You just got a spiffy new job as a customer service rep at online shoe retail giant, Zappos. During training you quickly realize that the company is fanatic about exceeding customer expectations. You find out that your word is gold, when you tell a customer their shoes will arrive in four days they’ll get them in one. Maybe that’s not the gold that interests you. That’s where the company’s fanaticism really takes an interesting turn.

They offer you an ‘opportunity cost’ hypothetical straight out of your high school economics book. If you are dedicated they invite you to stay on as a hard working, problem solving individual. No scripts, ultimate authority, just make the customer happy. Or take $1,000 cash and walk out the door.

Bill Taylor at Harvard Business Publishing explains why: “If you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)”

They define themselves as a customer service company, “that happens to sell shoes.” It’s hard to fulfill that mission if it’s workforce isn’t completely committed. It will be interesting to see if they’ll up the ante. What happens at $5,000? $10,000? One thing is clear, this innovative company is sure to negate its largest cost: negative customer experience.

So, you’re so sick of advertising you could puke. You’re sitting in a café, look up and see an ad on the back of someone’s laptop. Two things may be running through your head. “Why didn’t I think of that” and “I wonder if they’ll pay me too.”

Well, if you’re a student in Germany you may just be able to turn your notebook into a shameless billboard. Company Smaboo (combination of “smart” and “notebook”) will shell out up to €150 in a few months for the unused space on the back of your computer.

The concept is simple. You turn people who would already buy the product into a walking billboard. This new type of targeted marketing is referred to as “embedded branding.” It’s an innovative advertising technique that is being developed by the startup.

Don’t worry, you’re not going to be bombarded with even more unwanted advertising yet. At the moment it’s limited to universities.  But don’t be surprised if a similar concept catches on. It’s guerrilla tactics at it’s finest and it might just have you spilling your latte before you know it.

Thanks to Connie T. for the recommendation.

From time to time I mention this blog when I’m out among friends. So naturally, I went to make a business card to pass out so they’ll remember what to type into their browser after our drunken conversations. But just how do you get an innovative message across in a business card?

After searching far and wide, I found a few unique designs that were noteworthy. Yet one stuck out as being the most memorable. Designer Jamie Wieck created an innovative card that will really grow on the people you hand them to. Literally.

It’s essentially a small seed pack filled with alfalfa sprouts. You dip it in water and a few days later, viola!, it’s a small plant. As it’s sitting there in water you can be sure that the people I handed them out to will remember to type in the URL that’s printed on it.

That just goes to show you, simplicity with a dash of creativity can push even the oldest of traditions up out of the daisies.

Armed with a headset that can sense breathing patterns, heart rate, blink rate, temperature and motion, San Fransisco based Emsense says it has your thoughts down to a science.

Their technology centers around an electroencephalography sensor (EEG) on the forehead and an algorithm that has been built upon three years of market research. Metrics are analyzed in real-time while participants watch ads and play video games.

One of the biggest problems with market research is being able to track the visceral responses that consumers will have during an ad campaign. When asked to rehash their experience of any sort of stimuli they often frame it differently from how they emotionally reacted. As Emsense puts it, “consumers do not make decisions in a purely rational, linear fashion. Emotion has a huge and predominant impact. [Our technology] provides a complete second by second mapping of viewer response.”

But if consumers aren’t logical what suggests that a map of responses will yield to a purchase? Sure, you can see the exact moment when a participant is responding positively. Yet is it possible to gather enough data and change the ad to invoke a sale?

Skeptics counter that this approach may not be much better than self-reporting. Even with all those metrics and a great algorithm it may just be another tool to use during the formulation of a campaign. They also complain that this type of technology has not been properly researched and the data needs to be peer-reviewed in journals before it’s taken seriously.

While the naysayers gather, Emsense and its army of MIT graduates soldier on. They have twenty two patents to date and repeat customers. By the time peer-reviewed research is available for scrutiny they may already be deep into profits, but only time will tell.

You may have noticed that the music industry hasn’t exactly been doing well lately. Fans fail to see the value of purchased music when they can go online and download albums for free.

Smashing Pumpkins has released their music for free via website. Radiohead recently released its new album, In Rainbows, for whatever price you chose to pay. Nine Inch Nails uploads their music via torrents, offers free downloads and calls record companies thieves.

The business model is not only dead, it’s decaying. The Recording Industry Association of America was voted the Worst Company in America. Profit driven, traditional marketing campaigns are no longer effective for releasing music.

After signing with a label most bands only receive their signing bonus and never see any residual profits. In turn labels are looking for hits, the next big thing, and they can’t afford to be wrong. The entire industry survives on the top 10% of the bands they sign that become mega stars. When they do get it right they provide distribution, marketing, live touring schedules and press releases.

Anti-marketing is cutting the industry out of the equation while generating a buzz that provides all the before mentioned benefits of a label. It’s so intimate that everybody’s talking about it.

Technically speaking, bands could potentially earn more by developing a direct relationship with the community they foster than with the big check that’s cut when signing a deal. Perceived value can be leveraged with live performances, merchandise and donations.

This is an industry with fans that don’t want to be marketed to. They want to share. Why not just let them have their way?