the g-thought

Museum of Me: Whee!

2011-06-10T14:57:00.000-05:00

I love this little bit of fun for a Friday: Museum of Me.

Check it out and enjoy!

The Friend Thing: Google Fail!

2011-06-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reports that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has admitted that Google missed "the friend thing". Well, that's a shocker. Really, Eric?

Not only did Google miss the rise of Facebook, it has a track record of mangling - or at best "sub-optimizing" - initiatives. One of my favorite examples? Dodgeball.com. This service, co-founded by Dennis Crowley of foursquare fame, was an innovative location-based social software service for mobile devices.

Google saw the promise of it, acquired it, and managed it so well that Crowley left two years later after what he called an "incredibly frustrating" experience. Google shut the service down in early 2009. Crowley has since grown his self-proclaimed "sequel to the 'dodgeball' project" - foursquare.com - into a social location-based powerhouse with millions of unique users and enviable growth.

Think the Dodgeball example is an isolated one? Ever hear of Google Latitude? How about Google Buzz? Even if you've heard of them, are either of them any more relevant today for you than MySpace, the one-time king of social media services?

Like many mature businesses, Google is grappling with change and the challenge of perpetuating its success. What should it do as the sizzle of its core area of activity cools? And, like many mature businesses, Google is struggling as it grasps for the great "what next?"

Fortunately, the firm has a very solid, very large, very profitable base business. It's still riding high, but it's looking sluggish. Having missed "the friend thing", will it be able to spot or take advantage of or even come up with "the next thing"? Or, will Google end up like another tech behemoth, Microsoft, admired for its business success while mocked for its apparent lack of innovation?

Back with a Bad Case of Techno-Lust

2011-05-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody. I know, I know... Been way too long since last post. In fact, it's been so long that my intended "hey the Super Bowl was a while ago; remember the ads?" post seems moot. Good thing, in a way, since the game (and the ads "in their natural environment") was deleted from my DVR. I'm not saying the Twinkies did it to make room for more iCarly, but...

At least I'm back now. I'll claim work and other priorities kept me distracted, but all excuses ring hollow. I've just not kept up with blogging, and I miss it. I'll be better. Really! Promise!

Anyhow, the latest object of my techno-lust (cue a clever shiny object theme here) is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. It's desirable. It's out of stock. I'm having to wait. X-mas to a five-year-old is easier than this act of patience! I want I want I want!

In this, the day of the tablet, iPad still rules. Many others are chasing Apple's "Jesus Tablet" (as it was dubbed pre-launch). I'm not an Apple geek, though I massively respect the firm. Asus may have a solution that at least matches the iPad for value, and likely is a more productive device in a couple ways: a "real" keyboard and even longer battery life (if you count the battery in the keyboard dock, too). Both attributes appeal to me massively.

If and when I do get my hands on the object of my technology desires, I'll be sure to share the joys, delights, and even any disappointments with all of you.

Just Back from SXSW: G's Thoughts on What's Next

2011-03-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

I am back in my Upper Midwest home stomping grounds after several days at the SXSW Conference. I loved the energy in Austin while I was there.

Yes, there were some great bands, most of which you've still not heard of. The Types - from Russia, no less - generated jump-up-and-down energy in the audience, The Statesboro Review got folks jamming with their own tunes and a great cover of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin, TV Torso impressed even the music industry types at the back of the crowd, and Doomtree artists brought down the house on Thursday night.

What I've taken away from the conference, though, is a tremendous sense of optimism and positivity. SXSW is a time and a place for people to come together and discuss how we are making the future better and brighter. Whether it's the joy of music, the artistry of film, or the engagement enabled by interactive technologies, the folks who show up in Austin each year are literally creating the stuff we'll all be talking about for the next few years.

Twitter first hit the radar screen at SXSW in 2007, and I'm curious which aspects of this year's show will reach the tipping point in 2011. My bet is on location based marketing, based on the buzz among attendees and the comments of Dennis Crowley, founder of both dodgeball.com and more recently, foursquare. Even if I'm wrong on the specifics, it's a sure thing that something good is coming.

Japan, Sorrow, and Compassion

2011-03-13T22:27:00.000-05:00

Folks, there has been no shortage of tragedy of late. The recent events in Japan seem to be the culmination of a string of unfortunate, sad events.

Having lived through a number of earthquakes - most of them during my years in California - I can tell you there is little as unsettling to the human soul as a furious Mother Nature. The combined blows of earthquake and tsunami wrought destruction on a scale which stretches the imagination. The NY Times provided me the most dramatic representation of the before and after of these events.

While we all go on with our lives, it is worthwhile to be thankful for what we have, to cherish those we love and our time with them, and to lend a hand to those in need. Please consider making a donation to the American Red Cross or another worthy organization whose mission is to help others.

I am relieved my brother, who lives in Japan, is safe and sound. I am sorry for all the many souls who were lost in this tragedy. And, I am hopeful we all take this chance to display the compassion and support humanity can deliver in the most trying of times.

Super Advertising Bowl Eve!

2011-02-05T15:27:00.001-06:00

It's time. It's the moment. It's the culmination of a year's anticipation. That's right. It's Super Advertising Bowl Eve!

Football? Oh, yeah, there's gonna be football. There's been football for the last five months (regular & post-season only, folks... pre-season doesn't count). And, here in the Land of Cheddarheads there is a lot of excitement building for the actual game to be played tomorrow. The... The... What do they call it? That's right! Super Bowl XLV.

For me, though, the game is mere filler between the real content of concern: the ads. Recall any of them from last year? If not, try refreshing your memories with this past g-thought - "30 Days Later: Remember the Super Bowl Ads?"

You can also build up your personal pre-game ad buzz by reviewing spots from 13 prior Super Bowls at superbowl-ads.com. Who could forget the Budweiser frogs (1998) or e*trade's chimpanzees (2001)?

Regardless whether you're tuning in tomorrow for the game or the ads, enjoy it all... I will. I actually keep notes on every ad, though I only watch the game. How else can I assess whether the spots deliver on the five critical tasks of advertising (engage the viewer, communicate the proposition, link it to the brand, in a memorable way, that is persuasive)? I better sharpen a few extra pencils!

Blizzaster 2011! The Branding of a Storm

2011-02-02T11:40:00.001-06:00

Sitting in Chicago, watching the snow continue to fall, it's struck me that there's a hot competition underway to brand this storm. Why? It's a whopper, that's why!

Through midnight last night, records were being set for snowfall, including a one-day total of 13.6 inches at O'Hare (airport for anyone not familiar with Chicago... and yes, a few flights were cancelled). The accumulation for the storm overall was approaching 2 feet as of 9:30 this morning, and it's still coming down. That's right... It's still coming down!

Here are some of the branding options I've found:

The Great Groundhog Day Blizzard
Blizzaster 2011
Snowzilla 2011
Snow-Mageddon
Snowpocalypse
Snowmageddon v. Snowpocalypse: The Great Snowdown of 2011
Snowmega (same link as Great Snowdown... extra props to Maize n Brew Dave)
Here are a few options I haven't found associated with Chicagoland yet: Snowsaster, Blizzanation, Winter's Fury 2011, the Snowverdose (although this one is on a blog about Connecticut)

With another 5 inches projected to fall today, truly polar temperatures, and more snow in the long-range forecast, the fun may just be getting underway... So, if you're stuck inside nearby or sitting someplace warmer and mocking us, the unfortunate souls of the Upper Midwest, share your thoughts on the branding options above or contribute a few of your own. I'll be wondering how long my food provisions will hold out before I need to venture into the mounds of freezing white doom!

The Fun Theory: Customer Experience Driving Behavior Change

2011-01-26T16:49:00.000-06:00

Admittedly, I'm a little late on this one... But, I just came across The Fun Theory website. The premise of it? Make something fun and people will change behaviors. So simple, yet how many of us have actually tried this approach with our businesses? Make sure to watch the video of stairs versus an escalator for an example of how the theory turns into effective practice.

The site wasn't created out of purely altruistic reasons. As it states, this is "An initiative of Volkswagen." Even in this regard, though, kudos to the firm. The branding on The Fun Theory site isn't heavy-handed, and clicking through the link to "See how Volkswagen use the fun theory" leads to a page highlighting ways the firm has applied the combination of fun and innovation to the challenge of being more environmentally responsible.

Volkswagen's claim that "every environmentally friendly innovation we create is built on that simple insight" may be a bit of stretch, but I'm willing to give the good folks at VW a bit of creative license. It's delightful to see an approach that isn't derived from "do this or we're all gonna die" doomsday prognostications.

Starbucks, Gum, and Customer Experience

2011-01-18T22:17:00.000-06:00

Folks, I travel. I travel for work. I travel for fun. Sometimes I even travel out of some obligation. When I travel, I like to have gum. It's tasty, it's chewy, and it exercises my jaw when I find myself in a moment of solitude and don't feel like talking to myself.

Recently, I took an early morning flight. I mean early. Like, before the sun came up early. As a result, I had to get up even earlier. Earlier. Like, before the sun hears it's alarm, let alone hits “snooze” a couple of times while building up a pre-morning glow. Earlier. As a result, still sleepy myself, I left home without gum.

Not really an issue for a handy, ingenious, and all-around creative problem solver like me. “They sell gum at airports, right?” I said to myself while driving down a dark and desolate interstate. “Yes, they do,” I replied. It should be noted that this dialogue constitutes a “gum-would-be-handy” moment. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have actually been talking to myself, not out loud at least. I'd have been happily chomping a bit of tasty sweetness. Anyway, I managed, with minimal protestation, to convince myself that I would be fine and soon in possession of some delightfully delicious chewing confections.

Upon arrival at the airport, I quickly dispatched with the standard chores... parking, walking, security check. All was going swimmingly. Then I reached the concourse. Early. Earlier than early. The magazine stands were closed. The bookstores were closed. The gift shops were closed.

I did not panic. No. Starbucks was open. “They sell gum at Starbucks, right?” I whispered to myself. “Well, they sell lattes and scones, for sure,” I replied, thinking of the small pangs of hunger my early morning travel induced. “Maybe, they sell gum, too,” I offered to myself in a false sense of optimism.

Optimism is an interesting thing. It assuages fear, or at least takes the edge off. It can build hope. Under the right circumstances, it even builds expectation.

I feared Starbucks wouldn't sell gum. I hoped Starbucks would sell gum. I started to expect Starbucks to sell gum.

Starbucks sells gum.

I did a little wiggle of joy and relief. Just a little one. I ordered a latte and a scone, too, for good measure. I took my gum, my latte, and my scone on a slow saunter to my gate. It was a mildly triumphant saunter. “Mmm... yummy latte. Yummy scone.” I didn't mind the obvious premium I'd just paid for each item.

Breakfast in my belly, I reached for my prize purchase, the tin of Starbucks Sugar-Free Chewing Gum. The packaging evoked mouth-watering freshness and quality... Such an appealing shade of bluish-greenish-mintitude... Such a delightful little aluminum structure... I peeled off the plastic wrap and...

The tin fell apart. Apparently, the construction tolerances weren't quite so precise as to actually hold the two parts together. Being a handy, ingenious, and all-around creative problem solver, though, I simply fixed the tin with a couple creative bends and squeezes.

Engineering problem solved, it was time to move on to the gum itself. At first glance, again an image of freshness and quality. Round pieces comprised of two layers, one a thicker minty cool blue, the other a thinner pure icy white, each side, coin-like, imprinted with an outline of mint leaves. Surely, the product was about to deliver a moment of minty joy. And, it did. For something like a minute.

A minute? Argh. Really? That's it? Yup. I spit out the first couple pieces and tried again. “Surely, the mavens of mint who concocted this gum intended the flavor to last...” I suggested to myself. “Surely,” I replied, hoping to evoke optimism, but failing.

I popped another two pieces into my mouth, and used the timer on my watch to keep track of my newly invented Starbucks Gum Taste Decay Timing curve: 1 minute 22 seconds. Another attempt. Result: 1 minute 9 seconds.

Needless to say, I will NOT be buying any further gum from Starbucks. I may actually choose to go gumless rather than pay for the vaguely gum-esque chewing tablets available from the coffee kings of the Pacific Northwest.

What has me so disappointed in the whole Starbucks gum affair is my perception that the brand's stooped to shilling poor product rather than stick to the promise of a comprehensively great user experience. This is a brand that obsesses over how its baristas interact with customers, how to deliver consistent coffee flavor, the properties of the foam which floats at the top of a latte, the color and structure of furniture in its shops, the copy of each and every little sign on each and every little product it sells, and more.

And, all it takes is one bad product for me to be disappointed in Starbucks overall. On this one item, the brand has opted for style over substance. The look is premium and promising. It truly appeals. It implies it will follow a nice tall cup of joe with a minty mouthful of freshness. When the moment of truth comes, though, the product reminds me more of the hard, tasteless bubble gum I got when buying baseball cards as a kid than an upgrade over Orbit Sweetmint (my current chew of choice).

Bad Starbucks. I now wonder about where else the brand is cutting corners. I mean, I'm not worried that vanilla lattes will become watery anytime soon, but a vague skepticism has attached itself to any other item I see merchandised. From music to mugs, I am now much less likely to buy products complementary to the central coffee experience from brand Starbucks, which makes me an instantly less valuable consumer to the business.

It gets me thinking about the implications for my own business. What are we doing that is core to our brand promise? How well are we delivering it? If we are doing well, have we introduced complements to our central value proposition? How well are we delivering on these complementary aspects? Do they, potentially, confuse or distract from that core brand promise? Worse yet, might they disappoint in a way that undermines our ability to completely delight consumers?

I don't have the answers, but if there is a silver lining to my Starbucks gum experience, it is this: I have a greater appreciation of the impact of even small goofs on consumer perception and will be able to proactively assess my own team's actions. Maybe it was good I got the bad gum after all.

Nits, Picks, and Language

2011-01-14T18:19:00.002-06:00

In a most unfortunate turn of events for the Twinkies (small, twin-like creatures who inhabit my house), their return to school after the winter holiday break placed them in the midst of an outbreak of head lice. Yes, indeed. And I can hear your collective "Ick!", even feel your shudders of disgust.

Being away at the time of the outbreak, I only returned home a few days later to help in the cycle of laundry, vacuuming, and picking of nits out of hair. Several things struck me about the process of dealing with this particular personal pest.

First of all, the solution is a comprehensive and diligent war involving chemical and conventional weapons: pesticide laden shampoo, laundry detergent, disinfectants, vacuums, combs, and fingers.

To defeat the initial onslaught of these insect invaders is relatively simple; the shampoo kills off the first wave. The ticking time bomb of hidden nits is the real threat. These require hours of attention to detail and diligence to remove. Day after day, the removal and mitigation of future occurrences goes on.

And, it was in the midst of one long session of nit removal that it struck me... Lice, for thousands of years, were a constant companion for humans. Our language is rife with vocabulary and phrases derived directly from the campaign to control these critters: nit pick, nitty gritty, fine-toothed comb, and so on.

The realization left me exceedingly thankful for the help of modern chemistry and appliances. It also got me to wondering... A hundred years from now, what terms will be taken for granted by our descendants as a result of our current attentions.

Not that cruising the web or playing video games or goofing with iPhone apps is the same as dealing with lice, but with all the hours each day we have for these things could they be impregnating our language with new terms of future mystery? I'll think about it as I surf the web on my smartphone...

Tops Listing Cavalcade: New Year's Eve Edition

2010-12-31T17:33:00.004-06:00

On this, the eve of a new year, I bring you a list of lists. Here are several "Tops Lists" for your enjoyment, consideration, and conversation:

10. The top cassette tapes of 2010. So you thought cassettes were dead? Not so fast... This list brings you 11 experiences you should hear, with digital samples to whet your musical appetite.

9. The world's top superyachts of 2010. Who can't look at these monstrosities and wonder at the ego behind each?

8. This is a two-fer... The highest earning U.S. athletes of 2010 and the top international earners, as well. Even if not a sports fan, this list will bring back memories of scandals and excitement. From Tiger to Beckham and beyond... Each and every one still earning the big bucks!

7. The best new songs you probably haven't heard, according to Esquire. Maybe you (like me) already have music by the Budos Band. If not, check these songs out and getta groove on!

6. Top wacky tax stories of 2010. Yep. Tax stories. Bringing together soccer, yachts... and pole dancing in one list??? Believe it.

5. The biggest surfing stories of the year, all here in one handy place. If for no other reason, click through to this list and watch the video of Cloudbreak in Fiji. Awesome waves even non-surfers will respect.

4. The top overall sports stories of 2010. How could I not include a "mainstream" list that includes - count'em - two soccer entries and my beloved SF Giants winning the World Series (neener neener, Cubs fans!)?

3. Top economic stories of the past year. Beware, this isn't fluffy stuff. Any list including an entry called "On Sovereign Debt Problems" isn't messing around. The good folks at the Brookings Institution take their work seriously, and the list is an interesting read.

2. The most awesome new (musical) artists of 2010. Ok, so I've loaded this list with music lists. Yeah? What of it. Stop wondering, find a song you like, get up and dance!

1. Events and trends you may have missed. This list comprises a special report by Foreign Policy. I used to subscribe to the print version of FP and continue to appreciate its perspective and analysis. From airport body scanners to sectarian clashes in India, these stories might be headlines in 2011.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of the TLC. Be on the lookout for another list of lists in January. Happy New Year's Eve!

thanks again soccer.com!

2010-12-30T19:57:00.003-06:00

Just checked my facebook account and got the following status update from the folks at soccer.com: "Reading this on the go? Head over to MOBILE.SOCCER.COM and check out our site, specially formatted for your hand-held device."

As I recently documented, the mobile site had been the source of some consternation for me. Lo and behold, though, my HTC phone running a Windows-based system now works on the mobile.soccer.com site! Yippee skippee!

Still not happy the site wasn't ready for "my phone" initially, but better late than never.

The Tops Listing Cavalcade

2010-12-23T03:15:00.010-06:00

I just did it. I read my first "Top 50" list looking back at 2010. I picked one posted on Monkey See and was delighted by the read... No oil spill, no war, no tragedies at all. As a starting point goes, I'm happy to have picked one called "50 Wonderful Things from 2010".

Given the time of year, this is merely the kick-off of what I'm now calling the TLC or "Tops Listing Cavalcade". I should trademark the term, as it's the first time I recall getting a "no results found" message from Google in response to a search.

What is the TLC? It's the swelling, stupefying, sometimes scintillating assortment of lists of top songs, shows, stories, social movements, and so forth which springs forth in the run up to x-mas and won't peter out until a few weeks into the new year. Lists of the tops of everything you could imagine. It happens every year. I just decided to brand it. Please use the term frequently, as I aspire to making either the Top Words or the Top Viral Products list next year.

I know it's the early phases of the TLC, because some participants are just building their lists. Case in point? The Huffington Post's Cutest Pets of 2010 contest was still seeking submissions this month, although the HuffPo is taking on the folks at cutestpetcontest.com. Perhaps we need to build a list of the Best Cute Pet Lists of 2010... Hmmm...

What are your favorite lists to review each year? Share'em here. Share'em with family. Share'em with strangers, if you're comfortable with that kind of thing. I'll put a List of Top Lists together, so you can share that list, too! All part of the the Tops Listing Cavalcade... Though maybe I should restage the brand to improve its appeal. Perhaps "Mega Cool Tops Listing Cavalcade of Joy and Power" is better... It just might get me on to the Top 10 Most Ludicrous Things Named in 2011 list!

Soccer.com & Redemptive Customer Support

2010-12-19T22:01:00.006-06:00

My relationship with soccer.com is complex.

On the one hand, I'm a fan of Eurosport - the retailer one finds at soccer.com. The firm's catalog contains a healthy dose of retailtainment in print form, enough to be a constant on my nightstand or - dare I say it? - the magazine rack near a certain porcelain bathroom fixture. It's my wishbook for all things soccer: shoes, uniforms, videos, and so forth... The sale section gets special focus.

I am a long-time member of the Goal Club, the brand's frequent buyer group, and periodically I'll splurge my accrued points on the best sale items I can find. I've purchased apparel, uniforms for teams, shoes for myself, shoes for others, highlight videos, and more from Eurosport. I'm loyal, almost to a fault.

Which brings me to "the other hand"... Soccer.com is a clunky website. Periodically, it causes me such fits that I consider leaving it. Like a grumpy girlfriend, it refuses to talk to me, not allowing me to log in. Or, when I try to put that special something in my cart, it tells me I've selected an "invalid item" - though it may have actually placed the item appropriately and simply decided to have a bit of fun by telling me it didn't.

Recently, I had two bouts of frustration which brought me closer to a painful break-up than ever before. The first resulted from a lovely email announcement: "We're Mobile! Find us at MOBILE.SOCCER.COM". O Joy! I picked up the message on my smartphone, only to find I couldn't click through to the mobile site. The only link in the message actually went to the standard URL. Grrrr...

Not to be denied, I punched in the http://mobile.soccer.com/ address and hopped excitedly as the new site loaded. Loading done, I could see the new site but I couldn't use it. Once again, the only link that seemed to work took me back to the base URL. Double Grrrr... I tried again from my newer, touchscreen featured other smartphone... Denied.

It seems my Windows-based system wasn't good enough for mobile.soccer.com. A friend with a Droid confirmed it. The mobile site worked for that phone. But, how many potential customers out there were stymied by the botched implementation?

Which brings us to my latest challenge: my seeming inability to sign in as a Goal Club member over the past week or so. Over and over and over, what had always worked failed. I'd input my username and password, only to be told I needed to input my password. Huh? I clicked "Forget your username/password", got a reset on the password, and tried again. By now, you've figured it out - I had gone crazy, trying the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different outcome.

Incredulity took hold... "How could this be?" "This has never happened before!" "There's got to be a mistake!" I sent a note to Customer Service and stewed. Customer Service sent me a very nice note back to inform me that they'd checked, and nothing was amiss with my account. Really? Really?!?!

"Can't you see I can't get in?" I thought as loudly as possible. Nobody heard, so I tried a different approach. I contemplated my own assumptions, and lo and behold, one BIG one jumped out at me. I'd assumed that soccer.com would react to all browsers the same way, which of course I should have realized wasn't too bright on my part given the previous challenges with the mobile site. What if I were to head to the site using a browser other than my standard, Google Chrome?

I fired up Internet Explorer. I typed the soccer.com URL. I held my breath. I clicked "Sign In". I entered my username and password. I waited. By now, I was noticing how long my breath had been held; my mind wandered to thoughts of "Shouldn't I be able to hold my breath longer? I should work out more..." and then it happened: I was in (again)! All it took was for me to switch browsers. Whew! Soccer.com was still there for me... but wait a minute!

Why should I have to troubleshoot and switch browsers just to get to stuff I might want to buy??? I mean Chrome doesn't have the greatest market share among browsers, but it's up around 10% these days. Imagine a normal retailer telling every 10th potential customer, "No thanks, you can't come in... Don't like the car you drive, so you're not welcome." It makes no sense.

At a minimum, I wish I'd been told of the incompatibility. Who knows, in the case of the mobile site I may have concluded that it was time for an iPhone or a Droid... Instead, I felt spurned. I wasn't happy. I was gonna do something about it, too, except...

Except...

Except that the Customer Support people at Eurosport are fantastic. Whether because their bosses create so many problems for them to solve, great training, or inherent good Samaritanism, it doesn't actually matter. They rock. During my trials and tribulations, they kept up a constant friendly dialog with me.

They offered to send me gift card for my troubles. They apologized for the fact that I was having trouble. They reminded me, ever so politely, that I could always call when I had an issue; a real human being would be happy to confirm my membership and place an order. They thanked me for my feedback. They thanked me for my loyalty over the years. They simply did everything right.

Know what? It worked. Remember the girlfriend I mentioned before? We made up. She's got her faults. She's actually got quite a few of them. But deep down, her heart is pure. She wants to do the right thing. She knows she's not the best at what she does, but she's trying hard to do it well.

Eurosport, I'll be back to soccer.com. Please keep sending me your catalog. And, at this busy time of year for all e-tailers, hug your Customer Support team. Hug'em from me, too!

I'm baaaack...

2010-11-27T10:46:00.002-06:00

Hi Folks! Yes, it's been a while, and here's the scoop. As some or all of you may know, I work for a company that dealt with significant challenges during the spring and summer of 2010: bp. I'll be honest, blogging wasn't at the top of my priority list.

Our work at bp isn't done - not by a long shot - but the nature of it is changing, evolving. I think it's time I get my blog on (again).

If you're looking for any inside scoop on the happenings over the summer, don't look here. I don't think this is the proper forum for a blow-by-blow. If, however, you're curious about my perspective on working at the firm, why I remain so engaged with the company, the emotions associated with events of the past months, what it's meant to me personally, well then this is a dandy spot for that dialog.

And, rest assured, I will still find plenty of time for shiny objects, life's challenges (e.g. my war with small furry critters), and the craft of marketing. It's nice to be back, and I hope to delight!

Tweet! Twitter Ads!

2010-04-13T17:52:00.003-05:00

It's happened. Twitter has decided to introduce advertising to its service. At one point, leadership of the firm called an ad-based revenue model "boring", but prudence seems to have won out over monotony.

What are your expectations of ads in Twitter? Expect it to be disruptive? Distracting? Detrimental? Personally, I await the evolution and further monetization efforts.

Twitter, like other services before it (hello, Pandora...), must try to make money to stave off a "cool but unprofitable" demise. The irony? Monetization efforts like advertising erode the desirability of the service for some users. It feels like Twitter is just entering the awkward adolescent stage of its business development: still cool, but getting pimples. We'll see how it looks when it's all grown up.

iPad is Here... Has the World Been Saved?

2010-04-03T12:18:00.002-05:00

"It's here! It's here!" chant the legions of Apple fans. The much awaited "Jesus Tablet" has arrived in stores. Despite gloomy economic times, folks are still lining up in front of Apple stores in the hope of being the first among their friends to fork over wads of cash for the shiny new toy.

WIRED perpetuated the hype last week with its article on "How the Tablet Will Change the World", and NPR today interviewed giddy iPad buyers in Apple's New York store. My favorite quote from the NPR story? "I'm going to use my iPad to play games!" As if we've been waiting since the discovery of fire for the breakthrough that would let us play games... Yay!

Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked about the new device from Jobs & Co., but I'm not yet ready to put it in the category of world-changing, epiphany-granting religious icon. I have already classified it as a Kindle-killer and money maker.

Apple is hot and not promising to have enough inventory to satisfy demand (thereby keeping prices high). AT&T is cashing in at $30/month for the iPad data plan. And people will buy, buy, buy. A great business initiative? Yup. Messiah as device? TBD.

Happy Birthday .com!

2010-03-15T11:51:00.002-05:00

That's right, .com, you are 25 years old! Wahoo! 80 million sites use you, and 100,000 more are registered each day... Who'd have guessed at your popularity way back in the 1980s? Enjoy your day and then get back to work!

30 Days Later: Remember the Super Bowl Ads?

2010-03-09T18:35:00.003-06:00

Here we are, 30 days removed from the Super Bowl... You remember the game, right? Thrilling see-saw battle that resulted in the Saints finally winning a championship. It was epic.

Remember the ads? At something like $3 million for a :30 spot, one would hope so. Off the top of my head, I could only describe three of them in any detail. There were two other brands I could identify as having aired ads, but beyond that it was all a blur. One would hope for the millions invested, the ads would have had a bit more staying power, right?

Which ads stuck out? VW's "Slug Dub", the Dodge Charger "Man's Last Stand" spot, and the NFL.com promo spot with Arcade Fire as a soundtrack. The other two I recalled more generally were from e-Trade and Hyundai. The last two came with distinct emotional reactions: e-Trade = annoying and Hyundai = appreciative.

I'm tired of the e-Trade baby, who by all rights should be celebrating his graduation from kindergarten by now, but is actually still sucking a bottle and pooping his pants. C'mon e-Trade... You want us to believe you're still cutting edge and good for our investments, but your spokeskid hasn't developed one bit in years. Tsk tsk!

As for Hyundai, well, I just recall feeling good about the value + quality message their ads delivered. Not sure of the specific executional elements, but I still feel good about them.

Having confirmed that I couldn't recall most of the ads I saw, I pulled out my notes on the full slate of spots run. Yes, I'm that big of a marketing geek; I took notes on Super Bowl ads. Guess what, I liked a lot of them at the time! Funny how the response of the moment faded, or perhaps not. In any case, by checking the notes, I got a few pleasurable "oh yeah!" moments.

How could I have forgotten Kia's Sorento ad and its Vegas road-tripping toy posse?! Or Emerald Nuts and PopSecret's "Human Dolphins" lunacy? Or Audi's "Green Police" spot? They all make me smile even now, just looking back on them... Whereas GoDaddy, Taco Bell, and the aforementioned e-Trade spots simply make me grumpy.

I'll riff soon on the five things I believe ads should do... Until then, take a look back at the crop of this year's Super Bowl ads and consider which you think made most effective use of its media spend: http://www.cbssports.com/video/player/superbowlcommercials

Mind the Gap... Between Announcement and Delivery

2010-02-18T22:22:00.005-06:00

Just three weeks ago we had a big news day: President Obama delivered the State of the Union address and Apple announced that yes, indeed, the Jesus Tablet was on its way. So, have our lives changed any as a result?

Given the hype leading up to the iPad announcement, one would've expected magical bluebirds to descend to earth, singing songs of techno-joy, saving publishers from certain doom, and more. President Obama's speech was indeed moving... But how much "movement" has followed it?

The fact is, not much has happened for us regular folk since these two momentous occasions. Sigh. And so it is with marketing and politics. There is frequently a yawning gap between the crescendo of attention that is an initial announcement and the eventual delivery on commitments, in the form of product launch or program implementation.

This gap must be minded! It's the job of PR pros, pundits, and fans to keep the flame of excitement alive while the wheels of production or legislation turn. If all goes well, the launch moment is a reprise crest of exuberance. Too often, though, what is announced with a scream arrives with a whimper.

Time will tell how successful Mr. Jobs or the President are at following through on their commitments. In this case, the product launch - despite comparisons to a certain religious icon - is the easier to deliver, though personally I hope both succeed. I'd love to read news of good government action on a shiny new iPad.

Movies, Videos, Change, and Competition

2010-02-16T09:57:00.004-06:00

Want to see complex competitive dynamics in action? Start tracking the home video space... Filmed content is something nearly all of us consume in copious amounts, and the space is rife with change. It's consternating for some players, delightful for others, and a doomsday for a few.

Let's think of the options today vs. just a generation previous. For most consumers in the past, "filmed content" was a simple choice: go to the movies or stay home and watch t.v. Technology has changed this simplicity. Today's options subdivide the space via type of content, access device, fidelity (sound & picture quality), etc. New competitors are rising, previously successful firms are crumbling, and the future outlook is murky in many ways.

Don't believe me? Consider this... Television shows are distributed today via free t.v., syndication as repeats, online as ad-supported content via Hulu, for rent at iTunes, on DVD, and in snippet form on YouTube. Movie options are nearly as myriad, and the advent of mobile devices more capable of video playback in higher fidelity (think iPad here) promise even more splintering of options in the future.

Blockbuster is one firm that's failed to cope with the changes well. Redbox has done quite nicely. Netflix is openly embracing the changes, pursuing enhanced ability to deliver digital content with fervor. The movie studios, television networks, and cable providers are all scrambling to discern how they can best extract value from their content in a market which is evolving with pandemic virus voracity.

Contemplate the factors influencing pricing in this arena: Desirability of the underlying content is still primary. Avatar is a terrific example of a great movie doing exceedingly well at the box office. But, once it's out of theatres, what next? "Windows" on content delivery, pacing release by channel, used to be relatively easy for the studios. The process is becoming blurrier as options for consumers proliferate.

Today, Apple is playing with pricing for rental of t.v. content, Netflix is being compared to HBO, and YouTube is trying to figure out ways to monetize its business by renting movies. Huh? iTunes as threat to cable operators, Netflix as competitor to premium movie channels, YouTube as alternative Blockbuster? Yup.

This market is one which rewards agility, creativity, experimentation, insight, and a willingness to view change as opportunity. Firms which cling to past models for success (hello, Blockbuster?!) will be pummeled for their stubbornness. Oh, and today's darlings (redbox, Netflix)? Even they can't rest on their laurels. How it all plays out is anybody's guess, but two things are for sure: 1. What works today ain't what's gonna work tomorrow, and... 2. The evolution is gonna be a fun show to watch.

Facebook, Friends, and Staying Connected

2010-02-11T11:06:00.005-06:00

Facebook recently implemented some changes, many of which seem cosmetic, a few of which change the utility of the service. Personally, I like the new drop-down message inbox peek, but dislike losing the ability to hop directly from one application to another.

Now, when I want to hop from a mad game of Scrabble to check on my mafia, I am forced to re-route through my FB home page... hmm... Why would the Facebook masters implement this solution? Perhaps to pad the number of clicks or homepage visits in their metrics? Seems like a detour to me, and adds to the hassle and time commitment the service requires.

And, make no mistake, folks are starting to change their view on Facebook, even as the service itself evolves. What was once an intimate, insiders-only service is now mainstream and muddled. Are all 284 of my "friends" really that well-connected? No.

I used to appreciate the small-group feel of Facebook. And, as my network has expanded, I've been happy to reconnect with folks from my past, but in the process this online community more nearly represents my offline social connections, with levels of importance, connection, and sharing varying widely. I've got friends - online and offline - with whom I rarely interact. There are others who are on the "pretty frequently" cycle. And then there are the select few, with whom connecting is a daily or even hourly activity.

Guess what? This tight-knit group, the ones with whom I'm so connected... They are the same group that was first over the wall with me on Facebook years ago, the same early Twitter adopters whom I follow & follow me, the same folks on speed dial for my phone. Turns out, good friends are good friends, regardless of the tools used to maintain the relationship.

As for Facebook? Well, I'll keep using it, for now, but I can foresee the moment when I just decide it's not necessary to keep up with good friends. At which point, it'll be come a less frequent, less relevant part of my online day. Facebook could become Plaxo-esque, a repository of contact info and occasional interaction. For some, it's already lost relevance. How about for you?

Toyota, Quality, and the Limits of PR

2010-02-10T21:26:00.001-06:00

Today’s USA Today included an article on Toyota’s PR blitz to address the firm’s recent string of quality embarrassments. The article likens Toyota’s efforts to “whistling in the wind”, with the clear implication that the on-going revelations about product quality concerns are overwhelming efforts at outreach. Though this is true, at the moment, it is still incumbent on Toyota to continue the efforts.

Why should Toyota keep up the drumbeat of messages? First of all, some of the communications will get through, even in “windy conditions.” Additionally, once the firm finally reaches the end of the current quality concern path, the public relations pump will have been primed. Any future good news will build on the prior efforts. Finally, despite the apparent futility of the effort in light of additional quality issues coming to light, apologizing and committing to improve are simply the right things for Toyota to do.

Toyota’s current circumstances underscore how significantly PR efforts are tied to the merits of the focus product or service. The best PR implementation will be hampered by issues with the product. By the same token, a great product – one that truly delights consumers – provides a turbo boost to PR. Toyota is hoping to get back to “great product” status as soon as possible. In the meantime, the firm will keep whistling in the wind.

1st Hands On Review of Apple iSlate!

2010-01-26T11:24:00.004-06:00

Check out Walt Mosspuppet's review of the magical new product from Apple! Apparently, it'll even get a unicorn to deliver a pizza to your door... it's that good! :)

Frog Designs Apple Tablet - 27 Years Too Soon

2010-01-22T19:47:00.006-06:00

Give credit to Frog Design for keeping good files. In a move clearly "designed" to draft on the publicity surrounding Apple's up-coming product launch - that of the much-rumored tablet - the Frog folk have released images of the prototype work they did on a tablet for Apple... In 1983!

By the way, the move worked. WIRED picked up the story.

Poorly Kept Secret = PR and Momentum for Apple

2010-01-19T13:04:00.006-06:00

In case you've been stuck in an ice cave in Antarctica since last summer, you've heard the "rumor" by now that Apple will soon introduce a tablet device. You first saw the device mentioned in a g-thought last August. Since then, despite Apple's reputation for secrecy, details have been sneaking out.

Today, news outlets are atwitter (yes, pun intended) with the fact that Apple will host a press event for its "latest creation" on 27.January here in San Francisco (I'm here on a brief business trip). WIRED will actually have a team on-site at the event to live blog and photo document the event.

What I appreciate about all this buzz is the great leverage of marketing resources on display. Apple will advertise the new product; there's little doubt that it will get behind any significant product launch. But let's look at the pre-launch campaign for a moment... Rumors arise last summer, the idea that Steve Jobs wants a "Kindle Killer" sneaks its way into the press during the fall, and more recently the Wall Street Journal reports that HarperCollins Publishers is negotiating an e-book deal with Apple.

How successful has all this PR, rumor, and innuendo been? Google returns 15,400,000 results for a search on "Apple tablet". Compare that to 8.7 million for "droid phone", a product currently supported by an extensive ad campaign.

The communications are leverage Apple's brand and connection with its consumer base. The early leaks provide both an opportunity to gauge reaction and build anticipation. If the idea flops, well, at least they avoided a poor launch and its accompanying expense. If the idea is picked up, shared, and dissected, it's a much better bet for a launch. Heck, some of the commentary might even help refine the final offering.

And, for a brand like Apple, with a thriving fan base, the early momentum generated through PR, sharing among the fans, etc. is most definitely a competitive advantage, which in this case, should cause concern at Amazon. It's one thing to face a Kindle Killer, it's another altogether to face such a product with the mass and momentum of the Apple brand behind it.

Rules for Innovation, Brands Style

2010-01-11T19:50:00.002-06:00

My friend and former colleague, Robert Brands, recently wrote a book on innovation. In his first column for Business Week, he discusses Innovation Made Incarnate. Enjoy!

Kindle Killer Nears & Google Reaches a Nexus

2010-01-05T13:59:00.005-06:00

Back in October, I posted a g-thought postulating Apple's rumored tablet device would be a Kindle Killer. The rumors have turned to expectation, with launch announcement expected later this month. VentureBeat recently put a nice perspective piece together on the iSlate (as folks expect the new Apple product to be dubbed). I continue to wonder what Amazon might try to do to rejuvenate the Kindle with new competitive pressure promised for this year.

By the way, while at VentureBeat, take a peek at the live blog on today's introduction of Google's Nexus One mobile phone. Or you can just go to Google's own online introduction of it: http://www.google.com/phone. At first blush, it's an exciting device. What do you think?

iGet Googly About 2010

2010-01-04T17:12:00.003-06:00

Well, the new year is upon us. Tomorrow, Google is slated to announce their new phone, one which is not tied to a specific carrier. Not to be outdone, Apple is expected to confirm launch of the iSlate tablet later this month. Oh, and sandwiched in between is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Maybe the only folks not excited by these events are at Amazon, since it's likely the Kindle that's gonna lose steam this year.

More Commentary on Facebook Privacy Changes

2009-12-11T04:33:00.004-06:00

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, highlighting that several "improvements" to Facebook privacy will lead to more information on users being exposed to more people.

It is clear Facebook is, indeed, still a Silicon Valley start-up and hungry for improved revenue. Unfortunately, Facebook's key asset - its users - may suffer as a result of the competition with Twitter for relevance in the investor community.

Facebook, Google, Real-time Search, and You

2009-12-10T10:48:00.004-06:00

On the heels of Google's announcement of real-time search capabilities, Facebook is implementing "new, simplified privacy settings" to provide users "more control over the information you share."

Of course, in the spirit of "more control over the information you share", the Facebook team recommends you make "Posts I Create: Status Updates, Links, Photos, Videos, and Notes" available to "Everyone". Nice, huh?

Following Facebook's recommendation means not just exposing that late-night sarcastic comment, the shared stupid joke, or the statement of personal feelings with your friends and network. It means sharing it with anybody who has access to a computer and making it searchable on Google. What a long way Facebook has come from the closed, students-only service it once was.

Google Real-time and Goggles: Whee!

2009-12-07T17:38:00.003-06:00

Back in May I wrote about Twitter's then-new search functionality, calling it "enticing, exhilarating, and exasperating." I thought it was pretty slick, though still primitive, and destined to be a handy staple for marketers interested in managing their customer relationships.

Now Google brings real-time search to the masses, including Twitter, Facebook status updates, and news as it happens... or at least as it's published. Time will tell how valuable this firehose of information turns out to be, but be sure that new insights and uses for the information will arise.

While we're on the topic of Google announcements, Google Goggles also seems pretty darn intriguing. Think of the social media applications. Want to rate a hotel, brand, or anything else? Point your phone at it, click a menu option, and rate it on the spot. Want to do a search for ratings? Do the same.

This Goggle technology and other similar solutions will provide new means to search for or receive promotional offers. Think of Catalina-style coupon offers delivered via mobile devices. Someone pulls up Pampers on their phone and gets an offer for $1 off Huggies, on the spot.

Comcast NBC Deal Just the Start of Change?

2009-12-03T09:25:00.003-06:00

The announcement of the long-anticipated Comcast deal to acquire NBC Universal could signal the start of significant shifts in ownership and structure in the entertainment industry. Although the focus of commentary is on television entertainment, there could be intrigue for related categories such as DVD rental and internet video services.

Comcast, as leading cable provider, benefits from greater use of video on demand access to movies. Now, with the firm in control of a large content portfolio, will it move to restrict access to its content in other channels? How will the newly acquired content be distributed on the internet?

NBC Universal owns a third of Hulu, the increasingly popular - and for now, free - online service which allows viewers to access television content via the web. Comcast is a major stakeholder in the TV Everywhere initiative, which takes a different approach to television content online. Essentially, the TV Everywhere model only allows paying cable or satellite customers access to the content.

In a conference call with investors about the NBC deal, Comcast indicated that TV Everywhere is complementary to Hulu, with cable content to be available on TV Everywhere and broadcast content on Hulu. It sounds nice and logical, but it may not fly with the other partners in Hulu: News Corp. and Disney. Hulu is projecting a $33 million loss in 2009, so some change in business model is to be expected.

This evolution is in its early stages, so expect more news as we roll into 2010.

The Risk of Not Taking Risks

2009-11-30T11:03:00.004-06:00

In reading an open letter to Hollywood by GeekDad today, I started to ponder the why of creative remakes, reincarnations, and resurrections. GeekDad takes movie makers to task for ruining his childhood memories by producing terrible films based on cartoons or video games. Why would otherwise intelligent people actually make a third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie or even consider another He-Man movie?

The answer, of course, is the relatively low risk associated with playing out another thread on a spool that's already available. The existing fan-base from an original incarnation provides easier pickings for a marketer, it is thought, since there will be less need to persuade folks of the underlying value of a franchise. As a result, we get G.I. Joe not as a rugged leader in a team of skilled soldiers, but rather (to quote GeekDad): "Tough Action Guys in Power Suits Against Bad Guys with Nanotechnology". Not a good fit, even with the 1980s incarnation of Joe.

When the formula of existing fan base plus new creative works, it can be thrilling. Let's put "The Dark Knight" into this bucket. More frequently, though, the vision falls short of expectations. Sequels run a much greater risk of this shortfall. Let's put "Batman & Robin" into this other bucket.

The same trap applies to music, a market rife with remakes. Although I might prefer Pseudo Echo's remake of "Funkytown" to the original, that makes me the exception. More often, the telltale sign of an artist lack of enduring creativity is the issuance of remakes, riding on the momentum of an earlier hit to extend his or her career by that much longer.

This strategy can work in a category like movies, where a bait and switch proposition is applied to what is a one-time use product. Saw it, hated it, but then again, how many of us actually go back to the cinema for a second viewing - even for films we like? We consumers don't tend to apply brand loyalty discretion to the studios marketing the films. No, we focus on the title, with maybe some credence given to the director or actors.

This strategy most certainly does not work for a business that relies on on-going positive customer experience. To stretch the point, imagine Crest having originally put out toothpaste that tasted terrible or stained teeth? Bada-bing! End of that brand. Persuading some folks to the first purchase is possible, even with a bad proposition. The power of word of mouth and zero repeat purchase "significantly limits growth prospects", so to speak.

So why would studio execs give the green light to such projects? Because sometimes the known bad movie will still cover costs, whereas the unknown risk could flop. If someone is rewarded for failure avoidance versus pursuit of success, the decisions make sense.

All this brings several questions to mind: How are you rewarded? How are you driving your business? And, while we're at it, what if someone actually tried to make a film studio an enduring mark of quality in consumers' eyes? What might that vision look like?

Blu-ray, Hot Prices, and Demand for Movie Rentals

2009-11-27T11:29:00.005-06:00

This Thanksgiving weekend, film studios and major retailers are hoping that unprecedented pricing will increase household penetration of Blu-ray players and jump start consumer demand for purchases of movies in the Blu-ray format.

With Blu-ray players available for as little as $99.99, there is little doubt that the hardware will sell. Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and other retailers are all using the hot prices as a lure to customers. Consumers will benefit from the aggressive competition, paying $100 this year for a Blu-ray player which cost $300 only a year ago.

The hot pricing is not limited to the Blu-ray players, though. Films are being hawked at loss-leader prices, too. Recent hit films like "The Dark Knight" can be found on DVD for $3.99, with a new Blu-ray only $9.99. Older titles can be found for as little at $6.99 in the Blu-ray format.

How will these prices impact demand for movie rentals? In the near term, there will be a negative impact, though the scale of it is still to be determined. It all depends on how many people buy films and how many they buy. Consumers who take advantage of available discounts to buy DVDs for the same price as a rental at Blockbuster will curtail rentals for a period of time. They will watch their newly acquired films before returning to rental activity.

With the holidays a peak period for DVD rentals, this substitution of purchases for rentals should worry Blockbuster leadership. Unlike redbox or Netflix, which can still postulate a value advantage versus the hot DVD prices, Blockbuster now faces this new challenge in its efforts to bring customers back to its remaining stores.

The outlook for movie rentals in 2010 should be brighter as a result of the aggressive Blu-ray player pricing this holiday season. Yes, consumers will stock up on titles, increasing purchases for the moment. Yet, with the return of "normal" pricing after the holidays, many of these same consumers will once again face the realities of a macro-economic environment which rewards cash-flow conscious decisions on discretionary expenses.

With studio executives saying things like, "Consumers expecting $7.99 Blu-ray titles over the long term is not part of any business model we've been privy to," a return higher prices on Blu-ray movies is a certainty. The higher purchase prices will leave those millions of newly acquired Blu-ray players begging for films to play at a price that is comfortable to the proud owners of said devices. The solution? Rentals.

Blockbuster will continue to face the challenges from competing rental offerings, but overall the movie rental market in 2010 looks like a strong growth segment. Studio execs will continue to struggle with weak sell-through performance unless they learn the lesson from this holiday season: "normal" sell-through product pricing exceeds what the market will bear. Hot promotions will move more product, but also train consumers to value the product at the discounted prices. In their effort to boost purchases near-term, the studios themselves may be spurring even more rental behavior in 2010.

Kindle Software Update: Pardon My Lack of Excitement

2009-11-25T16:30:00.003-06:00

I just received an email from the kind folks at amazon.com. They inform me that the latest software upgrade for my Kindle will allow me to view PDF documents without losing the original's formatting and that I can... drumroll, please... I can manually rotate between portrait and landscape views.

Wow! Now that's a bundle of benefit. Or is it? Clearly, both bits of functionality are valuable, useful, and greatly desired by users. And yet, upon reading news of these introductions, all I could think was, "Really? Is that it?"

I've commented on the Kindle previously, and this new set of improvements left me once again feeling that the product is just plain clunky in several regards. It's not as utilitarian as a smart phone, not as productive as a laptop, and it still doesn't beat a good old-fashioned book in the hand for sensory experience. My phone and my laptop already allow me to view PDF documents, and what's more, they let me do it in bright, vibrant color. I can snip bits of copy or images and incorporate the content into other files, etc.

The Kindle is ideal for long trips, when schlepping a stack of books along is inconvenient and unwieldy. In these cases, I could see the PDF function providing access to reading material that isn't available for the Kindle, but really, it still seems an inferior experience overall.

Now, when is that Apple tablet device coming to market?

Sticky or Engaging: What Silly Putty Teaches Us

2009-11-19T22:00:00.003-06:00

Recently, my daughter fell asleep with Silly Putty in her hand. Of course, it didn't stay in her hand, and she awoke in the morning with a shriek. During her slumbers, the putty had more or less melted, adhering her pajamas to the sheet and effectively trapping her. Not to worry; we got her out of the predicament. Fortunately, it hadn't gotten into her hair, but she was pretty distraught over the sticky mess that was her pajama top.

During the 45 minutes or so that it took me to remove the goo from her pajamas, I had time to reflect on a conversation with my friend David from several years back. I'd made the mistake of mentioning I wanted our company's website to be "stickier", and David took me to task. In a moment of righteous indignation, he proceeded to point out the multitude of flaws inherent in this term.

Boiling down David's argument is easy. "Sticky" means "stuck". "Engaging", on the other hand, means "delighted to be here". I loved being put in my place on this point, and I frequently ask myself the resulting question when contemplating changes to the user experience of a website or product: "Are we engaging our users or just making it harder to get away?"

Which brings me back to Silly Putty... Roll it in a ball, and it bounces. Press it on newsprint, and it pulls off a nice duplication of the image. It's tactile, flexible, stretchy, and resilient. In short, it's delightfully engaging!

So, what's the lesson of the putty? Don't trap your users, engage them. And maybe also keep in mind that even the most delightful of features can, in the wrong circumstance, become a gooey mess. In those moments, just be prepared to clean things up lickety-split!

And in this Corner... Google Chrome!

2009-11-13T13:34:00.002-06:00

It's time for the the Rumble in the Operating System Jungle to begin. With the impending first launch of the Chrome OS from Google, Microsoft and its Windows may face the stiffest competition they've had in a long, long time.

Let's face it, Google is both formidable and ambitious. This first effort with the Chrome OS is likely to problematic, disappointing in some ways, and limited in initial impact. What I'm looking to assess is how much did Google get right from the git-go. This initial launch is just the first round of what could turn out to be an epic 15-round battle between two true heavyweights.

New Puppy and the Price of Taking Risks

2009-11-11T18:21:00.003-06:00

In the midst of trading emails with my friend, Bruce, he provided the following comments on how his kids are getting on with their new puppy:

The puppy is more of a squirrel-like creature with sharp pointy teeth. It bites. It bites everything. It is not discerning about what it bites as long as it can bite. It bites my son's feet and he flies to the top of a table. It’s sound judgment on his part to keep his feet up and out of the way. My daughter shows greater enterprise in her play with the puppy but not as sound judgment as her brother. She has scratches and bites all over her arms to prove her enterprising nature.

Of course, I laughed as I read the description, but then I thought of something. This story is a pretty good analogy for taking risks in business.

Though risk aversion often appears the safer route in the near term, avoiding painful "scratches and bites," is being overly risk averse conducive to long-term success? I think not. Without a willingness to absorb nicks and cuts in pursuit of greater success, how fruitful can any relationship-building with consumers be? How compelling is the new product that doesn't do something new?

I think the trick is to get to a process that results in, perhaps, "scratches and bites" only rather than deep flesh wounds. Fail fast and fail small is a good solution, and one I recommend in this regard. Got your own thoughts? Chime in!

A Wall, A Change, and Hope

2009-11-09T18:27:00.008-06:00

Where were you twenty years ago? I was in a place called Berlin.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, what Germans call “Die Wende” – “The Change” for those not familiar with the language. There are few moments in our lives which rise above the norm, connecting us to something grander in humanity. The instant the Berlin Wall ceased to be a barrier was such an moment.

You know the background, right? Built to keep the masses of the German Democratic Republic from fleeing into the West, the Wall was portrayed to East Germans as a protective barrier against the evils of capitalist aggressors. Uh-huh. Sure. Did anyone truly believe that line? No. They didn’t.

The Wall was a “pragmatic” solution to stem the flow of humanity from an oppressive environment to one of greater opportunity. It imprisoned a people and embodied all that is wrong in a government and society ruled by mistrust. The East German regime mostly took value from its citizenry, rather than providing value to it. That said, a whitewashed historical perspective of the fall of the Wall as “good prevailing over evil” is too simple, too easy to fully portray the nature of this profound moment.

I had the good fortune to build a relationship with the city and the people of Berlin over several years. Having first arrived there in late 1984, I kept returning to this fascinating island of special status embedded in the midst of the German Democratic Republic. Berlin became my second home. It is the only place other than Northern California where I feel completely connected to my surroundings, a colorful thread in the broad, vibrant tapestry of life weaving its way through time.

During the years leading up to November, 1989 I had studied in West Berlin, worked on a construction site in East Berlin, and cultivated enduring friendships on both sides of the Wall. For most of us who grew up in the West, there’s this feeling that folks “on the other side” were oppressed, solemn, and sad. My experiences confounded such stereotypes.

East Germans were, yes, keenly aware of the elements of their government and the threat of its security forces. They were cautious about new acquaintances and openly skeptical of folks who acted too warmly, too quickly. Given the Orwellian aspects of the state apparatus, such skepticism was both warranted and understandable. With time to build trust and a relationship, though, the friendships I established in the East have proven among the strongest and most profound of my life.

And thus, we have set the scene for the events of late 1989. During the autumn of that year, pressure continually mounted within East Germany. As Hungary and Czechoslovakia took cautious steps towards greater openness with West, more and more East Germans manifested their dissatisfaction with their own government… by finding ways to “escape” to the West and by taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers. As the protests mounted in frequency and scale, many worried about violence erupting in an angry government backlash.

The cycle of protest, worry, and discussion, protest, worry, and discussion built on itself. The tension was palpable in West Berlin and positively oozing through the streets of East Berlin. And then, POOF! Tension gone. Exuberance, relief, joy, disbelief, and hope exploded in its place. The Wall - the impenetrable, deadly Wall - transformed into a convoluted concrete gateway, the anachronistic vestige of a rapidly warming Cold War.

To be in the midst of an outpouring of welcome, hope, and love shared by millions simultaneously was awe-inspiring. Life, with its daily nuisances and distractions, stood patiently to one side while History danced in the light for a bit. Complete strangers were welcomed as family at each border crossing. The distinctions between Easterners and Westerners were, at least temporarily, subjugated by elation and celebration.

Twenty years on, the sheen has dulled some, the hope dimmed considerably, but for those of us swept up in the current of that incredible moment of change there is a lingering desire to work towards a better future. We believe, I believe, in the potential of humanity to do good. The darkness of East Germany’s history made the brightness of reconnecting East and West the more bedazzling.

The optimism of that moment changed me and motivates me to this day. Some may call it naïve, but hope drives much that I do… and my hope sprang forth twenty years ago, in a place called Berlin.

Slow Art Milwaukee v1.0: Warhol's Last Supper

2009-11-04T23:34:00.008-06:00

I recently hosted a Slow Art event in Milwaukee, at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Think of Slow Art as the museum visitor’s version of chewing your food at least 25 times to get all the flavor out of each and every savory bite. With Slow Art, the idea isn’t to see everything. Rather, it’s to see a few things in depth, to spend the time with a selection of artistic creations.

For me, Slow Art also encompasses an observation of context and the reactions elicited from Joe and Jane Public while they view or interact with a piece. Here is the first installment of my thoughts from Slow Art Milwaukee v1.0.

Perhaps not surprisingly, in the Warhol exhibit people congregated, lingered, and engaged most in the gallery displaying Andy’s homage to DaVinci’s “The Last Supper.” Among the largest of all Warhol’s works, there is a figurative familiarity conveyed through his reworking of DaVinci’s famous fresco.

Mounted on opposite walls, juxtaposed purposely, are a screen print of the familiar last supper scene, albeit doubled and vibrant in black monochrome rendering on a bright yellow canvas, and a Warhol line-drawn rendering, black tracings on a white canvas, overlain with logos from Dove and GE plus a 59¢ price violator. The effect is remarkable, in its devotional aspects to DaVinci’s masterpiece and the modern contextual commentary on the role of religion and corporate iconography.

This was, it turned out, Warhol’s final project, and it is a fitting culmination to the career of someone who so frequently reflected simple, everyday images back at society, challenging us by – perhaps appropriately – elevating the mundane to “art” (Campbell’s Soup can) and reducing the famous to merely “image” (Marilyn Monroe). These last couple works reveal Warhol’s faith and dialog with his faith, and maybe, just maybe, reveal a bit of the inspiration behind his earlier, simpler work.

Please, feel free to comment and by all means, take Slow Art to heart. Savor the creative endeavors of humanity; you’ll be delighted by the experience!

Apple Tablet: Kindle Killer?

2009-10-16T16:07:00.003-05:00

Back in August, I mentioned the rumor of a new Apple tablet. The rumor keeps gaining steam, to the point that it's a pretty sure bet the product will be in-market in 2010. The latest plot twist? A subtle and likely profound change in Apple's App Store policy to enable free iPhone apps to sell added content from within the app.

Until now, apps were either free or paid. The new policy allows, say, a publisher to provide a free version of its content, with integrated options to access premium, pay-to-access content or utility. This model has performed well online for a variety of services... LinkedIn comes to mind as a good example.

The idea of in-app commerce for the iPhone, though, was until now only kosher to the Apple powers on high if the app charged up-front. Under the new rules, though, content providers can give away the app and sell stuff later from within it. This free-now-pay-later model could, and will, be applied by newspapers looking for new revenue streams. It might also be an avenue for monetization and consumption of other content, too.

One new idea? How about a digital video service? Blog commentary, reviews, entertainment news & gossip, short clips, and even some short or older feature length films could be available free, with click thru to rental or purchase of recent releases or premium content. The same could be done for music.

To add some spice to the ideation, what about using crowd-sourcing and user feedback to determine prices in an open commodity exchange valuing the particular content? This idea could provide impetus to try stuff early, when cheap. Heck, the best of the bunch might even enjoy rapid word of mouth awareness builds as folks clue in friends to great and still inexpensive films and tunes.

Which brings us to the subject of the Kindle. Anybody out there, even the most die-hard Kindlefreak, imagine that it can enable the kind of interactive experience a scaled up, iPhone-on-steroids Apple tablet could? Didn't think so. The two devices will remain distinct, in price and in functionality. Apple's new thing will probably out-do the Kindle at its own game - books, magazines, newspapers - but users will pay three times the price to get the experience. For folks who simply want to read, Kindles might be hunky-dory fine. But, for more fun, more sizzle, more pizzazz, Apple will likely entice a good number of potential Kindle customers to trade up.

Time will tell how this plays out. Microsoft is working on new tablet products, too. And, of course, the publishers of the world are all hoping someone creates a viable hardware foundation for consumption of their content... Preferably before the newspapers of the world are all bankrupt!

Blackberry Props

2009-10-14T13:15:00.002-05:00

OK, so y'all know I'm a fan of Palm and the Pre... but props where due to the folks at RIM, makers of the Blackberry. Why? Because, even after a big pre-launch build-up, the Pre is still just a fringe player in mobile phones while the Blackberry is making significant strides into the consumer market.

There's no mistaking that Apple's iPhone is still a highly coveted device, but the hordes of Crackberry fans have given their device of choice remarkable staying power. And, if the new ad campaign from RIM succeeds, maybe just maybe consumers may actually think the firm's devices are cool.

Another Post in The Living Room

2009-09-21T16:56:00.003-05:00

Please take a look! Paid Tweets, Transparency, and Integrity

Local... Social... Activate!

2009-09-18T16:02:00.008-05:00

One thing I really appreciate is the "big" trends applied in local, even intimate ways. Recently, I've been noticing my favorite local haunts - a small coffee house, a nice little restaurant - taking steps towards greater engagement with their customers.

In the case of City Market (my source for chocolate croissants), I found a nice handmade sign displaying options for new cup sleeves with a request that folks vote. Where was the sign? Appropriately, placed in the junk-up-your-coffee station above the flatware, so nearly every coffee-drinking denizen would have the chance to weigh in. What a great, low-tech, high engagement way to keep customers involved in the evolution of the brand!

At Berkeley's - where I highly recommend the polenta mosaic for dinner followed by warm donuts for dessert - the proprietors have started building a community via SMS text messaging. Nothing new, per se, but appreciated nonetheless. Not that I'm not already loyal to the place, but the texts do keep the restaurant top of mind for the inevitable "hmmm, do I really want to cook?" evenings.

Got any favorite examples of Local/Social activation you'd like to share? Let us know... And if your examples include chocolate croissants or warm donuts, I'm happy to coordinate on-site research!

g-thoughts Now in The Living Room, Too!

2009-09-15T22:37:00.002-05:00

My guest-blogger gig with JSH&A on topics related to public relations is officially underway. Check it out in The Living Room. My first posting there: Publicity, Integrity, and Your Role in the Process.

Big Food, Big Insurance, and Big Opportunity?

2009-09-14T20:13:00.003-05:00

Thanks to a friend for bringing up the NY Times article on Big Food vs. Big Insurance. It's an interesting article and raises some intriguing points. As I read it, all I kept thinking was, "What's the opportunity for the food businesses?" This is an early signal of potentially BIG changes... in consumer preferences, in retail distribution solutions, in brand positioning, and so forth. Got thoughts? Talk about them with others, share them here, but keep the thinking going. There are bound to be insights that will lead to opportunity!

Beatles, Rock Band, and Desire...

2009-09-10T21:49:00.003-05:00

Per my recent post on Guitar Hero, it should be noted that my lust for the new Beatles Rock Band game grew that much more after reading a WIRED review of it. First song I learned on the guitar: Day Tripper. Anybody thinking of getting me a random occasion gift should take note!

Guitars, Guitar Heroes, and Who Gets to Rock

2009-09-07T12:55:00.007-05:00

"The new version of Guitar Hero is coming! The new version of Guitar Hero is coming!" goes the chant from fans of the video game. Make no mistake, it's an engaging, exciting, vicarious pleasure for just about anybody. And, it ain't no substitute for actually playing guitar.

I don't own Guitar Hero. Although I'm disinclined to say I never will, it's gonna be a while before I do buy a version of the game or its rival, Rock Band... Though the prospect of The Beatles Rock Band launch is mighty enticing.

Why my resistance? Let me play back a dialog with my now 18-year-old back in the halcyon days of his 17-year-old youth:

"Why don't we have Guitar Hero?"
"Why would we want that?"
"Because it's so cool... I mean you get to play all these great songs."
"But, I'm already a real guitar hero. I play guitar."
"Yeah, but..."
"Maybe you could try playing the guitar I gave you instead of a fake guitar with buttons?" (said with utmost care and love)

Honestly, I'd rather plow my way through a difficult chord progression on the six-stringed axe of rock than push the buttons on a mini fauxtar any day. But -- and here's the dirty little secret -- I do enjoy playing Guitar Hero. It is fun. And... it allows me to rock on with friends, many friends, in a way that actual guitars just don't allow.

Playing guitar has been, and will continue to be, a statement of sorts. It says, "Hey, I am this cool. I put in the effort to guarantee it." Pulling out a guitar, for all it's party-time fun, is an exercise in socially separating the wheat from the chaff. There are those who can play and those can not. Some perform, others only watch.

Guitar Hero and Rock Star magically demolish the distinction between players and spectators. The games are great levelers of talent. Any guitar player will tell you, the particular buttons pushed at any point in a video game rendition of a tune are simply representations of actually playing the song.

Insidiously and enticingly, the particular renditions must be mastered on their own merits. I play guitar, and I am bad at Guitar Hero. I am not alone. And yet, on the occasions I've played the game, it's been an absolute blast to stink it up alongside non-musical friends with mad skills in the game. Wahoo! Everybody plays. Everybody laughs. Everybody rocks.

Maybe the real reason I resist buying a copy is the threat to my cool-dad image once my eldest crushes me in a duel of fake guitars. Perhaps a secret acquisition and weeks of practice could solve this dilemma...

Lancina Guest Blogging for the "Living Room"

2009-09-03T09:27:00.003-05:00

Hi folks! Happy to inform you I'll be guest blogging in the "Living Room" for JSH&A on topics related to public relations, getting the word out about brands and products, etc. I'll put up reminders here about posts there (two or three each week). The gig starts next week, so please check it out!

Granny, a Hawk, and the Web

2009-09-01T14:47:00.002-05:00

This is the story of my granny, a hawk, and the fine art of settling a debate.

Who is this Granny character? She’s a chatty, charming octogenarian. She grew up on a farm (referred to as “The Ranch” in our family history), was a professional woman, and is now savoring the later years of her life from a lovely little country house in northern Sonoma County, California.

Granny’s experienced change of massive proportions during her lifetime: the discovery of the polio vaccine, the growth of television as a mass medium, cellular communications, and the rise of the internet. She takes each shift in stride, essentially making change itself a comfortable aspect of her life.

When she started using a fax machine in her home office, it was with an appreciation of the utility and convenience the device provided. My grandfather, on the other hand, initially resisted using original documents in the fax. He thought it borrowed technology from the Star Trek transporter, whisking the actual document off to distant locales via technology too advanced for the lay person to comprehend. Granny set him straight.

So we get to the heart of this story. Not too long ago, a hawk took up residence near Granny’s, patrolling the pasture for tasty rodent treats. Nobody could dispute its presence due to the piercing calls it made, though a debate raged over which kind of hawk this might be: red-tailed, red-shouldered, or something more esoteric? Granny knew, but others – all younger than she – insisted she was wrong, questioned her eyesight, and so forth. Such conversation has long been a staple in country kitchens, so folks settled in to haggle their way to an answer.

Never one to concede easily, Granny left the swirl of debate in the kitchen and quietly stepped into the adjacent home office. Seated in front of her handy iMac, she did a quick search on “red shouldered hawk call”, clicked through to the first search result, and played the sound file. Talking stopped in the kitchen as people wondered where the hawk was that it sounded so close… There was no question about it being the hawk in question.

Granny emerged from the office, grinning and content. Debate settled. Red shouldered hawk. Score one for the old lady and her technology.

I like the idea of embracing change, and I think of my granny when I find myself resisting it. I love that she figured out a foolproof way to support her claim, by switching the “defining sense” of identification from sight to hearing and using the internet to drive home her argument. I just hope I’m up to her standard when it comes to incorporating the utility and value new technology provides!

Disney Buying Marvel

2009-08-31T14:03:00.004-05:00

This just in... Disney will buy Marvel for $4 billion. Wow. Aside from the business aspect of this, think of the new character pairings. Donald Duck can advise the Hulk on appropriate anger management. Goofy could be Spider Man's new sidekick, taking the whole Spider Man comic in a radical new, bumbling comedy direction. The possibilities are endless!

Seriously, though, this is a marriage of two mega-franchises, and it definitely fills a gap for Disney. My question: Do they modify the current theme parks or build a new one that's young-guy-centric and so chock full of adrenaline that parents check their teens in, but never enter themselves?

Apple Tablet Coming? Jobs on the Job!

2009-08-24T21:49:00.003-05:00

Steve Jobs is back and back at it. Latest rumblings from Appletown: a tablet-type computational device is in the works.

Although details are lacking, I'd lay some pretty good odds this puppy is gonna be ideally suited for video watching, easy to use, and loaded with flash memory for instant-on action. Think Amazon Kindle for video or iPod touch on steroids... With better usability and a killer aesthetic.

I'm luke warm on the Kindle, and I've actually never been other than a business admirer of Apple, but the thought of a big, touch-screen, tablet-esque computer/media player has me a little giggly with anticipation.

Of course, I could be way, way off here, but it's fun to contemplate, no?

Lobster Boat Racing... In a Pontiac Sunbird???

2009-08-24T21:40:00.004-05:00

Couldn't resist this one, especially since it's from the Wall Street Journal: lobster boat racing in Maine. Talk about creativity for the sheer fun of it!

When Does "Old" Turn Into "Unused"?

2009-08-17T01:58:00.003-05:00

After a fabulous day at the beach, I stopped by an old friend's for dinner. It was a gourmet affair of pizza and beer. Basic, tasty stuff. I didn't expect an "I wonder" moment, but then again how often can I predict those?

While chomping on the last pieces of pizza, my dear friend asked me whether she was wasting money by backing up her digital photos on to DVDs, "I mean, c'mon, they'll be obsolete eventually." I reassured her by replying, "It's ok. Look, I've still got two working VCRs in my house." She laughed because she also has two VCRs in operation to this day.

Which gets me to a bigger question: I wonder how long technology transitions truly take. It seems we measure by varying means. First, there's the hullabaloo in the press about the next big thing. Some time later, sales actually flip from the old to the new. Finally, and perhaps not so well tracked, people actually stop using the old. But this final step takes a good long while in many categories.

Looking forward into digital film delivery, it seems we're in for a massive switch in how movies are distributed to consumers over the next several years. Clear consensus exists on this point, although the timing question is being hotly debated. I wonder, however, how long DVDs will still be a handy option for the majority of consumers. Seems like it'll take a while, especially given my pizza time conversation tonight. What do you think?

Word of Mouth Marketing, One Postcard at a Time

2009-08-14T02:30:00.007-05:00

Ever hear of the Hamburger Ranch? No?! You might at some point, but I doubt it will be from an ad or promotion. No, you'll hear about it from someone who's been there.

The World Famous Hamburger Ranch and Pasta Farm is, quite literally, at the top of the hill in Cloverdale, California. It's at the northern end of the northernmost town of Sonoma County in California's wine country.

I remember the place from way back when, before it served best-in-the-county barbeque and drool-evoking burgers of delight. This little gem of a local eatery is also a pretty good guide on how to leverage word of mouth. How do they do it? Here's how...

Step one: Start with fabulous user experience. In this case, truly tasty vittels and a staff of friendly, engaging folk. The food doesn't disappoint, and the people in the place don't, either. They are chatty, witty, and here's what you wouldn't expect... They're intriguing. Stories of childhoods in far away lands spring up. Conversation about pulled pork sandwiches can lead to the secret of good matzo ball soup. So, fabulous user experience.

Step two: Add postcards. Yes, postcards. Mention you enjoyed the food or the experience and a server will hand you a postcard. It's not for you to send to someone else. It's for you to send to the restaurant. From home. Wherever that is. Truly.

Step three: Sit back, and let the talking take effect.

How do these three little steps conspire to positive effect? Well, it's never bad to delight customers, and believe me the Hamburger Ranch excels in this regard. A great user experience is a terrific catalyst of positive word of mouth.

The postcards are turbo boosters. They are walk-away-but-remember-us reminders to customers of just how fun that place at the top of the hill is. And, spurring the immediate reminiscences causes further conversation among folks later, like when bags are unpacked at the end of a trip. "Hey, guess what I found in our luggage? That postcard from the Hamburger Ranch."

Hold it right here for a second, because there may not be another step in the process. Everything could end here, but for the Hamburger Ranchers, it's still good. Think of the luggage unpacking moment as a further brand impression, reinforcing the great customer experience with a fun little memory of it. Memories spur intentions for future purchase occasions. That next trip to Sonoma County for wine tasting might just mean "we better get back to the Ranch on this trip."

But wait, there's more! The postcards are cute, too. They generate talk value with others. They make for great stories. Have you ever been handed a postcard and asked to send it back from home? Aside from subscriptions to magazines, it's a rare occurence. In this case, it feels like sending a gift to a friend. The postcards turn into mini art projects. And what's more, they lead to positive recommendations to friends. The Ranch becomes a destination even for people who are first time visitors to the area.

Further, when you're at the Ranch, chowing down on choice BBQ, you can check out the walls of the place. They are covered with postcards from all corners of the globe, reinforcing the otherwise preposterous notion that yes, sweety, this place is world famous.

It's a simple recipe, yet it yields success. In a small town where restaurants have struggled to survive, the World Famous Hamburger Ranch and Pasta Farm has thrived by building on a great customer experience with a simple, effective plan to grow brand equity and loyalty over time.

Pricing: What a moment of truth!

2009-08-11T16:02:00.003-05:00

Referring back to What You Do and What You Deliver, when was the last time you took a good hard look at pricing for your product or service?

Pricing is a crucial and often ignored aspect of optimizing returns on marketing efforts. Let us not forget, though, that it's money we take to the bank... Not brand equity. Not cool online interactivity. Not awards for slick ads. At the end of the day, it's all about aggregating myriad consumer decisions that this or that particular product or service provides value at or above the price being asked.

You'll note, I'm not talking margin on top of cost here. To me, product cost is a variable to be managed to hit the price consumers will pay for what's on offer. Cost-plus pricing is risky pricing. It may deliver nice looking margin percentages, but can lead to asking prices that severely undermine effectiveness in-market.

So, when exactly was the last serious consideration of price for your product or service? Is it too high? Too low? Is it competitive with other similar services on offer? Is it a delight for consumers of your product because you're delivering killer value? Is it leaving enough room for resellers to make a profit and still keep the end-price to consumers compelling?

There are many, many variables to pricing, and managing pricing well involves as much diplomacy as it does financial savvy. Often, pricing discussions arouse emotional responses or knee-jerk reactions from executives, retailers, and consumers themselves. It's crucial, however, to raise the topic with appropriate frequency. Why, you ask? Imagine waking up one morning to discover your competitor has undermined your price, or to learn that retailers are removing your products from shelves because they can't make enough margin to be profitable and still meet the needs of their customers.

Managed well, however, pricing can be a serious strategic weapon, delighting customers and consumers while delivering profits for your business. It's a tough task, because leaving money on the table can starve a business just as overpricing can expose it to competitive market share incursions. Take the time, though. It's worth it!

Lollapalooza Observations: the User Experience

2009-08-09T10:40:00.005-05:00

First time Lollapallooza attendee, long-time music fan. Here are some random observations on the experience:

Somewhat surprisingly, the corporate sponsorships display a relatively light touch. I mean, yes, there is prominent signage on the stages, but I've not been confronted by action teams sampling things around every corner. It appears a comfortable balance has been struck. I can recall a number of sponsors off the top of my head: Budweiser, Sony PlayStation, Citi, and vitaminwater. Am I persuaded to use any of them more? No. But I recall them.
The one sample I did receive was for a peach-flavored iced tea beverage... Do I recall it's name? No. Did I like it? No. It was way, way too sweet. Think sugar cubes infused with a slight peachy tea flavor and somehow liquified. Blech!
The Bud sponsorship does limit beer options, and I drink beer. Normally, I won't touch an Anheuser-Busch product. C'mon, folks, I live in Millerwaukee! In any case, I did try the lime-flavored Bud Light, and guess what... It tastes like bubbly lime-ade. No bad Bud waterbeer concerns there. Will I buy the stuff regularly? No, but I'd be willing to recommend it to others. Mission partially accomplished, sponsor wonks.
The music at the show has been stand-up, take-notice good. I've seen a number of strong acts, and Perry Farrell positively delighted me with a groovy move-your-body-to-this-beat set on a small stage in the heated heart of yesterday afternoon. Nobody has held up to the standard set by Lykke Li, though. Wow. A 23-year-old Swedish dynamo with a tight backing band, she lit up the crowd just as the setting Chicago sun lit her show in a golden glow. Get her music. You'll want to dance. You'll want more of it. And you'll want to see her live. Not content to sing, little Miss Li gyrated across the stage to percuss on drum and cymbal, crafted the best use of kazoo in a pop song this decade, and cajoled the crowd. It worked. Well.
The food has been good. It is reasonably priced. It is yummy. I will eat more of it.
Ah, and before I forget, if you hate the smell of freshly smoked marijuana, don't go to Lollapalooza. You can't get away from it, whether at the shows or taking a break in the shade of a tree. It's like the fragrance of choice for the event is hemp incense. Not the worst thing, but if mom's still doing your laundry you'll have some explaining to do.

I'm off now. Day three of the 'palooza beckons... Rock on, friends, rock on.

Abundance, Waste, and Innovation

2009-08-07T16:58:00.001-05:00

While catching up on a bit of reading, plowing through some WIRED stuff, I came across an interesting article by Chris Anderson on abundance, waste, and the sense of scarcity. What I took from the artcle is that great abundance leads to innovative waste. Later the same day I was on a flight and read a different piece in the United Hemispheres magazine on art, houses, and strange happenings in Detroit. Homes are cheap in Detroit, and folks are snapping up the cheapest and doing strange, provocative things with them.

I like the idea of flux, of times when things are mid-transmogrification, of the moments of opportunity when long-held assumptions crash on the rocks of imagination. It seems to me the idea of abundance spurring "innovative waste" and what's happening with cheap real estate in Detroit are intertwined ideas, and I'm anxious to see what comes of the artistic efforts taking shape in the Motor City.

In addition, I started wondering about different businesses, how "waste" could be fruitful in thinking of them. What benefit might arise from brainstorming along this vein of thought for a stagnated and mature industry? What will happen with all the excess manufacturing capacity in the car industry, for example? What could be done with newsprint and ink now that readership is down for newspapers? Where might all this lead?

Any relevance for your business? Any thoughts on the topic? Please share!

Oh, and back to WIRED's Mr. Anderson... I've started reading his new book FREE and will be commenting on it in future posts. Keep an eye out for them.

Palm Pre vs. iPhone: $99 Pre Price Heats Things Up

2009-08-04T06:41:00.003-05:00

Pre pricing hits $99 as Palm competes aggressively with the iPhone... Things are heating up. We won't know the "winner" in this competition for a while, but does anybody remember Blackberries? I'm thinking Palm and Apple will be the winners here, but RIM (maker of the formerly oh-so-popular Crackberry) may lose significant market share.

It's Official: Google taking on Winple

2009-08-03T14:25:00.003-05:00

With the news today that Google's chief is relinquishing his seat on the Apple board, it's officially time to acknowledge Google aspires to all (or nearly all) that is Windows plus Apple. The big getting bigger...

Recharge and Refocus

2009-07-25T11:31:00.006-05:00

Hi. I'm back. Sorry for the delay in postings. I managed to be pretty good at putting stuff up while actually on vacation (3 weeks, Europe), but haven't posted since my return to the U.S. Read on, and maybe you'll understand why.

My trip? Germany, mostly, with a little France for fun. Was it good? Yes. Once again, I can testify to the rejuvenating quality of getting away from the day-to-day rhythm of life. I put myself on a different pace while away, still busy, but to a different beat. The beat was good. I took time to hike, bike, drive, and think. There was time for silly, time for serious, and much in between. I reconnected with old buddies and got feedback from dear friends. It focused me, and I highly recommend anybody who hasn't taken a vacation recently do so very, very soon!

Part of the focus I got while away manifested itself upon my return. There were things in my "normal" life that were prioritized incorrectly. I am pretty good at assessing importance and urgency, but I'd dedicated too much of my time over the past several weeks to some not so important endeavours. So, though the g-thought and writing in general make the list of "important", my attention over the past week has been on course-corrections.

Course-correcting accomplished, here I am writing again. And, though, this little story is about me, I hope it's relevant for you, too. Whether in personal or business settings, taking a bit of time to challenge assumptions, consider choices, and reprioritize is valuable. All too often, it seems we leave this effort unattended. So, how do your priorities look? Maybe it's time for a vacation, huh?

Earth: The Customer Experience

2009-07-09T17:09:00.005-05:00

So, folks, along the lines of empowered customer experience, I was inspired today by a blog post from The Debatable called "Folks, it's only one planet... let's take care of it." Full disclosure: the blog is written by a friend.

Here's where I got to after reading his post: The earth offers each of us one heck of an experience, but it differs profoundly from the retailers, service providers, or other experience suppliers we deal with every day. Where's the contact us link? The 800 number? The customer service agent for earth?

It's us! It's us, or nobody. And, therein lies the rub. This biggest, baddest, all-enveloping customer experience relies to a great degree on us - the users - to infer what's right and wrong with the whole offering. We have to make choices, collectively, about what to do about it, too. As if this challenge isn't significant enough, we probably won't be around to see the outcome of the initiatives we undertake, either.

So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Unlike a grocery store, we can't simply decide "this place is too hot to be comfortable, so I'll shop across the street." Where are we gonna go? Venus? I don't think so.

No, we have to solve this customer experience dilemma without a ready substitute at hand. It's a realtime monopoly, and yet there is the opportunity to influence the path forward. The opportunity is limited for most of us as individuals, but collectively we can exert remarkable influence. This is our co-op. We own the joint.

The choice, ultimately, will play out in a repeating cycle of the coalescence and dissolution of groups of various views, how they haggle with one another, and the consensus reached on a path forward "as of now." Step by step, course-correcting and modifying the path as new insights are gleaned, we will move into the future.

Without espousing a particular viewpoint here (I did that in a comment on The Debatable earlier), I am asking you to have a viewpoint, to express it, and to take what you consider the appropriate action. It may be an activist viewpoint, it may be a concessionary viewpoint, it may be one altogether different. Please have one, share it, act on it. As customer experiences go, this one is a biggy. Let's all be the engaged customers we so value hearing from in our businesses. Let's make a difference.

Whammo Moments of Insight: The Baking Soda Model

2009-07-06T17:53:00.008-05:00

I like the moments of opportunity when long-held assumptions crash on the rocks of imagination. I believe that, try as we might, we're not in control of what folks do with what we create.

In fact, the more likely scenario is that we have little to no idea of all the uses of our product or service. I worked on a shave gel business for a while, and it turns out some folks swore it was the best upholstery cleaner ever, while others got oil spots off their driveway with it. Really.

Many marketers are trained to deliver the "one thing" that's going to matter to users and differentiate from competitors. Reality is, it's the one thing that matters to most users most of the time, except for those folks on the fringe who apply their own creative juices in moments of need to problems we never considered and... Whammo! Shave gel removes oil spots on the driveway. Who'da thunk?

For those attuned to the messages and able to avoid the interference of their own thoughts, these whammo moments are insights coming through the door. Oil spots on the driveway. Wonder how many folks have them? Wonder what other oily stuff this product might clean? Wonder if there's a market for a cleaner of oily stuff that our manufacturing team can produce?

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda makes listening, learning, and applying new uses a key part of its brand viability. Church & Dwight, owners of the Arm & Hammer brand, list seven different consumer product categories on their website, but treat baking soda as a category unto itself. Why? Maybe it's all the various uses presented that make categorization near impossible. This one product is pitched for things as diverse as neutralizing car battery acid, freshening breath, and - of course - keeping fridges odor free. Oh, and don't forget that you can bake with it, too!

So, have you heard any interesting, but off-the-beaten-path commentary from consumers about your product? Maybe it's worth a little further consideration or follow-up. You probably don't have the next Arm & Hammer, but you might find a decent insight... Which is when the fun begins!

My Secret War: Installment 2

2009-07-03T04:13:00.003-05:00

A brief update to Installment 1. The squirrels have, for now, abandoned hope of storming the shed, which is good. Instead, they've adopted insurgent tactics, which is bad. Unsuspecting apple trees have been attacked, losing limbs in the process. Small plants have been ruthlessly uprooted and nibbled. They even managed to topple the bird bath. Those ravaging rodents! Who knows what additional mayhem they are undertaking while I'm away...

iPhone as Personal Navigation Device

2009-07-02T06:16:00.003-05:00

iPhone users rejoice! Well, at least those of you who often get lost. Finally, with the launch of the iPhone 3GS, Apple is allowing folks to take advantage of the iPhone's large screen, built-in GPS, and internal sensors to create navigational software.

Navigon, a German supplier of Personal Navigation Devices and other handy gadgets, appears to be first over the line in offering navigational software for the iPhone. It's not cheap, at 75 Euros a pop, but for the gadget greedy it might be just the new toy to wow friends.

The on-going back and forth on convergence of funtionality versus dedicated devices continues to roll along!

You, Facebook, and the World Wide Web

2009-06-30T09:04:00.003-05:00

Here it comes! Facebook will open up content to the masses. Your news, your comments, your content... Out there on the web for all to see or search. Potentially. The NY Times recently commented on the topic, and there will be ways to limit what's exposed, but the honus is on the user to manage permissions. So, check your privacy settings or someone could be checking you out.

Microtransactions: A Little Becoming Too Much?

2009-06-30T06:39:00.005-05:00

Microtransactions. Tiny payments for goods and services in bite-size amounts, a trend of significance and not so new. They are a key ingredient in the secret sauce of success for iTunes, a very real driver of the redbox business model, and the Amazon Kindle's ray of hope for newspapers is generated by them.

And yet... When does the stack-up of small purchases start to become a noticeable class of expense for consumers? Sure, it's easy to rent a movie for $1 a day or sign up for the $0.99 monthly subscription at a moment's notice. Today, these transactions "work" for consumers largely by being pain free at the time and largely unobtrusive on a credit card statement.

It seems to me that as more companies adopt this model of revenue capture, consumers will evolve, becoming more sensitive. Think of it this way, a piece of candy now and again isn't so bad for one's teeth or waistline, right? But, handfuls of sweets on a daily basis manifest themselves quickly. In the same way, too many microtransactions swells the waistline of any credit card account.

Don't believe me? Keep tabs on your small purchases for a week and tally the total. Or maybe an iTunes addiction already killed your credit limit. Chime in here to share your thoughts, reactions, or stories.

Holidays and User Experience: Who's in Control?

2009-06-22T00:00:00.005-05:00

Gotta tell you folks, I'm a believer in self-empowered holiday user experiences. And, I think there is a lesson in this idea for marketers.

Take today, Father's Day. Today was a day with the Twinkies, my twins. We started off with a nice brunch (mom helped them with the production, but presentation was custom kid... complete with hand-written "DAD" on my napkin). Then it was off to a minor-league baseball game, followed by dinner and hanging at my brother-in-law's.

Where's the self-empowerment in all that? For starters, here: I didn't stress one iota about rushing through brunch to make the first pitch of the game. Heck, the Twinkies are young, and the blueberry lemon pancakes were yummalicious. Why rush through a savory experience like that? And, with young kids, why panic over punctuality just to swelter in hot, humid conditions. The six innings we did see were great, but even better was teaching the kids how to crack roasted peanuts without losing the nuts and running the bases afterwards with them. In fact, the base-running seemed the most memorable moment for them, and hence, for me.

So, the lesson for marketers? Think of your brand or product as the holiday. Then remember that your users are the ones who truly determine the experience they're gonna have with it. You may want them to notice one thing or another. You may have communicated the relevance of that one special thing that took so long to develop and is oh so differentiating. But your perceptions and desires really do matter little to the end user.

Think of how many people in Detroit had to completely rejigger their perspective when they figured out that cup-holders make a big difference to car buyers. Cup. Holders. Not horsepower. Not fuel efficiency. Not sleek curves. At least not for all buyers. Turns out something that keeps a beverage container upright can be the deciding factor for a lot of folks.

Listen to your customers. Learn from them. They define what customer experience you actually deliver today and will be the judges of any changes. Oh, and the next time you think you might be late meeting your mother-in-law on Father's Day, don't sweat it! The day is for dads, after all.

Shiny Object War: Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3GS

2009-06-19T17:13:00.004-05:00

Oh yeah!!! It is on... For those of us with longer technomemories, this is a moment to remember.

Palm is the company that has habitually introduced remarkably handy new products and then handed off the mantle of "leader" to others. Remember the original Palm Pilot? I do. I loved the thing and even mastered the Graffiti method of inputting notes. I also must admit my fond feelings for the Palm Treo smartphone. And now? Now, Palm brings us the Pre with promises of delight to users. I have been giddy just thinking about it (having seen a pre-Pre at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year).

Apple, the company that came so close to failing utterly years ago but now dominates a couple "small" categories like portable music players and must-have phone-like multi-tasking devices, is launching the baddest iPhone yet... Say hello to iPhone 3GS. What you haven't heard about this launch? Oh, you must be the one person on the planet who was in Antarctica communing with penguins and had a dead battery in your radio.

There are several aspects of this technobattle I find intriguing. The Pre is clearly trying to "product plus" the functionality of the iPhone while Apple is building on its massive momentum and much higher market share in the category. Can the Pre capture a lot of share? Can it make Palm relevant again? Will these two players, with their ultra-sleek I-want-one-now products, end up putting a big hurt on RIM, the maker of Blackberry? Time will tell. What do you think?

1,000 Years to Read Nine Words?

2009-06-17T17:22:00.004-05:00

I love this! Jonathon Keats has written a 9-word story, printed on the cover of Opium Magazine, that he claims can only be read very slowly... because the words won't be revealed faster than once each century. Now that's going for a long-term customer relationship!

Google and Twitter Search

2009-06-16T11:50:00.004-05:00

Twitter has indeed come of age. It appears Google will soon add microblogging search to its portfolio of services. This capability could be launched in partnership with Twitter or independently. Either way, it'll deliver the contextual relevance we all expect from Google and will differ significantly from the chronologically ordered results Twitter's own search tool provides. I happen to like the voyeuristic aspect of Twitter's stream of consciousness search results. That said, I'm excited to add Google's vaunted capabilities to moniter the Tweets of the world.

More Inspiration from Books for Kids?

2009-06-13T22:36:00.002-05:00

I got a comment on my post "Ask for Help and Fly!" pointing out a similar bit of inspiration from Harold and the Purple Crayon. Turns out Harold's tale is a good one for seeing possibilities and being open to change (thanks, Laura, for the comment!).

So, I'd like to ask your help: Please share your thoughts on other inspirational kids stories here!

Seriously, just pop in a comment. I may ask for more details, but I think it'd be fun to keep tabs on unconventional sources of inspiration and insight. We've had enough of the Who Moved My Cheese? stuff, thank you very much. Let's get on to things we actually like and refer to when it's time to recharge our batteries!

I may pull out a Dr. Seuss book or two in the near future to get us started... And I hope to hear from some of you, too!

D'oh! Did Google Goof?

2009-06-12T17:37:00.006-05:00

With the launch of this little blog project, I thought to myself, "Maybe I can monetize this thing just a wee bit." I applied for an AdSense account using the "Monetize" tab in the Blogger site where I manage the settings, layout, and posting for the blog. Easy, right?

After going through the process of applying, I got the following message: "Within a week of your application date, we'll review your application and follow-up with you via email." Well, it's been two months and still no word. Maybe "within a week" means "at some point in the next several months" in Googlespeak, but for most humans this type of poor follow-through is simply frustrating. In the user forum for bloggers, I found a number of threads on the topic of approvals taking months, so it ain't just me.

Where am I going with this? Google is suffering symptoms of its massive scale. The firm is not necessarily keeping up on commitments for individuals at the smallest scale of its business. And let's be honest, with a site that gets nearly 140 million unique users a month it would be tough to expect Google to have a perfect record in this regard.

My prior statement notwithstanding, Google could surely expend the small effort to better manage expectations. By not doing so, it's acting like institutions of a very different nature but also of tremendous scale: banks.

Yes, I just compared Google to banks. Large banks and Google are analagous in a number of ways. Data privacy and security is one area of comparison. I subscribe to the theory that individuals and large organizations should all get the same absolute standard of service, and I'm not alone in this belief. Data integrity must be maintained for individuals just the same as for big companies. Brian Clifton posted about this aspect of the analogy last year, and I recommend checking out the comments he got, too.

Here's a second area of similarity: the challenge of maintaining an optimal customer experience for the individual once the enterprise reaches truly massive scale. Banks have dealt with this challenge for many, many years. Not surprisingly, cost/benefit analysis leads to the decision to charge individual customers fees for transactions of all sorts.

It costs a lot to deal with and process the actions of individuals. Unless these single customers band together in sufficient numbers to act in concert there is unlikely to be a huge impact to the bank, especially when its competitors follow suit. The result? Nowhere "safe" to turn for many individuals, as the alternatives - other banks - also charge. The cost to consumers goes up for the entire category.

In Google's case, they may not be charging money to the individual, but the cost in time is relevant. How hard would it be to simply change the copy on the AdSense page to indicate it could take quite a while to hear back? And, as Google continues to expand its business footprint and user base, will it be able to avoid further erosion of its service to the individual?

Great effort goes into maintaining the Googleness of working for the company as it expands. Let's hope that the same focus is applied to users of its various services... Don't get me wrong, Google isn't doing evil, but it seems there's a little fraying at the fringes of this mighty enterprise. And unattended fraying now could lead to later unraveling.

Ask for Help and Fly!

2009-06-09T23:06:00.009-05:00

For anybody who doesn’t know, I have kids. Two of them happen to be five years old. I refer to them as the Twinkies. It is through the Twinkies that I discovered the delightful Mo Willems. He is an author of curious genius, creating characters both relatable and remarkable. I particularly like Knuffle Bunny (a bunny), Gerald (an elephant), and Piggie (a pig). Gerald and Piggie are best friends. Gerald and Piggie inspired this post.

Today I Will Fly! is the story of two friends. One sees the world as a glass half full, the other sees it half empty. One is persistent, the other is a pessimist. And, in this story, one demonstrates the power of asking for help to the other. You can guess at the further details or just pick up a copy. I promise you, it is a quick read!

Asking for help. Three words that make a world of difference. The folks at Creative Good realized this point years ago as they set up The Councils. These peer-learning and leadership groups are based in large part on the belief that asking for help is crucial to success.

I fervently believe in asking for help, too, so it’s no surprise I’m a member of the Councils. Unfortunately, it is noteworthy that an organization is founded on such a premise.

Leaders who admit weakness, who act with humility, who actively ask for help are not usually elevated to hero status. And yet, it’s these characteristics which can build strong, supportive relationships, which leverage the power of the team over the inclinations of the individual, and which so often speed us to success.

I started thinking about all this as I read Today I Will Fly! out loud to the Twinkies. I wanted them to get it. And then it hit me, I want all of us to get it. Today I Will Fly! instantly became one of my favorite business books. It is the most to-the-point portrayal of the benefit of asking for help I’ve read. Try it out yourself, and for extra fun try it with some kids, too!

Soccer and the Good Customer Experience

2009-06-07T01:10:00.002-05:00

So I'm fresh back from the US Men's National Soccer match at Soldier Field in Chicago. Today was a World Cup qualifying match versus Honduras. Talk about a great customer experience!

There were over 55,000 people in attendance, clearly the majority supporting Honduras. The crowd was singing, chanting, and cheering the whole time. Good natured jibes went back and forth between US and Honduran supporters, but all in the spirit of friendly competition.

Behind me were Honduran friends, one who drove from Virginia for the match. The other made the trek from New York to Chicago. Were they upset at the prospect of losing to the US team? No! My new Honduran Virginian pal even took pains before the game to explain how he hoped this three children - all US citizens - would one day play for the US team. He loved "the big mixing pot" that is the United States.

Of course I'm happy with the US victory, but even without it I love the experience of international soccer when the games matter. The rising and falling drama of the match sets a pace for the passions of the fans. We hold our breaths one moment, scream the next, and leave feeling a part of the "happening".

Now, if only I could bottle the sensation up into a nice little app for Facebook...

Opportunity Identification

2009-06-04T11:12:00.005-05:00

I recently posted about "What You Do and What You Deliver". As a marketer, one of the primary areas of activity is Opportunity Identification. Both Business Analysis and Market Research are necessary to successfully identify opportunities of significance, and they differ distinctly to my way of thinking. The one is introspective and the other extrospective to the business. Let’s tackle them individually.

Business Analysis, as I define it, is the review of transactional or behavioral data for insight. This is truly number crunching. If it’s an online business, it’s the deep dive into analytics to understand the conversion funnel, fall-out, and so on. For retail (online or traditional), it’s identification of cross-merchandising opportunities based on what folks buy at the same time. For the CPG marketer, it’s the insight around lift in sales associated with pricing or promotional changes.

In each case, Business Analysis identifies opportunities in the numbers. What percentage improvement in conversion accrued when we changed the button for “Buy Now” to orange? How much did the average basket size increase when we displayed these items more prominently? How many more units did we sell when we reduced the price by 20% during the promotional period? Data data data.

Market Research, on the other hand, includes analysis and a healthy dose of qualitative assessment. This is the realm of opinion, discussion, debate, and creative deduction. Market Research is a tidy way of saying, “all the other ways to learn and derive insight.” Observation of behaviors, surveys, talking with folks, concept testing, expert reviews, benchmarking… the list of methods is huge. The underlying premise is simple: open up to what people want and need.

Successful Market Research combines rampant curiosity, active listening, informed speculation, directed inquiry, and heavy duty contemplation. How do we frustrate people today? How could we delight them in the future? What will it take to be successful over the long haul? Where is our competition going and what are the implications for us?

If Business Analysis is the tidy portion of opportunity identification, Market Research is its messy, unruly partner. The two should complement and sometimes confound one another. At times, the reinforcing nature of analysis and research builds to a massive “Aha!” moment, with all paths of inquiry leading to a clear conclusion. More often, several opportunities can be identified, and the prioritization of them must be derived from conflicting bits of information and personal inclinations on the team.

In any case, both Business Analysis and Market Research deserve constant attention. They are the couriers of insight, and it’s insight that enables marketers to add value to an organization. The opportunities we define and prioritize lend direction and purpose to our efforts. Marketers accused of wasteful behaviors, blowing time and money without a clear purpose or end in mind, often lack defined opportunity.

To define the opportunity is to articulate the vision, the path forward. On-going success demands a steady stream of these opportunities, so make sure you’re dedicating the appropriate attention to the task.

OK... Facebook Operating at Normal Speed Again

2009-06-04T11:10:00.001-05:00

But still no explanation of what happened? Sun spots? Maintenance? Gremlins? It'd be nice if there were acknowlegement of "hey, we know something's not quite right."

How is Facebook Like Molasses? Both Run Slowly

2009-06-01T13:14:00.002-05:00

It seems Facebook is once again experiencing issues. Pages are loading slowly or not at all. Sometimes the service hangs up at login. What's the scoop? It doesn't seem Facebook is sharing any news, if it knows anything.

Here are some comments on Mashable.com ,and it's also insightful using Twitter Search on the topic.

This is the kind of customer experience challenge that will start turning folks away if it's more than brief and sporadic. No matter how "integral" Facebook seems right now, it ain't like breathing. We're not that adicted to it.

What You Do and What You Deliver!

2009-05-31T22:32:00.009-05:00

Many years ago, I tried to distill my role as a marketer down in some way that was simple to understand yet robust enough to be truly descriptive. I came up with the following chart:

The chart worked. It worked for me. It worked for others. How does it work for you? Chime in!

Really, I got it down to five “buckets”: opportunity identification, strategy, facilitators of action, actions that deliver results, and the results that matter. I’ll try to take on each bucket as a topic in the future. And I hope you’ll add your voices to the discussion.

For example, what results matter to you as a marketer? I came to the conclusion that three results reign supreme in the pantheon of key performance indicators: revenue, profit, and market share. To be sure, there are other measures which add value, but I believe they measure precursors to sales (or revenue), profits, or market share. They indicate likelihood of delivering the results that matter and are hence relegated to the role of demi-measures, inferior to the Big Three.

I’ll stop here for today and we’ll dive into details of the buckets over the course of other posts. Hope I’ve got your brain engaged and ruminating. After all, how often do you actually indulge in thinking about the process of doing what you do? Take a little time to do so now. It’s worth it. For you. For anyone you coach. And, as a result, for your company.

The Update: Not a Pro... Yet

2009-05-31T22:28:00.002-05:00

For those who picked up on the fact, my oldest son did have a multiday trial with Fortuna Cologne, a soccer club in Germany. Unfortunately, he picked up a minor injury during the workouts, so it looks like he'll have to try again later. Not the end of his soccer adventures by any means!

Crowdsourcing to Success?

2009-05-26T21:50:00.003-05:00

A couple interesting items today…

First of all, it was announced publicly that my son will be trying out for a position with a soccer team in Germany. This particular team, Fortuna Köln, has an experiment underway. For the price of €39.95/year, anyone can become a member of the club with voting rights. And all important decisions related to the club are voted on – from starting line-ups for a match to the design of the uniforms for the team. Can this use of the wisdom of the crowd manage a soccer team for success? Over 13,000 paying members surely hope so.

Well, that gets me to the second interesting thing from my day, a talk by technology product guru, Marty Cagan of the Silicon Valley Product Group. Part of his mantra is “lead your customers” as opposed to being “led by your customers”. Although I quibble with some of his perspectives, on this topic we are aligned: breakthrough innovation nearly never comes from letting your customers specify solutions.

There are proponents of crowdsourcing who squawk at the mere mention of skepticism about it as a model for decision-making. To be sure, there is merit in using consensus-based choice tools for refinement of an existing product or to reduce risk in choosing a path forward. For these tasks, the input of many will take off the sharp edges espoused by the few.

The many, however, can’t refine what they’ve never imagined. And it’s through imagination that innovation is delivered. Ask, “What if?” and go from there. Crowds don’t do this. Standing up against the crowd is what’s required.

For many businesses, even the ones that started from the spark of innovation, getting to a stream of on-going mold-breaking, transformational innovations is a huge challenge. Customer-centricity can help, but not in the sense that “customers will tell us what to do.” Indeed, to think in this manner is to abuse the idea of insight leading to inspiration.

Listen to and observe customers, consumers, users. Figure out what problems they have, what desires they express; these are the key insights. Use the insights as touchstones in the process of inspiration, ideation, and evaluation of options. Make sure not to lose the insights; they ensure that the innovations will be valued.

So, how are Fortuna’s fortunes these days? Well, the wisdom of its crowd has guided the team to 10th place in a 19-team league, hardly the height of success. And, it begs several questions: How long will voting members stand for their own mediocrity? Will folks choose over time to drop out and go back to a less-expensive, less-empowering option? Do fans truly want on-going middle of the pack performance, or would they prefer the risks required to reach lofty heights occasionally but mixed in with moments of bitter disappointment? Whether in soccer or business, I prefer to take those risks.

Competencies and Customers: The Case of TuneCore

2009-05-22T16:30:00.010-05:00

Ever hear of TuneCore? It's the service that Trent Reznor and other musical talents have started to use instead of traditional record labels. It's also a company that understands where it adds value and where it doesn't. The firm classifies itself as an "enabler" for digital distribution, the creation of promotional items, and the production of CDs.

TuneCore just scored a deal with Amazon (Thank you, WIRED, for the news!). It will charge $31 to create a 10-track CD. That's $31 to get your music available on Amazon, so folks can order a CD. And, with on-demand duplication of the CD, you won't have to sell many discs to turn a profit. TuneCore makes its money on the up-front transaction, passing along Amazon's payout directly to you.

One of the things I love about this deal is the long-tail model activation. So many artists will now have a means to distribute that the selection from which to choose will be staggering. Yes, yes, the paradox of choice comes to mind in this circumstance, but that's where the promotional and evangelical moxy of the musicians can make a difference. Promote yourself or your band aggressively at shows, via word of mouth, YouTube videos, etc. and you could drive some sales. Seriously, even bad bands can sell a few dozen discs to friends and relatives. That's a pretty small conversion percentage on the tens of millions of Amazon shoppers.

TuneCore also exemplifies a delightful distinction between competencies and customers. In this case, it's not trying to take credit for the creative capabilities of music makers. These folks are TuneCore's customers. With a business model that enables its own customers to profit more than under a more traditional record label distribution arrangement, it's creating evangelists. The barriers to entry for music distribution have dropped nearly to the floor. No wonder TuneCore cranks out so much new music so regularly (150 to 300 new releases a day)!

Bolt this burgeoning catalog of music to the merchandising and suggestion engines within Amazon and shazam! you've got lots of good stuff happening. Talk about an incentive for musicians to market themselves? This is it. Instead of relying on the record labels and the traditional model of pumping up consumption, bands will bootstrap their own awareness-building.

My mind starts racing a bit when I consider the evolution here. Think of the continuing disaggregation of the old music distribution model and where it could lead... More PR or ad agencies marketing their talents directly to artists, perhaps for commissions on the sale of music (pay for performance!).

Or, apply the TuneCore Amazon model to another disc-based industry: film. Could a similar commodization of production take place for DVDs and Blu-ray discs over time? TuneCore gets that popping CDs out isn't where the value-add is, per se, in the music value chain. But it's an area of competence outside the capability of most musicians. And therein lies the opportunity. Let the talent focus on optimizing its product and promoting it - writing, creating, and playing great music. TuneCore takes care of manufacturing.

Think some budding film students wouldn't like the chance to actually sell their creations this way, too? The financials behind filming a feature-length movie and recording an album are very different, but the cost of creation for both types of content are much altered from prior generations. Ah, the digital age!

As you can tell, I'm excited about this bit of news. It's fun to think of how an old, out-dated technology like CDs might get a bit of new life from an on-demand model, how more musicians may be able to find the means to earn money from their creative inclinations, and - most importantly - how I might finally fulfill my rockstar dreams!

The news also gets me wondering about the lifestage of other industries and the questions of "Who is my customer?" and "Where, specifically, does my firm add value?" Many, many of us are faced constantly with the choice of defending the established means of capturing value, but it's in the moments of change that the greatest opportunities and risks are to be found. Ignore the inevitability of change at your own peril!

OK, gotta go now... It's time to work on some new riffs for my next hit song.

Twitter the Video Network?

2009-05-19T17:09:00.004-05:00

Over the past few weeks, I've had several conversations about how Twitter is "like a new broadcast network". Well, now you can add video capability into the conversation, thanks to Twitmatic. Here's a nice overview of the service:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/use-twitter-like-a-television-network/

And be prepared, there is definitely more to come as folks dig into the Twitter API and play with it.

Transparency = Truthfulness + Timeliness

2009-05-17T14:47:00.008-05:00

Following the on-going news coverage about House Speaker Pelosi, waterboarding, and the Republican comments on the whole situation, I am reminded of the benefits of transparency when communicating about big issues.

Let me make it clear, I believe waterboarding is torture, but it's not the issue I'll focus on in this post. Rather, let's look at the current hubbub as a notable example of why coming clean isn't good enough. Coming clean quickly is the key to keeping relationships solid.

In Speaker Pelosi's case, the passage of time has created a lack of consensus on what "the facts" might be. Memories can and do fade over time. Notes which seemed so complete now prove to be inadequate. The recollections and statements of all parties involved are colored by bias towards specific desired conclusions. The issue is further complicated by the classified nature of the meetings and updates in question.

With the exception of "classified status" reports, how many of us have dealt with these precise issues in our work lives? It might be better to ask how often we've dealt with these issues, so pervasive are they. And, though the internal wranglings over who said what to whom when are indeed frustrating, when it comes to relationships with customers and consumers, the stakes are at their highest.

At one point or another, most of us in the marketing profession are going to deal with crisis. I have. In one instance, a hurricane flattened the factory of a component supplier, disrupting assembly of my company's products for weeks. While with another firm, we had to inform our consumers of potential tampering with our products. The response to both situations helped turn these potentially dire circumstances into net positives to the particular customer and consumer relationships.

The belief that transparency is the sum of truthfulness and timeliness spared us the second-guessing, wondering, and criticism that inevitably arise from delay. Even if companies respond with full disclosure but delay the response until "the dust has settled," relationships with customers are undermined. "If there really wasn't any risk, then why didn't they tell us right away?" is a common question in these circumstances.

The makers of Tylenol have long been lauded for their response to a dire crisis in 1982, but there are other examples of good corporate behavior, too. The Consumerist applauded the handling of a credit card skimmer incident by redbox in April of 2008 (Full Disclosure: I was at redbox at the time). But not everybody has learned.

Domino's is the latest brand to go through the painful lessons of a delayed response. The company took two days to respond to the firestorm created by a YouTube video showing employees willfully engaged in public health violations while preparing food at the Domino's where they worked. The video was viewed millions of times. Somehow the leadership at Domino's seemed either to want the whole issue to just go away or was so tied up in strategizing that it forgot to act.

Even the apology video eventually posted by Domino's on YouTube rang hollow. In it, the President of Domino's USA, Patrick Doyle, states, "There is nothing more important or sacred to us than our customer's trust..." If taken at his word, then why not respond immediately and forcefully to this circumstance? It seems apparent that Domino's leadership didn't trust its customers, and in turn customers' trust in the company eroded. The video apology was less than emphatic in addressing the issue.

I'm sure someone in a corporate affairs job would say, "But nobody wants to shout 'Fire!' in a theatre or disseminate wildly inaccurate information." True enough, but it's still crucial to get the word out as quickly as possible.

In the equation of transparency, timeliness trumps perfect truth. If all the facts aren't in, say so, but keep people informed. In the age of YouTube and Twitter, the trust you show in folks will likely pay itself back as they help spread the word and fill in the details for you.

If you could change just one thing...

2009-05-17T11:42:00.002-05:00

... for your business or brand, what would it be? How significant would the effect be? Is there anything that would have a greater impact?

Are you devoting enough attention, energy, and resources to this change? If not, why not?

Dell-ay

2009-05-16T17:54:00.002-05:00

I recently wrote about my experience with a crashed hard drive in my Dell laptop and the lack of delight in my customer service experience. Despite the best of intentions, Dell has further soured me based on my experience this week.

After my informing the company of my issue, I was told a new hard drive would be arriving in the next three to five days. So far, so good. I could wait. This conversation took place last weekend, and I thought, "OK, a few days is reasonable."

On Monday I received a call to inform me my new drive would arrive by Tuesday evening. Yay! Thanks for the update, Dell! How redemptive to have this kind of proactive communication, except for the one tiny detail: the drive did not arrive on Tuesday.

Wednesday I received a second call from the fine folks at Dell, inquiring about my receipt of the drive. When informed that said arrival had not occurred, a quick inquiry was conducted. "I'm sorry, Mr. Lancina, it appears there was a problem on our end. The drive did not leave the warehouse. It will be shipped today and will arrive by the end of the day tomorrow, Thursday."

Somewhat skeptical, but still hoping for the best, I waited and checked and checked and waited all day Thursday. No drive. No nothing. Frustration, anger, disappointment... But no drive.

On Friday, I did not receive a call to check on the delivery of the drive. I finally did receive the drive after dark. Instead of the relief and pleasure of having a new part to get my laptop back to functionality, I was simply angered at the repeated hope/disappointment cycle I'd been put through.

What's the lesson? Make commitments you can deliver. I was actually ok with the "three to five days" timeframe originally provided, and indeed Dell delivered the drive within the five days (just barely!). By delighting me with news of quicker delivery, my hopes were raised only to be dashed. And by then repeating this cycle Dell lost much of its brand credibility with me.

The credibility topic is something I'll pick up in another posting. It is one aspect of the on-going stream of "moments of truth" when brands either delight or disappoint. The stakes are high for brands and businesses because disappointment can lead to long-term rejection, on-going bad word-of-mouth commentary, and worse. On the other hand, on-going delight in each moment of truth can turn a customer into an evangelist... and we all want evangelists supporting our efforts, right?

Twitter Search: Oh the Insight!

2009-05-13T14:04:00.005-05:00

Twitter recently introduced search. Have you tried it? You should. The stream of tweets is enticing, exhilarating, and exasperating. A focused list of search terms should become a staple of managing your customer relationships.

Tweet streams on "my brand sucks" or "my competitor" provide a near realtime view into current thoughts of users, fans, and malcontents in ways that are difficult or impossible to replicate elsewhere. The voyeuristic element is hard to deny. The insights gained are hard to ignore.

Going back to my gross generalization of Twitter is quicker, Facebook is deeper... Mining the tweets from a search will not generate deep insight. You'll get a temperature check on the flow of opinion. Like a thermometer identifying a feverish condition without diagnosing or treating the underlying illness, inklings arising from a Twitter search call for additional consideration and action.

Twitter being what it is, however, enables response to folks in very intimate "we are paying attention to you" ways. See a comment about a bad customer experience or billing issue? Tweet right back to say, "let's make it right!" Notice chatter based on inaccurate information? Get the word out on what's actually happening. Treat that tweet-fever with online instant aspirin - quick actions will bring down the temperature and reduce the pain to your business.

With transparency and honesty so influential on the customer experience and relationships with users, Twitter's value will only increase as it mainstreams across your customer base. I'll continue to come back to it as a theme, and I hope you'll share your thoughts, experiments, and successes, too. Onward!

My Secret War: Installment 1

2009-05-11T22:45:00.020-05:00

I have an admission. I wage a secret war against a most heinous adversary. This enemy has infiltrated our neighborhoods. This enemy is shameless. This enemy is... CUTE!

Make no mistake about it, underneath the fuzzy, friendly, furry exterior beats the heart of a fiend! This tiny critter, along with its gang of like-minded minions, has gnawed, clawed, and nibbled a path of destruction through my yard.

Sure, a few nips at the edge of the deck could be tolerated. Indeed, the loss of a bird feeder every few months seemed acceptable. But then something changed.

The tidings of true trouble began with the grill... First a tooth mark on the handle, then chunks missing from its stand, and finally the complete destruction of the propane tank hose. Rodent wreakers of havoc! Huffing ones, too! How was I to have known that propane is a glue-sniffing squirrel's ultimate high?

Not content with barbeque bedlam, these nibbling nasties moved on to structures. That's right, structures. Their cruel quest for chaos led next to the storage shed. Poor shed.

Yet, even at the sight of this chomping challenge I retained a purely defensive posture. I reinforced the shed, hastily erecting metallic defenses like a lone GI armor plating my Humvee.

The crazy critters merely gnawed away at the fringes of my makeshift metal masterpiece. I had to escalate! But how? I considered poison, but quickly dismissed the thought. Too much potential for unforeseen consequences. Traps? No, I might capture an innocent bystander by mistake ("innocent bystander" = chipmunk or bunny. My kids would never forgive inadvertent bunny bondage).

At this point, I developed the SDS or Squirrel Defense System. It is a highly refined solution, consisting of strategically placed rapid response arsenals and trained system operators. It is non-lethal and highly effective. It is... Tennis Balls!

That's right, tennis balls tossed with uncanny accuracy! I am once again the big dog of my backyard and have the squirrels on the run. Though I haven't harmed a single one, it's proved a great source of amusement for my family and an effective deterrent to those rats-with-fur-tails.

I fear the nut-stashing ne'er-do-wells are plotting a massive counter-attack, readying themselves to rise up in a wave of rodent retaliatory fury. Until then, wish me luck! I am making my stand at the shed... Because we all know if the shed falls, the house is next. Egad!

Dell Delight? Not Quite...

2009-05-09T22:32:00.005-05:00

Well, the hard drive on my laptop is dead. Of course, it happened while I was on the road, so no g-thoughts yesterday! Reflecting on the customer experience aspect of the circumstance, there are several areas I'd recommend to the fine makers of Dell computers:

Recommendation #1: Borrowing from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, somewhere on the laptop itself there should be a prominently displayed message like the following, "Laptop busted? DON'T PANIC! Call this number now: 1-800-438-4357" (I just typed the numbers to 1-800-GET-HELP, which happens to be the number for Protection One, a security systems firm).

This recommendation makes sense, right? It's a LAPTOP! It's MOBILE! It's likely that when something inside goes sproing, the user will be away from home, away from documentation, and without the use of a computer to access dell.com. A cell phone, though, is likely close at hand, perhaps nestled comfortably in a pocket just waiting to be put to good use. Even if it's a smartphone with access to the web, a reassuring voice in a moment of need is better than "we'll respond to your Customer Service inquiry within 24 hours" or the like.

Who is the person arguing against putting a phone number for tech support on the bottom of a laptop? Or on the top of it? In bold letters on a neon sticker? It might be the guy saying, "but folks will think our computers break down a lot if we put that there."

I got news for you, Mr. Brand Positioning, computers do have issues... A lot. That's why companies have help desks, tech support, and oodles of back-up files for lost data. So, until you make a flawless computer, why not go for flawless support in times of trouble? Think of it as OnStar for 'puters. Trust me, it'll be appreciated.

Recommendation #2: This is an easy one. Don't allow your automated voice-response customer service phone system to hang up on a caller. Twice. Right after saying, "OK, I'll connect you to someone who can help." Bad form. Luckily, the third time I called and went through the menu choices I did get connected to a human being... In the wrong department.

Recommendation #3: When the automated system does connect, after taking in my Express Service Code which identifies my product and presumably who I am, don't connect me to the wrong department. Bad form again.

Fortunately, I got a very nice person in the wrong department. Very nice. And I was connected to another very nice person in the right department who was able to determine from the information I shared that yes, indeed, the hard drive needed replacing. He was even able to arrange for the new hard drive to be shipped, lickety-split, to my home. He was, however, completely in the dark about any questions regarding recovery of data from the recently deceased drive of harditude.

Recommendation #4: Arm technical support folks with answers to common questions, such as "Will I be able to recover any of my files from the bad drive?" Could be a great opportunity to turn a customer service call into a revenue moment.

Imagine being able to respond with "For a small charge, we can review the drive and provide you all recoverable data." There's a whole data recovery category with real services out there... Why not strike while the iron's hot? I'd have been delighted to hear about such a service instead of "I honestly don't know, you'll need to work with a local technician on that."

So here I sit, typing on my trusty old home PC that just keeps chugging along, while my one-month-old Dell laptop does its best imitation of a paper weight. Somehow, it just doesn't make sense.

And, despite some very competent individuals who did all they could to make my problem feel painless, the macro-level solution for this eventuality was quite poor. Rather than evangelizing about Dell's forethought and ability to delight even in times of trouble, I struggled to find answers, felt disregarded initially when I did reach out directly to the company, and am still curious about how much I can retrieve off my dead drive and at what cost. One opportunity lost, and perhaps an opportunity for the future identified.

Furthermore... WIRED Chimes In On the Kindle DX

2009-05-07T21:51:00.003-05:00

Looks like g-thought's thoughts are being reinforced by others...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/etextbooks/

And you read it here first. ;-)

Remember, "Social" Isn't New

2009-05-07T17:36:00.004-05:00

Here we go again... The latest "social" darling is Twitter. Is it going to surpass Facebook? How do we use it? How come we're not already Tweeting our way to business success? These and other questions are flying through conference rooms all over the place. And, they are good questions to ask.

Without a doubt, Twitter is proving itself useful as a means of rapid dissemination of information and a source of consumer insight for companies who pay attention. Who can argue with the growth curve of this new utility, now used by millions of people each month?

Allen Adamson posted a good article yesterday on forbes.com about differences between Facebook and Twitter. The differences are notable because thinking "Twitter versus Facebook" misses the point. That line of thought is similar to "Hammer versus Screwdriver". Different tools for different purposes, friends!

At the risk of vast oversimplification, Twitter is quicker and Facebook is deeper. Each can play a role in a well-crafted move into things social. Adamson finishes with "As has always been the case, organizations need to use whatever means are available to listen and learn..." I couldn't agree more.

And here's where I'd like to emphasize Adamson's "As has always been the case..." We're human, folks (leaving out the odd zombie or space alien disguised among us). We are social creatures. We talk, we interact, we socialize! The underlying behaviors haven't changed so much as the enabling tools have. Whether communicating in synchronous or asynchronous fashion, technology has enabled greater reach, speed, and – perhaps most importantly – the ability to archive our interactions for future review.

Synchronous and asynchronous sound "big" and "technical", but really it's just "at the same time" or "one after the other". Talking with each other is a great example of the former; writing notes to others exemplifying the latter. Whether Webex or Twitter, today’s enablers of both types of communication surpass the imaginations of our forebears. And there is absolutely more to come... New solutions and innovations will continue to stream our way.

In this propagation of further, faster, better it helps to stay grounded in the underlying truth when considering strategy. The old questions of "What are we trying to accomplish?", "Who are we trying to reach?", and "How will we measure success?" are still absolutely necessary. They are crucial to the avoidance of Shiny Object Syndrome (thinking myself clever for coining the phrase, I did a quick google search "just to be sure". Guess what? Over 15,000 results!).

Regardless of the tools available, because new ones are constantly being invented, it's crucial for marketers to keep the order to "ready, aim, fire!" Those who succumb to S.O.S. are guilty of firing first and only considering the concept of aiming afterwards. Such efforts generally waste time and money without delivering measurable results.

"But what about being fast? About being on-trend? About staying relevant?" I hear the groans, and there's nothing to stop rapid implementation by asking the important questions. Heck, being wrong on some of the answers is part of getting better. Positive iteration is only possible by identifying that something could be better. Answering the what, who, how questions doesn't ensure success; it ensures intention of being successful. And intention leads to direction, which in turn enables learning, assessing progress towards a goal, and ultimately results.

So, play with the shiny objects, tweet your heart out... Just do it with intent. Otherwise you will likely just contribute to the growing pile of twitter litter (another one I coined late... only 2,700 search results for this one, though).

A Prince and Frogs and a Good Cause

2009-05-06T22:26:00.003-05:00

After reading the g-thought on frogs last night, my friend Matt Hartzog (go redbox!) was inspired to send me a link to The Prince's Rainforests Projects.

Check out the video, with the likes of Prince Charles, Robin Williams, and the Dalai Lama, it's nicely done and frog-friendly... While you're there look through the site, make your own frog video, and please consider doing something to make a difference!

Thanks for this one, Matt!

New Amazon Kindle DX... $489?

2009-05-06T13:06:00.008-05:00

Intriguing positioning for the new, larger Kindle DX, trying to provide an alternative to bulky textbooks among other things. In this article from today's WSJ, the author questions whether the the pricepoint will appeal to college students. I think it's a question of comparative costs, and how much will be charged for the digital Kindle-versioned books... and this is where things get interesting.

With a kid about to enter college, I've peeked at prices for books. It's easy to rack up a big bill with $139 biology texts and $79 economic tomes. The $489 might be a steal if the publishers and amazon get their pricing model in order. But will they?

I started wondering, how much cost can be taken out of the textbook business by reducing pages into bytes? How green is digitally distributing content when compared to shipping heavy books? How much can a publisher improve profit margins by taking these costs out and still charging a lower price to the consumer?

Apparently, I'm not the only one considering these questions. Check out this dialog on the cost of publishing physical books, including the responses from readers. Part of the rub is a perception that amazon and book publishers are not transferring cost savings to consumers. I'm sure there are well-considered arguments about "channel conflict" with distributors, wholesalers, etc. There is also clearly a thirst for profits within the publishing industry.

There's a further rub: the Kindle is a fine product for reading a novel or a short story. Going from page 1 to 2 to 327 in order. It's not so hot for textbook or other non-linear reading (thank-you, Jakob Nielsen, for a great review of Kindle 2 usability!).

My Kindle 2 is a slick device, but I don't use it much. I like to dog-ear pages, write notes in margins, and flip back and forth between sections. The Kindle stinks for this type of activity, which is precisely what college students do!

So... Amazon is launching a $489 dollar device that could provide "green" advantages versus traditional book publishing, and will absolutely reduce the physical strain on students currently schlepping texts across campus. It also looks cool. Will it be enough to justify the costs? Without price concessions on the Kindle version of the texts and/or a significant usability enhancement, this launch feels likely to be more about buzz than benefit.

Frogs and Business?

2009-05-05T20:38:00.003-05:00

Just back from an evening event at my kids' school... which happens to sit in a nature preserve. The evening's program? Frogs, toads, turtles, and snakes as presented by David Stokes (http://www.oxyboost.com/bfstokes.htm).

There was one song about "Habitat habitat, we all need a habitat..." It was a cute way to highlight the challenges facing frogs as their habitats change and disappear. Without truly rapid adjustment or evolution, many frog species are facing dire consequences.

So, in this time of ultra-competition, how is your organization coping with change in its habitat? With agility and a spirit of evolution, or by insisting that things have gone well enough until now so why change? Maybe the frogs can relate to business after all.

Smartphones for Airline Check-in

2009-05-05T14:51:00.005-05:00

NPR reported yesterday on new technology being tested by airlines, enabling travellers to check in using smartphones... to the point of not having a boarding pass printed. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103781402

A great user experience for those who don't like the extra time waiting in line at a kiosk to print a boarding pass... Just make sure your phone battery doesn't die in the security line!

Heart versus Mind

2009-05-05T09:24:00.005-05:00

"I know the facts, and in this case I don't think we can believe the facts."

It's a real quote from a real business discussion, uttered by a senior executive of a multi-billion dollar firm to its CEO. And, it highlights a challenge we all face from time to time: dealing with belief via intellectual argument.

In this particular case, the executive in question simply didn't believe in the initiative being discussed. No amount of rational thought, factual research, or data was going to sway him. His heart was involved, and he was afraid of the potential consequences of taking action per the recommendation.

It's a tricky circumstance, dealing with the gut instincts or feelings of leaders who are successful in part because of the accuracy of their inclinations. Forgive the comparison, but it's similar to trying to reason with a religious zealout. When it comes down to "know" versus "believe", faith tends to win out.

So how was the issue resolved? After much consternation and frustration, the project leader tried a different approach to gaining approval. He appealed to the executive's heart. Instead of using research results to prove a point, possibly winning a battle only to lose the war, he found people the executive trusted.

He brought in folks who had either been mentors to the executive, or whose positions gave them a credibility in the eyes of this decision-maker. They didn't talk facts, they discussed concerns. The played out scenarios, talked worst case outcomes, and eventually identified the specific details that were sticking points in the proposal... which turned out to be relatively minor in the end. A few tweaks later, and the project was implemented, but only after swaying the heart of a key stakeholder.

The insight? Know when you're dealing with the mind, and when you're dealing with the heart. Ensure you're prepared for both in every big meeting, and use the right approach at the right time. Each of us is a bundle of thoughts and feelings; there's no denying it. Accept this reality, incorporate it into your efforts to persuade, and evangelize for success.

Singing alone or along?

2009-05-05T01:44:00.000-05:00

This morning my daughter was in her room, warbling away at a song of her own spontaneous composition. It was lovely to hear her, although her young voice and creative phrasing were definitely most appealing to the parental unit I am. At one point she paused, and said to anybody who might be listening, "I sing like Ariel!" Then it was back to the warbling, wandering ways of her tune.

And it struck me, to her ear, the melody was pitch-perfect and solid. To me, the daddly dude, her notes were often off, and yet adorably entertaining. To the casual passer-by, she was likely "cute" but a long way from Disney animated classic stuff.

What's the insight? Think about your business or your brand... How do you perceive it? How do your customers perceive it? How do potential customers perceive it? When was the last time you went out and asked others what they think of it?

In this time of economic challenge, we are all trying to find that one thing or the million little things that add up to the one thing that will make a difference. We want to succeed. Sometimes, it's as easy as recognizing that what sounds pitch-perfect and solid to us could do with some improving in the eyes or ears of our customers.

So, keep singing, like my daughter, but pay attention to the reception you're getting from other folks. You might just find they sing along!

Welcome to the g-thought!

2009-05-05T01:40:00.005-05:00

The intention is to capture thoughts, sometimes fleeting, sometimes profound, and hopefully insightful and entertaining... maybe even valuable! In any case, I hope you read, enjoy, and comment. It's the collaboration that creates the real value. So, onward to blogging!