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Hillary Clinton called me!

December 4, 2007

Yes….me. She wanted to tell me her stand on the issues. And I know you’ll be stunned to hear this, but Hillary isn’t the only one calling.

I’ve heard from Mitt, Mike, Obama, Rudy, Bill, John, Chris and all the rest.

Impressed? Don’t be.

They don’t want to talk to me, they want to talk at me. Welcome to living in Iowa during a caucus year. Spending is at an all time high (over $15 million to date and on the rise) and one of the more popular tactics apparently is the personal phone call.

Well, not exactly personal. In fact, downright impersonal. I pick up the phone. I say hello. I wait. I say hello again. Finally, a recorded message from a candidate begins.

I hang up.

Come on, people. You say you are smart enough to run the country but you really think the recorded phone call method favored by cable TV companies and other automated sales forces is an effective marketing tool?

I know it’s cheap at first blush. Pennies per Iowan versus the big bucks of TV, radio and print. But it’s annoying and costing you votes. Not so cheap, perhaps.

Robo calls, as they’re known in the biz, are the second most popular tactic for politicians. Nearly 2/3 of all registered voters in the U.S. received at least one call in the past year. The only thing that tops it is direct mail.

The calling is such an aggravating tactic that 9 states (including Iowa) are considering legislation to ban these robo calls.

The marketing lesson here — be smarter than a politician. If your marketing tactic is so irritating that people are proposing a law to stop you from doing it — best look for a new tactic.

I’m sure Hillary is going to call again. Anything you want me to tell her?

P.S…and apparently this brilliant marketing tactic isn’t just being used by American politicians!

Can you imagine a world without books?

December 2, 2007

I am very late to a meme that started in early November. My pre-vacation prep and time away just kept me from getting to this.

I was tagged by both Cam Beck and Phil Gerbyshak — both avid readers and among my favorite bloggers. Speaking of favorites — if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I really love books. I love listening to them, reading them, and being surrounded by them. (Check out my bookshelves!)

You can learn a great deal about a person by discovering what books they read and love. That’s the goal of this meme. Let’s jump in.

How many books do I own?

Geez, I have no idea. The house is filled to the gills with books and we probably have 4 or 5 bookshelves at work too. So suffice it to say, many, many books!

Last book I read

Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe AND I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason by Susan Kandel.

Last book I bought

Not counting holiday gifts (I love to give books!) it was Now and Then by Robert B. Parker.

What I’m currently reading

I have several books going right now. Now and Then (see above), Herd by Mark Earls and Lead With Your Heart by Lewis Green.

What I’ll read next

On the road, I am getting ready to start Bad Business by Robert B. Parker (audio book), and the next two books in the pile are The Inside Advantage by Robert H. Bloom and The Watchman by Robert Crais.

What’s on my wish list

The list is, as always, bulging. But a couple that top the list are Walt’s People: Talking Disney with the Artists Who Knew Him by Didier Ghez and Juicing the Orange by Pat Fallon.

5 Meaningful Books (for me)

1. Odd Girl Out (Rachel Simmons)
2. Still Life with Woodpecker (Tom Robbins)
3. Radical Leap (Steve Farber)
4. Selling the Invisible (Harry Beckwith)
5. The Journey of Desire (John Eldredge)

Okay, tag time….(I apologize if you have already been tagged, I know I’m late to the party!)

Chris Wilson
Tim Johnson
Tom Vander Well
Liz Strauss
Tara

Blogtipping — December ’07

December 1, 2007

I am joining with my fellow bloggers in celebrating some new blogs that I enjoyed this past month.

As is the blogtipping tradition, (created by Easton Ellsworth) I’ll offer a few reasons why I like the blog and one suggestion for improvement.

This month’s nods go to….

The Kiss Business Too is a very funny and very smart blog about business and doing it better by keeping it simple.

Things I love:

The humor in the posts.

Lots of outbound links, introducing us to other great blogs.

The writing style is very approachable and comfortable.

Suggestion:

Add a search function so your readers can dig deeper into your content.

Young Entrepreneur was founded by two brothers, Matthew and Adam Toren. The focus is very tight — as the name suggests, entrepreneurs. Within that framework though, they cover a wide range of topics.

Things I love:

The diversity of your posts/topics.

How you include other experts through interviews.

Nice use of multiple authors.

Suggestion:

Maybe it’s just me and the fact that I am not that young anymore…but dang, your font is small!

Strategize is Ross Hollman’s blog on business strategizing. But it actually spans a bit broader than that, covering many aspects of business.

Things I love:

Nice, clean layout.

Good use of visuals, video and examples.

Readers get a very good sense of you in every post.

Suggestion:

How about using tools like MyBlogLog and The Good Blogs to build an even bigger community?

There you have it discerning readers…until next month’s blogtipping adventure!

Keep your eyes right here!

November 30, 2007

According to Evan Carmichael, we should be watched! Okay, he didn't mean it that way!

Drew's Marketing Minute was named one of the Top 50 Marketing Blogs to Watch for 2008!

My thanks to all of you for making this an environment ripe for vibrant conversations. It makes it so much easier to create content, knowing that your thoughts, questions and explorations make each and every post better.

I also want to thanks Evan for creating the list. For those of you not familiar with the site,
EvanCarmichael.com is an amazing resource for small business motivation and strategies. With over 240,000 monthly visitors, 1,600 contributing authors, and 35,000 pages of content, there's something there for everyone.

Get a referral by offering to give one?

November 30, 2007

We all know and understand the power of referrals. Word of mouth is as potent as it gets. You can't buy it or force it. But you can encourage it.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing created a short video about how to get your strategic partners/vendors to help you grow your business.

What do you think?

I think just the act of creating the referral guidebook on your company would be a very eye-opening experience. I'd love to see yours, if you actually take this idea and run with it.

Who knows, this might create a series of case study posts.

Mickey and Minnie send their best!

November 29, 2007

I'm back!

It looks like you all have been having quite a few lively discussions while I've been away. To my readers — thanks for welcoming the guest bloggers with open arms and plenty of comments. I am sure they feel well read!

And for my guest bloggers — thank you, thank you. You added a lot of spice and diversity to the blog. I really loved all the different points of view, topics and opinions.

Please…everyone, join me in a round of cyber applause for the superb guest bloggers:

Greg Verdino
Gavin Heaton
Cam Beck
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Roberta Rosenberg
Connie Reece
Susan Gunelius
Tim Siedell
David Reich
Lewis Green
Doug Meacham

And for your viewing pleasure….the Magic Kingdom's castle at night.

Doug Meacham: People Don’t Want to Buy a Drill….

November 27, 2007

his book "The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth", Clayton Christensen writes:

"How do you create products that customers want to buy–ones that become so successful they "disrupt" the market? It's not easy.

Three in five new-product-development efforts are scuttled before they ever reach the market. Of the ones that do see the light of day, 40% never become profitable and simply disappear.

Most of these failures are predictable–and avoidable. Why? Because most managers trying to come up with new products don't properly consider the circumstances in which customers find themselves when making purchasing decisions. Or as marketing expert Theodore Levitt once told his M.B.A. students at Harvard: "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.""

Put another way, people aren't looking for that thing you are marketing; they're looking for the best tool to get a job done. Unless your product is some sort of "collectible", your customers are only buying your product because they believe it will help them achieve that objective. Product features and functions may change at an ever increasing rate, but the things that people want to accomplish in their lives don't change that quickly. Brands that help customers accomplish their objectives more effectively and conveniently than their competition are the ones that will be successful.

Given this, why do so many companies attempt to market their products and build their brands using an approach focused internally on the thing and not externally on the customer's need? They conduct focus groups, assembling panels of customers to ask if adding this bell or that whistle to their thing would make it more appealing. They do extensive demographical analysis to determine those target customer segments that will find their thing appealing and then spend lots of resources convincing those customers to buy their new and improved thing. Sure, they get clear inputs on what customers want, but don't typically take the time to understand what customers were trying to get done for themselves when they use the company's thing. And this approach isn't isolated to just manufacturers. It carries over to retailers who are focused on the products they are selling and not the job the customer is trying to get done.

Consumer Electronics retailers (my background) are particularly guilty of this. They are constantly telling customers that they have "all the great technology you want (or need) at prices you can afford".

The fact is, very few people "want (or need) technology". Customers don't just wake up one morning and decide they need to go down to Circuit City to pick up some great new technology.

They DO want to have an incredible theater experience in their home. They DO want to capture and share family memories. They DO want to be able to print documents from any computer in their home.

How do the marketers respond to these needs? They dish out specs like 1080p, HDMI2.3, megapixels, and 801.11B, G or N. Whatever the latest spec is, that's what you want. For the customer, none of this hype guarantees a great experience. Marketers who choose to promote their things this way will have a hard time building a powerful brand.

Marketers who understand what customers are really looking for will succeed by focusing on the experience enabled by their brand. Apple is, of course, the often-cited poster child for this. The iPod has never been the best in class from a technical standpoint, but the way Apple enables the music listening experience is what has put their brand miles ahead of the competition. In fact, the term "iPod" is often used generically in place of "MP3 player". Customers looking for a portable media player will almost always think of Apple and iPod first.

My friend Ryan Karpeles wrote a great post on what he calls Reverse Branding which echoes this idea:

"People rarely think of your actual brand first. They think about what they want. Then they decide who, specifically, can fulfill that desire. Being that "who" is the essence of Reverse Branding."

Getting customers to drive your brand in this way is the holy grail of marketing. To get there, you first need to understand that it's the hole they want, not the drill. Once you get that, focus your efforts on being the best damned hole maker in the business.

Drew's Note: Doug recently took a job with IBM as a Retail Consultant. Before that, he was with Circuit City, focusing on their Innovation and Strategic efforts. Doug is another Disney regular, which makes him a good guy in my book!

Lewis Green: What makes you special?

November 27, 2007

If you are a small business owner, an entrepreneur or a consultant, you likely understand that customers have expectations and they expect them to be met. Therefore, in order for you to differentiate your business, you need to find a niche, which can be difficult as seldom do we sell products and services different from our competitors. Furthermore, even if we believe our products and services are better, it is nearly impossible to create that kind of customer perception, as again, they expect products and services to be good to excellent. So what to do?

One way to overcome the differentiation challenge or what I prefer calling the "what makes you special" opportunity is to focus on the "who" (customers)" not the "what" (your products and services). By doing so, you can create a customer experience that is unique to your business, and cater to those customers who want and need that experience. Of course, before you do any of this, you must understand who your ideal customer is and that should be done as early as possible in your business's life.

My business employs several well-thought out strategies to exceed our customer's experience expectations. They include, but are not limited to, the following:

We guarantee our services (marketing and communications). If we do not achieve the goals that were set before the job started, our customers keep a substantial sum of money, which is deducted from the final payment. Risky but our customers love it.
Our clients deal only with me. No matter how large or how small the client's business, every client talks with me and I am their Account Executive. It's time consuming but we also promise that every client is treated as if they are our only client. We have to keep our promises.
We are a values-based business and every decision, everything we say and do, is filtered through those values. That means we only work with clients who have similar values, which sets up a model wherein we and our clients work well together and are a good fit.

Well, that is how we strive to be special.

It works for us because we have a clear understanding of where our business is going, how it is going to get there, and what clients we are going to work with along the way. Some of you may find our strategies unwise and some may relate to them.

Feel free to share. We all can learn from each other through the comments section. How do you differentiate your business? How would you advise others to show their specialness? What works for you and what does not?

P.S. Drew, thank you for letting me to talk with your readers. It is my honor. And readers, I hope I delivered the quality you have come to expect from Drew. He is a tough act to follow.

Drew's Note: With over 30 years of corporate marketing experience, Lewis Green jumped the fence and opened his own agency, much to his clients' good fortune. Lewis' 5th book, Lead with Your Heart has just been released and Lew blogs to boot. Just like his book title, Lewis leads with his heart and is clearly one of the good guys!

David Reich: Is Blogging Losing Steam?

November 26, 2007

Is blogging losing steam? Or maybe the better question is – Are bloggers losing steam?

Over the past several weeks I've noticed a number of posts and I've heard talk, online and off, about blogging overkill, causing some of us to be less active in the blogosphere. I've felt it myself somewhat, as my business has thankfully been very busy lately. That, coupled with personal commitments including being involved in a major election in my town, has taken my time and attention away from the web. But it seems to be not just me.

When I first began blogging back in February, I felt the need to post something new almost every day, following the example set by my mentor CK and some other blogs I'd been following, including this one. What a rush I felt when I'd get comments, especially if the comments were from bloggers I'd been reading, like Drew, Lewis, Gavin and Cam. And comments coming not just from around the nation, but from around the world. It spurred me to write even more. And my wife was feeling like a computer widow.

It's been interesting to see how some posts generate lots of comments and discussion, while others just sit there, unanswered. After my first posts that drew a blank, I wondered, "What did I do wrong?" But then I saw comments come in days or even weeks later. And I also realized that some posts are fairly complete, answering their own questions and leaving little room for discussion other than, perhaps, a polite comment like "Good post."

I've watched my daily readership grow, and I got picked up on some feeds, so I know that – comments or not – I'm not just talking to myself. I'm not on Mack's Viral Garden Top 25 list, but my Technorati authority has gone up and people are reading.

The first time I got jammed with work and let my blog go unchanged for four or five days, I felt terribly guilty, like I was playing hookey from school or sneaking out of work to go to the beach. But I was busy, and I guess nothing struck me at the moment as something worth writing about.

Around that time, I had coffee with Transmission Marketer Mark Goren, who was visiting from Montreal. He said he was having similar feelings and felt pressure to post more often. I told him, it's better to take a break for a few days than put up drivel just for the sake of having a fresh post. If I don't have something useful to say, I'd rather say nothing, I said.

So when I got busy in September, I took my own advice. I didn't post as often. I don't think my blog suffered and perhaps my readers appreciated the break, instead of being served mindless chatter.

I'm realizing that we're all busy and we're pulled in many directions – work, family, friends, hobbies and even relaxing. And some bloggers have migrated over to newer social media, exploring places like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. They're still out there having discussions, but on other channels.

Steve Rubel wrote at Micro Persuasion a few weeks ago about Web 2.0 overkill and how the pioneering spirit he felt a few years back is giving way to the smell of money — cashing in. Hey, if the guys who developed Facebook and the others can reap big rewards for their efforts and their smarts, good for them. Many of us newbies still feel like pioneers, though. We are in the minority. Among my public relations peers and even among my marketing friends, I'm still a pioneer to them, plying what they see as the uncharted waters of blogging.

But there's definitely an undercurrent of talk about blogging losing steam. Some have posted about it, and a quick check around will turn up a number of once-active blogs that have slowed down or have gone silent for weeks at a time.

What do I make of this? I can only speak for myself and speculate, at best, about how others might feel. I still love this blogging stuff. It continues to give me the chance to write in my own voice about things that interest me and ideas and issues I'd like to share with others. The feedback, the camaraderie, and some new friendships that I'm sure will last have been rewarding and inspiring.

Posting every day? I don't feel the pressure now because I realize – call it, perhaps, blogger maturity – that it's better to wait till you have something of value to say than to say anything just to hear yourself talk. If I'm not as active all the time, it's just lack of time, not lack of interest.

So I don't think blogging is losing steam. Some who have been doing it for a while may be growing tired or bored, but there are still hundreds of new voices coming on line every day, and more conversations are popping up in other online venues besides blogs. As businesses learn how to utilize the blogosphere, blogging activity will continue to grow.

Losing steam? Hardly. It's full steam ahead for blogging.

Drew's Note: David Reich started Reich Communications in 1991 and blogs at My 2 Cents. He's worked for clients like RJR Nabisco, Gulf Oil, General Electric, and many more. When Age of Conversation broke, David was the guy who got us all the media play. Not only is he good…but he's most definitely one of the good guys.

Tim Siedell: 15 Steps to Bigger Ideas

November 26, 2007

Thinking is hard work. When you're up against a deadline or facing a declining sales chart, it gets even harder. Whether you're a business owner or a creative professional, here are some steps you can take to get even bigger and better ideas.

First things first, however. It's a process.

Creativity is not a magical act. It's a process. Scientists, authors, musicians, and other creative professionals who have studied such things have broken down the creative process into five basic steps:

Gathering information for the task at hand
Thinking through various solutions
Walking away from the problem
Getting an idea
Testing the idea

Yep, walk away.

No doubt, the most surprising aspect to this process is step 3. When you think about it, however, you've experienced this firsthand many times. Frustrated by a project, you walk away in disgust. Hours or even days later, you come up with the perfect solution seemingly out of the blue. It's the clichéd shower experience. Your subconscious is an idea machine.

Ten Steps to Bigger Ideas Now

1) Give yourself a target.
The more concretely you define the problem, the more energy you can focus towards a specific solution.

2) Manage the process and deadline.
Don't allow yourself to move onto the next step until the current one is finished. And build time into your deadline to walk away.

3) Find a comfort zone.
Surround yourself with the creature comforts that make you feel most at ease.

4) Attack the white bull.
Hemingway feared the blank page. He called it the "white bull." If Hemingway can fear the start of a project, you can, too. It's natural. Attack your fear head on.

5) Free-associate with abandon.
Robert Frost called an idea "a feat of association." Smash thoughts together. Write down words and see if they connect. Mash, smash, and crash.

6) Actively search for inspiration.
Look into other industries or unrelated fields for sparks of inspiration. Search the web. Look for items that spin you into new directions.

7) Aim low at first.
Nervous about a deadline? Frustrated? Get an easy solution onto that blank page and you'll loosen up and feel more confident.

8) Forget about it.
Seriously. Go to a movie. Take a walk. Move on to another project.

9) Go to sleep.
Research shows that a good night's sleep leads to bigger and better ideas. Let your subconscious go to work.

10) Be willing to kill your babies.
Don't fall in love with your ideas. Try to get as many ideas as possible and then test them without prejudice at the end.

Five Steps to Bigger Ideas Long Term

11) Break out of ruts.
Pick up a trade pub from a different industry. Eat at a new restaurant for a change. Listen to new music.

12) Be a sponge.
The more stuff you have in your brain, the more material you'll have to work with the next time you free-associate.

13) Keep your radar up.
Actively look around you. Carry a journal to record little nuggets of inspiration.

14) Gain confidence.
Confidence is key to any creative person. The more you employ the above steps, the more your confidence will grow.

15) Collaborate.
Working with others will help you grow your ideas exponentially.

Now it's your turn. What steps or tips have you found effective when it comes time to be creative?

Drew's Note: Tim Siedell is creative director and co-founder of Fusebox Brand Communications. His bad banana blog is an excellent daily resource for creative ideas and inspiration (step 6 above). Tim is one of the funniest Twitterers I know…and has very quickly proven to be not only smart but a good guy.

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