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Brand Of The Day

May 7th, 2012

Part of this online journey I enjoy so much is the interaction I have with you. For my end, I try to be open and transparent as we explore this brave new world of branding and online communication together and you’ve held up your end of the bargain with enthusiasm, support, and the appropriate virtual ruler to my knuckles when I’ve made a mistake or gone too far.

So allow me to let you in on what I’ve been thinking about lately:

As I see it, there are two keys to success in this blog thing — having something to say and having a critical mass of people to say it to. The rest of the requirements — modest technical proficiency and an ability to write reasonably well, for example, are as much cost of entry as a decent computer and an Internet connection. But to have people to communicate with — ah — that’s the beauty part.

So it should come as no surprise that I spend part of every week thinking about ways to attract new readers and continue to please and delight my current readers (that’s you!).

Here’s my latest thought: We are going to post a daily branding tip on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. Each tip will be titled (brand-tip-of-the-day is the working title), numbered (87 of 365, e.g.), and include a link to the website where they’ll be compiled. At the end of year one we should have chronicled 365 tips and an untold number of interesting comments that will be repurposed as a book, flashcards, a calendar, or who knows what. Plus, each posting will allow interested readers to sign up for more information that will create additional readers for this blog as well. Of course, I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going so you can use a similar (but different) technique to enhance your online promotions.

With all this in mind, I started working on compiling the initial 365 branding aphorisms. The first 67 came easily. “This is a breeze,” I thought. “I’ll be done in no time.” Of course, pride goeth before a fall.

The next 40 were tough. It took me hours and hours to reach 100. I flashed on the story of the guy who wants to lift a 2,000-pound bull onto his shoulders. He started with a baby calf, which is relatively light, and then continued to pick up the animal as it grew, day by day, pound by pound, into a bull. But even with his incremental approach, there’s a reason why no one can lift a full-grown bovine.

But I stuck with the project just the same. The harder it got, the more resolute I became about slogging through. And every so often I’d come up with a new way of looking at the problem that rewarded me with numerous entries.

How about citing other famous people’s thoughts on branding? Oscar Wilde, Bill Bernbach, Mike Tesch, Steve Jobs, and others much smarter and more eloquent than me gave me a gaggle. How about highlighting great brand lines throughout history? BMW, GE, Evernote, and more also increased my census.

As you would imagine, some days are better than others. But, because of tried and true mantras such as “any job worth doing is worth doing well,” and “you can accomplish anything if you just stay with it,” I kept plugging. And the fact that I’ve spent the last 30 years creating great brands for our clients did give me a lot to draw on. Maybe I’ve even reached the 10,000 hours of practice that Malcolm Gladwell suggests is necessary for true mastery of any activity.

But with the finish line well in sight, I’m starting to run out of steam. Which is why I thought of you. After all, the first word of social media is “social.” So why not reach out to my legion of faithful readers (that’s you!) for help? I’m sure you’ve got a few great branding tips to share, after all, I wrote an article on Bill Talbert’s 10 great micro branding tips and he’s already given me 10 more for the next article. If we crowd source branding tips, we should be able to easily surpass the additional posts needed.

So here are the rules of the game: All posts must be original or attributed to the original source. Each must be no longer than 76 characters including spaces, quote marks, and other hazarai because we need space for the title, post count, link, and room for retweeting. They need to be about branding. They need to be profound, clever, brilliant, useful, educational or hilarious. In the case of duplicate entries, I’ll credit the first person who sends the idea.

Send them to me via the comments link at the bottom of the blog or as a private email. Send them as you think of them or compiled on one page. But send them. Because together we can learn from one another and build something of value.

Thank you!

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Community Foundations, JFK, Alka-Seltzer, and Your Business

May 1st, 2012

Community foundations exist to help local area residents manage their charitable giving and to funnel local funds to where they’ll do the most good in hometown neighborhoods.

Most community foundations judge their success by two factors; the amount of good they do in their neighborhood and the amount of money they raise. And because much of the money the foundations raise goes back out the door and into the community, it’s critical that the groups are aggressive with their fundraising efforts and continue to add dollars to their asset base.

What does this have to do with branding? It’s simple. Recent real-world experiences by community board advisors Ekstrom & Associates shows that the foundations that clearly communicate their vision and goals to givers raise more money than those foundations that don’t — often significantly more.

Many donors want to give locally, and they want to know that their dollars are going to impact their own communities. It makes logical sense, therefore, that such donors would look to community foundations in the first place. After all, local foundations are clear about where they do their work and even tend to have the community name in their title; (The Miami Foundation and The Greater St. Louis Community Foundation are good examples).

But when donor mindset is to make sure that they’re giving to the most pressing current or future need within their area of interest or passion, assurances that the foundation has a clear strategy to accomplish those goals are critical. And that’s where the brand messaging becomes so important.

Big donors (the group every foundation wants to attract) are attracted by big ideas. They want to be excited and energized by the great things that the group is doing and everyone wants to be part of the passion. They want to see the vision. They want to touch the fire.

But that’s not how most foundations sell themselves. They talk about safety and security, CPA-approved programs, and investment strategies. Important points, sure, but unfortunately those assets are just cost-of-entry promises in the community foundation business. That is, all of those fundamentals MUST be in place for people to do business with a community foundation but those mechanics are not going to excite very many people enough to contribute very much money.

Think about your favorite restaurant. They’ve got good food, a great location, a wonderful atmosphere, and friendly service. And those are probably some of the reasons you look forward to going there. The fact that the restaurant has a whole back-of-the-house operation – dishwashing, ordering, accounting, housekeeping — is not why you go.

But if those back-of-the-house operations drop the ball and you’re served rancid meat on a dirty dish, you’re not going to return. After all, you’ve never heard someone recommend a restaurant by telling you that they “have the cleanest plates in town,” have you?

Great restaurants need to do everything right to get you to return, but first they need to do something exciting to get you there. Foundations, too, need to provide you with tax strategies and donor advice and accurate metrics to make you feel good about donating, but they need a big vision to attract you to them in the first place.

But let’s be clear, shall we? We’re not really talking about foundations or restaurants here. Those are just metaphorical vehicles presented to make a point. What we’re really talking about here is your business and how you brand it. I’m sure you’ve got your fundamentals in line and are pretty pleased with your operations. And, as we’ve seen, those things are critical to run your business. But what’s your big idea? What’s your vision? What’s the message that you’d put on the battle flag, unfurl above the castle, and rally your troops around?

When John F. Kennedy promised that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade (1970), he didn’t discuss propulsion, thrust or trajectories. He introduced the concept, sold the vision, and energized the nation. That bold statement inspired major changes across the country, from improved math and science scores to a higher college enrollment census to a successful moon shot.

According to Frank Bruni in Words That Work, “People knew that Alka-Seltzer was taken for an upset stomach, but market research showed that nobody knew how many they should be taking — so most people were just taking one. But when viewers saw the famous, ‘Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, oh what a relief it is,’ ads, purchases of Alka-Seltzer nearly doubled overnight.”

And speaking of revenues doubling and closer to home, CEO Javier Soto re-energized The Miami Foundation by newly establishing the legacy charity as an agent of change in the South Florida community. Thanks to Javi’s bold leadership, donations to the organization have more than doubled in one year.

What’s your vision?

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The App That Tells The Future

April 24th, 2012

A while back I got into my car, flicked on the radio and realized that there just wasn’t anything for me to listen to. It seems that all of the stations were programming their music for — oh, it pains me to say it — much younger audiences. We Baby Boomers were once defined by radio, but have we become irrelevant to the broadcast industry?

Flash forward — there’s an app for that, a free iPhone app called, appropriately enough, Boomer Radio. It was created by a couple of Boomers who decided that their generation needed a single place to go for the music that we grew up with (oldies and rock & roll), plus the genres we’ve embraced as adults (smooth jazz, acoustic rock, etc.).

The Boomer Radio folks believe that other media outlets don’t appreciate that there are more than 80 million of us Baby Boomers and that we control more than three-quarters of all wealth in the U.S. And what Boomer Radio also knows, but no other media outlet seems to understand, is that over the next 10 years, Baby Boomers will inherit more than 8.4 trillion dollars, the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world.

That breaks down to $300,000 each for 70% of all Boomers, 10% of who will inherit more than a million and a half dollars. And when you consider that this is an audience that has the lowest savings rates in history, it begs the obvious questions: Will Boomers see their windfall as a second chance and squirrel the money away? Will they use the cash to pay off their debts and start clean? Or will they see the new income as an unexpected gift and continue with their profligate ways? Only time will tell.

But with all due respect to the economists and legislators who are spending a lot of time sussing this out, I believe it truly doesn’t matter. Because regardless of what Boomers decide to do with their money as a cohort, there’s going to be an awful lot of cash flying around. And than means opportunities.

Boomer Radio is busy figuring out how to be the go-to media source for these newly flush Boomers looking for the music they grew up with. Chris Crowley and the Younger Next Year book series folks are working hard to be the go-to information and inspiration source for Boomers who aren’t willing to go gently into the good night. Olay is creating skin care products and messaging for Boomers who are not willing to “age gracefully.”

Apple has added a setting to their iPhone to increase text size for Boomer’s failing eyes (Interested? You can find it at Setting > General > Accessibility > Large Text. You’re welcome). Ford has designed a new Taurus with SUV-like seat heights for Boomers who have trouble fitting themselves into low-slung cars but don’t want to buy trucks. And hearing aid manufacturers are designing devices that look like Bluetooth earpieces for hard-of-hearing Boomers who are too vain to accept traditional looking equipment.

BRP has created the three-wheeled Can-Am Spyder Roadster for consumers who want their open air motorcycling served up with a little more stability. Porsche has created the Cayenne SUV and Panamera sedan for drivers who want their performance with a side order of comfort. And even Ferrari has thrown their Borsalino hat into the Boomer-accommodation ring, releasing their first-ever station wagon, the FF (no, really!).

The Baby Boom is really going to explode as the largest, most narcissistic population ever finds itself suddenly flush with cash and continues on its self-centered journey for self-expression and hedonistic experiences. And companies all over the world, from real estate developers to restaurants to cruise lines to banks and investment houses are going to trip all over themselves trying to service this free-spending audience.

For best practices tomorrow, they should upload the Boomer Radio app today. Besides listening to some of the greatest music ever created, they can keep an eye on how the media company is positioning themselves because Boomer Radio has seen the future and it is us.

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Starbucks Envy

April 16th, 2012

Eddie and Bill were sitting at an outdoor table at Scotty’s Landing having lunch last Friday. I had run over to the bayside shack right after my downtown lunch meeting to chat with a potential client and then needed to zip out to check on a video production in Coral Gables. But I had a couple of minutes before I had to be at the edit suite so I finished my meeting and walked over to say hi to my friends.

Bill was in shorts and sporting two days of stubble. Ed was in khakis and sneakers. Ed had a beer. Bill was drinking wine. Neither one was looking at their smartphones. And did I mention that it was 1:30 p.m. on a workday?

“Look at the two of you – happy as pigs in mangos, enjoying a beautiful day with nowhere to go, I said. “Man, I want to be you when I grow up.”

I told them about Starbucks envy.

You know about Starbucks envy. That’s when you go to Starbucks and see those people just sitting there in the sun. Usually they have a bike leaning against their table or they’re there with their dog. They’re reading something on their iPad or thumbing through The New York Times. Not a care in the world and clearly nowhere to rush off to — just enjoying being there.  They remind me of Satchel Paige’s old quote, “Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.”

When I go to Starbucks, it’s usually to meet someone on the run — I’m meeting Marcos at the Starbucks in the Grove at 9 a.m. or Kim at the Starbucks on 69th Street at two in the afternoon. We’ll grab a cup of coffee or tea, share pleasantries for a moment or two, and then get down to work — exchanging ideas and layouts, strategizing next steps — and then run off to our next meeting. Of course, while we’re meeting we’re fielding text messages and calls, mostly about where we’re going next, who we’re going to meet, and what time we’ll be getting together.

But just to sit there and take in the scene, with nothing pressing to run off to… wow. My desires might be simple but that kind of takes my breath away.

So anyway, I told Bill and Ed about my fantasy — my Starbucks envy. Ed laughed and told me a story:

“I was walking through Coconut Grove one night and there were a couple of guys playing music on the street corner. They had a guitar case out in front of them and a few people gathered around and they were having a great time. I thought, ‘I want to do that, too.’ So that weekend I went out and bought a guitar and have been taking weekly guitar lessons ever since. I’m not so good yet but I’m giving myself 10 years because I want to be just like Turkel.” ( -PAUSE- Hey wait a minute, that’s me.)

Here’s the funny part. Until Ed mentioned that it was me and my buddy he stumbled upon playing music on that street corner in the Grove, I was listening to his story thinking, “I want to do that, too.” It wasn’t until he mentioned who he saw playing that evening that it dawned on me that I already do that.

It’s more than the old paradigm to “be careful what you wish for because you might get it.” In this case, it’s about realizing what you’ve already got, what the perception is of what you’ve got, and what your perception is of what else is out there. The grass is always greener, indeed.

And it’s not just a good thing to think about when you’re evaluating your life. It’s also a good exercise to do when you’re thinking about your brand. After all, a brand is not what you think of your company, it’s what the employees and your customers — and your potential customers — think about it, and what they feel about it. And it’s very possible that those two viewpoints are not in sync.

Kodak thought it stood for the finest in photography until its customers cared only about digital photography and Kodak found itself in bankruptcy. It might not have happened quite that quickly, but it did happen.

Palm thought its brand stood for PDAs until it realized that RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone had stolen its market share.

And Blackberry, who thought its brand was de rigueur for portable communication in the corporate boardroom, is quickly discovering that its customers no longer agree.

Even powerhouse Google, which preemptively purchased YouTube to maintain their superiority in search technology, is now concerned that Facebook and the voice-recognition company Nuance, will take their place in both search and ad sales.

So whether you’re dashing to a meeting, playing music on a street corner or piloting the marketing activities of some of the world’s most important companies, remember that when it comes to your brand, perception IS reality. Even at Starbucks.

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What Time Does The Bus Get Here?

April 10th, 2012

About a year ago I was lucky enough to meet a Supreme Court Justice and sit next to him at dinner (thanks, Phil!). The first question I asked was about the Citizens United decision and how it got passed. He made it clear that he was firmly opposed to the ruling and had voted against it. Then he launched into a seven-minute explanation supporting the judgment. When he finished his very compelling explanation, he again stressed that he was against the decision.

My next question was how he became a Supreme Court Justice. His answer was that there are two parts to the opportunity, both equally important. These days, he said, it’s necessary to meet all the requirements — go to law school, become a federal judge, have political connections, etc. before you can even be considered for the nomination. But more importantly, he said, was to be standing on the corner when the bus comes by.

Can you believe that? Achieving one of the most powerful positions in the country — and perhaps the world — takes a lot of preparation, work, and study, but it also takes luck, the luck of being in the right place at the right time.

I gotta tell you, even though I know this is true intellectually, I have a really hard time with it. I like to believe that we are masters of our own destiny and live and die by our actions, but what I’m learning, and what his honor confirmed, is that a lot of our success (or failure) is out of our control.

So what’s the valuable takeaway from all this? That we have to work harder to be ready for our big moment, or that we might as well chillax because the ultimate result is out of our hands anyway?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that the waiting around part doesn’t work real well for me. I’m more like that 60’s Day-Glo poster of the two vultures sitting on a tree stump where one turns to the other and says: “Patience my ass, I’m gonna go kill something.”

So if it’s true that when the only tool you have is a hammer, every solution looks like a nail, it would stand to reason that my way of dealing with this would be with a branding angle. And that’s exactly how I see it.

Just like when you’re waiting for the bus, you don’t sit quietly on the bench and wait for it to zoom by. Instead you get up and flag it down. So it makes sense to do what it takes to wave down the metaphorical bus as well, because that’s where your brand gets into the game.

By building a compelling brand and attracting more attention to whatever it is you’re doing, you can significantly increase your chance of success for whenever the bus happens to pass by.

Have you been in a Tiffany & Co. jewelry store lately? Do you know what is the most valuable thing they sell there? It’s not the jewelry, the crystal, or the sterling. The most valuable thing in a Tiffany store is the distinctive blue box with the white ribbon. Really. It’s the box. Those blue boxes are so valuable, in fact, that you can’t even buy them at a Tiffany store (you can buy them on eBay, however). They are so valuable that the proprietary robin’s egg blue color, specifically Pantone’s PMS number 1837, is trademarked and not in the Pantone catalog.

Look at it this way: despite its emotional and romantic import, the gold wedding ring on your finger is only worth its weight multiplied by the price of gold. That’s it — gold is a commodity just like heating oil, gypsum or corn and only worth what the market will pay. But place that simple gold band in that famous blue box and it’s instantly worth more thanks to the power of the meaning of a gift from Tiffany. And mixing my metaphors even further, if a plain wedding band and a plain wedding band in a Tiffany jewelry box were standing on the street corner waiting for the bus, which one would be more likely to get picked up? I think we’d all agree it’s the ring from Tiffany.

So did my Supreme Court Justice gussie himself up in a blue box? Probably not. But he did say that part of the prepping for the assignment was to have a relationship with the sitting President so he would be top of mind when it was time to make a decision. And while cozying up to POTUS is a pretty tall order for most of us, building our own brands and making them relevant to our consumers is a whole lot easier.

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But Enough About Me. What Do You Think About Me?

April 4th, 2012

Creative designer David Kustin was sitting comfortably behind a steaming cup of coffee at our conference table. He was starting to tell me about his background and how he got into the branding business.

“I’m a South Florida native,” he said. (I’m a South Florida native too, I thought. Wonder where he was born.)

“…went to FIU,” he continued. (FIU? My son is about to graduate from FIU. My wife got her master’s degree at FIU. I’m on their President’s Circle board. That reminds me, I need to call them.)

“…and then I moved out to LA…” (Hey, my sister lived in LA. My friend Brian lives there too. I’ve got to go to LA soon to try and sell our new TV show project. Oh yeah, I’ve got to call Michael and Chris about that project. Should I write that down so I don’t forget?)

That’s when it hit me. During Dave’s passionate and interesting pitch, I was thinking about myself and about things that concerned me. Am I really that selfish and self-centered? And if I am, are others as well? How often have I been making a sales presentation or just having a simple conversation where the person I was talking to wasn’t hearing what I was saying because they were too busy hearing what they were thinking?

How often have you suffered from the same problem?

For the next week I did an experiment. In every conversation and interaction, I would try to focus my entire attention on the words and responses of the person I was talking with. If they’d interrupt me when I was talking, I’d stop speaking immediately — even if I was in the middle of a sentence or a word. I’d just stop dead in my tracks, mid-word, and listen.

Rather than tell my own story or try to further my own agenda, I would only ask questions designed to get the other person to talk. And when I needed to write an email or a note to someone, I would give careful consideration to what the other person cared about and crafted my words only to embrace their interests.

Want to know what I discovered?

In every single instance, the person I was talking to happily filled in the gaps in my spiel and told me more about their activities and interests. Even when I stopped talking mid-word, not one person noticed, stopped, and said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I interrupted you. Please continue.” Instead they went on their way, chattering happily about whatever subject they found interesting. I learned more than I ever thought possible about Bruce Springsteen, how local government works, using Pinterest, the future of health care, and the difference between ophthalmologists and optometrists.

The comedian Gary Shandling built an entire career on the simple question, “How’s my hair look?” But my casual research would suggest that a better way to build your career would be to compliment somebody else’s hair and ask them how they keep it so shiny, manageable, full, dark, thick, wavy, straight, curly, beautiful, glossy, or whatever, and then shut up and listen.

If my theory is correct, it’s little wonder that the typical lines overheard at networking events all sound like this:

 “You look great.”

“Love your hair.”

“Love your tie.”

“You lose weight?”

“How’re things?”

“How’re your folks?”

“How’re your kids?”

“How’s your dog?”

“How’s business?”

“How’s everything?”

“Let’s do breakfast / lunch / dinner.”

“Call me.”

“Email me.”

“Text me.”

“Have your service call my service.”

“Gimme your card.”

Each line is just a little bon mot tossed off with the sole intention of reassuring the listener that the speaker cares passionately about them. After all, they say that the two keys to a compelling presentation are honesty and sincerity…and when you can fake that, the rest is easy.

Pardon me if I sound cynical — that’s not my intention. What I want to make crystal clear is that whether we’re having a conversation with one person at a party, Facebooking to hundreds, Tweeting to thousands or sending advertising messages to millions, the way to connect is to make sure we’re talking to our audiences and focusing on what they care most about.

Come to think about it, that’s why the first chapter and branding rule in my latest book Building Brand Value is titled, “All About Them.” And if you keep this in mind when crafting your communications, you’re on the right path to getting the response you’re hoping for, too.

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Spreading Mind Viruses

March 26th, 2012

Man, do I sit around a lot of conference tables. Between client meetings, new business presentations, community boards, strategic retreats, and non-profit groups, it feels like the corporate conference table is becoming my natural environment.

Every table — and every meeting — is unique. But there are some similarities between the different groups regardless of their intent or purpose. Take clothes, for example. In almost every board meeting I sit in on, the men are in gray or navy suits, white or blue shirts, and mostly conservative ties. The women are either dressed in head-to-toe black or wear black skirts or pants with brightly colored short, fitted blazers. Red, teal, and fuchsia seem to be the hues of this season.

Another similarity is the lunches served. Just a few years ago, the conference tables used to be set with roast beef and tuna sandwiches on baguettes. Now, turkey on wheat, veggie sandwiches with mozzarella, and Caesar salads seem to be the norm. And yes, most of the men push the croutons to the sides of their plates but happily eat the sandwich bread. Go figure.

Technology, too, has changed. Years ago, most attendees took notes by hand in complicated binders, using systems such as Filofax to capture pertinent information. A few years ago, laptops made an appearance and after a few years the laptops and netbooks had caught up with the leather bound folders and notebooks. And then, two years ago or so, iPads started to show up in front of more and more board members and now seem to be replacing the laptops. Needless to say, anyone who read my post “You Must Be Present To Win,” already knows that people furtively thumb-typing onto smartphones are ubiquitous at every meeting. Whether or not they’re taking notes is a different question.

But because I’m a communications guy, the thing that interests me the most is to pay attention to the words the people around the table use. More specifically, I’m curious to know what terms — brands, personalities, and subjects — have entered the public lexicon. That is, what ideas are timely and fascinating enough that people talk about them wherever I go. And because I travel so much and sit at conference tables around the country and around the world, I’m also curious to see if the subjects discussed are consistent across different locations. (News flash: they are).

So what have I heard lately? Well, at the time of this writing, the NCAA championships were getting closer and closer so “North Carolina” popped up a lot, replacing Jeremy Lin puns such as “Linsanity,” and “Linsomnia.” Now I’m not much of a sports fan, but even I know what they’re talking about.

Another term that’s been popping up lately is “KONY” and “KONY 2012.” For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Joseph Kony is the Ugandan war criminal who is becoming more and more well-known thanks to the YouTube video (with 85 million views) that seeks to make Kony popular enough that the US government will help pursue and arrest him.

“Apple” is a word I hear in every meeting I attend. All marketing departments want to market like Apple. All designers want to design like Apple. All companies want to earn profits like Apple. And all presenters want to present like Apple. Forget that they’re not willing to commit and invest in excellence like Apple, that’s beyond the point. Everyone wants to be Apple. Apple — ‘nuff said.

“Mobile” is another buzzword people around conference tables like to talk about. Everyone knows that as we enter the “post-PC” era the future is in mobile. But nobody knows what to do about it.

Of course, “social media” is another term that everyone bandies about and wants to get involved with. But it’s a lot like the old line explaining irony: Those who get it, get it anyway. Those who don’t, never will.

The TV shows people talk most about are Modern Family and The Voice. The news story is The New York Times editorial from Greg Smith, the guy who quit Goldman Sachs and wrote about it (although no one remembers his name). The diet is paleo. The political sentiment is “stop paying.”

Granted, these are non-scientific survey results I compiled based on what I overhear at the meetings I attend. There is no control group and the metrics are probably compromised by my own pro or con biases. According to my friend Randy Gage, these are self-hating “mind viruses” created to control the drooling masses and keep them happily (or unhappily) spending their money with stores, companies, and religions.

But from a branding point of view, the obvious question is how do these words and terms get so popular? How do they get enough people talking about them that they achieve what Malcolm Gladwell called The Tipping Point?

Whether you believe these concepts have been injected into our consciousness through strategic and Machiavellian means or that these buzz words are just coincidentally on everyone’s tongues, the key point is that they are out there. And because one of the key branding tenets is awareness, being talked about is one of the first steps to success.

So what are you talking about?

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The Secret To Our Success.

March 20th, 2012

In the last few months our branding firm has seen an unprecedented rash of new business opportunities. While I never look a gift horse in the mouth, the control freak, Type-A part of my personality wants to know where they’re all coming from. The small part of my brain dedicated to business analytics wants to know why. My partner Roberto does, too.

I’m sure the recovering economy has something to do with it. Our public relations activities do as well. I’m positive that some of our recent popularity is thanks to all the networking my partner and I do, and I believe that a lot of it has to do with the great results we’ve produced for our clients.

But truth is, I think a lot of it has to do with this blog. That’s right, this blog that you receive every Wednesday morning at ten a.m.

How do I know? Because almost every new business inquiry that comes in by email was either typed as a reply to a blog post or mentions the blog somewhere in the note. And almost everyone I run into mentions that they read the blog or they remember something from the blog or that they have questions about the blog.

Maybe I’m giving away a powerful competitive advantage here, but in my desire for these essays to be useful, valuable, and enjoyable I did promise that they would always be honest, insightful, and transparent. So here you go…

What do readers want to know most often? The most common question is whether I actually write these posts. The answer is yes, every word. I do have an eagle-eyed proofreader who keeps me from embarrassing myself too much, and friends do recommend topics from time to time, but the writing is all me.

The second most popular question is how I find the time to write the posts. “So is that all you do these days, sit around and write blog posts?” It’s usually asked with the same annoyed affect you’d use when asking, “So is that all you do these days, sit around and stuff bon bons in your pie hole?” The answer is an emphatic no. What I do all day is work in the agency, meet with clients, pitch business, create campaigns, and work with our wonderous creative teams. Writing the blog posts themselves is actually a pretty quick activity, a Kerouac-like rush of creative inspiration that never takes much more than a half an hour or so. And because so many of our clients are out of town and I travel so often, much of that writing time takes place on my laptop in airplane exit rows. But that’s the deal with a weekly blog because, as Sammy Davis Jr. sang in the opening to Baretta, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”

It’s the thinking about the blogs that takes time, and I do that mostly on my morning runs. I’m always on the lookout for subjects to discuss with you here and I spend a lot of time crafting the messages and searching for meaning. But let’s face it: We all do that anyway as we look for ways to build our businesses and evolve as human beings.

What can take time is the refining process. I believe that the key to good writing is not only the writing itself but also the editing — that’s where the craftsmanship comes into play. And so after I write a post, I go back over it again and again and again, changing a word here, shortening a sentence there, polishing a pun, massaging a metaphor. It’s still not much of an imposition, though, because most of that also happens in quick bursts of activity and doesn’t take a lot of time.

The third question I often hear is where the ideas come from in the first place. Most people who are thinking about starting a blog are concerned about staring at a blank computer screen week after week and wondering what the heck to write. It reminds me of the days when our clients used to ask us to create newsletters for them. When we would demur, we’d explain that it was because of the lifecycle of the common newsletter: The first newsletter is fun. The second newsletter is three weeks late… there is no third newsletter.

Luckily, running out of things to write about has never been a problem for me. Maybe I’m just full of hot air, but my problem is usually having too many interesting subjects to choose between — not struggling to come up with fresh content. In fact, if I thought you’d be willing to read my missives more often, I’d actually write more often. But don’t worry, I won’t abuse the honor you’ve given me of reading my words every week or so by burdening your inbox with more mail.

Back to the influence our blog has had on our recent successes, though. The reasons I think the blog itself is so powerful is not because of what’s written but because it allows us to maintain a relationship with almost 13,000 readers every week. And because I respect the privilege you’ve given me, we’re careful to never sell anything. Instead, the blog has created a vehicle to show the world what our agency does, how we think, and how we can help our clients and potential clients build their brands and increase their sales without ever being on the muscle.

I truly believe the medium can do the same for you. And if you have questions about the technology we use to market the blog, I’d be happy to share that, too.

So you keep reading and enjoying. And I’ll keep working and writing. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

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You Must Be Present To Win.

March 12th, 2012

Most mornings my running group meets bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 5:45 AM. Of course, even at that peaceful time in the early morning we have to watch out for oncoming traffic. No matter how sleepy I am, nothing’s more bracing than the slipstream of speeding cars racing by. So I’m very tuned into the commuters that zoom past.

Here’s the odd thing: Even at that hour, the people who zip by are almost always on their cell phones.

Not so strange, of course, except that it’s a quarter to six in the morning! Who the hell are they talking to, anyway?

At the movies, at the gym, right outside my office window, even at lunch today while I was writing this post (see photo), almost everyone’s busy staring at their smart phones and exercising their thumbs.

Who in the world are they communicating with?

This morning on my drive to work I almost killed a bike rider who was looking at his phone while pedaling directly into oncoming traffic.

What in the world was he reading that was so important?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m just as guilty as the people I bitch about. I look forward to stopping at red lights just so I can read my email even though I already checked it two or three blocks before. And twice this week I had to apologize in meetings because I was reading something on my iPad instead of paying attention to what was being said around me.

What I can’t figure out is why the come-hither call of our online networks is so damn enticing. Sure, I’ve read about the little dopamine rush we get each time our devices beckon, but is that really stronger than the limbic charge of honest to goodness face-to-face interaction?

Apparently so, as so many of us stand on virtual street corners just waiting for our digital Johns to drive up. “Going my way, big boy?” indeed.

Knowing what a pathetic digital junkie I am, I try very hard to corral my inner Zen master and be present. I turn my phone face down in meetings and blacken my computer screen when I’m taking phone calls at my desk. But I still find I’m slowly and inexorably sucked back into online exchanges with people who aren’t even in the room.

By the way, please spare me the ADD/multitasking argument about how you get so much more accomplished because you can do so many things at once. Study after study proves what we already knew deep down inside to begin with — multitasking is simply the au courant definition for doing many different things at the same time badly.

Believe me, the problem’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. With the proliferation of digital devices and the ubiquitousness of networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, et al, we’re all going to be harder and harder pressed to resist the sirens’ call to dash our ships on the digital shoals. Eventually, new social constructs and procedures will emerge to deal with the new normal, but like most evolutionary changes, that’ll take time that we can’t really afford.

So for now, a valiant fight against the persistent tide is what’s called for. To rally my internal troops to action, I use the battle cry, “You must be present to win.” After all, if I’m not paying full attention, how can I even know what I’m missing — let alone come up with the best response or course of action?

If you’ve decided to fight the same fight against persistent inattention, I hope my mantra helps you, too. And even though I’d love to discuss it with you further, my phone just lit up and I gotta go.

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The Two Most Important Words In Sales

March 6th, 2012

We’re sitting in the large conference room of a Fortune 500 company in a small town somewhere in the Northeast. The company has filled the room with their best thinkers — the president of industrial products, their CIO and CMO and the VPs of marketing, product development, IT, innovation, and consumer insight.

We’re here to present and discuss a new product and partnership opportunity that my client is pitching to the Fortune 500 group. And our team is no slouch, either. We’ve got the two founders of the company—who each have more than 20 years of entrepreneurial success in the market—our system designer, our carefully selected celebrity spokesman (who’s name and photo you’d recognize in an instant if I included it here), and me.

The best part is that the Fortune 500 team loves the concept. They understand how it makes sense for their business: They see the clear connection between what our product offers and what their consumers are looking for, and they’ve already figured out the value proposition and how it will both enhance customer loyalty and generate a brand new revenue stream.

In other words, they’re ready to buy.

There’s only one little problem: My client won’t shut up.

She’s so excited about her business that she feels the need to explain every detail of the plan to the group — even though they’ve already told us that they get it. And she’s so wrapped up in her unfolding rap that she’s not glancing in my direction or at her partner. If she did, she’d see that we’re both vainly trying to signal her to be quiet.

Finally the meeting ends, a good 45 or 50 minutes later than it should have. The folks from the Fortune 500 team are very polite and friendly as they walk us out and promise to be in touch. And when we pile into our rented mini van, the client high fives everyone on the team for a great presentation. On the way to the airport we stop for a celebratory dinner and a few great bottles of wine.

Of course you know what came next. A whole lot of nothing. The buyers didn’t call back when they said they would, and after some gentle prodding, the head of the Fortune 500 team told my client that they’d decided to “back burner the project for a bit while they prioritize their activities.” That’s corpspeak for “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

What happened? Simply put, it was a classic case of talking the buyer right out of the sale. What had seemed like a good idea at first got more and more mundane and more and more complicated as the sales pitch meandered on and on. My client had violated the cardinal rule of sales: “always take yes for an answer.” Her prospect wanted to buy until she convinced them that they didn’t.

“Yes” is the most you can hope for in a presentation. “Yes” is what you’re working towards. “Yes” is what you want. Who cares if you spent weeks perfecting your presentation and you have to cut it short? Who cares if you’re only up to point four of a 17-point outline? Who cares if you flew halfway across the country to make your pitch? When your buyer is ready to sign on the dotted line, cancel the PowerPoint and turn the projector off. After all, showing your full dog-and-pony show isn’t the goal — getting to “Yes” is what you’re there for in the first place.

Decisions — no matter how large — are often made without all the facts. And once the decision has been made to purchase, more facts can only do one of two things: enhance the decision or kibosh the deal. But when you’re already got a “Yes,” how much more can you enhance it? Why press your luck and risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

The simple solution in sales presentations — especially the ones that are going well — is to let the buyer talk as much as possible. And to do that just remember the two most important words in sales: “Shut the @#$%!! up.

There. I’ve made my point and I’ll take my own advi…

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