The Merrill Dubrow Blog

All of us get tons of emails and within those emails there are ones that have more importance than others and some that are very simple but because I tend to look at things a little different that can have some big meaning for me.

One of those emails is this one that was from American Airlines and the subject was “Merrill, Thank You For Your Loyalty”. I really like this email and especially the word “loyalty”. Don’t we all want loyal friends, family, colleagues, clients and the same is true about products and services they want OUR loyalty.

I thought about that word in terms of products and services and within 30 seconds came up with 5 that I am loyal too and they are:

1. Coke – I love soda and specifically coke in a 20 ounce bottle
    
2. American Airlines – yes it is easy to be loyal to them since I live in a city where they have a hub – regardless I like the airline and feel the customer service and awards programs are very solid. In addition they have helped me out and waived some fees in the past when they really didn’t need too.
    
3. Cape Cod Potato Chips – maybe I am loyal because I am from Massachusetts and it something that brings me back to a happy place. I really love their chips and given the choice of 1000 different chips I would always choose name regardless of price
    
4. BMW – I really like the car, the performance and service. I have had 3 different ones and next year it will be a 4th!
    
5. Lucky Jeans – I really like the brand, how they feel and the look.

Ok your turn:

• Do you like the word loyalty?
   
• What brands and services are you loyal too?
   
• Of those companies do you care about price or not at all?

I look forward to your comments.

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I wish I had a $1.00 for every time I heard a story of someone leaving a company for another job and unfortunately not leaving the right way. I understand when you give notice and want to leave your current employer to either start a new job or take time off that you aren’t as engaged in the company as you have been in the past. Either the employee has:

• Tossed in the towel
   
• Started to miss deadlines
   
• Started showing up late to work
   
• Not given the proper notice
   
• Started to recruit clients for their new job

The list goes on and on.

I have had heated discussions with friends and industry contacts suggesting that they give more notice and plead with them to go out the right way. I also practice what I preach and when I have left a job I actually have given my employer the option of up to a month notice. Something I really didn’t want to do but I knew it was the right thing to do. I know the feeling of wanting to start something fresh but trust me on this go out the right way. If you were at a job for 5, 10, 15 years it really doesn’t matter, believe me if you go out the wrong way and burn a bridge that is the ONLY thing that will be remembered. There a lot of reasons to go out the right way, I won’t take the time to list all the reasons but I will say that the research industry is small in fact tiny and if you go out the wrong way it will get out and potentially hurt your credibility and down the road you will regret it.

I realize this is a VERY sensitive topic but I would love to hear from industry executives like Steve S, Merrill S, Carl I, Todd B and many others who would like to respond. I am not looking to name names just having you describe the situations will be great.

So I will ask:

• How do you like an employee to handle their departure?
   
• What things truly bother you when an employee leaves?

I really look forward to hearing from you.

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Attention business travelers have you noticed the new trend? No I am not talking about all the flight delays and cancellations. This is about when you get to your destination and need to rent a car. Wow the prices have gone up at a ridiculous amount. In many situations a 3 day car rental can be MORE expensive than your plane ticket. Yes shocking but true! There are so many extra fees these days it is almost comical. I love Hertz and their Number 1 gold program but their fees are getting out of control. Here is what I have done to save $$ in the past few months:

• On a trip to LA I actually took a cab to a local hotel for $25 to rent a car from a Hertz counter. The reason I did this is by renting a car off the airport it saved me over $150 on a 3 day rental.
   
• Last month in San Diego I changed my Hertz rental a week before and rented from Fox Rent A Car. This was for a two day rental and the savings was over $160. Getting to Fox was the same type of mini bus and the exact amount of time. To me the savings is well worth it.
   
• Next month I will be using Fox Rent A Car again in Las Vegas and saving $125. Typically Vegas has had very low prices for cars but for some reason that has all changed and now they have followed other cities and their prices are skyrocketing.

Everyone has certain things that bother them and for me it is renting a car at a ridiculous price.  I have no idea why the car rental companies don’t charge a fee for people who have a reservation and don’t show up – perhaps they should and that may help them keep their pricing in line.

• Have you noticed this trend?
   
• Does it bother you?
   
• Any best practices to save money on car rentals?
   
• Any coupons you could share with all of us?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.

Posted in Business | Post Comments (12) »

I was reading USA Today the other night (yes while I was working out) and came across a very interesting KIVA/VISA ad. The headline on the ad read:

WHEN SMALL BUSINESSES PROSPER, AMERICA PROSPERS.

I paused for a moment and actually agree with that statement especially in the market research industry. You may ask yourself why? Well when you quickly take a look at the size of the research industry in the United States it is around 9 billion dollars with only a few handful of companies over 100 million in revenue.

With close to 9,000 research companies in the United States that leaves most of them that would qualify as small businesses. So this blog is for those companies - small companies, companies that are very important to this industry.

So today I am asking you to give some advice, your best advice to company owners. That advice is perhaps one or two things that you live by and have worked for you during your career. Since we get over 1500 hits per week and many of the readers are company executives that are trying to make things happen in the most challenging economy perhaps  in their life and I know would appreciate comments on this a very, very important topic.

So let me get the ball rolling:

Here are two tips that I think are critical:

Communicate: I know this might be basic – very basic – but I am still surprised to hear and find out about tons of companies that don’t communicate what is going on with their company. Many companies don’t deliver bad news to their staff and too many times it leaves the staff guessing and that can hurt moral which will in turn hurt client service which will ultimately hurt revenue.

Evaluate your marketing strategy: Times have changed and life isn’t about placing a bunch of marketing ads in industry magazines. It is so much more than that. You need to continue to closely analyze what conferences you are attending, the value of exhibiting, what is your social networking strategy with regard to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – how can I use those very important tools in a marketing function.

Ok your turn (in no particular order):

Steve S, Michael H, Peggy O, Jude O, Amy S, Simon C, Michael M, Michael M (not a typo I know 2 Michael M’s), Jon L, Carla L, Sandy S, Elisa G, Mary W, Merrill S and everyone else who is reading this post……

What is the best advice you would give to other business leaders, and friends in this great research industry?

I look forward to hearing from all of you on this important subject.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Posted in Business | Post Comments (16) »

In my opinion Chase Field where the Arizona Diamondbacks play is a special stadium. In fact it is a very special stadium. Yes it has a roof, pool, great sight lines, fantastic food but it is more special because of FAWTSY! You are probably thinking what is FAWTSY? Is it the team mascot, the name of an animal that they let run around the stadium? No and no. Before I tell you what FATWSY is I will say that it is something that all Chase Field employees wear and frankly believe in. FAWTSY is FIND A WAY TO SAY YES!

Let’s say it together – FAWTSY – FIND A WAY TO SAY YES!

• When one of your friends needs help – isn’t it FAWTSY?
   
• When a client has a crazy request – isn’t it FAWTSY?
   
• When one of your employees needs some help – isn’t it FAWTSY?
   
• When one of your family members wants you to do something that you don’t want to do – isn’t it FAWTSY?

I truly love the word, what it represents and more important that the staff of Chase Field has bonded together, believes in the concept and always does think FATWSY when dealing with their fans!

What do you think about FAWTSY?

• Do you have the FAWTSY attitude?
   
• Do your clients, family and friends think you have FAWTSY?
   
• How do you teach FAWTSY to your team?

I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Posted in Business | Post Comments (2) »

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to be the kick off speaker at the A.C Nielsen Center for Marketing Research Alumni Summit held at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was an honor to be one of their speakers and I truly LOVE the passion and energy of the program. During my speech I discussed the new and old Gap logo. If you missed the story basically Gap decided to change their logo the middle of October and because of an overwhelming distaste for the new logo they quickly changed it back to the old logo. So in essence the old logo changed to the new logo then the new logo became the old logo and the old logo became the new logo in a span of 24 hours – ok wow that was hard to say and perhaps hard to follow.

A few takeaways:

• This happened very quickly! Gap was able to get tremendous reaction (in this case negative) to something they did
   
• They were able to very quickly make a decision, change it back and overcome their mistake
   
• Because of the social networking power these days the consumer has NEVER had a louder voice

Listening to the consumer is SO important, perhaps more important now than ever because of the way word travels so, so quickly. As researchers that is good news, perhaps great news. The reality is the research industry needs to continue to make sure what we deliver, how we deliver it and the speed in which we deliver it exceeds client expectations on every level.

Clearly Gap turned a bad situation into a good one. If I was their PR agency my message would be simply

• “WE LISTEN TO OUR CUSTOMERS”
   
• “WE CARE ABOUT WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS THINK”
   
• “OUR CUSTOMERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO US!”

Here is an interesting thought and twist –

• What if it was planned all along?
   
• What if they said hey let’s go for it, if our customers don’t like it they will tell us and we can/will change it back and be heroes because we listened to them?

Just a thought.

• What do you think?
   
• Am I crazy?
   
• Isn’t it amazing how fast things are moving these days?
   
• Isn’t it more important than ever to listen to your customers?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments.

Posted in Business | Post Comments (5) »

Do you think I mean the music in your office?

The jackhammer outside?

The bus/train that goes by every 4 minutes?

Actually no to all of them.

When I say how well do you control the noise I mean how well do you plan and prioritize your day when you have:

• Hundreds of incoming emails
   
• Lots of internal meetings
   
• Client requests
   
• Update your status on Facebook
   
• Calls from your friends
   
• Another request from your boss
   
• Bad news from your family

Everyone wants to have a productive day! Everyone wants to accomplish things during the course of the day. But do you?

• More important – how do you do it?
   
• How do you prioritize?
   
• How do you plan your day?
   
• What do you do to ensure the NOISE doesn’t overcome what you are trying to accomplish?

I look forward to hearing from you and hearing how you control the noise!

Posted in Business | Post Comments (2) »