SAP, the third largest software company in the world, looks to Eat Media to provide editorial outside the ubergeek realm. David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”, talked with us about his perspective on the future of marketing.

His message lacks sugar coating, and it may be tough for some marketing departments to swallow: If you haven’t adopted the new rules of marketing, you’re on your way to becoming obsolete. Scott talks with SAP INFO online about the power of Google and how companies should stop begging for attention.

Click here to read the interview

In 1980 The Circle Jerks recorded the song “Deny Everything”. The San Francisco based company Pure Digital Technologies, maker of The Flip, has incorporated this strategy into their customer service.

“I’m innocent
until I’m proven guilty.
Deny everything, Deny everything.
I’m being framed
it’s all a set-up
Deny everything, Deny everything
I’m just a spoke in the wheel
just a part of the puzzle
a part of the game.
I’m being framed
innocent
until I’m proven guilty.
Deny everything
Deny everything
Deny everything
Deny everything”

I like many other people saw the wonderful video by David Pogue about The Flip and was intrigued. Shortly after watching the video I hopped online and purchased a shiny white one from TheFlip.com. Two days later I purchased a second one at Best Buy. (I had a conference to attend and ship time wouldn’t have it to me by my departure date.)

Initially the camera worked great but on the second day it wouldn’t allow me to delete videos. Actually, it would allow me to delete videos but it still thought the camcorder was full after deletion. In between conference sessions I called customer support—5 times. Each time they gave me a different thing to try, none of them worked. Each person I spoke with said they had never heard of my issue and that there were rarely any problems with The Flip. Once I arrived home, failing to record the conference highlights as I had hoped. I called customer service again to say none of the solutions they offered worked. They started me right back at the beginning of the troubleshooting chain, having me repeat what I had already tried. Finally, after a tremendous waste of my time, they stated that they would take a look at it—if I paid to ship it back to them. Their product is broken after 1 week and I have to ship it back to them?

Since I had the second Flip I purchased from Best Buy I returned the broken one and asked for my money back. No go, but I could get a new Flip in exchange. After one use with the new one: Record, Save, Delete. I ran into the same issue. 3 more calls to customer service and I am still waiting.

Had I gone to Amazon and done a check on the Flip I would have read all about their dreadful customer service and MAC support.

$350 dollars in camcorders

$70 in accessories

10+ calls to customer service (2 pending)

On my most recent call this morning I got someone new.

She asked what OS I was using (the first time that this question had been asked).

“Leopard,” I replied.

“Oh, it doesn’t work with Leopard,” she answered.

Maybe they felt they were “proven guilty” or perhaps the customer service rep was a fan of early punk rock. Either way—branding, customer service and content marketing are a closed loop that has to work in harmony. No harmony here I’m just Flipped Off.

Targeting your audience. It’s a simple concept but one that is often done poorly.

This weekend I caught a reflection of the inside of fly on my Lucky Brand Jeans it reads “Lucky You”. Funny and bit risqué, but definitely memorable and a good example of content placement. The designer jeans business is driven by fashion which is driven by sex appeal and Lucky made a remarkable play with this.

Later in the day, on a weekend warrior Lowes run, I passed a homemade sign on the side of the road that read “Childcare Available”. The sign was one of those wire stakes in the ground jobbers—but this one was ultra special. It was stenciled with silver spray paint, on cardboard, at a busy intersection. This sort of advertising breaks all the rules—poor design, lack of a targeted audience and shoddy execution. The childcare business more than most industries is built on trust and I would bet the farm the company who made these signs didn’t receive a single call.

I can hear the conversation now.

“The economy is down, we need more sales and we can’t afford to do more advertising.”

“We’ll let’s stay late and make some signs.”

Three cans of spray paint later the company unknowingly branded themselves as sloppy, dangerous and uncaring—not the kind of people you want handling your children.

Is your organization thinking creatively about content or haphazardly tossing signs on the side of the road?