Sleep deprivation is a national crisis. According to the National Sleep Foundation (and no, I didn’t dream this one up), less than half of us get seven hours of shut eye during the week. I suspect the reasons for this can be clustered into three key areas:

1. You have trouble falling asleep;
2. You have trouble staying asleep;
3. You simply elect not to sleep as much as you should.

Regardless of the reason, an enlightened mattress company could turn its marketing into a service by teaching exhausted Americans how to get their beauty sleep. In fact, a leader like Sealy could actually own sleep but it would take more than cute ads like their new campaign which promise “a better six.” The campaign, by the way, which was written up in both the Wall St. Journal and MediaPost, features a few lucky people who actually get more than their fair share of shut eye (trust-fund babies, heiresses, and siblings of lottery winners). For the rest of us, the ads suggest we get a better mattress like a new Sealy PurEmbrace.

What a nightmare! Sealy wisely brings up an issue that we are all losing sleep over and then they suggest that the answer is as simple as buying a new mattress. Bull hunky! Perhaps they are all on Ambien but many of us don’t get enough sleep because we simply can’t shut down our minds. We don’t know how. We need help. The opportunity for Marketing as Service is a dream come true. Here are just a few of ways mattress makers could blanket this topic:

• Sleep therapy: Run in-store seminars on how to get all the ZZZ’s you need without medication;
• Sweet dreams hotline: Customers could call this number day or night and talk to a professional sleep therapist;
• Sleep channel: Set up a cable station that is so boring it is guaranteed to put you to sleep in 15 minutes and will turn itself off.
• Sleep central: A social network that segments by sleep type (finally a place for those who only need three hours a night to hang out!)
• Pillow talk: Podcasts that read you to sleep.

Had I gotten more than my usual 6 and 1/2 hours last night, I suspect I could come up with a lot more. According to Media Post, “In its most recent quarter, Sealy’s sales fell 5% to $391.9 million, while net income dropped to $16.2 million from $24.6 million in the comparable period a year earlier.” Perhaps Sealy needs to open their eyes to Marketing as Service–I know I’ll sleep better if they do.

On the timeliness front, consider Gordon Gould’s commentary today on MediaPost called “A Recommendation Economy.” This well constructed piece first confronts the challenge Social Networks are having converting their ever growing user bases into revenue streams. And then goes on to point out why these networks represent such untapped potential:

• According to a 2007 McKinsey study, fully 27% of all personal conversations in the U.S. involve some serious discussion of products or services.
  
• An eMarketer report on social shopping by Jeffrey Grau recently reported that the most credible source of product information came from “people like me” with a full 60% of users saying this is the best way to learn about an item.

Which leads me to the recently launched VISA Business Network on Facebook that I believe could be massively successful AND become the new poster child for Marketing as Service. I strongly encourage you to visit this site and watch the videos that explain the program with real life examples of how small businesses can tap into the power of Facebook. VISA is bringing real utility to Small Business through this $2 million partnership with Facebook including a $100 credit that 20,000 small businesses can use to engage customers and prospects via Facebook ads.

The formula here is reasonably simple: create a service that customers and prospects can use, make it easy for them to share this service with their friends and use advertising to jump start initial interest in the program. Nonetheless, the VISA Business Network on Facebook is ground breaking in my mind given the scale, quality and perspicacity. VISA is not just dipping their toes into this, they are diving head first. According to an article on B2B, “Visa also partnered with AllBusiness, Entrepreneur, Forbes.com, Google, Inc., Microsoft Corp. and The Wall Street Journal to provide small businesses with news, commentary and tool kits to help them manage their businesses.”

Perspicacity? You bet. Watching the nicely produced videos, you will see like I did that the customers of many small businesses are indeed on Facebook. They are shopping every day for eyeglasses, cheese or what not at small establishments and then telling their friends about the experience. By helping these businesses connect with their customers online, VISA is providing a truly valuable service that should help the cash registers ring all the way around. We can certainly expect MasterCard and American Express to be watching this social networking experiment very carefully and serve up their own iteration any time now. Undoubtedly, they won’t be giving credit where credit is due!

Members of the Nike 6.0 community can create profiles, share photos of themselves in the midst of skating, biking or surfing, and compete for commercial sponsorships. They can also interact with all of the other communities within San Diego-based Loop’d Network, including the Monster Army and the PacSun Team.

As part of the launch, Nike 6.0 has rolled out a mashup campaign, allowing Loop’d members to mix and match their favorite videos, sports clips, photos and Nike-supplied content. The mashups, powered by Mixercast, can be ported to member profiles on other social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

Having worked with Panasonic for the last 4 years targeting the actions sport community, I can assure you that Nike’s approach is far more effective than traditional advertising which this target is particularly skilled at tuning out. In fact, advertising is typically seen as “too corporate” and the athletes on ads are always at risk of “selling out.” Engaging this target requires proving that you not only understand their needs but also are a relevant part of their community. You can’t do this overnight and “posers” need not apply. Nike has learned this lesson the hard way and only recently has gained traction with skate boarders by inviting them into the design process. Enabling this group to “commune” online will further enhance Nike’s credibility since actions, especially in the actions sports world, speak louder than words.

Whether explicitly acknowledged or not, there’s an unmistakable “service is marketing” mantra pervading every aspect of the Apple Store. And that’s something every brand, even those not as shiny as Apple’s, can learn from. The opportunity to solve problems, find solutions and even address “the darn thing doesn’t work” emotional pain-points all lead to a higher impact-marketing and sales proposition. While not every marketer has a Steve Jobs-inspired vision, every consumer-facing company has problems that can be converted into opportunities to inspire loyalty.   

First, let me attest to the fact that Apple is indeed stepping up its service and this is a good thing. A recent visit to the Genius Bar with my son and his MacBook that was missing a “K” key, was resolved with astonishing speed and at no cost. That kind of service helps you overlook the fact that your first iPods died prematurely and that the K key probably shouldn’t have fallen off in the first place. That kind of service makes you confident that Mac products will remain a good investment for years to come. That kind of service inspires people to become brand evangelists and even write about that brand on their blog;-)

So, is Apple’s stepped up concierge program Service as Service or Marketing as Service? Well, drum roll please, its actually a progression from one to the other. The notion of Service as Service is that every company should aim for a high degree of customer satisfaction when & where service is required. This means answering 800#’s quickly, fielding questions competently and aiming for “first visit resolution” nine out of ten times. Apple’s Genius Bar is a pristine example of Service as Service. When the service goes above and beyond the industry norms and extends outside the store to become a truly branded experience then we’re talking Marketing as Service. In his article, Blackshaw identifies this outbound effort:

In the case of the “service concierges,” they are not waiting for problems. They assume you arrive at the Apple Store looking specifically for something, and in most cases they are right. And even if serendipity is your cup of tea, they’ll help you navigate that experience as well. What’s important about this front line is not just the help these employees provide, but the halo of service they create. They are there if you need them, a reality that brings more confidence to the overall shopping experience.   

With the Conceirge program in place, Apple is also smart to promote thier upgraded level of service to its faithful customers like yours truly (see email below that I received TODAY!). This is great example of how Marketing as Service and traditional messaging can dovetail–create the service and then push it out as “news customers can use.”  With all of this, Apple and its customers win–happy customers begets great word of mouth, great word of mouth begets more new customers, better service means those customers remain customers and so forth.  SO, while service can be marketing, it is important to remember that without good service you probably shouldn’t bother marketing.

CSR is generally sponsored by a corporate entity (P&G sustainability goals ) while MAS is typically developed for a specific product or service (Charmin’s portable potties). While both CSR and MAS are meant to generate good will, CSR typically focuses on servicing society (Nike’s Live Strong donations) while MAS serves a particular target segment (Nike+ microsite & events to support runners). CSR is often trumpeted via traditional advertising; MAS is a substitute for traditional advertising. CSR strategy briefs rarely talk in terms of driving sales; MAS strategy briefs are almost always about driving sales.All that said, there are times when CSR is delivered via MAS and MAS has elements of CSR which is why the two are easily confused. A recent TAAN blog post by Peter Gerritsen provides further clarification:

Most all of us know about Cause Marketing. Doing good, and connecting the client with the beneficial efforts on behalf of the well-meaning cause. Admirable, and worthwhile. Often delivering results for both the cause and the client.A new term (at least to me) is “Marketing as Service” or “Marketing with Meaning” — providing a useful service to the public/prospect/customer as a element of the marketing effort. There have always been some fabulous “promotions” that are directly tied to the marketers product. This is going a step further — Actually being USEFUL to the audience. Instead of promoting a product, buying media time and space to advertise, holding a special event with sponsorships, this is about giving directly to the audience something of value to them and adhering the marketer’s brand to this value. There are a number of great examples that should give you a starting point in considering this opportunity for your clients. This could be a great leveraging vehicle in drawing you closer to your client, beyond the commodity ad work we all perform. (Now, I know you don’t look as your work as a commodity. So, don’t go crazy over my lumping you in with the rest of the ad agencies. But ….)

Bottom line: Marketing as Service is all about the how — how a marketer communicates with its target. Instead of talking about a particular product or service, MAS provides something the target can actually use and, in a sense, its medium becomes the message. Corporate Social Responsibility is all about the why — why a marketer is doing something for a particular cause or social issue. Instead of talking about a particular product or service, CSR hopes to generate a halo of good will over a company via pro-social messaging. Any questions?

And while the ad offers lovely sentiment, it begs for something more meaningful than an online challenge to come up with one word to describe the taste of Heineken Light. Despite their words to the contrary, this is not how you start a movement!To find a truly interesting example of Marketing as Service in the beer category I needed the help of a British blog called TheInnovationDiaries. These folks called my attention to a site called Inhabit which in turn explained a brilliant but failed attempt by Heineken’s founder to turn its bottles into bricks for low-cost housing:

Upcycling is a 21st century term, coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, but the idea of turning waste into useful products came to life brilliantly in 1963 with the Heineken WOBO (world bottle). Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer” was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.Mr. Heineken’s idea came after a visit to the Caribbean where he saw two problems: beaches littered with bottles and a lack of affordable building materials. The WOBO became his vision to solve both the recycling and housing challenges that he had witnessed on the islands… Despite the success of the first “world bottle” project, the Heineken brewery didn’t support the WOBO and the idea stalled.

Had Heineken made this work, it would have been an extraordinary example of Marketing as Service. Since they didn’t, the door is still open and we’d be happy to help any beer advertiser out turn their marketing into something other than likable messages.

The site itself is essentially a repository of viral elements to help spread the word about The Girl Effect. They couldn’t have made it easier for me to embed the video you see above. They offer downloadable posters, stickers, logos, desktop wallpaper and even wallpaper for your phone. Facebook fans can befriend The Girl Effect and “tap into the movement.” The only thing you can’t do is actually give to The Girl Effect on the website. Why? Because The Girl Effect is an umbrella awareness campaign for a consortium of non-profits that are working to address the challenge including:

• Global Giving (a clearing house for global non-profits)
• Nike Foundation
• NoVo Foundation
• UN Foundation
• International Center for Research on Women
• Population Council
• Center for Global Development
• and Plan among others

The whole thing is really amazing. Help girls. Save the world. I’m in. How about some of you marketers out there?

This report from the licensing show by AdAge reporter Michael Stone is an interesting case in point:

Corporate licensing isn’t just for consumer package goods. An emerging trend at this year’s Expo is corporate licensing for services. Travelocity is an excellent example. Exhibiting at the show for the first time, the commodity business is looking to build customer loyalty, differentiate itself from the competition, and expand beyond the web and into consumers’ “real” lives. The brand is thus actively prospecting travel product and service licensees in the categories of mobile electronics, youth hostels, full-service organized tours and airport hot-spot lounges, among others. These brand extensions show the breadth and unique capability of licensing to provide consumers with a useful tool they can trust.

Don’t just brand there — do something
When licensing is used like this, it seems remarkably similar to the concepts of “brand utility,” “marketing as a service” or “marketing with meaning” — all of which are gaining attention in the marketing world. Is there any better example of marketing as a service than UPS offering consumers a GPS system (a category it is actively pursuing at this year’s Expo), brought to you through the power of licensing?

In fact, it could be argued that licensing represents the ultimate form of marketing as service, since the licensed products (or services) are actually bought by the consumer in a retail setting. This is among the reasons the industry is gaining serious momentum with today’s marketers.

Obviously, licensing isn’t right for every client nor does it always represent a marketing as service opportunity. That said, licensing can certainly be a quick source for a service that can add value to a customer relationship.

I’ve been working on an Internet Week event with alldaybuffet and Behance called Make Good Ideas Happen. Well it’s coming up (Monday June 9th from 7-10) and it should prove to be frickin’ awesome.

We’ll be bringing together three stellar nonprofits–City Year, Starting Bloc and Sustainable South Bronx– and all the creative people in alldaybuffet’s and behance’s networks on the roof of the Delancey for a night of drinking, thinking and world shaking change.

Each nonprofit will present ideas they are pursuing to change the world. Attendants will bring their idealism and leave Action Steps with resources, connections, and next steps to help make their ideas happen.

StartingBloc, which runs an amazing social entrepreneurship education programs with help from founding partners MIT Sloan and London Business School, has an amazing alumni network of 850+ from 40 different countries. They’ll be kicking off their fundraising summer at MGIH and looking for help with growth strategies and ideas on their web presence, communications and ways to raise funds to provide training for the creative community.

Sustainable South Bronx will be launching a new consultancy headed by Majora Carter (a MacArthur winning leader in environmental justice and “greening the ghetto” ) to bring SSBX’s strategies and learnings about urban greening initiatives to other municipalities. They’ll be looking for idea and help on what that should/could look like.

And City Year, which allows young people to dedicate a year to volunteerism, will be looking for ideas on how to make the most commonly asked question of a 17 to 24 year old is “Where are you going to do your service year?”

And of course, there will be drinks and fun hanging out on a rooftop on a summer night. So it would be great if you could come to give these nonprofits some ideas and help make their amazing initiatives a reality. There’ll be more about them coming soon to the alldaybuffet.org.

If you know anyone (designers, planners, advertisers, programmers etc.) who’d be interested too, by all means, tell them to stop by. And if you want to help out, that would be amazing. We could always use help getting the word out ( if you know/are a reporter, blogger, etc) as well as help at the event (we need facilitators, door people and a photographer).

Thanks so much all! Hope you can make it–should be a really GOOD night (7-10pm, Free) June 9, 2008

Ironically, I have a meeting at Children for Children that evening SO I can’t make it. For goodness sake, perhaps one of you could go and report back.