A meme by any other name...

Every once in a while I have a conversation which reminds me how old and out of touch I really am.  I had such a conversation recently when I was discussing memes with my children.  Both my son and my daughter are in college and frequenters of the social media you would expect them to frequent.

I had heard the term meme before this conversation but had never had a firm grasp of what a meme was.  I expected to learn it was something along the lines of an emoticon, something born and bred of the social media or internet age.  Both of my kids got exasperated trying to help me understand what a meme was, and what it wasn't.  A meme is often humorous but isn't a serial internet joke.  A meme is often visual but isn't a picture that was repeated with different sayings associated with it.

This valiant effort continued via text long after they had returned to college.  In his latest attempt to enlighten me, my son Brian wrote: "a meme is first a character associated with a specific personality or idea.  Then different jokes or statements are generated that correlate or comment on that idea, usually in a crowd-sourced setting.  The statement and image are combined to create an easily digestible and typically humorous post."  While that was helpful, it really just supported my theory that my kids are much smarter than their old man!

I decided more research was called for.  What I found, surprised me.  Like Angela Caldin, in her blog linked below, I was surprised that the term meme has been around far longer than Facebook.  First coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, meme refers to cultural characteristics that are passed down the generations.  Any characteristic of a culture, be it language, music, images, etc. that can be transmitted from one generation to the next in a way analogous to the transmission of genetic information. In other words, memes are like cultural genes.

So why are memes important to marketers.  In our marketing-driven culture, we are dealing with memes all of the time (at least how I understand it!)  There are people of a certain age, that if I said, "Two all beef patties, special sauce..." they would be able to continue to cite the list of ingredients in a Big Mac, always in the same order and probably with a certain cadence.  To have your marketing message become a cultural talisman is a marketers Holy Grail.  Let me rephrase that, because I am pretty sure that the Ford Motor Company isn't so happy with the meme-status of the Edsel.  To have your brand become a POSITIVE cultural talisman is what every marketer works toward.

Just like no advertiser should create ads in order to win awards, becoming a cultural icon should be a by-product of excellent marketing, not a goal of it.  Still, becoming a meme, a positive meme, is a great thing for a brand.

Now can someone explain to me what gangnam style is?

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Vacations every day!

In North America, we find ourselves in spring break vacation season. That got me to thinking...

When we travel on vacation, things often are difficult and/or stressful: car troubles, delayed or cancelled flights, confusing directions, motel showers, bad food, cab rides and the list goes on. We have to decide what to pack, hope we actually remember everything we intended to pack, make travel arrangements, pay a lot of money for things that we already have at home (like a comfortable bed) and generally displace ourselves from the comfort and routine of our lives. So why do we consider vacation travel fun and desirable?

It seems to me that there are two reasons. One is it is a new, fresh experience. We get to break the mold. Get away from the every day. We see new things, meet new people, have exciting new experiences. Even if our vacation destination is a familiar one, it is different from the every day things that are a part of our "regular" lives.

The second reason that vacations are desirable is that on vacation, the focus is on you. Most of us have to serve others (customers, bosses, teachers, parents and children) in our daily lives. On vacation, we get to do something for ourselves for a change.  People serve us!

Wouldn't it be wonderful, if our customers got "vacation-style" interactions with us on an every day basis? If we could make our customers feel that they are the center of attention when they deal with us and they have new, interesting, and exciting experiences when they deal with us, doesn't it stand to reason that their interactions with us will be more desired and sought out? And, like a vacation, doesn't it stand to reason that the customer who experiences "vacation-style" interactions will be willing to put up with the occasional mistake or inconvenience in order to have those interactions?

We do when we travel.

"Social" media

One of the reasons some companies fear social media...



For more cartoons like this, visit the marketoonist, Tom Fishburne at tomfishburne.com.

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Talking together

Lately, we seem more concerned with having our devices talk to each other than we do with having our colleagues talk to each other.  With the explosion of wireless computing and the Swiss army knife of the 21st century, the smart phone, featuring more and more capabilities and tools, we have more and more ways to connect with colleagues and customers and fewer and fewer reasons to talk to people.

While I believe in the efficiency of webinars, conferences and conference calls, I also have multi-tasked my way through all of them enough times to know that they are not usually the best way to have an engaged conversation.  As with so many things related to communications, the closer you can get to face-to-face, one-on-one conversation, the more impact and persuasion you can have.  The closer we can get to one-on-one conversation the more likely we are to make a connection with the other party in the conversation.  

A friend of mine sends out emails about her business on a pretty regular basis.  She was telling me that she had recently started personalizing some of the emails to key customers.  The response from those customers was remarkable, she told me with a bit of amazement.  While not everyone made a purchase, many people felt the need to respond to her; to reconnect with her.  They saw these emails not as advertisements, which they essentially were, but as one-on-one communications.  As a personal message.  They felt compelled to respond.  They felt compelled to strengthen the relationship.

There are ways that technology can help us approximate the one-on-one conversation.  For a while, one of the biggest concepts in marketing was the idea of mass customization.  The theory was that technology would allow us to use the convenience of mass marketing but with the impact of a personalized, customized message.  While I suspect there aren't many people anymore who feel that a mail merged letter is the same as a hand-written note, it does make a letter seem a bit less like a form letter and a bit more like the sender wants to really communicate.  Technology allows us to customize what information a customer or prospect receives, essentially allowing us to customize our interaction on a one-on-one level.

We need to be mindful of what we are doing and not let the technology seduce us too much.  For example, think about how too many people use what is now a pretty dusty technology, PowerPoint.  Too many speakers continue to pour all of their energy into creating detailed, bullet-riddled PowerPoint presentations.  They end up giving their speech facing the slides because they don't want to miss any of the precious facts they have loaded onto each slide.  As Seth Godin says in his blog post titled "Really Bad PowerPoint," "countless innovations fail because their champions use PowerPoint the way Microsoft wants them to, instead of the right way."  Wordy, bullet-laden presentations rarely communicate as much as the creator hopes they will.  When a speaker is speaking to the screen, he cannot be talking with the audience.  Also, people can't see all the brilliance on the slide if their eyes are closed.

Similarly, some organizations confuse the use of social media as a strategy as opposed to a media option.  This results in companies focusing unwarranted attention on generating likes, or followers, or repins instead of focusing on the true mission of the organization or the brand, generating sales.  Getting someone to push a "Like" button is not a conversation or a connection.  It may be an invitation to start a conversation, depending what scheme you used to get that person to push that "Like" button.  We really need to be focusing on connections, real connections, with customers and prospects and other key audiences.  We need to be finding ways to talk together.

A colleague of mine told me recently that if an email exchange goes past three emails without the issue getting resolved, she picks up the phone and calls the person.  The issue rarely goes past one phone call.  There is nothing more powerful than talking directly with a person.

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Smoke Signals

For three days last week it seems as if the world was obsessed with black and white smoke.  According to wiki.answers, 18% of the world is Catholic.  So why were any of the other 82% of us paying any attention to who would be the next Pope?

In the 1980s, a company called Pencept released what is commonly considered the first tablet computer.  No one noticed.  Despite many other attempts to develop and market the devices, the market ignored tablet computers until a few years ago when Apple released the iPad.

The connection, as I see it, is that both the Pope and Apple, demand our attention.  While their messages are ostensibly delivered to their respective faithful, they are in fact speaking to all of us.  They are speaking to all of us because what they do, what they say, impacts all of us.  They impact us because they influence the public conversation.

Pencept marketed a tablet computer and no one noticed.  Apple came out with one and all of the sudden everyone had to have one.  If the Pope and the Catholic Church even signal that they are considering a change in a church custom or rule, they send shock waves throughout the spiritual, cultural and political worlds.

I don't know that I would recommend that every company try to become an influencer like Apple.  That takes years, amazing amounts of effort, resources and luck, and a singular leader, like the Pope...or Steve Jobs.  But at the very least, you should pay attention to the smoke signals.

The Formula for Quality Communications: 6C=Q

I have written about the need to be more concise and more precise in the messages we use.  In an earlier blog post (see link below), I referred to this as creating carefully crafted, concise messages that clearly communicate one or two key messages.  Six C's that result in a quality message.  6C=Q.

It has been suggested that platitudes are fine but specifics are what are really helpful.  I agree.  In this blog I am going to start with several ideas about how to be clear and concise in your messages.  I challenge everyone who reads this to leave a comment with a tip or two that YOU use to make sure your messages are quality messages, especially in today's world of interactive and social media.  I will share all ideas I get in a future blog.

Tips for Creating Carefully Crafted, Concise Messages that Clearly Communicate

• Clear Concise Communications are rarely created by accident.  This takes work.  The more you work at it, the easier it will seem, but rarely is clear concise communication created by accident.  As Abraham Lincoln famously said prior to a speech, "This speech would have been shorter but I ran out of time."
• Clear Concise Communications requires that you have a key message and a key audience in mind.  You have to be clear about what message you want to get out and who you want to get it to.  Your decision on both these areas will dictate everything about your message.
• Be aware of the language that you use.  Many of us who work in a single industry have to be aware that many people we are trying to communicate with, including many people within that same industry, don't understand the jargon, acronyms and language shortcuts that are a part of every industry.  There ARE times when it is appropriate to use those things, but do it purposefully.
• Write to communicate.  What I mean by this is pay more attention to getting your message across in a clear and engaging way than to the formal rules of grammar (unless of course you are communicating to a group of English teachers!).  This is closely related to the next tip.
• Write how your intended audience talks.  You want to communicate with your intended audience, so you need to communicate how they communicate.  This means using the language they use.  It also means communicating using the media they use.
• If you can't say it in 30 seconds or 300 words, you haven't figured out your key message.
• Be concious of the rhythms of your writing.  The best writing has a rhythm or cadence to it.
• Edit by reading aloud.  Your ear is a great editor!
• When possible illustrate your ideas with pictures. While a picture may be worth a thousand words it is worth way more than that when it comes to its ability to generate attention and interest.
• If you are illustraing with pictures, consider moving pictures.  Video is easier, cheaper and more popular than ever before.  It should be part of your communications toolbox.
• Great video starts with a great script.  A great script delivers the message in less than a few minutes (see above).
• Great communications starts and ends with great listening.  If you are listening (to your audience, to your peers, to yourself) you will have a much better idea of how to communicate.  If you are listening you will also have a better idea of how your message is being recieved.  You have two ears and one mouth which is a good reminder of the ratio of listening to talking (or writing) that you should be doing.

There is more, but I want to hear from readers.  Add a bullet point or two to this list in a comment and I will publish them in a future blog!  Thanks!

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The Swiss Army Knife of Our Time

When I was a kid, after many years of begging, I finally got a present I deeply coveted...a Swiss Army Knife.  My Swiss Army Knife had a large blade and a small blade, a nail file, a screw driver, an awl, a scissors, a can opener (which I could never figure out), a genuine imitation ivory toothpick, a tweezers and a corkscrew.  What more could anyone want?  I think I only regularly used the big knife blade.

I wonder sometimes if smart phones aren't the Swiss Army Knives of our time.  They are sold with a seemingly endless array of features, most of which I suspect are rarely if ever used.  In the store, it is fun to think about using your phone to create business reports and watch movies, but eye strain and readily available, larger-screened options quickly prevail.  In the ad it sounds like a blast to be able to contact a bunch of friends at the same time, whether to plan a great social outing or to just guffaw over the latest TV sitcom.  At home, I realize that I don't have 10 friends that I want to call at the same time.  Most of them don't know and/or like each other and rarely do I do anything with that many of them at a time.

I expect that as smart phones become more and more de rigueur, manufacturers will need to come out with stripped down models.  There is a certain segment of the population who will appreciate, and buy, a phone that is designed to be, well, just a phone.

Once, in college, I used the corkscrew on my knife to open a bottle of wine.  (yes I still had the knife then and yes, I swear it was in college!). Similarly, once, I used the flashlight app on my phone, but even then it was just to show it off.  At least with the corkscrew I got to drink some bad wine!

The Art of Asking

As a Friday treat, I want to share with you a special video.  Amanda Palmer is a self-described punk cabaret musician.  In the TED talk linked below, she shares some interesting observations on people and life as she discusses her career.  The reason I am sharing this video though is the thought provoking question she poses at the end of the video.  What if we stop asking how we can make people pay for things like music and start asking how can we allow people to help. I don't know that it is a good business model for every business, but I think it might be a great philosophy for every person.  Enjoy!

Watch "The Art of Asking" video here.

Press #@&^% for Customer Service

Yesterday, I tried to get a simple question answered about a charge on my credit card.  I called the company issuing the charge with a straightforward request but one that didn't fit neatly into the categories provided on the charging company's voicemail system.

I am typically pretty willing to navigate through a voicemail system to find an answer to my inquiry.  I even find some of the more carefully constructed auto-response systems a pleasure to use as I can get an answer to my question quickly and with machine-like efficiency.

But this system was one of those circular machine hells that kept sending me back to the same place over and over and over and over again.  I tried calling back during normal business hours in the hope that I might be directed to a customer service agent.  No such luck.  I tried the website (as repeatedly suggested) but couldn't access the information I needed because I needed to have information that I could only get from the website in order to get into the website.  Or at least that is how I felt.

Ultimately, what started as a simple request for information about a charge from the issuing company ended up with me reversing the charges with my credit card company.  It also ended with me vowing to think twice or three times before doing business with that company again.

I understand that automated systems can save a company time and money.  I also understand that a poorly designed automated system can a company from having to deal with pesky customer problems and complaints.  But probably not in the way they intended.


The Many P's of Marketing: Pause

Pause:  I have had fun with the Many P's of Marketing and have more P-words to explore the breadth and depth of the world of marketing.  Nevertheless, I think it is a good time to pause this series and write about other things in this blog.  I will come back to it.  I will bring in more guest bloggers.  But for now, I have things to say that don't start with P!

The Many P's of Marketing: Perseverance

Weeble Wobbles (Photo credit: m kasahara)

Marketing has gotten more and more nuanced, as new technologies and strategies have opened up many options for marketers.  It is my contention that today, the marketing mix contains much more than the traditional four or five P's that are taught in school.  In this series I am exploring the Many P's of Marketing.

Perseverance:  Have ever noticed that some people are like the old children's toy Weebles.  No matter what life throws at them, they may wobble a bit, but they always end up upright and still with a smile on their face.  These people seemingly brush life's challenges off as if they are nothing but a little lint and keep moving forward, with their positive mental attitude intact.  As the ad says: Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.

There are some brands like that.  No matter what happens to the company or its people, the brand remains unblemished in the public's eye.  These are the brands we should all be jealous of.   I think that is a direct product of a brand's loyalty, or perseverance, to its key message.  Coca Cola has invested so much into its brand image that they could withstand the missteps that surrounded the launch and retraction of New Coke.

With what used to be called reach and frequency, brands like Coca Cola built market share AND mind-share by relentlessly marketing themselves and dominating the relatively few media options with their brand.  The main order of marketing a brand like Coke was to make sure it was everywhere we looked.  Let's call this form of perseverance "budget perseverance."  You can buy it.

These days, with a highly fragmented media and much more sophisticated, media savvy and participatory audiences, you need a different type of perseverance.  You need brand and message consistency.  Your message needs to be consistent and must fit with all the other messages surrounding your brand.  In this media world of retweets and repinning, posting and sharing, no marketer can control where his message goes or who sees it.  No marketer can control what message one segment of the target audience sees versus another segment.  Hence, all of the messages related to a brand must be consistent.  Consistent with the brand and consistent with the other messages.  Let's call this type of perseverance "message perseverance."

Most often, companies fail on message perseverance in the difference between the paid messages they send out and the messages sent by the service they deliver.  Consider the example of the bank who advertises that YOU are important to them, but when you call them you only get a complicated, impersonal series of recorded messages.  Or when you visit the bank branch, you have to wait a long time to get service and then the tellers are unpleasant.  Also consider the Mercedes dealer who gives loaner cars to their best customers, but the loaner cars are Hondas.  I don't understand why a car dealer would expose customers to another brand.  In addition, it seems to me that they are sending a subtle message that the Honda is a reliable car (it is not in for repairs) that you can use while your finicky Mercedes is being fixed.  Not really consistent with their promotional messages.

On the other hand, consider the now famous case of the Tylenol tampering.  Bottles of Tylenol capsules was found to have been tampered with and containing cyanide.  Within a week of the first death the company had pulled every bottle of Tylenol, more than 30 million of them, from store shelves around the world.  McNeal Consumer Healthcare, the parent company that owned the Tylenol brand then pioneered tamper proof packaging.  The rapid and decisive response by McNeal, strongly supported their message claims of caring for their customers.  Their actions cost McNeal millions and millions of dollars.  But it did not cost them market share.  When Tylenol returned to the shelves, customers returned to the brand.

Or consider the story from UPS that they have invested in routing software that helped their drivers make more right turns, increasing their efficiency and shortening delivery times.  This story, while at first somewhat amusing and farcical, actually meshes beautifully with UPS message "We Love Logistics."

Budget perseverance isn't as realistic as it once was.  No matter how big its budget, no company can dominate all the media the way Coca Cola once did.  When some of the most influential media are virtually free to use (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) having a Big Gulp sized budget doesn't help.  The smart marketers are instead focusing their resources on getting out a variety of messages to the variety of media, all of which support and are consistent with the brand of the product or service.  Resources should be focused on message consistency and pervasiveness...the reach and frequency of 21st century.

To achieve success in consistency and pervasiveness you need...you guessed it...perseverance!

The Many P's of Marketing: Personal Philosopher

Marketing has gotten more and more nuanced, as new technologies and strategies have opened up many options for marketers.  It is my contention that today, the marketing mix contains much more than the traditional four or five P's that are taught in school.  In this series I am exploring the Many P's of Marketing.

Personal Philosopher:  I think that there is value in having one or more people who act as your personal philosophers.  These people serve as touchstones or measuring sticks in your career.  They serve as philosophical sounding boards to help you work through decisions.

In my mind, personal philosophers are different than mentors.  Mentors help you out with the day to day navigation of your job.  If they are internal mentors, they tell you where the bathrooms are and where you can get the best coffee.  If they are external mentors, they give you examples of what others are doing in their companies and strategies for dealing with day to day issues.  They work with you on how to do your job.  A personal philosopher, on the other hand, is someone whom you use a guide as to why you do your job.  They provide the moral career compass.

The handful of people I use as my personal philosophers are people who work in the same or similar industries as I do.  I know them and their work well enough to be inspired (and somewhat awestruck) in what they have accomplished.  Two of my personal philosophers are people I talk to regularly.  One is someone I have never met personally.  All three are people who are transparent enough and open enough about how they approach their work and why they do it that I can learn from them.  None of them know that they serve this role for me.

I would equate the way I "use" these personal philosophers as being similar to the way some Christians use bracelets and posters emblazoned with WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) to help remind them to live a spiritually centered life.  I use my personal philosophers to help me rationalize how to approach certain marketing/PR/communication challenges and to help me set career goals and targets that are realistic and appropriate.

It is great to have a team to bounce ideas off of.  Maybe one day I will let them know they are on my team!