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Join me by the fire

February 5, 2007

Have you ever shared a campfire with a friend?

The warmth and the crackling colors mesmerize you as the fragrance of the burning wood mixes with the crispness of the night. You’re aware of the world that cocoons you but it simply serves as the backdrop to the moment.

You sit close together, your voices almost hallowed in their hush. You listen intently, knowing each has something important to be said.

You aren’t in a rush, trying to force your point or plan your response before the other finishes talking. You are savoring the conversation and are content to let it pace itself.

You are reluctant to let it end. You feel connected. You know you matter.

That is what good marketing looks and feels like. No hype. No interference. Just authenticity and intimacy.

Flickr photo by Mr. Sugden

Vote in SuperBowl Ads Poll — What had buzz?

February 4, 2007

It’s finally time. The SuperBowl. All the hype has led to this. Ready or not.

Vote here on which SuperBowl ad you believe will have the biggest buzz. UPDATE: If you’d like, view all the ads here.

And…just to get you in the mood, here’s a snippet from one of Anheuser-Busch‘s amazing tally of 9 spots.

Grace

February 4, 2007

Grace is something I think about a lot. My definition? Simply offering support, forgiveness, comfort etc. to people in my world, whether they’ve earned it or not.

It’s much more than turning the other cheek. It’s about assuming the best of everyone. It’s being empathetic of where someone’s coming from. Meeting them where they’re at. Knowing full well they are going to screw up or disappoint – but staying true to the vision and my own values. It’s about choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt and be gentle.

It is acknowledging that they are human, in the humblest form.

I try to apply this idea to all aspects of my life (and hope to God people offer me the same grace) but I think it is very pertinent to working with clients/customers.

Our clients/customers count on us to be their guide. They’re an expert in their field and they look to us to be their expert in ours. If you were walking side by side with a trusted friend and they stumble, wouldn’t you first reach out to help them up and then, again with them by your side, explore what tripped them up?

Do clients always behave like we’d want them to? Do they always make the best decisions or react with the speed, amplitude or enthusiasm that we’d prescribe? Do they drop the ball? Or hand it off to the wrong person/team? Or forget about conversations about potential consequences and decisions made until there’s a problem?

You know the answers to all of those questions.

But I think it is the questions behind the question that matters. What was their intent? What is their heart?

Then grace comes easily. The day it doesn’t is the day I need to change jobs.

It’s your fault!

February 3, 2007

Remember the discussion about Kohl’s right after the holidays. Paul (HeeHawMarketing) posted some photos about his experience in a local store. The place was a disaster.

I followed up with a post saying that Paul’s experience is a symptom of bad or a complete lack of branding. When an organization doesn’t have a clear direction — it generates some significant problems.

When your employees don’t understand your brand — even the best employees flounder around, trying to do what they think they should.
When you don’t invest in employee communication and tell them over and over what matters, human nature says won’t retain the message.
A good, solid brand sets the expectations for your customers.

But here’s one of the greatest risks of not having a rock-solid brand.

Finger pointing. It’s not my fault. It’s not my department. No one is accountable, because no one knows what they’re accountable for. For a real-life example, let’s go back to the Kohl’s story.

Paul got a voice mail from Kohl’s VP of Public Relations. Here’s what she said:

"Please know that it is our top priority to provide you, and all of our customers, a quality shopping experience. I’m very sorry that you recently encountered an unacceptable store environment, and from your pictures, clearly not up to our standards. I have advised our senior level management, they’ve been made aware, and they’re highly committed to addressing it. So, thanks again for letting me know. I do appreciate hearing from you and we do value your patronage."

In other words….nothing but smoke being blown up his skirt. So, then a Kohl’s employee wanted to step into the discussion.

As you might expect — it’s not their fault. Bad management, understaffed, under-appreciated employees, customers who are pigs, children who are unruly, etc. etc. And you know, he’s probably exactly right.

But also, ultimately wrong.

So what’s the solution? Someone has to care. Someone has to have a vision. Someone needs to set a course. That has to happen at a corporate level. And at the store level. And at the individual employee level. In other words, they all have to realize and believe that is is indeed their problem.

They need to discover their brand promise and begin to teach their employees how to bring it to life.

Until that happens, I suspect Kohl’s will continue to breed a culture of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" not my problem, man.

Sad.

How’s the view from inside the bottle?

February 2, 2007

It happens all the time. The business owner believes that they can be objective about their own business. Impossible.

I hate to be so emphatic — but if you own the joint, you cannot see it from the same lens as someone on the outside. Here is a Drewism (phrase that is uttered repeatedly over time) "You cannot accurately describe the outside of the bottle if you are on the inside."

Mark True, over at REL Online, has a great post about tough love for entrepreneurs. He asks the question "What do you think is the single biggest marketing mistake committed by new business owners?"

If you own or run the business, you have a grossly disproportionate amount of knowledge about the industry, the product/service and your specific business. All of that makes you uniquely qualified to be biased.

Think you can shake it off and become objective? Think again. It’s sort of like knowing that Santa isn’t real and then trying to go through the entire holiday season believing the old guy is really coming down your chimney. You can simulate the belief — but it’s tainted with what you know.

So how do you get objectivity? You put together an advisory council. You do research. You pay attention to what social media is saying and doing. You hire an outside expert. You ask your customers. You ask the people who opted not to buy.

But you don’t rely on your objectivity.

Marketing truth: You cannot accurately describe the outside of the bottle if you are on the inside.

Blogtipping — February ’07

February 1, 2007

I am joining with my fellow bloggers in celebrating some new blogs that I discovered 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.

A Hero A Day is building a virtual quilt of courage through the deeds of those who chose to make a difference.

Things I love:

The spirit of your efforts — "we are all one. Love is the only answer."

You highlight an amazing array of leaders and heroes from every walk of life.

The photos somehow capture the spirit of each person.

Suggestion:

Rather than just a quote — I really love the posts where you either tell us why this hero matters to you or tell us more of their story.

Be Yourself – Everyone Else is Taken is Chris Gribble’s view on life, learning and leadership.

Things I love:

The randomness of the posts.

Great conversational style.

How much of Chris you put into the posts. They’re not some 3rd party musing. They’re very genuine and personal.

Suggestion:

Graphics to illustrate your point would be a good addition to a good blog.

The Inner Entrepreneur is Douglas Eby’s look at leadership.

Things I love:

Content/experts that provide lots of new points to ponder.

Great book references. Lots of new suggestions for the reading list.

There’s lots of meat in every post.

Suggestion:

Tell us more about you — your background, your expertise. And, a little nit picking, make the photos larger.

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

Duh!

February 1, 2007

Long story short…(read about it here or Download adageTurner.pdf here) The Turner Network and a New York marketing firm Interference launched a 10-city outdoor marketing campaign for its film "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres" involving small circuit boxes labeled with the characters scattered across the streets of Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.

The boxes have lights and wires sticking out of them. Can you say "bomb?"

They shut down a huge section of Boston because, again…can you say "bomb scare?" Boston’s bomb squad was scrambling around the city, detonating and removing the devices.

I am sure some people will applaud the disruptive ploy. They’ll point to the fact that we’re all writing about it, it played on major network news and the name of the movie is top of mind.

Frankly — I don’t care. Somewhere along the way, we have to put ethics ahead of getting our clients some buzz.

In our post 9-11 world, this gimmick was just irresponsible. You do not throw a city into panic mode to promote a movie. You do not tie up valuable, life-saving resources on a stunt. You do not earn buzz by creating fear and worry.

And, while others will pass this off as "oh, we had no idea it would create this reaction" I think that’s bull. You would have to be an adult with the IQ of of 13 to not consider that your antics might trigger exactly what happened in Boston.

Today, I am embarrassed for our profession. We look like what we are often accused of being — slick manipulators who don’t care how we get our message out.

For another take, read Ann Handley’s post over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix.

A marketing tip from my Italian grandma: Be who you are

January 31, 2007

No doubt you look at my last name and say Italian? But rest assured, on my mom’s side I’m your amico! Like all Italians, I had an Italian grandma. And like all Italian grandmas, she had an opinion about everything and wasn’t afraid to share it or the life lessons she had collected along her colorful life.

What she didn’t realize is that she also taught me some great marketing tips that in her honor, I’d like to share with you.

My grandma had many funny habits, beliefs and sayings. She was an easy and ready target for a family of joksters who love to tease. Fortunately, she took it with great grace and dished it back out. She could have easily "masked" some of her idiosyncrasies, but she stood tall (all 5 foot of her as she shrunk!) and took our ribbing.

One of our favorite things to tease her about was her affection for knee-high stockings and the fact that they never stayed up. (As evidenced to the right). It was not pretty.

But they were what she liked and she was completely comfortable in her own skin.

That’s a lesson that as marketers, we should embrace as well. Branding is very much about knowing who you are and by default, who you are not. We need to know ourselves well enough to be completely comfortable in our own skin.

It’s accepting and even celebrating that you are not a "one size fits all" solution. There are pros and cons to the consumer if they buy. We’re quick to point out the pros, but all too often we hide the cons.

If you’re expensive — tell them. If your product requires some technical expertise — tell them. If your production quality makes your product disposable — tell them. If your model is more of a plug and play than hand holding them through implementation — tell them.

That’s great branding. Here’s what we are. Here’s what we are not. It is authentic marketing. Good, bad or ugly stockings — tell them.

If you’re the knee-highed stocking of your category, don’t hide it. Pull up that pant leg and show the world!

Here’s the entire Marketing Tips from My Italian Grandma series, for your enjoyment:

Should your brand be a chameleon?

January 30, 2007

I think one of the saddest elements of blogging is that so many conversations get lost in the comments section. I thought this exchange was worthy of dragging back into the light.

Recently, Adam Steen from Growth Capitalism asked this question:

Lately, I’ve been struggling with branding. I’m a firm believer in developing a brand that someone will recognize and relate too. My problem is that when I describe TCM; I feel the need to brand us differently to different people. What happens to me in many cases (not all!) is that "financial" minds understand the financial lingo and "entrepreneurial" minds understand all other lingo. So, my answer has been to adjust my description accordingly.

I can come up with some positives and negatives to this approach, but I’m curious… Is it okay to give different descriptions of my business? And by changing descriptions… Does that hurt our brand?

To that question, I answered…

The answer is yes. And no.

A brand is not like a jacket…you change weights and styles based on the season. A brand is your heart and soul. It’s why you as a company exist. It’s what makes you unique in the marketplace. It is the core value/s that you are never willing to compromise.

So that is universal and should be the same for everyone. No matter who they are or how they might interact with your organization.

So yes…if you are not staying true to that, you are hurting your brand.

However…how various types of companies interact with your organization is different.

Your view of your brand should never change. You see clearly what your organizational heart and soul is all about.

But…when you look at the company through other companies’ lens — they see you through their own filters. In other words — they see you in terms of how you relate to them.

So the financial types "get you" in terms of their world. The business owners "get you" but in a completely different way than the financial folks do.

So really what you are probably saying is: Here is who we are. This is what you can always count on with us. (that’s the evergreen part) Now, because you are a (fill in the blank) we’d be able to help you…(that’s the customized part, based on the audience.)

Flickr photo courtesy of Agamid.

Let’s get really personal

January 30, 2007

Remember when it was cool when we got a personalized pen in the mail? Or when the magazine came with our name printed on the cover photo?

Personalization used to be noteworthy. But like all marketing tactics, after awhile they go from "wow" to "ho hum." Eventually, we barely notice.

Unless of course, they get it wrong.

Probably like you, I get a lot of those free mailing labels from non-profits seeking a donation. They know my name, address, and if I have sent them money before. No doubt, they know much more than that. They probably have my income range, my giving patterns, whether I have children and what magazines we subscribe to. They probably know what we had for dinner last night.

And yet, even know they know all of that…they sent me labels decorated with flowers sprouting out of watering cans and other fresh bloom images. Hardly the kind of labels most men would find valuable. (I know, I am generalizing. Stay with me for the marketing message.)

Is this a big deal? Not in the grand scheme of things.

But remember, they are competing with the other 3 non-profits that also sent me labels that very same day. All of them are fine charities, doing good work for our world. But like most people, I don’t send money to everyone who asks. So I am going to make a choice.

You see…that’s the reality we live in today. Our products and services are not going up against companies who are incompetent and unable to meet the customers’ needs. The nuances between our offerings and theirs are minuscule. So every detail matters.

It’s not the big things that win or lose business for us. It’s in the details.

These two sets of labels came on the same day. Both from reputable and worthy organizations. Wouldn’t it be a shame if the first charity lost a donation over something as trivial as flowers versus flies?

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