Casual Fridays

I rented and watched the movie The Soloist the other day. I want to buy it now. My wife asked me if I really thought we would watch the film enough to justify buying it.

I don’t.

I just want to support a good film and have it as a reminder of its message.

This made me thing about why I buy, or don’t buy, certain things from certain places. I don’t have the same intention to seek out and support something “good.”

If we endorse what we buy, then shouldn’t we buy what we endorse? As Seth Godin said, we get what we pay for.

Some of our most cherished works of art originated from the Renaissance. Without the Medici family, many of these works would not have been created. Lorenzo de Medici supported artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Michelangelo. So, without patrons, The Mona Lisa and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would not exist for our appreciation.

What we need today are “many micro-Medicis.” We need small armies of patrons who recognize what they appreciate and are willing to support it. Buy from manufacturers with good labor standards. Buy from stores that support the community. Donate to churches involved in good work. Donate to candidates who not only stand on proper (however you define it) values… but prove it with the way they operate their campaign. And yes, purchase movies that communicate rich and powerful messages.

“Patronizing” should cease to connotate negativity. We should all aspire to be more patronizing.

I just want to give thanks today:

Thanks to you for reading my blog.  I’m grateful for my audience, no matter how small.

Thanks to David Walker and the folks who put on Tulsa Techfest this week.  They did a great job organizing a very impressive event.

Thanks to those who came to hear what I had to say about Word of Mouth Marketing.  I had a great time presenting and my favorite part was the sharing of audience comments and ideas during and after the preso.  Thanks for participating!

The military spends tons of money to make something blend in and then loses it. Sounds pretty stupid when the army does it, yet advertisers do something even more inept. They spend an insane amount of money buying ad space to get attention, but then camouflage their ads. They still remain invisible because of clutter, attention-spans (Oh, look, there’s a bird!) and generic messages.

Top 5 Ways Advertisers Use Camouflage:

1. Look like the competition.

Ads should highlight what makes you special. To quote the Incredibles, “When everyone is special, then no one is.” That’s especially true when everyone tries to be special in the exact same way.

This Reebok ad is very similar to the Nike ad below (10 years before the Reebok ad).

(source: AdPulp)

Let me emphasize this point.

One of my clients has an employee who previously worked for the competition. Before I worked with this client, their ads were very similar to their biggest competitor’s spots. The employee said before we came in and changed my client’s ads, the competition always knew when my client was advertising because they had more shoppers coming in THEIR doors.

By looking like their competition, my client was sending customers to ‘the enemy.’

2. Advertise where all the competition is.

Why do advertisers have to be right next to their competition? It’s like the CEO went to the marketing department and said, “Castrol is on a NASCAR, why aren’t we?” So then their logo is slapped next to MOROSO and something unreadable (even in a close-up) typed in a script font.

What if you had the audience to yourself, like Sweet Pete’s Bicycle:

(source: Guerrilla Promos)

You get an audience all to yourself.

Likewise, an motor oil company could “rent” a parking spot from their local Auto Zone. Place a temporary sign stating the spot is reserved for users of their product because their engine runs better, fewer leaks, etc.

3. Being irrelevant.

Who cares:

How long your furniture store has been in business?
You’re the #1 car dealer in the metro area?
Your kid is in your TV ad?

When creating your ad, only think and talk of yourself and the customer never will.

Think and talk about the customer and your relationship with them, and they’ll reciprocate.

4. Never change the ‘wrapping paper’.

Has anything changed in your business over the last five years? I would guess so. Then why are you running the same ads?

First, those who didn’t respond to your message yet, won’t.

Second, maybe some responded and didn’t like it. Now they think nothing changed and they’ll still be dissatisfied.

I’m not saying you have to change the brand message, but give it some new wrapping paper every once in a while. If you have a powerful enough message, then it should have legs to adapt.

5. Basically… play it safe.

Being different seems risky. But being the same is even riskier.

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”
— General Eric Shinseki, retired Chief of Staff, U. S. Army

—————–

If you’re going to spend money, time and effort crafting a message… don’t throw it all away by painting it camouflage.

There are two models of communication at play today.

Conspiracy or Collaboration

There are times when conspiracy is a necessary evil. Most of the time though, conspiracy is a detriment to our relationships. It limits us and pits us against one another.

Which do you use in your business?

… in your church?

… with your friends and family?

Some dreams are lived. Some die. Others change.

For almost two years, I’ve been the creative director at Beyond Marketing & Advertising. I started that endeavor with high expectations for what I could accomplish and what we could create as a company. Some of those expectations were met, others were not. Overall, it was a fun (and educational) ride, but as you can probably tell, that ride is over.

This week, I accepted an offer to join a group of consultants at The Frontline Group. This move will give me more opportunities to work with Word-of-Mouth Marketing efforts, social media and helping clients tap into their own creativity.

I will continue to collaborate with Beyond and will remain in Tulsa, but am excited about the opportunities The Frontline Group represents.

A friend of mine was considering a position as pastor of a church. The church is an hour or so away. He declined the position because of the distance. My wife said the church probably would want someone who lived in their community anyway.

She’s right. Not only is proximity an issue, but there’s something comforting in another person knowing the “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant we love or the fact we had a relative in the obituary this morning. Not because we told them, but because they experienced it… they saw it.

Don’t we all want that? We want communers at our table, not commuters interrupting our lives. When we go to buy hiking equipment, we want an experienced hiker to help us find what we need. But more than that, how comforting is it to hear, “I remember my first hike. I wish I had one of these smaller backpacks. I wore myself out carrying too many unnecessary items. Since you’re going on a weekend hike, I’d recommend keeping your load light.”

As marketers (which we all are, to a degree), we have to remember this.

Do we drive in, drop off our marketing message, then speed back home? Or do we take the time to experience real community with our customers? Do we experience a part of their lives? Eat from their table? Drink from their cup?

Our agency helped a client develop a customer advisory board. We brought in 15 of their top customers, fed them dinner and discussed the company, the community and the customers. It was eye-opening. Assumptions were shattered and revelations came forth.

We made new friends and discovered something new about ourselves. I’m so glad we did it.

Try to commune with your customers. I think you’ll be amazed at the information, insight, and loyalty you gain.

Great article by Guy Kawasaki explaining Lois Kelley’s Nine Best Story Lines for Marketing.

I would probably add one more story line… Leaving Ruin. These are stories of the pheonix rising from the ashes. How a person, group or organization survived certain peril. How they turned the ship around when all seemed lost. This story can be similar to David vs. Goliath, but it doesn’t have to be the little guy. It could be how IBM reinvented itself or the story of a successful man who lost everything to alcoholism… only to rediscover what is truly important in life and fights to get it back.

Read the article. Let me know what you think. Which story is yours? And as Guy asks, which story SHOULD be yours?

As a fun little riff, I thought I’d share with you a variety of snapshots from my cell phone and a few thoughts on each:

This is called a Whisper Phone. Our daughter’s elementary school teacher showed it to us at a parent/teacher conference. Children use the whisper phone so they can hear themselves read out loud, but not disturb the other students. Our innovative teacher had created hers out of PVC materials and spend less than a dollar on each phone. The manufactured versions retail for about $8.

Interesting how homemade is a style instead of a process now. Trust me, Ryan did not make this at his home. If it were homemade, you think it would come with a mass-produced sign containing a registration mark?

OK, who was the genius who decided to use Boise State quartertback Jared Zabransky to promote NCAA 08 in Oklahoma Wal-Marts?

I understand he’s on the cover of the game, but don’t they realize Boise State upset OU last year in the Fiesta Bowl (it was an amazing game, by the way)? I would think the promotional materials, if not the game cover itself, would be made as appealing as possible to each region it’s shipped. A Big XII player would have been much more appropriate. But being an Oklahoma State fan, I find this rather humorous.

I’m sorry, but I have a hard time sympathizing (literally) with someone who doesn’t put the name of their pet on their sign.

Tulsa is finally getting an Apple Store! This one is within just a few miles of my home. It won’t be done in time for the iPhone debut today. Below are the construction photos I took through a hole in the facade (geek alert).

Looks like we’ll be waiting a bit longer for our Apple Store to be fully operational.

Why have this sign at all if the exclusions are so broad? Why not put stickers on the Quarts that do come with a free pint? Of course this same frozen custard shop locked the doors behind us at 9:45 when their sign stated they close at 10:00. They had a bucket of mop water on the customer side of the counter (YUM!). They turned the outdoor lights out as we were enjoying our deserts al fresco. Guess they were in a hurry. Too bad we inconvenienced them with our business.

This picture isn’t very good, but you can probably tell it’s a flat tire. Nothing surprising, until you see what this tire is attached to.

It’s the tire rack at our local tire and lube center. The irony was too good to pass up.

Hope you enjoyed today’s SnapThoughts.

If you ever wanted to create your own Star Wars movie, now’s your chance… kinda.

In celebration of their 30th Anniversary, Star Wars has unveiled mashup.starwars.com.  It contains about 250 clips and an online editor, allowing fans to mix and match clips together… creating various scenarios.
It’s not perfect, so you have to use your imagination quite a bit – even in simply watching the clips.  But, isn’t that the point?

(Hat Tip to WeirdGuy)

Here are a few tidbits from my presentation yesterday. I spent most of my blog time (and more) preparing to speak at Entrepreneur’s Day, so this might be my only post this week.

The Marketing Proverb

If this is a marketing proverb, what is the moral?

or, some ad agencies prefer to

…simply entertain.

Do you ask this question?

How did you hear about us?

TV

Radio

Newspaper

Direct Mail

Billboard

Other

Hey car dealers… want to see some results?

When you see 71% of car purchasing decisions are influenced by word of mouth…

You’re right, but you can…

How do you influence word of mouth?

I’m not talking fashion trendsetters (unless you’re an apparel company). If you’re a technology company, these are the geeks. They’re the raving fans of your industry.

Do you make it easy for people to hand off your message to others?  More on this here.

The coupon above might get one person to show up, but it doesn’t encourage them to hand off the baton.

This coupon creates social currency. “You’ll like me more because I got us all free drinks.”

Online (blogs/message boards) or offline (customer advisory boards/customer events).

So, maybe we add two lines to our marketing proverb:

And the moral of our NEW proverb is…

I was talking with a friend yesterday and he mentioned how his real estate tours website uses technology not recommended by the experts. He should be using video-streaming servers and paying thousands of dollars a month in hosting. They told him his technology wouldn’t work… but it does.

I used to be the marketing director of a telecom company. We used Linksys routers in a unique way. The experts told us the routers wouldn’t work that way… but they did. After the fact, even the manufacturer said it shouldn’t work. They weren’t made to work that way. Remember, this is after we proved it indeed worked in SEVERAL situations.

Our agency is working with a particular TV producer a lot lately. He was told the lenses he wanted wouldn’t work with his current cameras. He “needed” to buy outrageously expensive cameras to get his desired effect. He couldn’t just retrofit his camera to work with these lenses… but he did – and it worked. Now he has a unique style that is winning him business left and right.

Bonus – Directions for Becoming Invisible:

Step 1 – Blindly obey the experts (“blindly” being the key word)
Step 2 – Follow the directions

Step 3 – Congratulate yourself, because no one else will. They can’t see you.

I just got this email from Staples today.  My wife and I are trying to organize our home office, so I thought I would foward it to her.  There’s no “forward to a friend” button.  I could forward the email myself, but these HTML emails never look right when I send them.

There was link to a web page version of the email, so I clicked it.  I figured I would send her a link to the web page.  Here’s the URL:

http://e.staples-deals.com/content.asp?wci=version&wnd=0&status_id=4611513700_73148130

Long URLs like this always seem to break when you send them.  No dice.

Viral marketing is a relay race.  The most important part of the race is the hand off.  Using batons that are hard to hand to the next person isn’t smart.

I was recently reading about the new Apple Mac Pro computers on digg. What’s most interesting is the reaction Apple gets from any announcement. Apple fans usually love it. Apple haters hate it (go figure). Reading their comments on digg is not for the faint of heart.

Why does Apple alienate these people? All they have to do is make their operating system run on PCs, make their music software play nice with MP3 players other than the iPod and stop those condescending ads. Then what? Then they’ll win everyone over?

Nope.

Then they’ll be just like everyone else. Conformed.

Apple still follows the philosophy of their early evangelist, Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki encourages companies to polarize people. When I first saw that in one of Guy’s presentations, I wasn’t sure I agreed. Now, I couldn’t agree more.

Not many companies would advertise free cupcakes for professed Bush haters. Most anyone with “good business sense” would have at least added a second sign:
“Tell us you hate HILLARY and get a free COOKIE!”

But that destroys any semblance of a story. It tells people nothing about our company, except that we ride the fence.

And we fail to realize the fence we’re riding is made of barbed wire.

Update

After an offline conversation with a buddy, Jason, it became clear that I should clarify one thing.  Whatever polarizes people concerning your business needs to be authentic.  By doing so, detractors actually help galvanize your supporters.

Nearly 2.5 million views in two weeks.

I can’t stop playing this video.

I think the beauty of it is how a big, polished production doesn’t get in the way of the even bigger idea.

The music’s pretty good too.

Send a link to your friends.
Bloglines viewers click here:

Hat tip: Bill Kinnon

Flickr photo by feefee.

I advised a political candidate recently to follow up with a blogger who had contacted him.

“The blog probably doesn’t reach as many people as TV, radio, or direct mail.” I acknowledged. Then I explained, “But the people who read it are influencers. By engaging them with your message, you can hope to affect watercooler talk across the city.”

Seth makes the point much better than I did.

What if you’re not a politician? Should you care about watercooler talk?