All hail the NEW Brand Barometer: Sucks + "Your Brand Here"

Marketers, meet your new brand barometer: If you type the name of your product into Google plus the word "SUCKS" and you get real results...you've likely got a problem.

And an even BIGGER one when a smart blogger uses the word in the headline and the copy. I'm hijacking a lot of Tim Brunelle's post on NBC.com to make my point (Tim, I hope you don't mind).

Headline: NBC.com Sucks

Post copy: "I really like the show Heroes. But I just don't have the time or schedule to watch it when NBC decides to broadcast it. So last season, I subscribed to iTunes and watched the latest episodes when I had time, on the platform of my choosing, which happened to be an iPod, then an iPhone. I paid Steve Jobs about $42. I assume NBC got some of that revenue.

This season, NBC seems to have decided they don't need iTunes. They've got their own media player. And the viewing is free. And it sucks. The player stutters -- on my brand new cable modem. Or it just doesn't load. One week it supports Safari, the next week it doesn't. It's enough to make a person stop watching Heroes. NBC has made the process so awful, so unreliable, that the content is no longer worth the price of admission."

Obviously there will be posts that just rant for the sake of ranting--but marketers need to pay close attention to these types of posts (ergo, they need to be "listening" to them). Why?

First, because Tim is a customer--in fact, he not only says "I really like the show Heroes," he explains how he's liked it enough to have purchased it before. And, second, because he makes a damn good case for not using NBC.com.

Like I say to my colleagues, prospects and clients: If you wanna get positive buzz, then mind your marketing 101 before your Web 2.0 and give your customers great products, services and experiences--and keep doing just that. It is the single greatest shot you have at generating WOM and customers.

Or don't.

And then you'll get negative sucky buzz.

There simply is no shorcut between 101 and 2.0 (but oh how the world wants a shortcut). And also, make sure and run searches for "your brand name" plus the word "Rocks" and you can see how well you're faring.

PS: Please, I beg of you, before you make a big purchase follow this barometer. Had I done this BEFORE purchasing my current laptop I would have saved myself a lot of grief. Alas, that's my bad and I'm paying for it. Lesson learned.

Comments

[Tim Brunelle]

CK -

I'm absolutely thrilled to have you re-state my post. Funny thing is, I downloaded that particular episode of Heroes (via BitTorrent), but ended up watching it on NBC.com the next evening. They must have fixed the player. Still, I cringe when I load up NBC.com. It is, unfortunately, the easiest option for watching Heroes. But the player reloads for ad breaks, requiring you to re-click the "full screen" mode. And the ads are generally promos for NBC shows--hard to watch, especially after the fourth or fifth airing. (At least there's only one ad per break.)

Hey, Jeff Zucker: I'm still willing to pay you cash to watch Heroes if you'd put Season Two episodes back on iTunes.

Looking forward to seeing you at Blogger Social '08, CK!

- Tim

[Seni Thomas]

If there are any marketers reading this post click over to Google Alerts type in "Your brand + sucks" or various negative iterations, throw some positive words in there and you have build yourself a very simple conversation auditing system. This is pretty basic, but at least you can skim on a high-level, some of the negative and positive sentiments circulating around your brand/product.

Cheers,

Seni

[Tangerine Toad]

Of course you need to take all those "sucks" posts into context. I mean look at Amazon or Tripadvisor- even the best loved products and destinations have some negative reviews. And then of course, what's to stop a competitor from doing that too.

But if you type in "Laptop T Sucks" and get lots and lots and lots of hits, I agree: you are on to something.

[Phanel]

You're absolutely right, but most companies refuse to change. Instead they try to clean up the mess without trying to change the policies that created the mess in the first place. I started ihateboingo.com after being scammed and cheated out of my hard earned cash. They used a tactic similar to Blockbuster to cheat customer. I pay for a month of service, I didn't sign up for a subscription, after my month of service expires Boingo Wireless continued to take monthly payment from my account. When I noticed they were doing that, I called customer service and I was on hold for an hour. I wanted the problem resolved and I knew if I didn't find a way to stop them, they would continue to charge my account every month. When I finally talked to a rep, I beg her to please give me my money back, I even told her if she didn't I would retaliate by starting "your company sucks campaign". Boingo Wireless never gave me my money back so I started ihateboingo.com immediately people flooded the site. A number of Boingo customers got scammed the same way and have posted in blogs all over the internet. Boingo never fixed the problems, instead they hire PR firms to clean up the mess. It's like the BP's oil spill. You can try to clean up the mess as much as you want, but it will not be successful until you cap the leak. I would say to company to first identify the problems, what makes those customers unhappy? If the whole internet is flooded with complaints about the same thing, you know you have a problem. Once the problem is identified, you should get it corrected, apologized to customer and advise them of the change. Of course you can then continue to engage customers. Most customers simply want their problems resolved, no one likes being scammed for money.