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Harrah's is making big news by pioneering PetStay, a program that allows dogs in three of its properties in Las Vegas.
Canine guests will enjoy many in-room amenities, including a sleeping mat, food and water dishes, and treats.
At check-in, dogs will receive welcome packets that include directions to essential services providers, including groomers, walkers and veterinarians.
Dog owners will be furnished disposable waste bags.
This may be the only time a visitor ever cleans up in Las Vegas.
It's time to take a fresh look at your sales "funnel."
Only executives—comfortably behind the lines in the daily battle for market share—still believe customers are gullible.
Direct-accountability salespeople know they're anything but.
Today's customers are self-educated. And then some.
That's why Joseph Jaffe, in his recent book Flip the Funnel, insists the traditional metaphor of a sales funnel is passe.
Today's customers are "indefatigable researchers," Jaffe writes, who "will do what they can to make informed decisions that disintermediate marketing misdirection, hyperbole, overpromise and hype."
If customers are smarter than ever, what should marketers do?
In a 2009 article, "The Consumer Decision Journey," consultants at McKinsey & Company recommend marketers "look beyond funnel-inspired push marketing" and begin to cultivate customers while they're conducting their research.
"The epicenter of consumer-driven marketing is the Internet, crucial during the active-evaluation phase as consumers seek information, reviews, and recommendations," the authors state.
Wooing customers during the "decision journey" demands that marketers forego old-fashioned media advertising, according to the authors.
They must focus instead on building content-rich Websites and word-of-mouth advertising.
If you want your customer base to grow, Seth Godin famously says, you should turn the funnel sideways.
Let customers use your funnel like a megaphone. They'll broadcast their satisfaction to others.
That would take care of your word-of-mouth advertising.
But what about your content?
That's where you need to turn the funnel upside down.
You need to flip your funnel and fill it with tons of great content. And make the content free and accessible.
So when customers on the decision journey find you, they'll find not a hypester, but a helpful, trusted advisor.
In her recent article for International Association of Business Communicators, Natalie Canavor laments the fact that Millenials' business writing is "tone deaf."
"Beyond having trouble with basic content and writing mechanics," Canavor says, "many younger people appear to be tone deaf: They may get their point across concisely, but with an abruptness that can offend older folks. And since many clients, board members, major donors and other influentials tend to be older folks, this is risky business indeed."
The disappearance of courtesy in business writing stems from four sources, according to Canavor.
First, busy Millenials have no time for tact, she says. According to a recent survey, they lack all patience for "small talk." For Millenials, communication is about passing along facts.
Second, Millenials are wedded to texting, "which more or less demands an absence of niceties and builds a telegraphic habit."
Third, Millenials are the victims of poor schooling. Canavor cites a conversation with Chicago adman Bob Killian, who blames college deans. The professors spot students' writing errors but are forced to let them stand, Killian claims. "They say the students complain and then the dean tells them that it’s not their job to correct grammar and punctuation—and those students are future donors!”
Finally, Millenials are "skeptical of authority." So courtesy just doesn't come naturally.
Ironically, that makes their writing sound (to me, anyway) pretty darn authoritarian.
The New York Times reports that major retailers, spooked by the soft economy, launched their Christmas shopping season ad campaigns a week before Halloween.
"Some retailers and marketers, worried that uncertainty among shoppers might increase as the weeks go by, hope to pull demand forward by moving up the start of their pitches," according to reporter Stuart Elliott.
Retailers who jumped the Yuletide gate are taking a big chance, however.
"The profusion of Christmas campaigns runs the risk of wearing out shoppers who may at some point tire of all the Santas and candy canes," Elliott notes.
I'm feeling worn out already. How about you?
Seth Godin's recent rant, Won't Get Fooled Again, hits close to home.
"The reason that people don't believe you isn't that you're a liar," Godin writes. "The reason we don't believe you is that the guy before you (and the woman before him) were unduly optimistic hypesters and we got burned."
I'm still in recovery afer promoting high-end antiques shows during the past three years. (Three of the hardest to hit the trade since Roosevelt defeated Hoover.)
The whole time I was a promoter, I wrestled with incredulous exhibitors. Not because I habitually overpromised (I didn't). But because nearly all the other promoters were "unduly optimistic hypesters."
"If you catch yourself making a promise that's been made before, stop," Godin warns. "Make different promises, or even better, do, don't say."
Sage advice. You'll find more advice along these lines in my free report, Path of Persuasion: Winning Customers in the Age of Suspicion.
It's hype free.
Almost.
