June 18, 2007
Marketing PR
Real people?!
What House Industries is doing here is unprecedented. They are showing the faces of their employees and inviting us contact them directly. Will the earth spin off its axis? I doubt it. They may be subjected to some unwanted contact with spammers but, to me, the positive impression far outweighs the potential annoyance. Organizations—small, medium, AND large—need to realize that the days of building walls between yourselves and your customers are numbered. To me, hiding the names and contact information of key players is a critical marketing mistake.
It may not be a popular thing to do online at the moment, but it's hardly unprecedented. It's a technique that was well-known among salesmen 60 years ago. I first read about it in Frank Bettger's "How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling", written (I think) in 1950.
I'd heartily recommend the book to anyone looking to improve the way they do their work, whatever that work might be.
It's nice to see that someone has gone to the extra effort to employ this technique. I'm not entirely sure it will do today what it did in 1955, but it's still a great idea.
Posted by: Tony Scialdone | June 18, 2007 12:38 PM
It's refreshing to see businesses who are willing to expose themselves to their customers like this. More thoughts on my blog.
Posted by: Craig Campbell | June 18, 2007 4:32 PM