakes and still make the most of your experience but there are many people who are not so kind. People tend to see consistency with messaging and content as a reflection of the company, product, or service overall. Thus, we as marketers need to make sure that they are consistent and that we are providing accurate and up to date information to our customers.
Elizabeth´s last blog ..Is there a payoff with social media?
What’s that saying? “The devil’s in the details”? Details are what make the big project go off without a hitch (or without a public hitch).
Regarding integration, as I discussed with Kami Huyse at lunch today, my title states that I’m in internal communications, but the reality is that I’m doing marketing communications internally. There are times that mistakes on an internal campaign are worse than an external one! Details are important to any campaign and have a huge impact on the client’s experience, either external or internal. If details are not paid attention to, someone will notice and you will have one of two things happen: 1) they’ll be kind about it as you were at The Franklin or 2) they won’t be kind and you will want to go hide under the desk.
Great post, Beth! Thanks!
Susan´s last blog ..We’re the bridge
I think this happens all the time!
Which is why after I was long gone from LLS and in #blogchat on Sunday. I realized finally what Icould have done better when I was there.
Instead of fighting the communication channels were messed up!I should have taken the lead and taught them what I knew.
I was overly stressed out about screwing up and I knew I could have opened the channels better. What hind sight does in retrospect.
Getting all channels on the same page with a large organization is often hard. I worked the Kid Rock concerts at Comerica Park in Detroit.
There is only so much you can do. Things don’t always go smoothly. Sometimes you can’t control everything. I wish communication was easier but sometimes it is harder than you think.
Jamie Favreau´s last blog ..Can you help one person stay in Detroit?
That kind of thing really gets me bent out of shape. In agreement with everyone above, yes, DETAILS MATTER. I trained new hires at Disney World and if anybody knows about drilling that into people’s heads, it would be me. Consistency is key, always go the extra mile, the little things make a big difference, yada yada yada. It all sounds so cliché but it’s FOR A REASON. I consider this common sense and it totally miffs me that others let things like that slide.
… or maybe I’m just totally anal and need to chill. Got a xanax?
Stacy Lukas´s last blog ..What to do when “you’re doing it wrong” goes wrong
No question: Details Matter. And “subject to change” isn’t an excuse when updates aren’t current. The problem is that customers might forgive but they don’t forget. And an easy-to-avoid mistake like forgetting to update the website schedule can take the trust factor down several notches.
What is it they say — try not to mess up on the little things. You’ll need lots of goodwill when something big goes wrong.
Thanks for the post…
– Robin Fox
http://www.93words.blogspot.com
Robin Fox´s last blog ..Alert: Expanding into the Boomer Market
When I was a kid, visiting the Franklin Institute was our favorite activity. My sister, brother and I loved the heart, the sniff bar (gone) and the old Nickelodeon that showed classic silent movies (also gone). It was a cheap outing in those days, and we went once or twice a year.
Today, things have changed and, as Beth points out, this is a institution with major marketing problems, not to mention branding issues. Like most museums, they now charge you an arm and a leg at the door and hope you’ll buy a membership instead. I took my kids once because I had a half-price coupon from PhillyFunsavers. For an average family, a day at the Franklin is a major expense.
And although you were forgiving when your show was canceled, for parents, it is a different story. If you promise your kids that they are going to see something, they want to see THAT something and not another something.
BTW, after trying to be trendy and changing their name to The Franklin, they realized that people weren’t buying that brand. A couple of weeks ago they announced that they were changing back to the Franklin Institute.
For a scientific institute, it is surprising that they aren’t using the latest technology to communicate with consumers and attract new visitors.
Hey Beth! I’m so glad to see your integrated marketing communications post. To me it’s never a “dead horse.” Every detail and aspect of an integrated campaign (which should be every campaign) is very important.
A recent example of lack of integrated marketing efforts: the other day I saw the Coleman commercial, which was very well done, stirred up memories of camping trips and how fun we had. OK, great, so after that commercial it left you ready to do something else. Well Coleman failed to connect the pieces like perhaps inviting viewers to their community and/or website. So out of curiousity I went on their website and couldn’t find anything regarding this nostalgic theme they created in their commercial. How disappointing! No coordination of marketing efforts and it showed, which may explain why I can’t find this on their website. They had me at the commerical, but then lost me after that.
Like planning a party, every detail of an integrated marketing communications campaign is important.
Always refreshing to read your perspectives.
@StanPhelps, glad to have provided the trip down memory lane! We never made it to the heart…can you believe it?!
I wasn’t looking for anything extra…I was just looking to see what was promoted.
@NarcisoTovar, it’s like a play right? Lots of moving parts and the one you think no one will notice is the thing all the people in the audience point out to each other. Water in a hotel room that’s not $4.00 and comes standard would be great, wouldn’t it?
@Matt, a reminder even for me as a marketer…that’s for sure. It’s never fun to be criticized because we overlooked something.
@Dave, my husband said the same thing! However, I thought telling several employees at The Franklin Institute plus a blog post was more than enough to get my point across. And we made the best of it…maybe one day we’ll make it back there, but who knows.
@Elizabeth, the thing that made it worse was that we didn’t know until after we had paid for our tickets. I suppose some folks would have asked for the money back and left. But, it had taken us an hour to get there…I was feeling a little bit trapped.
@Susan, sometimes the internal critics are worse than the external ones!
@JamieFavreau, I don’t think anyone is saying that communications is easy. Trust me; I too have overlooked small moving parts…we all do it (especially when under stress). That said, I think for an organization the size of The Franklin Institute they should have enough folks in communications and IT to make sure things are up-to-date. And I really don’t think the “subject to change” note is enough. They know that they pick certain shows every week, how hard is it to update the site?
@StacyLukas, Anal? You? Nah. Details do matter, that’s why we are paranoid as marketers and we review over and over and over… No matter it takes so long to get a project done or campaign kicked off.
@RobinFox, good advice!
@NadineBonner, that’s a great point, it didn’t cross my mind to think about parents who might have to explain to their kids why they can’t see what they had their hearts set on seeing. I’ve been living under a rock…I had no clue about the re-brand to a trendier name and back again!
@AnnaBarcelos, the Coleman commercial is a perfect example. If I were a betting gal, I’d say they had different agencies/departments handling that campaign. It happens all the time more often than not. I also think part of it is that we are involved in social media and we expect more (the Coleman ad), but companies and/or their agencies aren’t quite there yet.
It’s always the details that can make or break a customer experience.
Mistakes can happen but it’s in how an organization deals with it that can change a negative into a positive. It doesn’t sound like The Franklin made any effort.
That said, it would be best to avoid issues like scheduling snafus in the first place. Especially in a situation like this because folks are making decisions about when to visit.
Admittedly, in a situation like a change of schedule, the number of places where a change needs to be posted (online, physical locations, etc.) may be cumbersome. Automation would have helped mitigate the situation though.
Just some thoughts off the top of my head:
1. Use a database-driven schedule for the website and ensure it’s up-t0-date.
2. Initiate a series of triggers to appropriate folks when a change occurs. An example would be an email to the sign poster people to let them know to change out signs at the museum.
Used right, automation is the friend of marketing and customer service.
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