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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