Our friends in France now want us, OK Apple, to share details of their rights management technologies with rivals.

Interesting…. What this means is that iTunes will most likely split from the French market. Check out CNET for more details.

How lame can the French be in their quest to save French Culture?

Imagine the money that large marketers like Nike, Disney, Kodak and BMW spend every year to get new customers. Now imagine the amount of time and effort these companies spend keeping their customers. Well, they spend little keeping their customers happy let alone keeping them at all. The ratio of “get” to “keep” is abysmal.

This Podcast entitled “Get a Grip” is an audio version of a white paper I did on customer retention in fall 2004 (you can get a PDF of the white paper “Get a Grip” by going to the Ralston360 website.) This white paper is my rant against corporate marketing departments that are customer acquisition focused and retention blind. I mean c’mon…. Nike doesn’t stay in touch after I buy custom sneakers on NikeID. BMW doesn’t stay in touch after I watch BMW Films. Disney drops me after spending six grand on a family trip to Disney World. Kodak has no clue at all who I am. These guys are nuts! What’s worse is that this malady is so easy to cure.

By the way, Seinfeld gets customer care and to prove it I include a clip of his famous rant at the car rental counter.

I’d love to hear of any poor customer follow-up that you have experienced.

This Podcast is 18 minutes long.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcast [17:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have been scratching my head for years as I’ve watched General Motors produce impossible not to ignore advertising. Except for a few rare cases, most of the advertising for Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Pontiac and Cadillac (OK, listening to Led Zeppelin is good) has felt like it came from a 1957 advertising text book.

An article in Business Week, “A New Spark Plug For Cadillac. Brand-fixer Liz Vanzura aims to do for Caddy what she did for Hummer” discusses the shift of half of Cadillac’s advertising account to the savvy Modernista from old-school Leo Burnett.

I guess that it is good that GM is finally shaking things up. But, here is the part of the article that really blew my mind:

“Like many big companies, GM rotates sales, finance, and even purchasing managers into ad and marketing posts, and those neophytes have looked upon a big ad agency with decades of service to GM as a welcome safety net. Vanzura represents a new breed at GM that LaNeve wants more of: professional marketers confident enough to take risks.”

Please, someone help me understand how a company that wants to succeed has purchasing managers and finance executives running marketing and advertising? I thought GM is in decline because it makes cars we do not want to buy. Now I have an even better prospective on how a great company can set itself up for failure.

Now, I wish that I actually do not see this mistake happening at other companies. What is it with management that they think that just because someone watches TV, opens direct mail and reads ads they are now worthy of running marketing?

This is Part Two of my interview with Michael Keeshan on the subject of the advertising agency search process and how agencies market themselves. It is 32 minutes of great insight for marketers and agency management.

If you did not listen to Part One or read the supporting Blog entry, Michael Keeshan is the major domo of MagiKbox LLC, a strategic consultancy based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Michael has the rare distinction of having been on both sides of the agency and client aisles. In his agency days, Michael was the President & COO of Saatchi & Saatchi NY and the Chief Strategic Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide. On the groom’s side, he has helped AT&T find an agency for its $600 million account, United Technologies (two times) and Novartis select an international agency resource.

I hope that you enjoy the interview. I think that it is a heck of a good show.

Part One can be seen right here.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcast [33:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I remember those heady days in the world of major league media buying when we ran around yelling, “The upfronts are here. The upfronts are here.” Well this year’s upfront broadcast TV ad-sales season is soon upon us. The Wall Street Journal writes today that this season might very well be the barometer that tells us whether TV is really in decline or not. After years of increases, major advertisers bought approximately $9.3 billion in 2005 vs. $9.5 in 2004’s upfront market.

Reasons for the decline include spending shifts towards “new media” (not so new anymore) including a big turn back to the Internet and the soon to boom direct publishing world of Internet video and Podcasting.

I am not as down on TV as are some naysayers like Joseph Jaffe. TV still works very hard for my clients and we are in production on two new campaigns right now. But, at the same time I am heading down to San Francisco tomorrow to discuss non-TV programs with two new potential clients (touch wood.)