Along with online marketing and other research, I provide quite a few companies with mystery shopping services. Mystery shopping is still quite a new and unknown form of market research in South Africa, but there has definitely been a growth in interest over the past few years.

The projects vary, but consistently uncover areas of weakness in the customer service process and allow for these areas to be addressed in staff training exercises.

Being a mystery shopper is quite an exciting job and often allows you to receive free products and services, as well as, to take part in improving the customer service levels of companies.

Visit Clandestine Marketing for more information on mystery shopping.

McDonalds invited those passing by a free cup of coffee at their Vancouver locations using a creative ad in a bus shelter.

The sign would release bursts of steam from a machine inside the sign, revealing this message:

“Your free coffee is ready. Get a free small coffee during breakfast hours”.

Very Cool.

McDonalds Coffee Steam Ad

You can watch the video here:

Twitter just added notifications like you see on Facebook… will save you from having to click refresh or home all the time.

A little Perspective (Digg, Twitter and Facebook)
A great short piece on how these three mega online brands hold up today by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.

Seth Rotheram from 2Oceansvibe.com was treated to an advanced driving course at Killarney recently. I’m going to spend the day there in 2 weeks for a F1 race day.

VW and drivers say good-bye to the iconic Citi Golf after providing 25 years of getting you from A to B at a very reasonable price.

Last week, at Facebook’s “roadmap edition” of the Facebook Developer Garage, the company announced a series of large changes to the Platform (19 to be exact). Today, the company just released an FBML Bookmark button, and posted a few more details on the new “Counter” API.

Yet while Wave has had momentum as a consumer tool (people are still clamoring for Google Wave invites), its viability as a business tool has been questioned. Will businesses really adopt Wave as a way to communicate collaboratively and share business docs?

Textures have become more popular and been put to greater use in recent years. They’re not limited to Web design either; textures of all kinds are used in print design, illustration, traditional art, TV commercials… you name it! Texture is one of the best ways to add depth to your design, whether it’s subtle noise on a clean vector illustration or a lot of grunginess throughout a layout.

How To Persuade Your Users, Boss or Clients

Web designers often have to nudge people in the direction they want them to go. It is a vital skill they all have to learn. We’re not talking about manipulation. Underhanded techniques, and certainly lying, won’t get you anywhere. But you can present yourself and your arguments in ways that make people more receptive.

Idea Paint

A lot of companies are born out of brainstorming sessions. IdeaPaint, however, might be the first company that set out to improve them. As a freshman in Babson College‘s entrepreneurship program, founder John Goscha would often hang large pieces of paper on his dorm walls, creating a makeshift canvas where he and his classmates could sketch out their business ideas.

Bit.ly eating other URL shorteners for breakfast

Last month, Bit.ly surpassed TinyURL to become the Web’s most popular URL shortener. This month, the story is about separating from the pack.

Google Wave, The Fuss Explained In Animation

Google Wave is a real-time communication platform, which mashes together the functionality of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management into one application.

Future phones dazzle with design

Some interesting new concept phones made an appearance this week at CEATEC, the Japanese equivalent of the Consumer Electronics Show. These included a chameleon-like phone that could change its skin depending on its surroundings, a phone whose casing is made of wood and a phone with a flexible screen that can assume different configurations.

This weeks eMarketing Roundup covers some news, tips and more on Facebook, Freelancing, Top Gear, SEO and some Design Tips.

More Than Half of Employers Now Block Twitter, Facebook, MySpace

According to a new survey of 1,400 CIOs of companies with 100 or more employees, 54% now completely block employees from accessing social networking sites at work.

Freelance Contracts: Do’s And Don’ts

In the world of freelancing, the entrepreneur has to take on a number of tasks for themselves that would normally be handled by a separate department at a bigger company. Most of these tasks are not part of the creative processes that freelance workers are used to, but rather are more tedious, left-brain paperwork.

Top 10 MUST DO SEO Checklist

For each new SEO client we get, there is a list of items that we go through that are essentially the ‘basics’ of SEO. These items will help get you started off on the right foot in your SEO endeavor.

HOW TO: Integrate Facebook With Your Blog

Integrating with Facebook is a great way to get additional exposure for your content, whether you re-publish your blog content directly on Facebook, or you use something like Facebook Connect to add the Facebook login/profile experience to your own site.

The Ultimate Round-Up of Print Design Tutorials

Although web design is everywhere nowadays (even when we’re not at the computer it still manages to squeeze it’s way in to our everyday life), print design is still a huge part of the design industry and is everywhere we look: newspapers, posters, prints, manuals, restaurant menus, business cards – the list goes on and on. So how do you make sure that you leave a good impression on people holding your piece of art in their hands? This is where experience and advanced print design skills come into play.

Top Gear in America’s redneck country

Of all the hair-raising escapades in the show, being chased by murderous Alabamans was the scariest says presenter in new book

The 2009 Loerie Awards is in Cape Town this year, gathering many of the worlds top creative talent for one massive weekend of awards, binge drinking and shenannigans.

Long Street plays host to the festival weekend and is home to some of the greatest party venues in Cape Town.

With this said, people are going to PARTY… therefore there are going to be many hangovers to feed at all hours, which is why this list of the best breakfast venues in Cape Town to smash some bacon in your face is so important.

View the best Cape Town breakfast spots here

Mmmmm... Bacon!

Something fresh has brought together the creative and digital minds of Cape Town.

Online entrepreneur Vinny Lingham, well known for the success Yola (previously SynthaSite) teamed up with investment man Justin Stanford to launch a new platform for Capetonian’s to meet, interact, share ideas and essentially bring change to Cape Town, known as The Silicon Cape.

Here is the overview as on www.siliconcape.com

THE VISION
The Silicon Cape vision is of an ecosystem in the Western Cape of South Africa, that serves to attract and bring together local and foreign investors, the brightest technical talent, and the most promising entrepreneurs, to foster the creation and growth of world-class IP start-up companies in an environment that competes with other similar hubs around the world against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful settings and pleasant places to live, work and play on the globe.

THE CONCEPT
The concept of the Silicon Cape is not owned or controlled by any single entity. It is a living community and an organic, ever-developing concept in the hearts and minds of every participant, which endeavours to catalyse the local IP entrepreneurial community. As a community member, come and be a part of the genesis of turning the Silicon Cape into reality.

THE INITIATIVE
The initiative aims to start a conversation — to plant a seed and foster the concept of the Silicon Cape in people’s minds and on their lips around the world as the emerging Silicon Valley of Africa, and to create an environment and a perception of the area as a world-class location and destination that is not only capable of delivering but already is. This will in turn create real benefits for the Cape and it’s residents and stakeholders, and assist in attracting further foreign direct investment into South Africa.

THE EVENT
The aim by the end of the first event is to catalyse widespread conversation around the concept online and offline, build a global brand, and to establish a working group of volunteers and donors to take the vision forward and see it through to reality, garnering support from all sectors and stakeholders and ultimately establishing a foundation. The event is due to be attended and addressed by the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille.

Read more

Every time we go out to a bar we’re inevitably approached by people selling flowers for charity, needing spare change or promoting another cause. I make an effort to support charity and help out when I can, but there is a time and a place.

Our third visitor didn’t make the same mistake as the previous two. He succeeded because he didn’t ask for our money, but instead gave us an incredible experience for which we compensated him tenfold.

Hailing from Zimbabwe, which he referred to as the USZ (Unstable State of Zimbabwe), he began telling us the story of his band. With a natural charisma anyone would die for, he had our undivided attention.

After telling us about his CD, he introduced us to the band by whipping out a collection of wire band member action figures. Armed with drumsticks, guitars and a saxophone, these little pieces of art transformed his sales pitch into an experience we’ll never forget.

He didn’t ask us for money once, we asked him how much we could pay for everything… we didn’t even listen to his music, but happily paid him double than what he asked for.

He probably made more money in 10 minutes than the first two did the whole day by creating an exciting experience.

The band’s gonna make it.

It was a Saturday and the decision of the day was to go wine tasting in Stellenbosch – we jumped in a car and drove west. To our amazement, our friend Nikky dug up a dusty Stellenbosch wine route guide from the bottom of her seemingly bottomless Mary Poppins variety of a hand bag… we were set.

We nominated Dylan, as he is in advertising and assured us that marketers are not liars, to select from the wine guide, the best attempt at selling an experience – we found one, it sounded AMAZING, we drove on.
Upon arrival we were not let down by the books depiction and ventured into a picturesque estate.

It was when we sat down to eat lunch that the fun hit the fan.

With a hovering waiter who couldn’t resist from telling us that we needed to eat quickly, as he’d like to go home early, and on top of that we were told that we underpaid by a substantial amount (we were actually overcharged when they added an extra head by mistake). The food was not great.

After this we quickly forgot the great spontaneous day that got us there and left thinking that we had just been to a bad restaurant.

As a marketer they thrived, but as an experience they failed to live up to the expectations they fashioned.

It is very difficult to have a hand in ones staffs’ attitude towards customers, but it is extremely simple to make an effort as a manager/host to go the extra mile to make your customers feel special.

Dylan made a suggestion – our table was 10+ people generating over R1500 in revenue… a good idea would’ve have been to offer our table a complementary bottle of wine to try – costs the estate nothing… they make it, but this gesture would’ve saved the day when it came to customer service and measuring up to the promise that they created through their marketing.

Success is not in the marketing. It’s not in the customer service or from having beautiful location. It happens by combining everything to create an unforgettable experience and then some.

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