Chapter 61: Conclusion

Really enjoyed this book. While the general theme and concept is explained early on, I was fascinated by the many different angles the authors looked at and the parallels that can be found in almost any industry and any scenario. As the author says;

"Businesses can no longer sit back and assume they know more than their customers. Today the power of information has shifted."

I will definitely consider reading some more of the authors works and have become an avid follower of his own social media, on all the platforms that he is active. You can find links to UnSelling's social media on the right sidebar of this blog!

Chapter 52: Should You Trade In Trade Shows?

A really neat parallel is explored between social media and trade shows. I was fascinated by the similarities in the two, and in particular the importance of remaining honest in how you represent yourself. There is a really interesting experiment mentioned in here where two trade show booths were set up for the very same product; one with trade show babes trying to sell it and the other with honest employees of the company. The latter did much better, both in terms of visitors and actual lead conversion.

Great Video from MARK9049

Thought I would share this great video that our professor showed us in MARK9049 class today, from the YouTube account of UnSelling author Scott Stratten.

Chapter 39: Crowdfunding

I really enjoyed the breakdown in Chapter 39 of crowdfunding on websites like Kickstarter and why people chose to fund projects in this way. The concepts of keeping funders happy with incentives and feel good stories or experiences is a really big part of what is making this young industry grow so fast. I found it related well to overall theme of the book.

Chapter 37: Netflix vs. Blockbuster

"Blockbuster didn't change, we did." I liked this line. Scott explains how Netflix didn't kill Blockbuster, it just went where they should have gone and adapted quickly to consumer needs. The icing on the cake was Blockbuster passing up the opportunity in 2000 to buy Netflix - instead deciding to go head to head with them and develop their own online system with backing from Enron. We all know what happened next!

Chapter 21: The Pulse of an UnAwseome Industry

 UnSelling by Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer mentions another item we covered in MARK9049 class!

 

This tweet by the York Region Police in response to a Mr. Lube employee's Tweet, talking about buying drugs, is used as an example of how to use a sense of humour on Twitter effectively. Furthermore, its a great example of social media can be a great tool even in the most rigid industries like law enforcement, where the author pulls a 2013 Mashable stat showing that %96 of police departments are now using social media. Fascinating!

Chapter 12: Aspiring to Be a Jedi

There's a fantastic story based on a blog article (full article here) that the authors summarize in this chapter. It has to do with Disney going out of their way to make a visit to Disneyland's Jedi Academy special for a young boy with Autism. This heartfelt story got over 1 million hits online. Not as much as fat star wars kid in my picture did but still amazing!

Chapter 6: Air Canada vs. West Jet

Chapter 6 emphasizes the value of customer experiences to a brand. The author describes his history as a loyal Air Canada customer and how a series of negative experiences led him to switching to West Jet, where he has since had a host of positive experiences. It's a well told story, and his memory of a West Jet executive helping a flight attendant serve drinks on a plane is a perfect example of a positive story that people will love to share in both conversation and on social media. Found this chapter really interesting because we touched on how West Jet "get's it" in our MARK9049 social media class!

Scott Stratten on slideshare

Found some of the Author's UnMarketing slide shows on http://www.slideshare.net/. I think they aren't quite the same without the accompanying explanation, but interesting none-the-less!

UnSelling author named as Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer

UnSelling author Scott Stratten was named by Forbes contributor Haydn Shaughnessy in his list of social media power influencers. See the full article here.

Chapter 5: Pulse

To better understand your customers and their relationship with your brand, the authors suggest you need to be in tune with their pulse. In UnSelling, the concept of pulse offers a scale that visualizes the consumer experience as a linear representation that moves up or down depending on how they are feeling about your brand. They use this tool to analyze the relationship between customer, brand and market.

Chapter 4: Remedies for Funnel Vision

What are the remedies for funnel vision? How do we step back from the funnel and focus on everything but the sale? The authors offer three points to consider and suggest that as a business decision maker we can stop treating our customers as leads and instead appreciate the value in creating amazing products or services and capitalize instead on the trusted referrals that come as a result of that.

Chapter 3: Funnel Vision

Chapter 3, Funnel Vision, begins to introduce why traditional sales ideology doesn't work in today's world of social media and instant information in the hands of the consumer. The authors analyze the traditional sales funnel and why in today's market these theories are considered dead.

"In today's world, we need to drop our funnel vision ways and focus on UnSelling if we're going to remain top of mind for our market."

Chapter 2: Joshie Is Branding

Chapter Two of UnSelling gets right into things with a great story about a company, Ritz-Carlton, going above and beyond with their customer service when a young boy loses his favourite stuffed animal while on vacation at one of their Florida hotels. What they didn't know at the time was that the father was a writer for The Huffington Post, and he would go on to write a rave and somewhat viral review of the experience. The story is a great example of a positive customer experience that generated a powerful customer reach with zero marketing dollars spent.

Chapter 1: Unselling

Chapter One of UnSelling is a short one. Introducing the basic concept of the book, the authors (Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer) explain that "sixty percent of all purchase decisions are now being made before you ever get the chance to share your pitch." They explain the tendency to focus on what is inside the sales funnel and ignore what is outside of it - such as customer experiences being discussed via social media.

UnSelling: A Blog Book Report

"Hello world." Welcome to my new blog. It's purpose is to act the corner stone of my George Brown College MARK9049 Social Media Marketing Course; an online book report UnSelling: The New Customer Experience written by Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer. I chose this book because it claims to have a formula that turns traditional marketing upside down, providing a new way to look at the traditional marketing experience in a modern world with social media being the driving force. The authors summary describes the book as:

Looking beyond a narrow sales funnel, and seeing what really influences purchase and repurchase decisions today. In UnSelling, you’ll learn why one negative review can outweigh a thousand social media followers if it isn’t handled correctly. You’ll learn why a blog post with a catchy headline can actually be bad for business if it isn’t written well. You’ll learn why the people you hire matter more than the tasks you hire them to do. These and countless other underappreciated truths add up to a new way of thinking about business that will completely change the way you sell, for the better.

I'm looking forward to get this blog rolling with my thoughts and analysis of each chapter and the concepts they cover. I hope you enjoy!