Language

The words we use matter.  If we are careless in the language that we use, it indicates a carelessness in thinking.  The language we choose reflects our thinking.  Similarly, the words we use can subtly change our thinking.  Consider the following:

• When we travel, we aren’t travelers in a foreign land but foreigners in a traveled land.
• An employee or a customer who is wheelchair bound isn't a handicap or a handicapped person, but a person with a handicap.
• When we are addressing a customer service issue, we are not dealing with a soon-to-be former customer with a complaint but a customer who was not satisfied.  Or if you are a glass half full kind of person, we are dealing with a customer who is giving us a chance to improve.

To some extent we are talking about semantics.  But how we label things makes a difference in how we think and act toward those things.  In a recent blog, I shared a quote by Abraham Lincoln: "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

Would you rather deal with problems or opportunities?  Would you rather be managing a response or leading your team to the answer?  Would you rather be a disruptor or a change agent?

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Empathy

I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the radio last night on Harvard Community Radio.  The show, The Creative Life with Erin Denk, is a show about creativity in all walks of life.

In our discussion, the host and I were talking about marketing, and what makes for good marketing.  "Empathy," I said tersely.  Terseness does not make for good radio.

Erin pushed back initially at my answer.  She has a therapy background and has a different view of empathy AND of marketing.

Empathy, I explained, is the ability to view things from another's perspective.  If marketing is primarily about developing and maintaining relationships (an assertion I had made earlier) then it makes sense that being able to view the product or service from the prospect's perspective will make for stronger marketing.  With empathy, you can make value propositions that address the needs and desires of the prospective customer.

Empathy, I would argue, is a more important skill than the ability to write, design, produce or edit.  Empathy is were all the great marketing messages start.

Can you see my perspective?      

The Creative Life with Erin Denk can be found on Harvard Community Radio at www.harvardcommunityradio.com or at AM1610 or 

on TuneIn Radio and serch for Harvard Community Radio.   

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Working with Millennials

My son recently started his first post-graduation job.  On the way to that job he interned and Skyped and networked and conference-called like a pro.  He worked hard to get the chance to work hard.  My son is a Millennial.

My daughter has worked the whole time she has been in college.  She has worked during the summers and is one of the hardest workers I know.  She takes on physically grueling tasks without batting an eye.  She volunteers, tutors and is involved in numerous committees and projects at school.  My daughter is a Millennial.

The friends and acquaintances of my daughter and my son, as well as my nieces and nephews, and the children of several friends and neighbors, are following similar paths that involve work, college, graduate school, entrepreneurship or some combination of those.  They are all Millennials.

According to Wikipedia, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe were the first to coin the term "Millennials," which generally refers to people born in the late 1970s or early 1980s through the early 2000s.  Millennials have also been called Generation Y, the ME generation and the echo boomers. By next year, Millenials will be more than a third of the work force.  By 2020, they will be almost half of all workers.

A lot has been written about this generation.  Many authors have written about their sense of entitlement and their lack of commitment.  That does not sound like the Millennials I have had the pleasure to know!  Based on what I have seen from my son and daughter and their friends, there is no lack of initiative or drive. Based on what I have personally observed and experienced, Millenials as a whole are no more or less inclined toward hard work, commitment and team work than any other generation.

There are a few "differences" that make this generation unique.

• Unsurprisingly, this generation is very comfortable with technology.  They utilize technology more often and in more ways than their parents, especially social media.  For a generation that grew up with PCs in the home and cellphones in their hand since they were young, how could we expect less?
• Millennials are not tied to a location.  71% would like to work abroad at some point in their careers.  I suspect the same could have been said of Baby Boomers when they were young, especially if working abroad for so many didn't mean being drafted to serve in Viet Nam.
• This generation is highly entrepreneurial.  More than 90% of Millennials in their early 20s feel that entrepreneurship education was "vital in the new economy and job market."  This may explain why more than a third of them have started side businesses.  In an economy when computing is inexpensive and common and jobs are rare, new technology-based businesses are likely to spring up.
• This generation likes to get real time feedback on the work they are doing, a work environment that encourages them to "contribute without fear of being criticized," and to collaborate, especially when the group's goals and purpose are clear.  Who doesn't?

This generation came of age as concepts of job security and company loyalty were dying.  They came of age in this new economy and are more comfortable with the concept of mobility in the job marketplace.  Almost half expressed confidence that they could find another job easily and more than two thirds plan to switch jobs or careers when situations improve.  This generation is tech savvy and mobile.  This generation is more diverse and more tolerant than any that has come before them.  They are not as motivated by long term benefits as their parents, the Baby Boomers.  

In the end, every employer will need to work with this generation.  But it seems to me that the "challenges" of working with Millennials are really, in fact, the same challenges that an older generation ALWAYS has when it is time to start integrating the younger generation into the workplace and especially into the management of the workplace.  I do think that there are differences between Millenials and Baby Boomers, just as there were differences between Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation.  

In the end, there are Millennials that work hard, and those who are lazy.  There are those who will work with one company their whole career and those whose resume will be much more varied and colorful.  There are tech-savvy, entrepreneurial Millennials and those who won't own a cellphone or laptop.  

In the end, we don't end up working with a generation.  We end up working with people.  Individuals.  While some of the countless articles and blogs like this one on how to work with this up and coming generation may provide useful insights, my advice is look at the individual in front of you.  Hire, fire, motivate and promote based on the people on your team, not the generations to which they belong.  

And if you happen to be the current or future employers of my kids, let them call home every once in a while.

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Black Friday

Welcome to Black Friday.

This is a "day" that means different things to different people.

• To the bargain hunter, it is nirvana.  
• To the retailer, it is a harbinger of how profitable the holiday season will end up being.  
• For the store manager, it is mostly a headache.  
• To some store employees, it is a family holiday lost.  
• To the Michigan police officers who coined the term "Black Friday" because the crowds of holiday shoppers and the crowds of hunters on the same weekend often made for a lot of problems and a huge crowd control issue, it was not something they looked forward to.
• To many of us, it is a day to go to the movies.

I have nothing against the concept of a big day of sales to kick off the holiday shopping season.  I understand the concept of retailers taking a loss on a few items to draw the crowds into their stores in the hopes they will buy more things.  I have no problem with that.

I do have a problem that Black Friday has morphed into Black Thursday evening or even Black Thursday AND Friday.

One of the things that I love about Thanksgiving is that it is one of the few holidays that has remained largely uncommercialized.  As retailers enter into an arms race as to who can open earliest and longest, and offer the most outrageous deals, Thanksgiving is threatened.  Or at the very least, disrespected.

I understand that retailers jobs are to make sales and sometimes you have to do things to attract shoppers into your store. What I don't understand is why Black Friday has become so popular among retailers.  I have talked to a couple managers of big box stores and they admitted that they lose money on this day.  Between the deeply discounted sale items and the extra staff hours and the huge amount of advertising, I think most retailers count on customers coming back into the store in December so they can make up the money they lose on Black Friday.  

I much prefer some of the corollary days that have sprung up around Black Friday.  My favorite is Shop Local Saturday.  It is not an organized thing in most communities.  You won't be able to get 50" televisions for $99.  But you will be able to find unique gifts and will support small, local businesses, which are the lifeblood of most communities.  

So if you missed the Thursday evening kick-off of Black Friday, or you didn't feel like camping out in front of your electronics store of choice to get a deal on an iPad, or you don't want to fight someone over the latest Furby, consider taking today off.  Go shopping tomorrow.  Go shopping locally.  

At the Movies

I love movies.  I always have and probably always will.  While I have always watched movies, the way I watch them has changed dramatically.

It used to be there were really just two ways to see a movie, catch it when it first ran in the theater or wait for it to be replayed on TV (if it wasn't too racy or violent) often years later.  My kids will never understand the importance of seeing a movie in the theater during its run, because you might never see it again if you didn't.  My kids, who are now adults, will never understand the way the annual broadcast of movies like The Wizard of Oz became an important community event.

These days, I am considered old fashioned because I still get movies delivered in little red envelopes.  In addition, I can stream movies any time I want on my TV, iPad or phone (does anyone REALLY watch a whole movie on their phone?)  I still go to the movie theater, but less than I used to.

When you think about it, the way movies are distributed has changed dramatically, but movie theaters, by and large, are still operating on the same model.  You wait in line to buy your ticket to the movie, wait in line again to by an obscenely large cup of soft drink and tub of popcorn, stumble into a theater that is already dark because they are showing advertisements, hope to find a seat that isn't broken or too sticky or trashed, hope that the person sitting next to you or behind you will remember they are in a theater and not their living room, and that the person on the other side of you will eventually let you share the arm rest.  And that's all before the previews.

Why would anyone continue to go to the theater when for the cost of two tickets and popcorn you can get unlimited movies for a month in the comfort of your home?  In the December issue of Fast Company, they profile several movie theater operators who are trying to answer that very question.

Their solutions are creative and diverse.  Some are looking to make going to the theater a more social experience.  They do this by locating theaters near where young professionals work, adding bars and creating reasons for people of like interests to gather at the theater before and after the film.  Others are doing it by increasing the luxury of the movie going experience with leather seats and food delivered to your seat or by improving the sound systems in the theater (George Lucas says audio is 50% of the theater experience).  One theater owner is offering monthly subscriptions that allow patrons to see one movie a day, and they are seeing their daytime and midweek business grow significantly.  Others are addressing the issue by looking at what is on the screen.  By offering smaller films targeted to specific demographic groups or other types of theater experiences such as live simulcasts of concerts, operas and sporting events, these theater operators are attracting new and more diverse crowds.

As Hamid Hashemi, Founder and CEO of iPic Entertainment says, "It used to be a year before movies made it to DVD.  Soon, you'll be able to see a movie on the big screen, iPad, iPhone, and TV on the same day, around the world.  It's the evolution of the business.  But that doesn't mean the theaters are going to go out of business.  They're just going to have to be more experimental.  This is just the start."

See you AT the movies!

Taking a Break

For a variety of reasons, I took a week off from this blog.  For a variety of reasons, I did not write anything for this or future posts.  I took a break.

Breaks are important.  Coffee breaks aren't just to move more java and gossip.  They are a chance to pause and refresh.  We are given vacation days in order to take a bit of a longer break in order to recharge the batteries and allow ourselves to do something different for a short while.  Vacations allow us to come back to our jobs refreshed and more productive.  Even trainers understand the value of a short rest in between reps and a day off from the weights now and then.

We don't all view vacations the same.  According to a recent Harris Interactive poll, on average Americans are offered 14 days of vacation but only take 10 days, leaving twice as many days on the table as the previous year.  We are not alone in our work ethic.  Both Japanese and South Korean workers leave a number of days unused.  On the other end of the spectrum, the French receive, and generally use, 30 days of vacation per year.  Even with that, 90% of French workers feel "vacation deprived."

While the poll indicated that the top reason Americans gave for not taking vacation is that they were stockpiling days for a future vacation, I suspect other reasons may be at play.

In a lot of American businesses, redundancy in job responsibilities has been greatly reduced.  This means that the chances that you are the only one who does what you do in your organization have increased.  That means that when you go on vacation, one of three things typically happens to your work:  You have to get it done before you go, you have to do it after you get back, or someone else "tries" to do it while you are gone and you have to re-do it when you get back.  In other words, we really aren't getting a break from the work of our jobs, just displacing it.  This makes vacation seems a bit less appealing.

There are many other reasons we tend to be reluctant to vacate:

• Economics:  The recent recession has more people reluctant to leave their jobs unattended.  There is an innate sense that it is more important than ever to prove one's worth at work.  Furthermore, lack of economic security make spending money "frivilously" on a vacation seems like less of a good idea to more people.
• Boredom:  At least in America, a lot of people fear being bored on vacation.  I call it the Chevy Chase effect.  There is a tendency to feel  that if we aren't taking a big family vacation, like Chevy Chase's family did in the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation", we aren't really doing vacation right.  If we aren't doing that, how can we help but be bored?  If we ARE doing that, it probably means days in the car or airport and how can we help but be bored?
• Family: Studies show that many people fear spending extended periods of time with their families as much as they do spending it alone. If there is strife or trouble within the family, work becomes a convenient and socially acceptable escape.  On vacation, that escape is removed.
• Importance:  There is a fear that when you are gone on vacation, your employer will decide that you are not that important to the organization.  One way to avoid that is to never be gone.

The reality is that your physical and mental health requires the occassional break.  Just like your body needs to sleep to recharge and rest, you need to take those breaks and vacations from time to time.  We need to work to overcome the fears and anxieties of stepping away from the job for a few days or a week and allow ourselves to recharge.

Likewise, it is important for employers to stop praying at the alter of employee efficiency and recognize that long term, the organization is better served and employees WILL be more productive, if they get the occassional break.

See you at the beach!

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Strategically Speaking

Several organizations that I am involved with are currently, have just recently or really need to spend time developing a strategic plan.

I have been involved with dozens of these efforts over the years.  Without fail, every single one of those efforts, at some point, devolves into a debate about terminology.

Do goals flow out of missions and action steps out of goals?  Does a vision flow out of a mission or vice versa?.  Do action steps need to be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) or should that be goals?  What is the difference between a vision and a mission and a goal?  Which is most important?  Which should be developed first?  Why did the chicken cross the road?

Without a good moderator, the debate can go on for hours.  I am convinced that it is this conversation that drives most people away from strategic planning.  Which is a shame because there are two very good things that can usually flow out of strategic planning.

The first is that, if everyone sticks with it, you come up with a plan. A strategic plan provides some guidance as to what the members of the organization should focus on over the next year or two.  It provides some direction as to organizational priorities and plans. It broadcasts to staff and other stakeholders the organizational priorities of the leaders of the organization.

The second good thing to flow out of the strategic planning process is that the organization's leaders sit down and talk.  It is, in my opinion, the more important advantage.

Too often, the leaders in an organization don't bother to get together and really talk about the direction things are going and the direction they'd LIKE them to going.  Too often the leaders of an organization don't take the time out from putting out daily fires to look ahead and think about what the future should look like.  If nothing else, the strategic planning process gets the leaders into the same room talking about the same thing for a short while.

A structured strategic planning process helps to ensure that voices that are often drowned out or ignored get heard.  A planned process helps to ensure that the leaders are focused on positive, forward-looking plans for the organization and not arguing over terminology.  A well run strategic planning process is a positive for the organization, regardless of the resulting plan.

In the long run, strategically speaking, it doesn't matter how you label things in your strategic plan, as long as you are talking about them!

Service

Today, in the United States, we are celebrating Veteran's Day.  This is a day which honors the men and women who have served in the military. Honestly, one day is not enough.

This day always causes me to think about service.  Those in the military give greatly of themselves in the service of the country.  There is much we can also do as individual, as organizations and as communities to be of service to others.

You don't have to match the level of service demonstrated by our soldiers and veterans to have your service mean something.   Service comes in many forms, shapes and sizes.  Even little acts of service add up to make a significant difference.

A company that nurtures service with its employees, whether through company-wide days of community service or through supporting and encouraging community involvement, will find its employees more satisfied and more committed to their employer.  Employees are happy because they recognize that they are making a difference.

So honor those soldiers in your life.  Thank them for their service, then honor them by performing an act of service in their honor.  Happy Veterans Day!

A Novel Approach to Marketing

Why would anyone expect to learn anything useful from reading classic literature?  

No one in their right mind would expect to have to navigate the traditions of the royal court in 18^th century Russia or have to survive the trials and tribulations of the debtors’ prisons in Dickensian London.  

Knowing how a whaling boat operates or what it was like to take a road trip with hipsters in the 50's or how it felt to be a slave in the American South will not help you prepare your presentation on social media for tomorrow’s webinar.

The truth is great literature is, by and large, about people.  It is about how people think and how they talk and interact with each other.  Great literature deals with human relationships, motivations, fears and ambitions.  

And great marketing is about developing and nurturing relationships.  I have learned more about relationships from novels than from how to books.  I have read more truth about the human condition in biographies and memoirs than in any journal article.

Pick up a novel sometime.  You might learn something!

5 Things That Have Not Changed in Marketing

With the explosion of mobile marketing, the popularity of social media, the apparent decline of traditional media, and the growing cynicism of the public toward overt marketing messages, it seems as if marketing has totally changed.  Today, I want to remind you of a few things that haven't.

• Relationships Rule.  While you may have different tools to work with, the value of building a relationship with your customers remains highly important.  In many ways, building relationships with your customers is all that matters.

• Quality wins.  A high quality product still beats out an inferior product, all other things being equal.  Quality copy has more impact.  Quality products and services generate positive word of mouth.  Quality is sometimes the best marketing. 

• Content Matters.  Period.  And Exclamation Point!

• We are Still Talking About Value.  In marketing we are still promoting the intersection of price and product or service features.   We are still promoting the Value Proposition.

• Only One Measure Matters.  It doesn't really matter how many likes, tweets, views or readers you have, just like it doesn't really matter what your Neilson or Arbitron rating is.  What matters is how many sales you have.  It is the only number that counts.

Monday, Monday

"Monday Monday, can't trust that day, Monday Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way"             

The Mamas and the Papas

Why are there so many songs celebrating the weekend and lamenting Monday?  Why are so many of them country songs?  Why does Monday have such a bad reputation?  Why is Wednesday known as "Hump Day"?  Why does the weekend go by so fast?  These are questions I have.

In November 2013 issue of Inc., there is an article titled "29 Skills Every Founder Needs to Master."
Number three on their list is "How to Love Your Own Company."

According to Brooks Bell, CEO of the eponymous technology company, not even founders always look forward to coming into the office.  "Everyone assumes the company's CEO is fully committed to the vision.  The truth is, a lot of CEO's aren't."

She goes on to talk about how her company had become opportunistic and were chasing after every customer and every sale instead of being focused and strategic.  The company she started, HER company, was no longer fun to work at.

Ms. Bell refocused the company so that it was more in line with her vision.  While the transition was painful ("...the most difficult moment I've ever had.") it set the company back on track.  It made the company, and her job, more exciting and rewarding.

Most of us do not have the opportunity to refocus our companies to make work more enjoyable.  But we have some influence on how our jobs are focused.  And how we focus on our jobs.  If you find yourself not loving what you do, not having fun, find something that you DO love, and chase after it.  Whether its in your current job, or your next one.

For those of you who have people working for you, it is important to think of this from their perspective.  Doesn't it make sense to operate your department, division or company in a way that makes employees excited about Monday?  Doesn't it make sense to engage your staff so that they have the opportunity to help you keep the company focused and with a clear vision?  Doesn't it make sense to help your staff learn to love their jobs?

Wouldn't it be nice to hear a happy song about Mondays?

"Most of my life I have done what I wanted to do.  I have had fun on the job." 

 Walt Disney

On the go

If you're wondering if mobile computing is ever really going to "take off," check out these astounding statistics from a variety of sources:

• 1.7 billion people using mobile internet services by 2013.*
• By 2014, mobile internet is estimated to overcome PC internet use.*
• 56% of American adults are now smartphone owners. (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2013)
• Mobile now accounts for 12 percent of Americans’ media consumption time, triple its share in 2009. (Source: Digiday, 2013)
• Twice as many web ready mobile devices today as PCs.*
• 700% growth in traffic on smart phones by 2015.*
• Of the 70 percent of shoppers who used a mobile phone while in a retail store during the holidays, 62 percent accessed that store’s site or app and only 37 percent of respondents accessed a competitor’s site or app. (Source: ForeSee, 2013)
• Retailers’ apps with store mode gather five times more engagement. (Source: Point Inside, 2013)
• Last year, only 12% of consumers bought anything through social media. (Source: PwC, 2013)
• By the end of 2013, there were more mobile devices on Earth than people. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• Mobile internet is growing faster than desktop internet ever did.*
• Mobile data traffic is expected to increase by almost 4000% by 2014.*
• 25% of international media and marketing executives see mobile as the most disruptive force in their industry. (Source: AdMedia Partners, 2013)
• 65% of U.S. shoppers research products and services on a PC and make a purchase in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• 54% use or would like to use digital touchscreens in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• 48% use or would like to use a smartphone to shop while in-store or on the go. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• 80% of smartphone owners want more mobile-optimized product information while they’re shopping in stores. (Source: Moosylvania, 2013)
• Nearly 50% of shoppers believe they are better informed than store associates. (Source: Motorola, 2013)
• Americans spend an average of 2.7 hours on mobile internet each day.*
• 75 percent of Americans bring their phones to the bathroom. (Source: Digiday, 2013)
• Mobile brand exposure can be more effective than other media messages. Mobile internet users are 60% more likely to be open to mobile advertising than the average mobile data user.*
• Mobile visits to Facebook increased by 112% and Twitter by 374%.*
• It took 20 years for the first billion mobile internet subscribers and only 40 months for the second billion.*

          *Data collected from Adobe Web Analytics, Omniture, Smart Insights, Mobile Marketing Statistics 2013 by eSchool.

The summary of all that data (and there was much more I could have included) is that mobile computing is exploding.  What that means, is that while many of us marketers are struggling to figure out how to make social media relevant and valuable to our marketing strategy, we must now also consider mobile computing.

Including mobile computing into your marketing strategy is more than just making sure your website looks good on a smartphone.  It is figuring out how to use the unique aspects of mobile computing to enhance the customer's shopping experience.  It might include promotions or strategies to lure people who are near your physical location into your establishment, or it might be ways to engage visitors once they cross the threshhold.

It also means you need to understand that customers are comparison shopping while in your store; with your competitors and with your own online presence.

Marketing and communications are changing.  The tools that we have to reach customers and other stakeholders are constantly changing as well.  And the speed of that change seems to ramping up faster than the speeds of computers.

The important thing to remember is that the key responsibility of marketing to communicate with and develop relationships with customers and prospective customers has not changed.  You probably won't participate in every new tech innovation that comes along.  You probably shouldn't.  But don't have your head in the sand either.  Keep yourself aware of what the opportunities are and identify those that are strong opportunities for your business.  Then try your best to take advantage of all the new opportunties to make your brand shine.

You need to adapt some of the new technology.  You don't want to stay in one place because your customers are obviously on the go!

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Devil's Night

I spent some time as a child living in the suburbs of Detroit.  I have many great memories of the Detroit area, including the Tiger's winning the World Series, Hudson's Department Store, the Henry Ford Museum, and Lake St. Clair.

But one of the most enduring memories that stuck in my pre-teen mind was the tradition of Devil's Night.

Devil's Night took place every year on October 30th, the day before Halloween.  It was a night in which you were supposed to egg people's houses, TP their trees, and commit other acts of minor vandalism.  At least that's what it was limited to in my neighborhood in the late 60s and early 70s when I lived there.

Devil's Night took on a more sinister and destructive nature in the late 70s and 80s and the closer you got to the city of Detroit.  Halloween day was typically filled with conversations about whose house got TPd or egged, not about costumes and candy.

I bring up Devil's Night not to revel in adolescent memories (I never did much TPing) but to make a comment about unofficial lines of communication.

Devil's Night is not an official holiday.  There were no posters or ads announcing specials on toilet paper just in time for your Devil's Night party.  In fact, as you would expect, Devil's Night was actively discouraged by just about anyone and everyone: police, schools, municipalities, merchants, and parents.  Yet I still learned about it and quickly knew what "the rules" were for our neighborhood.  There were certain houses you didn't hit because the owners were too nice or too mean or some one's grandma.  It was OK to TP some one's tree or throw eggs against their garage but only the delinquents egged cars (because it could permanently discolor the paint).

Toilet Paper TP - Tee Pee a House IMG_7642 (Photo credit: stevendepolo)

My point is that the informal communications network provided me with the information I needed to participate in this Detroit ritual, if I chose.  In your organization, do not assume that there aren't unofficial lines of communications that are probably more efficient at disseminating information than your formal methods.

Also, like the authorities in the Detroit area learned, you really can't control informal lines of communications.  The best you can realistically hope to do is to tap into them and to add to the conversation.  To pursuade.

My dad took that approach with Devil's Night.  Knowing that there was likely huge peer pressure to participate.  He understood that as a 10 or 11 year-old boy, I was dying to participate in this neighborhood ritual.  While he didn't condone it, he didn't forbid it either.  He had one simple rule.  You cleaned up the mess that you made.  If I was going to TP a neighbor's house on the 30th, I would be cleaning it up on the 31st.  The thought of this humilation was enough to dissuade me from being too active on Devil's Night.

Acknowledge and work with the informal lines of communications in your organization and perhaps you can avoid a mess.

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Farm Teams

A high school football team near where I live recently finished their regular season with a perfect record.

I am writing about this team not because of their noteworthy record, but because of what the long term coach has said all season in articles and interviews.  The coach consistently credits the players on the field.  You never hear about this coach crediting his preparation or play-calling.  Many of the players and community members credit the coach and his leadership of the team but the coach, in every interview, credits the players.

The coach also frequently mentions the lower levels.  The freshman and sophomore teams, the middle school and junior tackle teams that a lot of the current players grew up in.  In fact it is rare, the last couple of weeks, to read a story about this team without reading that the juniors and seniors on the team did not have a single win as freshmen.

A good farm team or feeder system is an almost indispensable ingredient of success in football or most sports.  But is just as valuable in business.

In the trades, an apprentice system has helped newcomers to learn the skills necessary to master their trade for centuries.  In office work, interns and trainees often fulfil a somewhat similar role.

But, unlike the local football coach, it doesn't seem as if most businesses appreciate the value in investing resources in those just starting out.  I don't think most businesses appreciate the lessons and value an early winless season can have if you have a system that focuses the players on the fundamentals and on what's important in the long run.

No high school team is judged by the record of their freshman team, just as no organization is judged by the number of sales that their trainees make.  That is probably why so many businesses, and sports teams, fail to invest time, energy and resources on those farm teams.

In an era when companies are looking from quarterly to quarterly earnings report and "what have you done for me lately" philosophies, it takes vision and leadership to make an investment in a farm team that won't pay off for maybe four years!

Change is Inevitable

"You can go amazing places when you quit stepping on the brakes."
Dr. Larry Iverson

"Oh the places you'll go..."  Dr. Seuss

Change is inevitable.

With technology growth, demographic shifts, political turmoil, and business evolution, "the way things used to be" and "we've always done it that way" just doesn't cut it anymore.

The challenge, then, is to figure out how to deal with change.  It is too easy to simply say you must embrace change, because not all change is good change.  Think of leisure suits.

The challenge is to figure out which changes are good for your organization; which changes will help you soar to new heights  Then embrace THOSE changes.

I know of no perfect way to identify which are the good choices.  Even Apple didn't have an iPad with every product release.

But once you decide to embrace a change, you need to commit to it.  Embrace it with gusto!  Push forward with it.  No two-footed driving with one foot on the brakes and one foot on the gas.  Once you decide on pursuing a change do it with courage and conviction.  Floor it!

As Drs. Iverson and Seuss suggest above, you can go to some pretty amazing places!

Changing Paradigms

There are some industries that have been around for a long time that haven't really changed.  The secretaries may have computers on their desks instead of typewriters, but the basic way that business is conducted hasn't changed

Rethinking how to you do your business takes courage and foresight.  If you succeed, you are seen as a visionary and a leader.  If you fail, well, you are not.

To change the paradigm of an industry takes an ability to not confuse interim goals with end goals.  That visionary leader will be able to remember that the ultimate goal is not more sales, but more profits.  If the company can make more profits in a way that doesn't require so many sales, it is worth consideration.

Take for instance the company profiled in the video that is linked below.  CFS II is a collection agency in Tulsa, OK.  Sorta.  Its owner, Bill Barman, is a visionary leader.

You see, Mr. Bartman realized that the end goal of his company is to collect on past due debts.  He could do it like all of his competitors, by browbeating the people in debt until they forked over a little bit.  Or he could act on his realization that "people in debt don't have money."

So instead, CFS II and its leader changed the paradigm.  Instead of usual collection agency tactics, CFS II helps debtors to consolidate debts, to find jobs, to secure housing and government assistance. All for free. Mr. Bartman doesn't hire debt collectors, he hires customer service professionals. They help people get out of debt.  Because, as Mr. Barman points out, when they are out of debt, they can pay him back.

His results are very positive.  I encourage you to watch the video.  As you do, I encourage you to think about what your organization's ultimate goal is and what are the paradigms that can be changed regarding reaching THOSE goals!

http://youtu.be/SrON4uh6T1k

Please and thank you

The movie Minority Report was recently playing on TV and I was reminded of one of the most chilling scenes in this futuristic, dystopian movie.  I am referring to the short scene where Tom Cruise's character is walking down a street and through a commercial area and is bombarded with advertising messages directed specifically to him.

I found myself very disturbed by this scene of direct marketing on steroids on many levels.  On the plot level, Cruise's character is trying to sneak away unnoticed.  Having billboards and holograms shouting his name, trying to sell him things, was preventing that.  On a societal level, I could not help but think how strange it would be if society became accustomed to that level of personalized and targeted intrusion, noise and hubbub.  On a marketing level, I have to admit I was disturbed by my eager thoughts of all the different things you could do if you could literally target marketing messages to the individual at the point of sale, or at any point in the decision making process you wanted.

The reason I am writing about a science fiction movie is that advances in data management and data mining technology are making the fiction in Minority Report closer and closer to fact.  While not currently using eye scan technology (that I know of), we are capable of greater and greater specificity in our marketing messages.  We are capable of faster and faster matching of consumer's actions and behaviors to the messages that we send them.  We can combine and divide customer and prospect data faster and cheaper than ever before.  It is safe to say that marketers have the ability to know more about their customers likes and dislikes, demographics and psychographics, purchase and shopping habits, and everything in between, than ever before.

But to quote another movie that was released the same year as Minority Report, "...with great power, comes great responsibility."

Marketers and businesses must tred carefully when mining data for marketing messages.  As we have seen recently, people will respond negatively and sometimes strongly when they feel that their privacy is being violated, especially for commercial reasons.  Internet companies and their advertisers have seen some push back from consumers and the media when they are perceived to have reached too far in mining individual information and personalizing marketing messages.

While the temptations to use new and powerful capabilities, I suspect that used recklessly that the benefits will be short-lived at best.

The good news is that the solution of how to employ new and emerging technology without alienating customers and prospects is very easy.  It is also very basic.  All you have to do is ask permission.

As we learned in kindergarten, saying please and thank you goes a long way.  That is still true in marketing and especially true when you are pushing the boundaries on your customers' comfort levels.  By asking permission, you can mitigate a whole slew of potentially negative reactions.  It doesn't happen any more, but there was a time when people who got direct marketing letters in their homes that were personally addressed to them and had personal information in the letter would freak out.  People were upset and felt they were being spied on.  Strong reactions also greeted internet companies like Facebook when they changed privacy rules to allow more sharing of data with paying marketers.

Asking permission has a couple of significant benefits.  First, your prospect is not surprised by your personalized marketing appeal.  That minimizes the negative reactions and increases receptivity.  Second, by asking permission, you are pre-qualifying a prospect. You know that this person has a certain level of interest. This makes them a less risky marketing investment.  More tools and more data can be focus on those who have given permission.  Finally, the very act of asking permission projects a positive image.  A company that cares enough to ask before they plunge into full force marketing shows that they care about customers.

That is a huge advantage!  And it seems much less intrusive.

The Final Say

"Don't let it end like this.  Tell them I said something."
Pancho Villa, last words 1877 - 1923

Endings are important.  When it comes to customer service, endings are perhaps the most important time in the customer interaction, primarily because it is your last chance to leave the customer with a good impression, the last chance to correct any mistakes or missteps and the last chance to make things exceptional.

I was once eating lunch with a colleague at a restaurant that was part of a national chain.  During the course of lunch, a cockroach crawled across our table.  Neither of us at the table were happy about that, but neither of us freaked out either.  It did put a certain pallor on our lunch, which ended sooner than we had expected because of the unexpected visitor.  When I mentioned what had happened to our server, she expressed appropriate dismay and asked us to wait to talk with the manager.

My first response was that this was good.  They were taking our experience seriously and wanted restaurant management to know and have a chance to apologize.  But as my colleague and I waited for more than 15 minutes to talk with the manager (we kept being told he would be right there) our anger at the situation grew.
By making us wait for so long (this was a business day and we both had to get back to work), the manager took what would have been a minor situation and escalated it.  Instead of giving us the impression that they took the cleanliness of the restaurant and the quality of our experience seriously, the absent manager highlighted the fact that we just weren't that important.

We had more than 15 minutes to think about the little creature that crawled across our table and what that probably meant about how many of his siblings were crawling around other parts of the restaurant.  As we had more than 15 minutes to wait, we thought about the meals that we didn't finish due to this incident, the time this was costing us waiting for the manager and the poor attitude of the staff (actually only the manager, but anger has a way of painting with a broad brush.)

When the manager finally decided to attend to us, he immediately went into a rather lengthy and detailed description of all the pest control measures that the restaurant engaged in, which is now and forevermore the first thing I think of when I think of this chain.  I am sure their advertising agency will be pleased to know that.  It also seemed as if the manager was saying that we couldn't possibly have seen a cockroach because they invest a small fortune on chemicals and exterminators to keep them at bay.  In the end, the manager spent another 10 or 15 minutes blathering on about restaurant pest management as if he were preparing for the test on that chapter of the manager's manual.

When I finally interrupted him and told him that we needed to be going he asked us to wait just a minute more and scurried off (somewhat like a cockroach I was thinking at this point.)  When he returned he proudly handed us each certificates for a free dessert, next time we returned and purchased a meal.  He then charged us for the full meal we were unable to finish.  We shook our heads, paid our bill and left.  It took me and my family more than 10 years to go back to any store in that chain.

The manager missed an opportunity by a mile.  By ignoring us and our situation, he ended the situation poorly.  A little sympathy would have made us go away satisfied and we probably would have forgotten it after a few retellings around the office.  A discount of our bill or waiving the bill altogether would have made a bold statement and probably would have had us leaving the restaurant feeling pretty good about the place.  A bold action like that would have said to us that they cared about our experience and since our experience wasn't great, they wanted to do something about it.  I suspect it also would have helped us feel that it didn't happen very often because they couldn't afford to waive everyone's lunch receipt.

YOU have the final say on what type of experience your customers have.  YOU have control over the last impression you and your organization makes before your customer walks out or logs off.  Especially when a customer has a poor or less than excellent experience, YOU have the chance to turn it around into something positive.

YOU have the final say!  Make it count!

**********
Everything is Marketing will not be published this Friday as I will be out of state attending a memorial service for my father-in-law.  Please take the time you would normally spend reading my blog to call or write to a loved one and tell them what they mean to you.  See you again on Monday.
Bill

Discoveries

In recognition of Columbus Day, I thought I would briefly highlight some of the ways I make discoveries that help me solve problems and create opportunities in my work life.

• Networking:  By networking and maintaining that casual, social network of professionals in my field of endeavor, I almost always gather new ideas or possible solutions to old problems.  The simple act of talking with people can help me make discoveries of new ideas and techniques.  It also helps me develop, grow and maintain a support system.  I try to network with smart people from a variety of backgrounds and professions, because I find it more interesting and the conversations more worthwhile.  Anything that pulls me away from the desk for a cup of coffee, lunch or a drink every once in a while, while still providing work benefits, needs to be practiced with regularity!
• Contests:  I participate in professional contests in which I submit work to be judged.  The value of this is in the evaluation of my work by the judges more than any awards that I might win.  Having said that, it is always nice to be able to bring back awards certificates to the office to show my boss and board that I might know what I am doing!  
• Attend Awards Ceremonies: When I am not able to participate in contests (usually because I missed the deadline), I still try to attend contest award ceremonies.  Many of these programs allow you to view award winners and sometimes take samples.   Talking to winners and reading about their award-winning work shows me how others are addressing challenges and opportunities similar to mine.
• Judge Contests:  Better even than participating in a contest is judging one.  This is better because it allows me to see a variety of projects and forces me to evaluate them.  I have never participated in judging without coming up with at least one great idea which I later "borrowed."
• Read voraciously:  I try to read, or at least scan, material from a lot of different sources. The in-depth perspective you get from a book is different than the overview nature of a magazine article which is different than a blog or internet post.  By trying to expose myself to a variety of sources, I get different ways of looking at issues, different ways at addressing a problem or challenge.  My reading is not limited to books and magazines on marketing and communications related topics.  I strongly suggest that it is more important to read books of other disciplines and broad-based business publications as well as fiction, history, and other non-fiction.  All of these will help you gain a better insight into the workings of the human mind.  Reading outside of your current discipline can also help expand your awareness of issues you are working with, help you develop stronger business empathy and, candidly, be a nice break from dealing with the same topic all day!
• Volunteer:  Volunteering has many advantages.  In addition to being good karma and allowing me to feel the benefit of doing something for others, volunteering helps me get a fresh perspective on my job.  By getting involved in another organization, I can often find a different way of addressing tasks I have to deal with at work.  Whenever possible, I get involved in responsibilities different than those I have at work. When the marketer becomes the Little League treasurer, and the IT head manages the inventory for the homeless shelter, they gain a new perspective and greater insight into how organizations run.  That greater insight helps them do their job more creatively.  

How do you discover new lands and new approaches to your problems and challenges?

The Apple of Everyone's Eye

After 13 years as the Best Global Brand, Coca Cola has lost a bit of its fizz.  In the last week, international branding and marketing company, Interbrand, who evaluates companies on their global brand appeal, has named Apple as the Best Global Brand.  Interbrand looks at a number of factors, including financial success and market influence in making their list.  Tech companies tended to dominate the list this year, with Google taking the second spot, IBM in fourth, Microsoft in fifth and Samsung in eigth.

In separate news, Emily Chasen of the Wall Street Journal reported that "U.S. nonfinancial companies held $1.48 trillion in cash as of June 30, according to Moody’s review of the more than 1,000 companies it rates. Cash stockpiles have grown by about 2% from $1.45 trillion at the end of last year, and up 81% from $820 billion at the end of 2006."  What makes this relevant to the story about Apple being the top brand is that 10% of those cash reserves, or about $147 billion, belongs to one company...Apple.

So Apple, well known and with lots of cash on hand, is like that kid you resented in high school...more popular and richer than anyone has a right to be.  

And just like that kid in high school, the future looks bright for Apple.  Their massive cash reserves will afford them the ability to develop or acquire the technology that they need to keep their stable of products popular and in demand.  Their ubiquitous name and logo will keep them in the minds of tech-hungry populous.  Their aura and mystique and money will provide them some ability to survive the occassional stumble or misstep without losing customer loyalty.

It is somewhat amazing that Apple is on the top brand list at all.  In the 90s, the company appeared to be gasping on fumes.  Swallowing its pride, the Board of Directors wooed Steve Jobs back to the company he started and the rest, as they say, is history.  The other remarkable thing is that Apple has hit this high water mark two years after Jobs' death.  Given past history, some pundits speculated whether Apple could grow, thrive or even survive without Jobs at the helm. 

I don't expect that Apple will repeat Coke's 13 year run as Best Global Brand.  For one, I suspect Coke's longevity as Best Global Brand had a lot to do with more than a century of strong branding and marketing throughout the world.  Apple hasn't been around that long, nor as consistently successful or global.  Second, Google is nipping at Apple's heels.  Coca Cola, at number three, is significantly behind the two tech giants in Brand Value as calculated by Interbrand.  More than any other company on the list, Google also has impressive cash reserves and reputation that will allow it to almost compete with Apple, if it chooses, in growth and branding games.

Regardless of what happens in future years, right now, its good to be Apple!

Kaleidoscope Communications

Recently, working on a fundraiser, I was reflecting on the wide range of things we needed to communicate to the wide range of people and organizations.  There were people inside the organization that needed to know what was going on, suppliers that needed to be coordinated, volunteers who needed to be recruited and instructed, customers that needed to be prospected and sold, community leaders who needed to be informed, reporters and editors who needed to be pitched, and much more!

It made me wonder if two-way communication was really an apt description for the complex, multi-faceted communications that are required in these situations.

In reality, most of the time we are communicating with multiple parties, with multiple messages, and multiple communication objectives.

Saying this is two way communications or a dialogue is like saying the Mona Lisa is a nice sketch.

It seems as if communications, especially communications for a major event or project, is more like a kaleidoscope.  The combinations are endless and can easily change; it works and is special because of the way all the pieces work together to create a whole, and it changes each time you look at it.

And used correctly, kaleidoscopes make everything around them look so much better!

A Scanner's Lament

I like to scan the news.  Since I often read a couple of newspapers, see news online on Yahoo, Bing and various other sources, and listen to newscasts when I am driving, I tend to scan the news, looking for something new or something of particular interest to me.

Earlier this week, I opened what I thought was an online news story on something I was mildly interested in.  Expecting to see a written story flash across my screen, I was surprised instead to be greeted by the loud (read obnoxious) opening music of a video report on the story.

I know that everyone is supposed to prefer video in these You Tube inspired days.  I know that I am a pariah for not having short videos on my website or a link to a YouTube channel for the organizations I work for.  And I am not immune to the power of a well crafted video.  But most of the time, I would prefer to read things.

Videos have their very important place in the communication tool box..  They are excellent for persuasive and emotional messages, wonderful for entertainment purposes, and unparallelled for providing a record of significant events.

But as a means to relay a news story, I don't think videos make sense. There are several things I don't like about news stories in video form:

• The video often just involves talking heads.  There is nothing of additional value provided in many news vlogs.
• Videos have sound.  I am often reading the news at times or in places that make a blaring soundtrack disruptive and insensitive or just plain embarrassing.  Most often, there is no indication as to whether the news story you are opening is written or amplified.
• Related to the above, if I want to learn the latest on the debt ceiling, or Lindsey Lohan, I don't need the person at the next table at Starbucks to know.
• For videos to be a viable option, you need to be able to watch them without constant buffering and delays.  Bandwidth availability can be a significant issue.  With slow bandwidth (or heavy use) videos are usually just an excuse to get frustrated because they either don't play or they stop every few seconds to buffer.
• You can't scan video.  You can't listen to just the sub headlines.  You have to listen to all or most of it, often to find out, it didn't involve Lindsey Lohan at all!
• Vlogs, which are video blogs, can be very entertaining, but the are usually more about the vlogger than about any particular topic.

So, if you are considering a video version of your next newsletter or doing a video newscast

, please consider those of us who who woudl rather "Read All About It!"

Working Alone?

"It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company."
 George Washington

"Solitude is certainly a fine thing; but there is pleasure in having someone who can answer, from time to time, that it is a fine thing."                                                     Balzac

Whether because of personal preference, economics or other circumstances, more and more of us find ourselves working in one-person marketing and PR offices.  While there are aspects of this that are positive (no one messes with the messes on your desk, you don't have to play departmental politics and you know EVERYTHING that's going on in the department...becasue you ARE the department) there is one decided disadvantage.  You have to do all the work.

There are many keys to surviving work in a one person marketing office.  These include

• Setting and sticking with goals and plans
• Learn to say "no" to additional work
• Take care of your physical work space and the physical YOU
• Give yourself breaks, especially from anything with a screen!
• If you are working from home, establish an "office" space and "office" hours

The most import tip for surviving working alone is to not do it.  Most of the successful people I know in one person marketing/PR offices are really one person in name only.  These people successfully co-opt others into their marketing/communications/PR world.  They recruit interns, find and nurture quality vendor relationships, and involve others in the organization in communications and public relations and outreach.

By making public relations and communications an organization-wide priority, a saavy marketer in a one person office can essentially have the entire organization working for him.  By making sure that marketing and communications principals and values are part of the management principals and values, an on-her-toes communicator can involve the entire management team with her "to do" list.

Ultimately, since marketing and public relations involve communicating with others, you need to involve others.  Done well, the communciations is a conversation, one in which the marketer from the one-person office doesn't have to do all the talking!  

24/7 Drama Machine

There is no doubt that the advent of all news cable channels has changed the way television news is reported.  There is no doubt that the advent of social media has changed the way we interact with world events.  Notice I said changed.  Not improved.

We have had far too many examples recently on how the 24/7 news machine deals with major tragedies.  Make that fails to deal with major tragedies.

Just like many others, when there is a significant event happening, I want to be kept up to speed on developments.  I like to know what facts have been confirmed and even some historical and social context of the event.

CNN Anchor/Reporter Wolf Blitzer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I don't need to see Wolf Blitzer guess what the news is going to be.  I don't need to hear the talking heads speculate what may or may not be the story.  I certainly don't need to hear news announcers pronounce that it is impossible to know anything with certainty in the early hours of a situation, then turn around and blather on with hours of speculation.

Personnally, I would find the all news channels immensely more watchable during a crisis if they would report on the FACTS, and then go back to the rest of the news.  I think it would be healthy and helpful if these stations reminded us that the world goes on despite a bombing in a mall or a storm that destroys a town.

I think part of the problem is that the all news channels have a lot of hours of broadcast to fill.  And running reruns doesn't work as well on CNN as it does on TVLand.

But I think the greater probelm is that they are still in the old newspaper mindset of being the first to report breaking news.  They rush to announce that this may have happened or that may have happened because they see a value in having their newsboys on the corner first.

I've got news for the news channels.  You are never going to be first out of the gate.  Twitter will always beat you.  Facebook will usually be having a conversation about the issue well underway before you get the cameras pointed at a befuddled anchor.

One of the reasons The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a comedy news show, is cited by young adults as their primary source of news, is that Jon and his staff provide some intelligent analysis and evaluation of the news.  They are also only trying to fill half an hour each night.

If all of the "real" news networks could accept that they will not be first, and could embrace the role of providing value-added commentary or analysis, I think they will find audiences still turning into them.  The difference is they would enjoy it.

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