Current Affairs Archives - Page 12 of 14 - McLellan Marketing Group

Tell me again why you don’t blog?

December 18, 2006

Dear corporate America…little one man business…and everyone in between,

You’ve heard it before. New media, blogging, YouTube, text messaging etc. etc. etc. We’ve talked about how the power is shifting from you to the consumer and how you’d better get your voice back in the conversation. Well guess what, now it’s official.

Time has named their Person of the Year. And it’s you. And me. And all the other voices out there. No doubt this will be discussed and re-discussed among the blogging community as a sort of triumphant validation for being an innovator. Interesting but not relevant for 99% of the businesses out there.

The only part of the whole discussion that you need to pay attention to is this:

How long can you afford to be silent?

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The perfect combo gift

December 16, 2006

I was shopping tonight and came across this aisle sign.

Do you think the employees were making a commentary on holiday shopping or perhaps they didn’t bother to look at their work from the customer’s point of view?

It made me laugh. But it also made me appreciate the team at MMG who take pride in every thing they do for our clients.

Drew’s helpful holiday shopping hint: Just because they’re in the same aisle, does not mean they make a great combo gift!

Drew’s helpful employee training hint: If your employees don’t understand that they deliver your brand…you’ve got serious trouble.

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Blogging 101 from the expert

December 13, 2006

It’s rare that you get to listen and interact with a true expert. But if you happen to be in the Central Iowa area…you’re a lucky son of a gun.

Why? Mike Sansone is a business blogging expert. Many a business blogger (myself included) can point to their success and standing right behind that success is Mr. Sansone himself.

Mike’s generosity is well-known throughout the blogosphere. He demonstrates it again by offering a free blogging workshop series. The first one is tomorrow (Thursday, December 14th).

Take advantage of the opportunity. Go interact with the expert.

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Want to feel good about our world?

December 10, 2006

Sometimes our world is a little too focused on what’s wrong. Especially this time of year, that can be a bit wearing. So here’s something that will fill your heart with appreciation for the capacity of love that exists within us.

I promise you…this is worth the read and the watching.

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

"Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, It felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? "No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” One doctor told him, "you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.” So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

And the video is below….

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Use your powers for good

December 8, 2006

I truly believe as marketers, we can and should look for ways to use our powers for good. Not unlike superheroes, really. (I vote minus the cape and tights!)

There’s no reason why you can’t showcase your skills, products and services while also making the world just a little bit better. Want proof? Check out this promotion from Xerox.

If you go to this web site (http://www.letssaythanks.com) you can pick out a postcard and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier who is currently serving in Iraq. You can’t pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the Armed Services.

You pick the graphic and either one of their pre-written messages or you can write you own. I just sent one and I think it took me about 3 minutes. But I am going to feel good about it…and the company that created the opportunity for a lot longer than that.

Regardless of where you sit politically, this is a cool thing. Bravo Xerox — you’d look good in a cape!

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Too Little Too Late?

December 6, 2006

As Barenaked Ladies sing…"or is it too little, too late?"

I’ve been thinking about the tradition of giving clients a holiday gift. Probably because we’re putting on the finishing touches on ours…and the gifts to us are beginning to arrive.

In late October, we talked about how to choose a gift that isn’t the same old, same old. But here’s what I am wondering today:

Does the fact that most everyone does a holiday gift diminish the impact of the "thank you?" Before you give me the PC answer — think about it. Would you notice and register a gift that is given to you on a day when everyone gives you a gift as much as a gift that is given just out of the blue, on an ordinary day?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t thank clients. Or thank them now. I’m just wondering if there is significance to the timing of the gift and the fact that during the holiday season, we’re just one of many.

And…and here’s perhaps the most significant aspect of my musing…we probably don’t do a good job of saying thank you any other time of the year. So does that make the holiday thank you seem more obligatory and less genuine and spontaneous?

I’d love to hear what you think.

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2006: A marketing perspective

December 5, 2006

On November 28th, I wrote about a project that David Armano posed at his Logic + Emotion blog.

In short, he asked what was the most significant "something" of 2006, from a marketing perspective. I encouraged you to drop by and share your thoughts. Whether you did or not, try to make time to check out the post and comments now. Lots of insightful comments there and well worth the read.

As he promised he would, David culled through the many perspectives and selected some to create a visual in slide show or PDF formats. This is something you’re going to not only want to see, but to share. Go grab it today and start a conversation. I’m honored that David used some of my thoughts on pages 5 & 7.

After you have a chance to read through it…here’s what I am wondering. Obviously, since he asked the question on his blog, all the answers are from people who either blog or follow them. These are, I think its safe to assume, people who are pretty up on the new media exploding in our world. How do you think the answers would have differed if he had asked the question in a more traditional venue?

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Have some branding with your breakfast?

December 4, 2006

John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing posted about one of my favorite marketing tactics — sampling. Many service delivery businesses think that they can’t sample because they don’t sell a "thing" that people can try. But they’re wrong. With some creative thinking, every business can (and should) sample.

At MMG, we walk that talk. On the first Wednesday of every month, we host the Branding Breakfast. Come by our office at 7:30 am this Wednesday and we’ll give you a hot breakfast, caffeine-charged coffee and some great branding conversation.

All for free.

Why? First and foremost — because we truly believe that branding is every business’s best defense against becoming a commodity and having to complete on price alone. But our second reason — we know that as smart marketing people attend our breakfasts, they’ll begin to see the power and value of working with us. That is the beauty of sampling.

To learn more about this week’s Branding Breakfast, get a map to our place or RSVP, check us out here.

We’d love to have your voice in the conversation!

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Blogtipping — December ’06

December 1, 2006

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.

The Ripple Effect: Maximum Ripple is Steve Harper’s reminder to us all that our lives are intertwined and we can create the professional and personal lives we hunger for.

Things I love:

Your questions and musings make me slow down and think. Thank you.

I respect and appreciate how much of yourself you share in your posts.

I think your weekly "features" are a great idea.

Suggestion:

Add some visuals to break up your copy.

Do You Q? is Mitch Matthews addictive blog of thought-provoking questions.

Things I love:

The randomness of the questions — sometimes silly, sometimes profound.

Reading your readers’ comments is almost as much fun as answering your questions.

Your visuals are right on the money for your questions.

Suggestion:

Post more often and find a way to link your readers to game sales (a contest maybe or helping a charity?)

Slow Leadership is an inspiring, resource rich study on leadership.

Things I love:

Incredible content. Very current and thought provoking.

The quick summary feature. At a glance, I can tell if the post is something I want to read.

There’s lots of meat in every post. I am not left wanting for more.

Suggestion:

Include a bio and tell us a little about who you are and what you’re all about. (If there is such info available on the site, I couldn’t find it. If it’s there — make it easier to find!)

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

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What’s the most significant aspect of marketing/advertising 2006?

November 28, 2006

That is the question posed by David Armano over at his Logic + Emotion blog. He asks:

What was the most significant event/aspect of 2006 in regards to marketing, advertising or user experience?

He will use readers’ comments and thoughts in creating a visual to sum it all up. The answers are well worth the read, whether they end up in the visual or not.

Join in the conversation. After all, some might suggest that’s a pretty significant aspect of 2006.

An interesting side question is of course…what’s next? How will what happened this year influence 2007? What do you predict will have some staying power? What will become a fad and fade away? How are you going to capture and harness these evolutions?

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