If you read or study marketing, chances are you’ve heard the infamous Nordstrom’s tire story. The short version goes as follows:
A man walks up to a counter at Nordstrom’s and puts two snow tires down on the counter. He tells the clerk that he is unhappy with them and ask for a refund. The sales clerk complies and refunds the man – even though Nordstrom doesn’t sell tires.
Whether or not this story is true is not really important. This tale has become a marketing and PR meme and reinforces the image of Nordstrom as totally focused on client satisfaction. Even though the story apparently occurred around 1975 and was more widely circulated in the 80′s, it is constantly being retold and recirculated today.
Now compare that to two other infamous brand stories…
People are talking about your brand online. What kind of stories are they telling? If you don’t have a Nordstrom tire story, create one. Go the extra mile for your customers and encourage them to let others know about it.
One of the best ways to make websites faster is to use gzip compression on your files. Many CMSs have options (or plugins) that allow automatic compression. But what if your site doesn’t use a fancy pants CMS? Then what, huh?
Actuall the solution is pretty simple. All you have to do…
I heard this video mentioned in the most recent Media Hacks podcast, and took a look. Rory Sutherland points out that elements of the modern social web: UGC, mashups, sharing, etc. are an integral part of human activity.
Last week the New York Times published a great infographic covering Facebook`s new privacy policy and settings. The image below illustrates how to get to your settings and change them. Among other things, the original post also reveals that the new Facebook policy (5,830 words) is longer than the US Constiution (4,543). It astonishes me…
I’m a bit behind the times on this one, but last month Google announced that site verification can now be shared in Webmaster tools. This is a small but significant change that will make life a lot easier for many webmasters and SEOs. Up until now, only one user could be affiliated with…
With the explosion of mobile devices and geo-targeting in search, providing accurate contact and location information to search engines is critical. Some of the more obvious steps to take involve making sure that you are listed in local directories with the appropriate information, as well as registered with Google’s Local Business Center.
On your site, you…
Nothing bothers me more than a bad presentation. To that end, I’ve been playing around with Prezi which is a very cool online app for building flash-based presentations. Here is my first try: Anatomy of a a Basic SEO Audit. It’s an overview of what I look for, the tools I use and the steps…
Note: This post originally appears on my personal blog michaellautman.com
I sent the following letter to Pia Marquard at the CBC today. You can send her your thoughts at pia.marquard@cbc.ca. Not sure what to say? Just copy this message and paste it into your email.
Ms. Marquard,
It was with great chagrin that I read of the impending…
The robots.txt file is a mysterious little document for the uninitiated. The purpose of the robots.txt file is to provide a broad set of instructions for the search engine spiders when they arrive at your site. In general, the file is used to tell the spiders which parts of your site they should not be…
