A Few General Principles and Guidelines....

As follow-up to Thursday's post, I wanted to offer a few general principals and guidelines for improving your "numbers-based" marketing.

1. Make desktop delivery of key reports automatic. This includes sales reports, online traffic logs, customer service/inquiry reports, and others. It may take some time and tinkering to find the best set of indicators and formats for your business—but keep at it. Regular, automated reports are a guard against the all-too-easy tendency to forget or put off viewing the numbers in the course of our busy week. Also, invite the person who creates your reports (or yourself) to occasionally throw in a wild-card report to keep the view fresh and see what turns up.
2. Look for trends. Let me use an analogy: Let's say your company, like many others, is swimming in sales and customer data. You have an ocean of information. Without the proper focus, this can be overwhelming. Your goal in numbers-based marketing is to find the currents. You are looking for the currents in this ocean—where and how the energy is moving things, the flow. Otherwise, you'll end up just seeing this big vast ocean that is incomprehensible. So currents (meaning trends) are what you're after—not what one fish or piece of drift wood does (the minutia). Applying this analogy, don't be too concerned with what a single product did within a certain group or market segment—look for how a series, theme, or type did. Or perhaps products that serve "X" need or fulfill "Y" brand attribute. This is particularly true in an industry like publishing, where so many factors must converge to create a successful book: theme, author, cover, timing, content, packaging, and promotion & distribution (or lack of). It’s very complex and rarely an apples-to-apples comparison when looking at a single product and trying to reproduce that generally. So don’t spend too much time looking on the details: look for currents and trends.
3. Test. This one's pretty simple: try some stuff on limited scale. Track results. Assess the effectiveness. Seems like a no-brainer, right? But it's surprising to find how little testing is actually done in marketing departments. Usually this is because marketers feel they can barely cover their bases and get their "regular work" done. But testing is a leading method for identifying successful new ways to reach and woo your audience, for making you more productive, and can greatly reduce waste (including some of that "regular work" of yours).
4. Survey. None of us are an expert—not a consultant like myself, not the guy in the corner office, not the employee that has been doing their job for three decades. The customer is the expert. So talk to them. And I don't mean just anecdotally at a conference, exhibit, or in-store function. Survey your customers in a quantifiable way that will yield data on customer mindset and behavior. Today there are many very reasonably-priced online market research options that bring down what was once a cost barrier for some companies.
5. Do #1-4 regularly.
6. Discuss findings as a team at least 2x a year. Thoughtful discussion within your team is where the rubber hits the road in numbers-based marketing. Sales data is customer behavior on paper. It reveals what actually happened and who your customer is from an action-oriented viewpoint. Market research can reveal your customer mindset. This is information is too good to keep all to yourself. Discuss this together as regularly as you can, but at least do this Monday-morning quarterbacking twice a year.
7. Involve product development. Your discussion of the data, the questions it raises, and your meaningful findings should involve your business's new product development department (be that called Editorial, Product Acquisition, R&D, or what have you at your company). Marketing that does not work collaboratively with its developmental counterparts fails in a core responsibility to adequately represent the voice of the customer to the company and advocate for customer needs. Conversely, strong interdepartmental discussion of and collaboration over your sales history and market research is what enables a company to PUT TO USE its customer insight. Resulting daily actions and decisions are what make a company truly customer-centric.

Friday’s Fun Find 4 Business: Keynote Speakers, Inc

So it's time for the first “Friday’s Fun Find” of December. (*whew* That’s a lot “f” alliteration; good thing this isn’t the month of February.) One of my company's services is to build author platforms and nurture speaking ministries within the Catholic Christian market, and while doing some research, I came across this site that provides keynote speakers for events: KeynoteSpeakers.com

This firm is certainly not the only company out there providing this service, but what I like about them—and why they’re this week’s choice—is that their website not only offers a vast array of top-name talents (ex. Ken Blanchard, Bill Moyers, Phil McGraw, and Deepak Chopra) in easy-search formats, but also they provide ranges for these speaker’s fees. They give these by category. It's a good way to gauge today's going rate for a particular caliber of speaker in a specific field. With only a little time invested, authors and their publishers can get a sense of where they stand. Unfortunately for religious publishers, there isn’t a Spirituality category or even Values; people who speak on these matters would be lumped into Inspiration or Motivation. On the other hand, if you’re a religious author or publisher who also addresses the need for Patriotism, Ethics, or Balanced Living, there are categories for those. So one is able to form a point of reference and get an indication of the playing field.

Marketing as a Science

Although it wasn’t my original plan to hold an Albert Einstein quote-fest, we might as well round out the regular week (pre-Friday’s Fun Finds) with one more. This one is especially for my friends in religious publishing:

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

Of course my use of this quote twists Al’s original meaning—in this context “religion” refers to both a book category and type of mission, and “science” means the numbers-based marketing (vs. the creative) that I've been writing about lately. So liberties taken, I admit, but I couldn’t resist. 'Hope the great professor won't mind.

In my last post I promised some example of those “translator” and “bridging” questions that help marketers find the actionable information within research and data. One way to approach this is to group your key questions into categories to make sure you're asking a balanced spread. Here are some categories to consider and just a few sample questions:

1. CUSTOMERS. Think about your data in terms of two main criteria: a) creating more customers, and b) creating more active customers. Then within these two criteria are many, many questions you can pose. Ex. Translator Questions: “Customer group X is very active in purchasing Product A: What need, fear or desire does Product A answer for them?” “How much of Related Product B do they buy and how does this better define that motivating need, fear, or desire?” Bridging Questions: “How can I empower this active group to become customer evangelists?” “How can I revised my market positioning and sales messages to better address the identified motivator?" TIP: Remember when looking at customer data to consider both rate of order and size, then form your translator-bridging questions to examine these.

2. OFFERINGS. Again there’s two major criteria : a) selling more new products or services, and b) selling more exisiting products or services. And again, there's a vast array of questions you can pose to find usable information. “Product C is selling better than Product D; what are the needs, fears or desires behind this behavior?” Ex. Bridging Questions: "How do I adapt the strong-selling Product C into a new product in a different medium or form that responds to this same key motivator?" "How do I build a service-product that supports physical Product C?" "How do I capitalize on the strong sales of Product C to sell more of Product D?" OR, Translator Questions: "What do the categories or lines of products that are selling well tell me about my existing customers' motivations?" "What recurring patterns (3x or more) can I identify that are positive for my business or negative?” Bridging Questions: “In my promotions to these same customers, how can I better highlight the ways that products in other categories or lines provide solutions to this same motivation?” “How can I use these reoccurring patterns to selling more new product?” “—To sell more existing product?”

3. BRAND. Your brand is what makes you distinct from your competitors. Products are commodities and can be copied; your brand is unique and cannot be duplicated. Use brand to make sense of your data. Ex. Translator Question: "How well do individual products or services measure up to the business’s brand attributes (defined qualities of your brand that your business strives to embody) vs. How well did these sell?” Ex. Bridging Question: “What can been done to bring our future product development more in line with our brand attributes? In what ways can I repackage or remarket underperforming products to better illustrate how they embody our brand attributes and deliver on our brand promises?” "What underperforming products might I want to terminate because, in addition to low sales, I see that the do not reflect our brand attributes and they fail to deliver on brand promises?"

4. DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS. Some criteria: a) products sales by the means used to reach a market, and b) customers activity by the means used to reach a market.
Ex. Translator Question: “Which categories or types of products are selling best through which distribution channels?” “Which markets are responding best to which distribution channels?” Bridging Questions: “Can I increase or better focus my promotional budget to target particular products only in particular channels?” “Can I increase awareness in a given market that my products are available through this favored distribution channel?” “Is there a new or better way to reach my market?” “Can I more effectively partner with key players in underperforming distribution channels?”

5. BUSINESS UNITS. You want to know what the data tells you about the health of your business and its preparedness for the future. You are looking for actionable information that you can apply now so that your business will be where it needs to be in two, three, or five years down th road. Ex. Translator question: “Which categories do my most profitable offerings fall into? Is it all the same category?” Bridging question: “Am I properly diversified? How can I weather a downturn in that particular market or niche?”

There's a few more categories that I'd add to this list in order to achieve a well-rounded, balanced view—and I'd also advise a close look at specific marketing tactics or promotions—but this is a good start. Monday's post will follow-up with a few general principles and guidelines.

Data-Based Marketing, Steps for Success, and a little More Albert

Ok, here’s another quotation from Einstein that I love: We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

This is exactly what I’ve been getting at. As marketers, we need to apply our analytical skills and way of “reading” the numbers to identify patterns, open up new perspectives, and stimulate different ways of thinking in order to solve problems and create opportunities.

One hurdle marketers express to me is the feeling that they are drowning in sales numbers yet don’t see any actionable information there. When I probe deeper, I find these marketers often don’t’ know what questions to ask other than things like, “How well did ___ sell? And how much profit did ___ make?” That kind of sales “analysis” repeated again and again won’t get us to Al’s different kind of thinking. Instead, try these steps:

First, remember this: research and data is just a numeric language for actual human behavior. What you need is a translator for this language. That translator is a series of good questions. There are all sorts of questions that marketers can ask when looking at sales histories cross-referenced with customer data—questions that spur deep reflection on customer action. I personally have a long list. (And you can check tomorrow’s post for a sample.)

Second, keep asking these questions, and the next logical question, until you arrive at a definable human behavior.

Third, what you’re looking for is the need, fear or desire that drives this definable human behavior. Sometimes this is already known. Sometimes it can be deduced. Most often you will have to ask. Actually get on the phone, send an email, post a question to your website, corner customers at an convention, whatever—just ask. And if you think you know the answer because you learned it when you asked ten years ago—better ask again. The reason may have changed or be changing.

And forth—and this is where the creative thinking side of marketing comes in—you need to then reflect on what I call “bridging” questions. For example: How do I use this behavior to my company’s advantage? How do I change my product mix to solve this need, fear or desire? How do I change our marketing or sales efforts to immediately speak to this need, fear, or desire?

Your first response should not be to try to change the defined human behavior; first you should brainstorm ways to change your company’s relationship to that behavior. For example, a customer group buy lots Product A and some of Product B. Relationship change: sell Product A packaged with Product B at a reduced rate. But don’t stop there. The real gold to be minded is found in the needs, fears, and desires you identified as driving the behaviors. Again, don’t try to change the customer’s need, fear or desirer—try to change your company’s relationship to that those three.

Looking at data in this manner will help you to see connections, think differently and lead to better product development and marketing and sales practices.

Numbers Marketing, Sales Analysis & Albert Einstein's Definition of Insanity

Yesterday’s post touched on the two sides of good marketing: the creative side and the numbers side. And I put forth the view that too often the numbers side of marketing gets short-shifted. Let’s look at just one area to start: sales analysis.

“Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.” —That’s Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity. Well, insanity must rage at many-a-U.S. companies and organization because time and again we hear of sales going down in a clear, consistent trend and leadership wanting to see sales rise and market share grow—but no one is willing to make significant change.

This is all too true in the publishing industry, where sales analysis often means merely forecasting and setting sales projections (if that). What is needed is an investment in one's infrastructure to produce some high-quality sales reports and customer data—if these systems aren't already in place—and a strong dose of reality based on a good hard look at the numbers. By this I mean that marketers should be looking at not only what the numbers are saying (“sales are flat or going down”; “this product didn’t turn a profit”; “these customers are buying less of this”) but also at what is often called “the story” behind the numbers.

This begins with asking pointed questions and expecting actionable answers. For instance: What the trends…? (ex. …of the clarity and strength of your brand? … of your competitors’ sales, when available?, ... of your industry as whole?, … in the tastes and sensitivities of your customers?) How well are your brand attributes represented in your products…? (ex. …those that are selling well? ..those that selling poorly?) Where are the opportunities…? (ex. …for cross-selling?, …for partnership building?, …for realigning of a product mix or bundling certain products together at better price?, …for offering a service product that supports a strong-selling physical product?).

Or, if a significant customer or group of customers is buying less of something—Why? For this question, in most cases, you’ll have to go ask your customer to find the answer. Notice that *gasp!* emanating from those who always want to do more the same (safe) thing or who secretly fear giving up their power, hunches, and own sense of World Order by handing power back to the customer. Yes, you will have ask—either anecdotally, through quantitative research, or, ideally, both. And when you ask, don’t settle for the usual surface answers that you knew or could have guessed from the start. Like, “The economy.” Or, “I gave my business to ____.” Ok, sure. But when a customer tells you this, remember to follow-up by asking, again, Why? Why did your customer favor your competitor’s product or service this time? What was their deciding factor?

Assuming you have built trust with the customer, if you ask this question right you should learn where you customer’s priorities are right now, their key motivating factors, and what problem are they really trying to solve. I guarantee you there’s always something deeper going on than just a cheaper price.

This kind of numbers-based marketing is essential, lest you throw good energy after bad, focus good creative marketing efforts into wrong areas, and—as Einstein says—sadly, expect a different result.

Creative Marketing vs. Marketing By the Numbers

I had lunch with a colleague a few weeks back who had just been promoted to director of marketing at her publishing company. She remarked to me how excited she was by the strength of her team and the two new hires she’d be bringing on. But she was especially happy that she would soon be grounding her company’s marketing efforts in some science and data. One of her strengths is “the numbers side of marketing" and understanding how to read the story being told about a market from the relevant, factual information.

Too often marketers and those who manage them forget that good marketing always has two sides: the creative side and the numbers side. I find this imbalance especially prevalent in industries like publishing and digital media, where creative types abound. The creative side of marketing—positioning products, choosing platforms and crafting messages, finding product hooks and selecting appropriate designs, creating catalogs and promotions, going out to and wooing an audience—has sex appeal. It’s flashier. So often it gets all the luv. The majority of attention, energy, and funds flow to the creative side. But marketing is also very much a science. And numbers-based marketing—based on customer research, past performance history, industry growth indicators, trend analyses, brand measurements, etc.—is equally important. Each company has to test and find the right balance of these two sides for themselves. But I am often saddened when I see publishing companies—and in particular religious publishing companies—spending thousands of dollars on direct mail or advertising campaigns when they have not even done a thorough analysis of their own sales data. When they have barely skimmed the surface of the information available to them, let alone invested a little money into what could be.

Kudos to my friend’s company for emphasizing this—and more on the subject in tomorrow’s entry.

Friday’s Fun Finds 4 Business: Google Alerts

Three weeks ago I was posting about mission-driven marketing (Oct. 1) and I recommended a book of the same name by Peter C. Brinckerhoff. The next day, waiting there in my in-box was an email from one Peter C. Brinckerhoff. It seems he had set up a Google Alert for the appearance of his book title & name anywhere on the Net, and when I blogged about him, it triggered the alert and he was notified. He read my blog and—being a good networker—followed-up by sending me a pleasant email. I emailed him back and the interchange led me to even more good books and some information that will help me serve an upcoming client. Since that day, I, too, have instituted this practice (for my company and name), and so far it has yielded interesting results.

Google Alerts are nothing new but I choose them as this Friday’s Fun Find because they warrant a little awareness building for the uninitiated and some attention to highlight their many uses.

Features & Uses
First, Google Alerts are an easy, useful tool to track buzz for your business, brand(s), product or service. Google’s search is broad, covering the Web comprehensively, including articles, blogs, videos, news, and groups. They can be set to issue results as-it-happens, daily or weekly. And not only can they help you assess the content of buzz out there but they can also help you gage the amount of buzz or when it’s heaviest. Second, you can also use them to track a competitor, client, or industry-related trends. Third—and especially of interested to publishers and authors—they can be used to track reviews, publicity, or sales leads for a publication. Other creative uses include harnessing the wisdom of the Web community to improve future publications, product development, talks and presentations. A humble Mr. Brinkerhoff told me he uses it “for times when people dis my work on their blogs—so I learn about things I might have missed.” If the author, editor, brand manager, or publicist is diligent with follow-up, you will not only have learned something new about your work or subject matter, you will also have etablished yet another avenue to build your brand-stakeholder relationship. Peter Brinkerhoff did and I’m the better for it in several ways. Now I’m even more likely to recommend his book—and that’s successful brand-building!

Finally, the great part of Google Alerts is that it’s one less thing you have to remember in course of your busy day. You “set it and forget it,” letting Google do the work for you.

Some Parting Advice:

1. Choose your search terms wisely—avoid generic words;
   
2. Add common misspellings to your search terms;
   
3. Set your alerts to run weekly if you don’t want to get the same listing again and again or if you have more common search terms and wish to avoid results fatigue;


4. Adjust and improve your search terms over time; and


5. Don’t forget to follow-up on real buzz or good leads, lest the whole purpose be lost.

Enjoy!

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What It Means To Me…”

I have a sales director friend who likes to remind her team, “Trust owns the marketplace." That’s a great truism. Mutual trust is important for sustaining any relationship, and the one between a company and its customers—or more specifically a brand and its stakeholders—is no different.

Trust is what will enable your work or business to gain customer attention, to rollout new products or business lines, to build belief before the evidence supports, to have a leg up on your competition, and to overcome breaches in performance. And trust will also grease the wheels to develop that strong relationship of two-way conversation we’ve been discussing in recent posts.

One way to establish trust is to do what you say and to say what you mean. In other words, to deliver. This is perhaps most emphasized method in the business world today. A second way to establish trust—one less emphasized but equally important—is through simple respect. We humans aren’t perfect and at some point we will make mistake; we will fail to deliver and cause an exception to our “rule” of quality and excellence. At times like these, the trust we have built through respecting the customer will buoy and stabilize the relationship, until we can repair our error and get back on course. So we need to think of, plan and work for, talk and listen to our customers with respect.

How To Listen
As I've previously said, talking with your customer and not at your customers requires first listening to them. So how do we listen? With respect. When you engage customers in formal listening through things like surveys and focus groups, or informal listening from order taking to trend and sales analysis, remember: these are not “customers,” they are people. Human beings. Sometimes it helps to imagine that they could be your sister or your aunt, your old college roommate or neighbor down the street. You will actually hear more of the story-beneath-the story if you keep this in the forefront of your mind when in dialog with customers. In other words, listen with respect. In fact, I would urge, be bold: listen with love. Then you will begin to build the kind of trust generates customer loyalty and create customer evangelists.

This seems so simple—kindergarten stuff or what our mothers taught us as children. And frankly, it is. But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean mamma wasn’t right. If we wish to have fruitful two-way conversation with our customers and stakeholders it’s essential.

So Tell Me About Yourself...

Earlier this month I was writing about the importance of meeting customers desires not needs (Oct. 2). But how do we learn which is which—a customer need or a customer desire? Well, start by listening.

The first stage of getting to know your customers and the motivations behind their behavior is to engage in effective listening. Effective listening also happens to be a defining factor of any successful two-way conversation—the importance of which we discussed in yesterday’s post. (BTW, when I say “customers” I am using this as shorthand, for the sake of blog-space, to mean your customers, potential customers, and stakeholders—anyone who has vital influence on the success of your business.)

How To Begin
Here’s what NOT to do: begin by spouting off all the "very important, need-to-know" things we have to tell our customers. Just as this is a turn-off in our personal lives, it is also ineffective in business relationships. As I said yesterday, the easiest way to open a conversation with, well, anyone, is to ask a question. I’m sure every self-respecting business person can think of lots questions they’d like their customers to answer. However, it’s best to start with one they can answer. This is a common error in marketing research; all too frequently enthusiastic marketing, product development, or R&D personnel go out to “listen” to their customers and the first thing they do is to ask them about some prototype-idea-strategy-thing-y that doesn’t exist yet and may or may not do this or that. Wrong. Start by asking people about them.

The Questions
These need not be deep, intimate questions either. (At least, not at first.) You can start with simple things: what were the last three purchases they made that made them feel over-the-moon satisfied? How do they typically first hear about new products or events in your industry? Or better yet, if you're really willing to invest the time to get know your cutomers, ask even more basic questions that will begin to reveal who they are in terms of needs, fears, and desires. You want to learn what your customers do, how they spend their time, what they watch or read, and how they play or relax. You want to know how, when, and where they like to shop; what they save money for; and what they are most likely to splurge on. Then, as trust grows, build to asking questions like: What do you usually talk about with your friends? What keeps you up at night? What would you most like to change about your life right now? Some of the most useful information often comes from humble sources: What do your customers currently have on their coffee table? What adorns their refrigerator door? What office ritual is most enjoyable to them? Questions like these result in insights that will fuel your ability to identify and fulfill customer desires better than your competitors. They may seem less-than-relevant but trust me: they are most relevant.

Remember, you are engaged with your customers in a relationship of mutual interdependence and what affects one party will influence to some degree the other. The better you know your dance partner, the easier to not just avoid stepping on toes (needs) but to dance the dance of their dreams (desires).

The next three posts will cover, respectively, how to listen, what to listen for, and how to make sense of what you hear.

Talking With Your Customers Not At Your Customers

If you want to generate brand loyalty and create customer evangelists for your business or nonprofit endeavor, here’s one non-negotiable rule: You have to talk with your customers not at your customers.

Good communication is always a two-way conversation. Hackneyed common sense, right? But why then do companies so often fail at this?

One reason is that we don’t recognize this for what it is: a relationship. Like all relationships, while in existence, there is some level of interdependence for both parties. They need things from each other, they have shared experiences, and they tend to influence each other. Because of this interdependence, anything that changes or impacts one member of the relationship will have some level of impact on the other member. So two-way communication is key to maintaining the long-term health and success of the relationship.

The same holds true for the customer-company relationship. We need our customers and our customers need what we provide. This is an interdepentdent relationship if there ever was one. And just like in our personal relationships, we need to share about what's going on with us and listen for what's going on with them in order to manage change. Neglecting this communication leads to relationship detoriation.

The second reason companies fail to talk with customers and not at customers is that we go into this relationship full of agendas. Ok sure, sometimes we dress our agendas up with nicer names: “our message,” “our vision,” “our strategic solution,” and so on. But they are what they are: agendas of set goals we are trying to bring to fruition in which the other party must play a role. Having an agenda is not bad—business need goals—but they become a problem when they are allow to dictate the conversation to the point where listening fails and the two-way communication ceases. Agendas that lack respect for the unpredictable will not succeed. Relationships that lack respect for the automonmy other party will not last.

How well we communicate is first-and-foremost based on being in a conversation with people. Even if we have something very specific to communicate to our customers or some sort of message that we want or are directed to send, the communication is still needs to be approached as part of an ongoing dialog.

What's the best way to start such a conversation? Ask somebody a question and then listen. More on what to ask, how to listen, and what to listen for as the week continues….

Fun Finds 4 Business: Fact Checking

“There is no such source of error as the pursuit of
absolute truth."

—Samuel Butler, English author 1835-1902, The
Note-books of Samuel Butler, 1912

A lot has been said recently in the media about fact checking—what with the shenanigans being pulled by both sides in this 2008 election year. Many nonprofits, research organizations, action groups, and interested parties spanning the political spectrum have, in part reacting to the “Swift Boat” politics of ’04, taken four years for readiness and now made major marketing and grass-roots drives to reach the mainstream. Suddenly, fact checking is on the radar of Susie Soccer Mom and Joe 6-Pack. But in other industries—like for example publishing—fact checking is hardly the new en vogue. It’s been the centuries-old standard. Some of the most talented editors I know either are or got started as fact checkers. However, not everyone has access to these embodiments of accuracy… or sometimes they’re simply too busy to look over our work. So for our own writing, books and articles, marketing copy and ads, business letters and annual reports, messages, blogs, and any communication where our reputation and brand is on the line (meaning, all)—we need help. The good news is that there are many online resources that make fact checking quicker and easier.

In the art of fact checking, less is not more. A good rule of thumb is to always consult at least two sources, usually three. So for this Friday’s “Fun Finds 4 Business,” I depart from my norm of singling out a favorite resource and instead offering a number:

First, up are those in the political arena, which tend to dominate the online fact checking world. Perhaps the most well known is the widely-used FactCheck.org. Operating for more than decade, FactCheck is a “nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters” that monitors the full range of political speeches, ads, debates, interviews, and press releases. They accept no funding from business corporations, unions, political parties, lobbiests or individuals, and instead are supported by the Annenberg Foundation, begun by philanthropist Walter Annenberg. The names and bios of all the site’s researches are online and articles posted include bylines. Being the biggest kid on the block, they are also a target and many people have challenged their findings. (Just yesterday I was reading commentary on a Dallas Morning News blog that admonished: “The first rule of fact-checking is to stay away from FactCheck.org.") However, I like that for one topic, for instance—an ad sponsored by the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund that attacked Gov. Palin’s stance on aerial hunting—the researcher posted her findings concerning the ad, and then later posted in it's entirety, "as a service to our readers," a rebuttal letter that was sent her by the DOW. My vote: Props for giving full access to a primary source that challenged your own fact finding.

Two sites with great reputations for veracity focus specifically on government spending: OpenSecrets.org and FedSpending.org. The former is sponsored by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit “research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy." This year the organization celebrates its 25th anniversary. The latter, which went online two years ago and in June logged it’s 10 millionth search by an individual, monitors the activities of the White House Office of Management and Budget to give you "easy ways to see exactly where, and on what, your federal tax dollars are being spent."

Looking more generally at Election 2008, there’s Politifact.com (pronounced puh-lit’-eh-fact), which aims to alleviate people drowning in the flood of campaign rhetoric who “just want the truth.” A joint effort by the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly—two respected, independent newsrooms—the site fact-checks each line of our candidates' speeches, TV ads, and interviews to determine the amount of truth in the claims they make. PolitiFact says they are “bolder” than previous journalistic fact-checking efforts because they’re willing to “make a call, declaring whether a claim is True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True or False." They even have a special category for the most ridiculous claims called "Pants on Fire." My verdict: They are by far the most fun and creative site, with their infamous “truth-o-meter” and their new “flip-o-meter” (for flip-floppers on issues).

Moving on to even more general media issues is AIM.org. Accuracy In Media (AIM) is a non-profit, grassroots “citizens watchdog of the news media that critiques botched and bungled news stories and sets the record straight on important issues that have received slanted coverage.” They claim not to advocate for one side or another and instead desire a fair and objective media--without bias or partisanship. However they are on the watch for media coverage slanted to the left, as they assert that’s the most prevalent bias.

Still more general and decidedly more liberal-leaning (although not by their own assertions) is RadicalReference.info. Less glamorous but global and equally tenacious, this site features… “a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality.” Their goal is to provide reference services to "those looking for answers they don’t readily find in mainstream media and other information sources.” A person can submit a question online for fact checking on behalf of a company or organization or "those just looking for answers from a trusted source.” (I noticed in their resource section they offer a guide to independent bookstores.)

A couple other general sites worth mentioning are RefDesk.com and LibrarySpot.com. Billing itself as the “Fact Checker For the Internet,” RefDesk was founded in 1995 as a free resource that indexes and reviews quality, credible, and current web-based resources for the general public. And the massive LibrarySpot is “a free virtual library resource center for... just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information.” The idea behind LibrarySpot is bring to library and reference sites together with editorial reviews in one user-friendly spot. LibrarySpot hand-selects its sites and their editorial team reviews for the quality, content and utility. I also like Librarian's Internet Index (LII), a publicly funded website & free e-newsletter service that offers “Websites you can trust.” Dozens of high-quality websites are selected weekly, described, and organized by their team of librarians. They claim over 20,000 entries, maintained by their librarians and organized into 14 main topics and nearly 300 related topics. I like the site design—it’s easy to browse or search.

So from marketers and publicists at Fortune 500s to independent or simply overly-busy publishers, there’s are a lot more resources available to us these days when it comes to writing, reporting, and discerning the truth. ...No excuse for excuses.

Customer Needs and Wants: Is there really a difference and why should we care?

Yesterday I mentioned a book by Peter C. Brinckerhoff, Mission-Based Marketing, that helps non-profits and other mission-driven companies stay competitive. Brinckenhoff makes an interesting distinction early in the book that's worth sharing, as it’s extremely helpful no matter want type of company you work for or lead. He writes:

“…there is a huge difference between needs and wants. You may need to rethink your traditional view of working to meet customer’s needs. What you must target is their wants. … People have needs, people seek wants. There is no more fundamental, no more important foundational success for successful marketing than those six words: People have needs, people seek wants.”

I am in totally agreement. If your company is not meeting your customers’ needs, you are not going to be here in a couple of years. And if you’re not fulfilling your customers’ wants, you may be here a couple of years, but your business is not going to be in good shape; you will be constantly playing a reactive game of catch-up to the company or organization who is fulfilling customers’ wants. And the reactive game is always more costly, more stressful, more damaging to your brand, and just plain less profitable. The motivation to find, purchase, and use products is driven more by wants than by needs. Our human needs will be fulfilled, one way or another. What and who fills those needs is based on our present wants, desires, dreams, and inspirations. We feel the need, then—faced with many options—we choose our want. And even more than that: we will go out and search for, even evanglized for, things we want. You won't find people doing that for things they simply need.

This key point also relates to definitions of “quality,” which I referenced in an earlier post (Sept. 18), in particular, those by Noriaki Kano and his “attractive quality” dimension of the word. Customers judge the quality of our products, brand(s), and companies based on a combination of meeting fundamental needs and surpassing their expectations (fulfilling desires).

So how do we determine which is which—a customer need or a customer want? Well, it all starts by listening. How to listen, what to listen for, and how to makes sense of what we hear? All fodder for next week’s posts….

More Mission-Based Marketing

On Monday I was discussing mission-driven companies and the promotion of their agendas, vision, and brand(s). There’s a good book on this subject, which I recommend: Mission-Based Marketing: Positioning Your Non-Profit In an Increasingly Competitive World by Peter C. Brinckerhoff. Though written for people leading and working in non-for-profits, most of its principals can be applied to the for-profit sector as well. Brinckerhoff outlines six characteristics of non-for-profits that are truly competitive in today’s open market. He also outlines what he sees are the six core steps of the marketing cycle that non-profits (or any company for that matter) must master. But his core point—woven throughout the book and supported by philosophy, case studies and practical examples—is that an organization can be Mission-Based and Market-Driven. Perhaps his most valuable contribution to this point is his discussion of a critical timeless question: which is right, the markets or the mission? Here’s a discerning passage on this:

If your organization moves toward the market, if it listens to what the market wants, some day, some week, some month you will be confronted by a market want that conflicts with your mission, your organizational history, or even your personal values. What are you to do? What should be your guide? Which, in such a conflict, is “right”—the market or the mission?

Let me put this as succinctly as I can in three sentences:

1. The market is always right.
2. The market is not always right for you.
3. The mission should be your organization’s ultimate guide.

The market wants what it wants, and there is no denying it, no ignoring it, no trying to make it not so. The people that you serve want what they want, but you can and, in some cases, should only give them so much.

And here is the point: the choice is always yours as an organization. You can choose not to meet a market want whenever you feel that it is in conflict with your organization’s mission or values. …

The most important skill in this area is learning how to say “no” to a good idea , and even to a real need. Even though a market may want you to provide a service you need to back away if you can’t do it well, or if doing the service would jeopardize everything else you are doing. More and more non-for-profits are learning that they cannot be all things to all people, that they cannot solve all the problems of their community, and thus that they need to pick and choose what they do well....

Also, for those squarely in the for-profit world, check out: Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green. This book on “social investors” (i.e. Bill Gates, Paul Newman, Bono, George Soros) not only offers insight into the mindset of some high-profile givers, but also illustrates how the principals of social capitalism work—and work well. The book has also been used in emersion programs by the Clinton Global Initiative to empower social responsibility among both corporate and grassroots leaders.

If you have any other favorites on this subject, I’d love to hear about them. And until then, keep marketing your mission, telling your company’s story, listening to your customers, and following your guiding star.

"All Shall Be Well..." Reduex

Well, I was planning to continue with Monday’s theme—but how to write about mission-based marketing and corporate giving when the bailout legislation failed to pass the House, the stock market tanked 777 points, and everybody’s talking financial crisis again? So I find myself preempting my planned post a seoncd time this month (see Sept 15 post) to write about the current drama that roils this country.

I have no intention of getting political on this blog; I wish people of all doctrines and philosophies to feel welcome here. I would like, however, to make some observations and pass on interesting reactions to Monday’s events. One thing I found fascinating was that those representatives who voted "no" did so out of fear of constituents’ reaction—that it would be “political suicide” to vote for the bill in its present state, based upon the utter avalanche of rejection and revulsion that deluged these representatives’ offices, mailboxes, phone lines, & email. Politicians actually following the expressed will of the public—how quaint and unheard of as of late! Whether that expressed will is right or wrong is another issue. What I think is interesting is that this relationship still works, that it's still possible. Granted, some of my friends and colleagues say this was the will of the vocal minority (although apparently one huge huge minority) but at least they were willing to express it. And when they did, look what happened.

I’d also like to pass on some of the best (and most humorous) comments posted by everyday people to online discussion forums & blogs from on spectrum of reputable sites (i.e. New York Times, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, National Review). [Disclaimer: I tried to offered a balance of points-of-view but most of the witticism seems to be coming from one side.]

“If anything trumps the notion that some institutions are ‘too big to fail,’ it ought to be that some principles are too basic to be pushed aside.” —EW, Tucker, GA

“And why not: they should get something back after spending all that money on lobbists and campaign donations, right?” — Jay, Palo Alto, CA

“The only thing we learn from history, I am afraid, is that we do not learn from history.” —Earl E, The City Time Forgot

“Using BlackBerrys in Congress should be a felony.” —Uly, NJ

“Sure, if you got bad credit, you won't get a sub-prime mortgage, which is a really good idea….Credit card rates going up might cause people to stop living beyond their means, also not a bad idea.” —joe (new york), New York

“Main street is being sold out to the highest loser.” —Ela, Texas

“The public sees the bill as Uncle Sam taking money off the printing press and giving it to the guy in the top hat from Monopoly, who laughs it up with Gordon Gekko while drinking gin and tonics at the Polo match. If you're a talk radio host who wants to get callers vibrating with fury, this makes the amnesty bill look like a minor disagreement over zoning laws. I'd say liberal bloggers are particularly furious about this, but it is no longer possible to measure their anger with any human metrics. The bases of both parties loathe the bill. (I eagerly await the declaration, "In thefine print of this bill, it brings back the practice of primae noctus, which allows any Wall Street trader or corporate CEO to sleep with your daughter on her wedding night. Folks, we just can't let this kind of a bailout pass.") —Jim G

“At this point, if you are against this bill, you are for a depression” —Jon, San Francisco

“What the U.S. economy needs is a recession.” —Harry Huang, Philadelphia

“Can we really distinguish between which institution is the greatest burden on America as a nation right now???”—john, Durham, NC

“Looks like the Titanic's about to get a really expensive deck chair.” —Kevin, San Francisco

“There is no problem with the economy. Just go to any restaurant, airport, hotel, amusement park, movie theatre, etc. All packed.” —Greg-281912

“…isn't just bad loans, it is NO loans can be made if banks don't free up the capital. That won't happen because banks will find another buyer for their assets. If not our government, they'll sell elsewhere. Large portion going to those people we're dependant on for oil. Talk about having the bull by the balls.” —Ultraviolet

“In financial behavior it is referred to as herd mentality. We find an anchor to base all of our future assumptions on. Thus, when the media says that Wall Street and life in general sucks, we assume they have a point of reference. The problem is that we have permitted them to frame
the issue for us and we neglect to make critical observations for ourselves. Hence; if the media spins a yarn saying how bad things are, we react accordingly and perpetuate the problem even worse.” —enoch-372963

“Shame on us all.” —Gregg, San Francisco

“Big business and government, and for that matter religion, have always been bedfellows. The mistaken conservative Christian view that Jesus would have us take sides in political jockying is sad. His Kindgom is no part of this world.” —1Fiend

And my personal fav:

“ ‘Oh no, not the briar patch’ —Brer Paulson” —dave lyons, calif

Tomorrow, back to more thoughts on effective mission-based marketing.

Paul Newman, Mission-Based Marketing & Corporate Giving

I was very moved this past weekend after reading and watching the memorials and tributes to Paul Newman (1925-2008). I can’t tell you how many times I read or heard the word “class.” And it’s true: Paul Newman was a human being that got it right.

Among his many legacies was that of his Newman’s Own corp. and its pledge to donate 100% of its profits to charity—at the time, unprecedented for a major corporation—as well as his establishment of the Hole In The Wall Gang Camps for cancer-suffering or terminally-ill children. Here’s a Newman quote that exemplifies this life orientation: “I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out.”

Some further reading about his philanthropy and Newman’s Own got me thinking more about corporate giving and mission-based marketing. I worked nearly 14 years in a non-profit. And many of my good friends and colleagues still do. Often times I find the non-for-profit section humble to a fault—so humble that they won’t even promote themselves and their goals by using their own great stories, the legacies of their founders, and the impact of their customers’ (or clients’ or readers’) contributions upon the world. Do you believe in your work? Then leverage what you can. Everything you can. And do it boldly. Even Newman was hip to this: his exposed philosophy for Newman’s Own was "Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good." We need to be doing more than just telling our stories on some back page of our Website or on a brochure. Like Newman says, there’s no shame in it. Check out Newman’s Own current homepage and the wonderful video there, for starters. But there are many, many other non-Web-based ways to exploit your successes for a greater good.

Similarly, there are lessons here for the for-profit business as well. Corporate giving is more than something to be used to improve your company’s image. Even if a company can only give a small percentage, this can be another effective way to fulfill your company mission, thank your customers, and live out your brand—based on who you give to, when, and why. Businesses that are aware of and thoughtfully honor their social contracts create a win-win both for the health of their business and for the public. See the international forum Comittee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) for established standards for giving, trends, and further information or support; see also the annual Social Capitalist Awards, sponsored by Fast Company, and the Social Responsibility area of their website for more proof of this effective act of business leadership.

References: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/movies/28newman.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Paul%20Newman%20Dies&st=cse&scp=1; http://www.newmansown.com/; http://www.givingstandard.com/index.html; and http://www.fastcompany.com/topics/social-responsibility

Fun Finds 4 Business: ThinkExist.com

It’s Friday and time again for "Fun Finds 4 Business." The other day I was looking for a quote by Calvin Coolidge. I had remembered enjoying this quote from my college days. The president had said something inspiring about perseverance, which I wanted to send to a friend who had recently started a business. Well, I looked it up and found that actually the quote was about persistence:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;
nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are
omnipotent.”

—Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of United States

What was enjoyable about retrieving this memory was the Website that I used to find the quote. Now I love my dusty old quotation books as much as the next person, but these days there are quick-and-easy ways online to find notable sayings and passages. Here’s one site I think is tops: http://www.thinkexist.com/. I like this site not only for its depth of entries but also for its search versatility: keywords, author, nationality, country, topic, and most popular. In addition, ThinkExist enables you to bookmark and post your own favorite quotations. It also offers a free email service of a daily quote and a nice little widget to easily post these daily sayings to your website or blog.

So the next time you need to check a quotation in a document or manuscript, or add something creative to a marketing piece or sales brochure, or put some uplifting words into a card or email to friend or coworker—don’t forget that lovely staple: the concise quote. Because bear in mind: "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." —Mother Teresa.

Know Thy Audience

Yesterday’s post on Kraft's Oreo (re: mature brands) touched something that’s on my mind today: the importance of knowing your audience and be willing to talk with them, not at them.

I just got a call from a professor-researcher who wants to have his findings published as a book and is looking for counsel. He has a message to offer and a vision for the project. The question I put before him: who’s your intended audience and how willing are you to adapt your vision for the book so that your message is received? In cases like this, a person may want to speak to the needs of an academic audience; others may seek a wider, more general audience. Both are valid choices. But a decision needs to be made. As communicators, authors, editors, producers, marketers, business leaders—and well, as people—we need to decide who we want to speak with and then be willing to do the work to meet them where they are. Think about it: you’re certainly not going to speak to people where they’re not. (Unless you shout really, really loud—and that’s exhaustive and you won’t last long.) Meeting people where they are means more than where they are physically. It means knowing where they are in mindset, in life circumstances, in needs, fears, and desires. It’s means asking and listening. It means relinquishing our assumptions, removing our prejudices, and slaughtering our sacred cows. It means bridge-building. Because it’s so easy to forget that not everybody is like us, is where we are right now, and cares about what we care about. At times I’m as guilty of this as the next person.

What it all comes down to is knowing your audience and engaging with them. The best books, websites, products, brands, etc., are conversations. Two-way streets in which both sides are enriched by the encounter (and I don’t mean just monetarily).

Getting this right is perhaps the most critical aspect of successful communication. Human nature tends to want to jump ahead; we want get right to the message-giving part. You have to connect first, then flow.

Mature Brands, Bight Ideas & One More Bite of the Ol' Oreo

Before we put the Oreo back into its case-study cupboard, let’s look a bit more at this brand. When people think of brand-building their mind often goes to examples of new ventures or product releases that hope to stake a claim in the marketplace. Branding for a mature brand—like, say, the Oreo—however, is more often about maintaining brand loyalty and a continued sense of brand excitement. The Oreo has been around since 1912. So I wondered, What is Kraft doing to stave off the dreaded image of the dusty has-been brand?

Well, they build fun around the cookie. They employ a sense of humor. They try to position the Oreo as one of the things that make your American lifestyle “the good life.” And currently they are using traditional media, the Internet, and their Oreo website to do this in three creative ways. First, they have a homemade video contest for “Best Oreo Moments”—not very original but as we’ve seen, time and again, effective. Especially when tying into YouTube. Second, they have the “Fun with the Oreo & Milk Jingle”—another contest that features not only the winning singers & photos but a kind of quasi-karaoke thing going on for you on their site. Getting better. The best? Third, they’re employing the time-tested celebrity bandwagon approach—but with a twist. Instead of just running some celebrity cookie-eating campaign, they’ve established DSRL.com, an online “channel” whose acronym stands for “Double Stuf Racing League.” It’s a sport parody in which two people race to finish off the cream on the inside one Double Stuf Oreo. The feature first launched as an ad during Super Bowl XLII with a race between QB brothers Peyton and Eli Manning. But now they’ve upped the ante with tennis’s sensational sisters Venus and Serena Williams challenging the football stars in a race for the title. The site has a fake press conference, fake news scroll of the hype, branded league clothing, fan avatars—Oh, I just can’t do it justice in a description; here’s the link: http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/dsrl/home.aspx The upshot? Absurd, kitschy, attention-drawing, and totally on target with Oreo's“All-America fun” brand attribute. I give that an A for creativity.

So brand-building doesn’t have to be dull. Put on your creative thinking caps and see what ideas you can come up with to communicate your brand attributes to the marketplace.

Oreo Cookies and China’s Brand Reboot

I was reading back over posts from earlier in the month that dealt with branding and China (Sept 9 – 11) and this reminded me of the case of a venerable American company—Kraft Foods—and their foray into the Chinese market with their top brand in the Nabisco cookie line, the iconic Oreo. Their story is a great example of a crucial tenant of branding: your brand is not yours—it’s the world’s.

The Oreo has long been the best-selling cookie in America (a Kraft claim that no one seems to be disputing). It’s now also the best-selling cookie in China—but this wasn’t always so for the tasty two-toned treat. When Kraft Foods first unveiled the cookie to the Chinese in 1996 and then up to 2005, sales were less than stellar. Into the picture came a Kraft veteran, 37-year-old Shawn Warren, who had spent years marketing and promoting the Nabisco brands around the world. Warren could see that change was needed. But what? First, he listened to the marketplace seeking insight into why the Oreo wasn’t selling well, and learned that: a) the Chinese aren’t big cookie eaters to begin with; b) they thought the Oreo as we know it here in America was too sweet, and c) they found the price expensive for a quick snack. Plus, Warren also noted two related trends: that the Chinese are increasing their taste for milk in their diet and that the cookie-wafer segment of the market was the fastest-growing, lead by Kraft’s rival Nestlé SA.

So armed with this customer insight, Warren guided Kraft to make a bold strategic move: change the icon to meet the needs of the target consumer. For the first time in its history, Kraft redesigned the cookie for a foreign market. They developed and tested 20 prototypes of a new Oreo more suited to Chinese tastes and economic needs. They made a wafer-style treat that had four thin layers of the famous dark-and-light combo, was coated in chocolatem, and less sweet. The Chinese packaging was redesigned to refer to the product as a “biscuit,” not a cookie, and less wafers were included per pack, allowing the price to be lowered. Then a grassroots marketing & promotion campaign commenced to educated Chinese snackers that the Oreo is traditionally paired with milk. The company introduced an Oreo apprenticeship program at 30 Chinese universities, which drew 6,000 applicants. Three hundred of the best were trained as Oreo brand ambassadors, who went around doing things like handing out the new treat on bicycles decorated with Oreo wheels, or at Oreo-themed basketball games that reinforced the idea of "dunking" in milk. All these tactics were decided at the local level. Today the Chinese version of the Oreo is the best-selling biscuit in the country and the company is planning to expand to different regions in Asia.

My point? That while your company’s vision for its brand may not change (i.e. the company’s brand ideals & mission), your execution of your brand attributes, services to your customers, and—in particular—your products do. Your products must change—especially the successful ones, though this latter at first may seem counter-intuitive. The reason is, as company leaders and representatives of your brand, you do not determine what your brand is. The marketplace does. A brand is not a marketing slogan or an ad campaign or corporate vision statement. A brand is the sum total of all the perceptions, beliefs, associations, assumptions, and feelings about your company or line of products by your customers, the marketplace, and the public-at-large. They ultimately determined what your brand is. Thus your brand will change over time, and a company, on the other end of this on-going conversation—for that’s what it really is—should always be trying to lead the consumer to the company's ultimate vision or ideal for its brand. As a result of this back-and-forth, the world will change the way you express your brand ideal via your products and services—either because you are proactively listening and responding to the consumer or because you have passively allowed yourself to be branded out of the marketplace.

So product developers, editors, producers, and executives: don’t be afraid to make informed changes, especially to your most successful products. And remember, these sometimes down better with a little milk.

References: "Kraft Reformualtes Oreo, Scores in China" by Julie Jargon, Wall Street Journal, 5/1/08; http://www.kraft.com/MediaCenter/

Fun Finds 4 Business: Universal Document Converter

Well it’s Friday and time for Fun Finds 4 Business. Today I’d like to share my latest love in the neat-and-simple tools department: a handy little app called Universal Document Converter. How many times have you wanted to post something to the Web and been unable to convert your doc or image to a JPG? Or needed a TIFF instead of GIF? Or wanted to switch from a color file to black-&-white—or maybe to make a PDF instead of just reading one. And you couldn’t without running to a colleague for help, spending the time downloading some soon-to-expire trial version, or making yet another requisition to IT? I don’t know about you but it used to happen to me a lot. Then I found this simple, inexpensive program that will do all these conversions at the touch of a button.

Universal Document Converter can convert any document you can print (i.e. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, MS Outlook, MS Access, Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox & Autodesk AutoCAD) to a color or b/w JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PDF, or PNG. And it’s not just for documents—it will also convert illustrations, charts, tables, graphs, spreadsheets, and presentations. I’m sure there are other applications out there that perform similar functions but this one is ultra-simple to use and costs only $69.00 for the first user. Here’s the site & a 1-minute video explaining how it works: http://www.print-driver.com/download/. [video bottom left]

So for those of you working in companies that, regardless or your role or department, provide a constant stream of programs to prevent any conceivable conversion problem… well, lucky you. But for the rest of us—or for your home use—this is a helpful resource worth considering.

Innovation + Quality

Yesterday’s post discussed how the principals that drive product & service development haven’t changed, but the means to affect your solution are rapidly evolving. So what’s the determining factor for succesful offerings? The marriage of innovation with quality. Quality of your concept and quality of its execution.

Quality in a business context is an elusive word: look it up on Wikipedia and you’ll find no less than nine different definitions (ex. Six Sigma; ISO 9000). Most of these definitions contain two aspects: first, there’s a measurement of something; and second, that “something” being measured is customer-determined, rendering it relative and subjective. A few definitions that I find most helpful are Noriaki Kano’s presentation of a two-dimensional model of "must-be quality" and "attractive quality,” where the former is near to Joseph M. Juran’s definition, "fitness for use," and the latter is what the customer would love, but has not yet thought about or expressed. This can also be summarized as “Products and services that meet or exceed customers' expectations." Then there’s Peter Drucker’s ascertion:"Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for." And Robert Pirsig’s succint: "The result of care."

(By the way, there’s also an interesting list of methods to measure, maintain, and increase quality. For a fun and time-tested one, check out Kaizen--Japanese for continuous improvement--which was adopted to great success by Toyota and other firms in the fifties.)

The lack of quality in most businesses these days is horrific, particularly within young industries. Too often they’re all innovation and no real substance. It’s like that famous '80s line: where’s the beef? On the other hand, mature industries like publishing tend to provide quality (in content) but lack innovative means to deliver it. I find this particularly true with religious publishers. So today’s holy grail for business is a balanced marriage of the two: quality and innovation.

The Connection Between the Connections

To continue on yesterday’s notion that for those living in the Digital Nation, any thought worth having is a thought worth digitizing.… This need to connect has great implications for businesses, particularly for those in publishing. I’m not a believer in that the book is going anywhere. Amazon’s Kindle and the like have their place in this world but the physical book is an excellent answer to a perennial human need. Nor do I believe that this drive to digital lessens the importance of the book. Actually, for those seeking to connect through the medium of Web & telecommunications, the dynamism is often found in the relationship between the physical world and the e-world. So packaging content in books is important but equally important are extensions of that content onto the Web, iPhones, etc., and the interplay between these two. For content providers today it’s not as simply as: “Here’s a book, here’s a DVD, and here’s some Web support.” The key to success is facilitating and harnessing the back-and-forth between these two and the way this conversation informs new product manifestations in the physical world and the physical world informs, pollinates, and changes offerings in the e-world.

Businesses that truly desire rich relationships with their customers are doing both. They are bringing down the barriers between these two worlds because these “barriers” are really just our own limiting mental concepts. The principals that drive product development in either world have not changed: know your customers and provide the best solution for answering their needs. It’s simply the manner and vehicles to do this that keep evolving.

Some companies that I think currently excel at this: Apple (natch), Whole Fodds Market, New York Times, ESPN, and Hulu/NBC Universal to name a few. If you have others to suggest, I’d love to hear.

The Digital Nation, Microblogs, and Their (Insatiable) Need to Connect

Want to know what’s up in a day in the life of our Digital Nation? You won’t have to look far. In between sharing photos on Facebook, updating one’s MySpace page, checking out the scene on Flickr and Bebo then adding a few social bookmarks through Del.icio.us., posting what they’re doing on their LiveJournal blog and/or sending out a handful of text messages, watching the day’s most popular YouTube vids as they add to their favorite wiki or see who they can IM at the
moment---today’s Digital Nation is microblogging.

As just about everyone ages 13 to 25 knows, microblogs are ultra short blogs, usually a line or two, in which people share about...well, just about anything. The sharing can be within private networks or public, and can be text or multimedia. Take for example Twitter, likely the largest microblogging service on the Net today. According the site’s FAQs, it’s “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” People post in 140 characters or less. In May Twitter claimed more than 1.2 million unique members and I’m sure that total has only risen with all their recent media ink. Other popular microblogging sites are Jaiku (recently bought by Google), Identi.ca, Pownce, Plurk, Spoink, Tumblr, and the newest kid on the block, Posterous. Add to that the mega social networking sites Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, all which have added microblogging features to their menu recently.

Even some of my friends and colleagues are part of this trend offering what could be considered microblogs---for example, there’s the conversation site from the market research outlet BuzzSponge, BuzzSponge.com, and religious trade publisher Loyola Press has its spiritually-based Other6.com. Strictly speaking, neither of these two sites are microblog services with regular daily posters---although I’m sure both sponsors would welcome daily postings. What they do offer the public is a chance to post a few lines of inspiration, questions, or daily musings---and then allow for comments & conversation.

So what’s the appeal? As a recent Newsweek article (8/7/08) puts it, the microblog has caught on because it “marries the mass appeal of blogging with the rat-a-tat-tat of text messaging.” Is this yet another sign of our ever-decreasing attention span? Or is it a sign that most of today’s digital content doesn’t warrant the 3-4 paragraphs of the traditional blog? My take: it's proof once again the Citizens of the Digital Nation just want to feel connected. A second of inspiration or a new perspective shared… and that’s enough. Like a gulp of an energy drink---they are not looking for a full meal; they just want a taste.

Communicate and connect. Communicate and connect. In the today’s Digital Nation, what you communicate is not as important as having communicated and feeling connected.

“All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well.”

I was planning to post today on some trends affecting our digital nation, but with this morning’s news of the sale (bailout) of Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers’ Chapter 11 filing, and now the situation with AIG---all on the heels of Fannie & Freddie & the mortgage crisis/banking mess, inflation & the aftermath of voracious oil speculation, I feel compelled to take a moment to behold the landscape. ---So is this the feeling of the financial world as-we-know-it cracking and crumbling around us?

Actually, I think not. It will take much longer to bring the juggernaut that is the America mega-economy & social system to its knees---but the fault lines are there. Pope Benedict XVI last week in Paris said that the root of our problems is a “pagan” addiction to power and money that has become modern society’s “plague.” Unless the Pope used pagan to mean anything put above God/Spiritual, as opposed to the word’s more common association with cultures not Judeo-Christian, I’m unconvinced how pagan or how modern this is.

Yet the Pope asks: “Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?” In light of today’s news, I have to concede that’s a good question. He is, of course, not the only major religious leader that’s asking this these days; similar statements can be heard from Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Fundamentalist and Mainline Christian, Shinto, Shaman, Neopagan leaders, and many more.

I think what we’re witnessing today are outward signs of the inward problem that we’ve disassociated from that original spirit—what America’s Founding Fathers tapped into, followed, and set this country’s systems and structures upon. A belief in goodness of humanity, trust of neighbor, responsibility for oneself and one's actions, doing the right thing for no other reason than because it’s the right thing. I am not talking about The American Spirit. There’s nothing “American” about it. It’s a human spirit. And when it all devolves into “Grab what I can get out of this system for me and my own”---that’s scary days ahead.

I don’t have any grand answers to this disassociation. Just simple a feeling: that now is the time to do exactly what logical tells us not do. Now is the time to trust when we have no reason to trust. To keep doing the right thing when everybody seems to be doing the wrong thing. To love those that don't deserve it and have faith in those who show little promise. To not let our standards slip and to guide those for whom we are responsible to do the same. To believe that it will all be ok and work as if it is ok. Because that energy, that faith, that trust and goodness is what holds back the Tide. Be it and it will grow. Leave it and it will die. It starts and ends with ourselves.

So thanks for indulging me here. And I know, I know---there are those that today will just shrug their shoulders, grab their Diet Coke, and go back to watching Gossip Girl. Ahhh. I sincerely love humanity. Especially when it’s a good time to haul out your Julian of Norwich.

References: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26677884

How Others Do It: Adidas, Nike, & Brand Battles for Real

Before we leave the Beijing Olympics for the ancient news that it is, one more thing about the branding that went on there. To continue on what turned out to be this week’s unofficial theme of brands and brand-building, I was reflecting on how two global brand-name shoe companies, Adidas and Nike, approached this enormous marketing opportunity. What did they do? —They spent untold amounts of R&D time and money developing specialty shoes to be featured at the Beijing Games. Nike unveiled 28 pairs, Adidas 27. And both companies outfitted thousands and thousands of Olympic athletes with their new designs, free of charge. Here’s the kicker: most of these shoes will never make it to the mainline consumer—many never seeing the light of day in retail stores; they will only be sold online. So if neither of these global companies expect to sell many equestrian, rowing, or wushu shoes, why all the fuss?

The focus of Adidas and Nike, similar to what I wrote in my Sept. 9th post, was not on showcasing themselves to the world---their focus was on the Chinese people. Both companies are salivating over the opening of this market, with its more than one billion pairs of feet to shoe. The key driver behind their Olympic campaigns: both companies claim inventiveness as a brand attribute. They want to use the Games—this massive attention-focusing platform—to show how inventive and comprehensive they are, with the message: We’re are number one for your feet, no matter what you do or how you play.

Given what little I know about how much it costs to design, test, produce, market, and pay the athlete endorsement contracts for all these shoes, it remains to be seen if their gamble was worth the investment. But it will be fun for us to watch the results over the next few years and see who will ends up dominating this market and wins The Battle for China’s Sole.

References: http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121520521471229245.html

Tried a "Brand-Battle" Lately?

Speaking as we were about brands, I wanted to pass on this neat website called “Brand Tags.” I’ve already mentioned this creative Web experiment to some friends and colleagues, but I think it’s blog-worthy as well. The site allows users to “tag” a brand logo with whatever word they associate with that brand; it also allows the public to see the cumulative results. The larger the word on the results page, the more common the response. The site’s creator, who blogs about the project, reports he has more than 600 brands currently and continues adding. While poking around, I saw a few book publishers’ logos among them.

It’s unscientific raw data—not a balanced representation—but the site’s now claiming more than 1.2 million responses, and if that's true, it’s an interesting experiment.

So check it and try a “brand battle;” they’re fun and a great spin on what’s hot or not:
http://www.brandtags.net/index.php

The Second Underlying Thread: Balance

I said that in this blog I’d pass on fun finds, daily observations, effective examples of business strategy, and the like---and I will. But first I need to share the second of my two essential tools for business and my personal passions.

In Wednesday’s post I explained the name for this blog and talked about focus. Where we put our daily focus is the leading factor in determining the outcomes our projects and the destinies of our businesses, our professions, and our lives. But focus alone will not do the job to take us where we want to go. Our focus needs to be constantly checked, tempered, and adjusted; in other words, focus needs balance.

Sounds obvious—and yet so often in business I find this is overlooked. How many of us have witnessed umpteen meetings or important decisions swayed by the loudest or most charismatic, verbally-gifted or most dominant personality in the room? Swayed not because that person’s stance was the proper one, but because the person actively or passive-aggressively advocated for their point-of-view while others did not or were unable, and the key decision maker(s) did not do their job of balancing the perspective. For our decisions and our resulting focus to be balanced, issues need to be considered from many angles, significant factors need to be named and brought to the table, and that which is most flashy, sexy, loud, exciting---that which so easily draws our attention---needs to be tempered so other more passive but equally potent factors can come into play.

Balance is also crucial because over-focusing is as dangerous as under-focusing. It’s like when we build a fire: we can’t ignore it but if pile too many logs on in our desire to make it grow, it will smolder and die. Or when we’re playing gardener and, say, tending a tree: it needs to be watered, mulched, pruned, fertilized---but we can’t make it grow faster by obessessing over it, overworking, or manpuliating it. This is why we say we tend a fire or a tree. The word implies a balanced approach. And the same principals hold in business.

So what is balance, how to balance our focus properly regarding particular isses, and how other companies or people are doing this poorly or well---all this will be fodder for this blog. So if you have any good stories about balance, send them my way.

And the Website, Too.

In addition to this new blog, my website has also just launched and you can check that out at: www.Helt-Consulting.com
(Don’t forget the hyphen or you’ll end up at some Canadian guy’s site who does ??.) Also, my site’s “In Focus” section---where I’ll post publishing news and updates about my company---currently has a fun statistical fact that anyone can enjoy but should especially appeal to those who value customer research & analysis. (Or those who do customer research & analysis and have to find creative ways to explain what they do to non-numbers types.)

I welcome your feedback.

More About This Blog & Focus

Again, welcome to my new blog. As I said previously, this blog will cover interesting topics and observations about running a business, with a bent toward publishing, media, educational, communication, marketing, and nonprofit industries. I also hope to engage in the national conversation of the day, and make links between current events and business philosophy. I’ll be recommending articles, websites, blogs, books, etc., that I find cool or particularly well done, and I expect to comment on branding, advertising, and strategic business maneuvers I find interesting---sort of in the “How Others Do It” vein.

I intend to post every Monday through Friday, so please visit often.

Also, I’d like to give a little explanation about this blog’s name: First off, should you ever type the name into your browser, don’t forget to add the “.blogspot.com” or you’ll end up at a self help site. Second, I realize that WhatYouFocusOnGrows is a bit long. But it’s also memorable. And it’s the tagline for my new business. However, the main reason I choose this name is because I thoroughly believe in the truth and importance of this statement. Where we put our attention, our mind, that’s where our energy flows. That’s what we’ll be feeding in our businesses and our lives. By focusing our attention on something, we strengthen our awareness and sensitivity to it; we discern its true nature---with all its beauties, problems, benefits, and nuances. And where our energy is focused, that’s what grows. We will have a greater effect on it, and it on us.

“What you focus on grows.” It’s a good thing to remind ourselves of often.

Welcome!

Welcome to WhatYouFocusOnGrows! I guess it’s fitting that I begin this blog the day after Labor Day, as I have spent 2008 to date laboring at my newest love: starting my company, HeLT Consulting & Services, Inc. So after taking a short break to enjoy the lovely Chicago weather this past Labor Day, I’m back at it again with the launching of this blog.

My goals for the blog are modest; I don’t intend to take the blogging world by storm. Instead I’d like to establish a discipline of daily writing & reflection and a better platform than e-mail to send my clients, colleagues, and friends interesting articles and observations, and enjoy each other’s comments.

This blog will focus on market observations, interesting ideas, & fun finds for business. My guess is that it will gravitate around my passions: branding, business strategy, product conceptualization & positioning, customer research, online community, writing, business philosophy, and the key tools I use in business (and in life): focus and balance. But more on that in future posts.

For now, friends, welcome! And please let me know what you’re up to and how you spent your Labor Day weekend.