1. Take responsibility
2. Pay attention to detail

Seth's right. Every business is a service business. Experience is the product.

As a means of counteracting the "employee pricing" promotions offered by other car manufacturers, Mitsubishi in September announced that it would give new car buyers a year of free gas (given away as a prepaid debit card).

The incremental cost of the promotion was minimal (giving a debit card vs. cash back at the point of sale), but the impact on sales has been great (sales up 7.2% over the same period last year), and the company also reports that positive brand perception has increased.

This was all about positioning. How do you create value for your customers by taking advantage of an inherent need? In this case, it was a concern over the rising cost of gas. Mitsubishi is telling its customers that it, too, knows that gas prices are a concern, and they're helping to address that in their promotions.

Smart move, and it's clearly paying off.

A very thought-provoking post on Seth Godin's blog this week about the use of fear in an organization.

Another way to think about this is very focused motivation. Beyond making your customers successful, what things will help your entire organization focus on a single goal? Is it a competitor? A revenue run-rate? An upcoming, impending or current threat to the business, or an industry, or a customer group?

Useful fear can be related to any number of things, and as both Seth and BuzzMachine point out, can be an effective motivational and focusing tool for your organization as well.

It might not be too far away. It sounds a little like a scene from The Minority Report, but Seimens is apparently readying a paper-thin electronic display technology cheap enough that CPG companies are thinking about using it on their packaging.

Imagine the box of cereal on your breakfast table with interactive ads on it? Imagine reading this blog on your next box of detergent?

Savvy marketers already know that public relations can be one of the most effective, leveraged marketing and brand-building tools available. For very little relative budget, public relations can get the word out to vast & targeted audiences, in a highly credible context.

But most marketers don't think about PR as a direct response tool. With focus and discipline, public relations can be leveraged and measured as a tool that directly drives traffic, business and sales.

I wrote more about this today for iMedia, based in part on a recent study by Delahaye that looked at how executives across the country value various PR measurement tools. According to the survey, direct sales as a result of PR was seen as exceedingly meaningful, but not particularly reasonable as an expectation of PR.

I don't buy it, and believe we absolutely should have an expectation that PR can directly lead to sales and/or customer activity in a meaningful and measurable way.

AOL is.

I don't have much time to grok about this, but WOMMA.org published a very good read on how to make your company and/or your brand approachable.

If you read through the author's top five tips, many of them come down to differentiation. What are you doing to be different from your competitors? What are you doing to stand out from the crowd? What are you doing to own that one thing that everyone will know and love you for?

Yes, it's just a few 15-second spots on PBS, hardly the launch of a new major branding campaign on prime-time television, but it still represents a significant new direction for a company that has traditionally leaned significantly on PR as its primary marketing channel.

Check out the new Google TV ads here.

Wow, this is really cool. No commentary needed, just a little holiday fun. Make sure your speakers are turned on.

Seth Godin wrote recently about a good idea for making customers on hold feel special, and "rewarding" them for any wait time they have to endure before talking to a live body.

Smart idea, and it should be a reminder to us of just how many underleveraged customer touchpoints exist throughout our organization.

Think, for example, about your on-hold music. It it just pretty music? Or could it be used to communicate something to your customers? What about replacing that music with customer testimonials, samples of your radio commercials, or even a soft voice talking to customers about your latest promotion?

"Thank you for calling, and we appreciate your patience. Have you heard about our new (insert feature here)? Inquire about that feature today and save 50%."

Businesses with physical locations also typically have underleveraged opportunities. Think about all of the businesses in which you have to wait for something - doctor's office, chiropractor, oil changes, even take-out restaurants. When waiting the 20 minutes for your oil and lube change, could customers be reading something more than just two-month-old magazines? How about educational information about auto maintenance, maybe even a video playing about tips for keeping cars in top shape? All of this content could be independently valuable to consumers, but also build credibility for the oil change facility and drive repeat business.