CS @ HBS

This talk took place on September 25th, 2007. It discussed Staples’ successful marketing campaign, “That Was Easy”.

(I didn’t really take copious notes this time, just try to capture the general essence of things)

Staples’ old mission statement from 1996 was “cheap and complete”.
New mission statement from 2002 – “That Was Easy”.

Quote: “When you are confused, go to the store. The customer has all the answers” (Sam Walton, Founder, Walmart)

So they went to the stores and examined customers’ behavior and needs. They had several “customers” that they made up, representing the profiles of common Staples customers. For example, “Maria”, the office manager, who wants to buy everything as cheaply and as quickly as she can, and so on.

The “Easy” campaign, in addition to marketing and media advertising, included a real, deep process of changing Staples stores to truly being “Easy”. According to Goodman, a marketing campaign cannot support something that does not exist in the company.

An example to something simple they changed in their employees behavior: instead of asking “Can I help you?”, the employees is now supposed to ask “What can I help you find?”, a more positive, action-oriented question that should lead the customer to a real answer and not just “thanks, I’m just looking”. Another employee-related thing they did was link compensation (10-20% of it) to customer satisfaction.
The campaign’s “cameo” was the Easy Button:

(image from Staples web site)

When you press the button, it says “That Was Easy!”.
Funny fact: Staples Sold 2.5 million Easy buttons. (a button costs $5)

Shira Goodman, from Staples web site.