I am sitting here in a coffee shop reading my WSJ and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
When I got up at 6am, I shaved while watching FOX News.
A lot of the news coverage is focused around the Wall Street demonstrators; other coverage about the stalled economy.
At the table next to me in the coffee shop there are two Millennials engaging in a job interview.
The interviewer is a young lady. The applicant is young gentleman.
They are each wearing business dress. In fact, the young gentleman is outfitted in a full suit and tie.
The young lady interviewing the candidate is reading a set of questions from a printed sheet.
The young gentleman quickly responds with scripted answers.
My guess is that they are both MBA graduates.
I would also guess that the firm doing the interview is either…
(a) Coke, Georgia Pacific or AT&T
(b) A law, accounting or engineering firm
Now shift over to what the press labels as “occupy Wall Street.”
I just asked my CNN coffee house buddy what the press calls the folks… his reply sums it up best… “The press calls it occupy Wall Street, but they are really dumb, stupid nimwits.”
My coffee house buddy leans strongly to the left.
Here we have another glimpse of the Millennial 20-somethings walking the streets protesting the difficulties of finding a job – or should I say their vision of a job.
Their anger at what they perceive to be the 1% of the populace has functioned like fly paper.
From the American communists to the drug freaks to the outcasts… all have joined up with the young Millennials squatting and claiming what they believe to be their God-granted right.
Of course, I am always reminded by colleagues that these are the kids of the 60s “Peace, Love, Sex” Boomer parents.
And the kids whose social framework is woven together through Facebook.
These are also the same Millennials who elected the current person occupying the White House and after the election shifted their attention over to the next generation of Wii.
I have a strong feeling that their movement will dwindle more because of the ADHA than anything that happens to the economy and their job prospects.
Now let’s travel back to the MBAs still engaged in the well-scripted interview.
Here the challenge is that the scripts fail to work when the on-stage curtains rise.
The questions are scripted.
The answers are scripted.
The roles are scripted.
The market ain’t.
Any of you who have followed this blog, have read about the passion I have for entrepreneurship and innovation… driven by a consumer-built brand foundation.
A large number of Corporate America firms fail to do it. But those that actually do it celebrate success.
At least these two Millennials are interviewing in a coffee house… even a locally owned one… and not a corporate office pod.
Maybe someday the young lady doing the interview will get laid off.
Maybe someday the young gentleman will wake up and come out of his corporate career dream closet.
Maybe they will have a born-again experience and accept entrepreneurship as their goal and savior.
Amen.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Getting Ready For The Big Bang!
According to many in the scientific community, that is how we all got here.
A massively concentrated, high-energy conglomerate finally had enough… and exploded creating the stars, the planets and the moons.
I lay no claims to being an astronomer nor a physicist, but as an observer of the marketplace, the theory has some validity.
Whether its consumer packaged goods, transportation, video entertainment, travel tourism, home goods, healthcare or even the government offices of Uncle Sam, the big bang theory is taking place right before us.
Consumer packaged good giants like Kraft and Sara Lee are splitting up.
Merck Pharmaceuticals is selling off groups to get more focused on the simple business dynamic of making money.
Netflix is no longer cohabiting with its mail-order videos sibling.
Motorola is splitting up with home entertainment seeking shelter away from the communications gear company.
Fortune Brands Inc., ITT Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. have all announced they will split into pieces.
While music groups are known for break-ups, R.E.M. announced last week that their beat will no longer be united on the same stage.
Is this spawned by new romance and side affairs?
Or is this all part of a major new wave of change that is going to capitalize on a soon-to-be re-energized economy and marketplace?
When I retreat to my country house in Athens, Georgia, I channel my breakfast caffeine cravings to two very different coffee houses.
Neither is Starbucks.
One is a national bakery chain. The other one is an independent doughnut joint.
The national bakery chain is driven by a business paradigm that thrives on the delivery of a common experience no matter if I visit a location in Athens, Atlanta, Jacksonville or Dallas.
Embracing change is not easy.
Managers come and go as they rotate and get field training.
The other one is run by a late 20-something Millennial generation couple… a male-female couple.
They do very creative things with doughnuts.
They know customers by name and get very creative with their weekly promotions… like dance and sing a Broadway hit to get 10% off.
Now I know that Athens, Georgia is not Wall Street. In fact, in many ways, its not even Main Street.
But it does offer a glimpse into what I believe is going to become the Tsunami of business growth.
Companies, organizations, entrepreneurs, for-profits and non-profits are embracing the fact that innovation and change combined with rolling up their sleeves and screaming from rooftops…
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH…
BLOW UP THE BUSINESS MODEL AND GIVE ME BACK THE REINS.
I AM SIMPLY GOING TO JUST DO IT.
Big is no longer better.
State politicians and local community leadership is jumping on board.
Whether you agree or not agree with Alabama and Arizona, the states have said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH in terms of immigration control.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a bank that is scrapping the drive-throughs and designing a new stage of a combination bank and coffee house.
No question that demand is building up and will soon seek release.
No question that big behemoth corporate giants will be unable to re-engineer quick enough.
And so the book documenting what is about to happen will begin…
A massively concentrated, high-energy conglomerate finally had enough… and exploded creating the stars, the brands and the new ventures that finally did what was critically needed across the landscape of the Planet Earth.
A massively concentrated, high-energy conglomerate finally had enough… and exploded creating the stars, the planets and the moons.
I lay no claims to being an astronomer nor a physicist, but as an observer of the marketplace, the theory has some validity.
Whether its consumer packaged goods, transportation, video entertainment, travel tourism, home goods, healthcare or even the government offices of Uncle Sam, the big bang theory is taking place right before us.
Consumer packaged good giants like Kraft and Sara Lee are splitting up.
Merck Pharmaceuticals is selling off groups to get more focused on the simple business dynamic of making money.
Netflix is no longer cohabiting with its mail-order videos sibling.
Motorola is splitting up with home entertainment seeking shelter away from the communications gear company.
Fortune Brands Inc., ITT Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. have all announced they will split into pieces.
While music groups are known for break-ups, R.E.M. announced last week that their beat will no longer be united on the same stage.
Is this spawned by new romance and side affairs?
Or is this all part of a major new wave of change that is going to capitalize on a soon-to-be re-energized economy and marketplace?
When I retreat to my country house in Athens, Georgia, I channel my breakfast caffeine cravings to two very different coffee houses.
Neither is Starbucks.
One is a national bakery chain. The other one is an independent doughnut joint.
The national bakery chain is driven by a business paradigm that thrives on the delivery of a common experience no matter if I visit a location in Athens, Atlanta, Jacksonville or Dallas.
Embracing change is not easy.
Managers come and go as they rotate and get field training.
The other one is run by a late 20-something Millennial generation couple… a male-female couple.
They do very creative things with doughnuts.
They know customers by name and get very creative with their weekly promotions… like dance and sing a Broadway hit to get 10% off.
Now I know that Athens, Georgia is not Wall Street. In fact, in many ways, its not even Main Street.
But it does offer a glimpse into what I believe is going to become the Tsunami of business growth.
Companies, organizations, entrepreneurs, for-profits and non-profits are embracing the fact that innovation and change combined with rolling up their sleeves and screaming from rooftops…
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH…
BLOW UP THE BUSINESS MODEL AND GIVE ME BACK THE REINS.
I AM SIMPLY GOING TO JUST DO IT.
Big is no longer better.
State politicians and local community leadership is jumping on board.
Whether you agree or not agree with Alabama and Arizona, the states have said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH in terms of immigration control.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a bank that is scrapping the drive-throughs and designing a new stage of a combination bank and coffee house.
No question that demand is building up and will soon seek release.
No question that big behemoth corporate giants will be unable to re-engineer quick enough.
And so the book documenting what is about to happen will begin…
A massively concentrated, high-energy conglomerate finally had enough… and exploded creating the stars, the brands and the new ventures that finally did what was critically needed across the landscape of the Planet Earth.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Re-Acquisition of Self-destiny
It was a combination of spending a lot of time last week speaking with business leadership combined with having my house broken into where I finally said, “okay its time for a drink.”
It was when I was sipping on that margarita that I was hit by the high-tide wave of change… and not one of those churned by Hurricane Irene.
It’s the Trend Wave posted on the BRANDVenture website that highlights how individuals, businesses, brands, social groups and cultural groups are giving up reliance on others, other organizations and other elements of the market-at-large.
Simply said… they are fed up.
Fed up with an economy, political promises, trade association support and industry leadership guidelines.
Over the course of the last six weeks I have spoken to more than 80 business owners, CEOs and CFOs.
The study was for a bank.
I’m glad that BRANDVenture is not client dependent on banks.
Business leadership literally hates banks. As one CEO put it, “they are evil, but an evil I have sleep with.”
Top management’s business and economic expectations over the next 12-18 months are not positive.
And for my fellow Atlantans, their expectation of Georgia and Atlanta is even lower than Washington and the US.
But here is what is surprising.
They too have reached a level of a re-awakening… they too have been hit by the Trend Wave…they too are finally declaring…
I HAVE HAD ENOUGH AND I AM GOING TO TAKE CHARGE!
My bank client has already communicated that they want to reach beyond entrepreneurs; they want to expand their reach of mid-size businesses.
As they say, entrepreneurs are too risky.
I remember the book that came out a few years about “unleashing the child within us.”
Regardless of how large the company, the connection level with “the entrepreneurial drive” is the MBA version of unleashing the child within us.
Now I have taught Entrepreneurship at the university level and also have worked with departments of economic development in designing entrepreneur workshops.
The focus of those courses and sessions is how to take the passion of an idea and use that passion, marry it with the market need/desire for the idea and use it to drive the organization and bring-to-market strategy.
The business leadership I spoke with is taking control of their destiny. They are rethinking and reorganizing their business approach. They are re-engineering their service mix and how they process business leads.
However, most importantly, they are refocusing on their customers. They are taking them out to lunch or grabbing a morning coffee with them.
They are asking investing in what drives the customer and what they can do to fuel that drive.
Business leadership is fed up with the automation of banks.
And we are not talking about the ATM or online account management.
And they are smart enough to know that the automation of business relationships doesn’t work in lifting business out of the hole.
The re-acquisition of self-destiny is a Trend Wave because it is something that is impacting a wide scope of our marketplace and society at-large.
Smart marketers, driven by a re-acquisition of self and the entrepreneurial spirit will revive both their brands and the economy at large.
Automated, systematized, mass marketers will fade from the scene.
It was when I was sipping on that margarita that I was hit by the high-tide wave of change… and not one of those churned by Hurricane Irene.
It’s the Trend Wave posted on the BRANDVenture website that highlights how individuals, businesses, brands, social groups and cultural groups are giving up reliance on others, other organizations and other elements of the market-at-large.
Simply said… they are fed up.
Fed up with an economy, political promises, trade association support and industry leadership guidelines.
Over the course of the last six weeks I have spoken to more than 80 business owners, CEOs and CFOs.
The study was for a bank.
I’m glad that BRANDVenture is not client dependent on banks.
Business leadership literally hates banks. As one CEO put it, “they are evil, but an evil I have sleep with.”
Top management’s business and economic expectations over the next 12-18 months are not positive.
And for my fellow Atlantans, their expectation of Georgia and Atlanta is even lower than Washington and the US.
But here is what is surprising.
They too have reached a level of a re-awakening… they too have been hit by the Trend Wave…they too are finally declaring…
I HAVE HAD ENOUGH AND I AM GOING TO TAKE CHARGE!
My bank client has already communicated that they want to reach beyond entrepreneurs; they want to expand their reach of mid-size businesses.
As they say, entrepreneurs are too risky.
I remember the book that came out a few years about “unleashing the child within us.”
Regardless of how large the company, the connection level with “the entrepreneurial drive” is the MBA version of unleashing the child within us.
Now I have taught Entrepreneurship at the university level and also have worked with departments of economic development in designing entrepreneur workshops.
The focus of those courses and sessions is how to take the passion of an idea and use that passion, marry it with the market need/desire for the idea and use it to drive the organization and bring-to-market strategy.
The business leadership I spoke with is taking control of their destiny. They are rethinking and reorganizing their business approach. They are re-engineering their service mix and how they process business leads.
However, most importantly, they are refocusing on their customers. They are taking them out to lunch or grabbing a morning coffee with them.
They are asking investing in what drives the customer and what they can do to fuel that drive.
Business leadership is fed up with the automation of banks.
And we are not talking about the ATM or online account management.
And they are smart enough to know that the automation of business relationships doesn’t work in lifting business out of the hole.
The re-acquisition of self-destiny is a Trend Wave because it is something that is impacting a wide scope of our marketplace and society at-large.
Smart marketers, driven by a re-acquisition of self and the entrepreneurial spirit will revive both their brands and the economy at large.
Automated, systematized, mass marketers will fade from the scene.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Good Ole Boys Just Cannot Get Beyond It
I was all ready to write about the economic forecasts for the remainder of 2011; then I came across a news story this morning that I quickly realized was much more fun.
Fun because it exemplifies why a company like BRANDVenture is in business.
I stand proud as an American every day the sunrises. Despite all the turmoil going on in Washington and on Wall Street, I remain sold on what makes up the American brand culture.
I would be willing to put a $100 bet on the table that nearly all of you reading this blog have a story you can recall about a fun time eating a hot dog.
Could have been at an iconic brand experience like a parade, campfire, baseball game or picnic. Could have been back in college days when that’s all you could afford.
Hot dogs transcend income, age and urban-rural American culture.
So what was the news story that warranted a shift from the GDP to the good ole dogs?
Sara Lee Corp and Kraft Foods are suing one another in the US District Court over brand advertising claims of being the “top dog” (that’s the editorial term used by AP in the article).
The war between the brands dates back to 2009 when Kraft’s Oscar Meyer ads claim to be the best tasting franks beating out Sara Lee’s Ball Park brand.
Of course Ball Park immediately launched a counter campaign citing another taste test survey in which they were the better tasting brand.
The article showcases how each company is discrediting the other brand’s methodology like Sara Lee complaining that the Oscar Meyer test served the franks sans the buns on a white paper plate.
Last blog I wrote about the “crash and grab” marketing mentality; the hot dog fight is a great example of the good ole boy mentality of “mine is bigger than yours.”
And the hot dog scenario is only the latest example.
Over the weekend, I saw one of the Verizon coverage spots raise its head again claiming to have more coverage than AT&T.
That good ole boy brawl also made its way to the courts.
Coke and Pepsi are famous for their “taste better” campaigns too. But at least Coke made light of the “taste better” campaigns with Coke Zero taking on Diet Coke.
A few months ago, one of the brands that I work with on a periphery level decided to test out their product against the lead competitor to see which one consumers preferred.
This client had an ongoing panic-attack through much of the three-day one-on-ones because there really wasn’t much of a clear winner.
Outside of Indra Nooyi, Pepsico’s CEO, I would wager another bet that the leadership behind these brands are male.
Males are hell-bent on “strutting their stuff” and claiming superiority.
As my book title I am writing observes… All Men Are Pigs… but, the real issue at heart is that the leadership of these brands fail to hear the consumers screaming out there… “I DON”T CARE ABOUT YOU…TELL ME ABOUT ME!”
The Avis “We Try Harder” campaign might be dated, but at least Avis leadership was smart enough to know that it wasn’t about being #1 or #2 that matters to the business guy (or gal)… it was which car rental brand was dedicated to delivering the best brand experience.
Think about this… Can you imagine where Apple would be today if they elected to all of a sudden take on the “mine is bigger than yours” marketing mentality and change their brand claim to “the largest tech brand in the world.”
Apple not only could do that… but also say that they are now beating out EXXON for the highest valued company in the world.
Steve Jobs does “think different” than the CEOs at Sara Lee and Kraft.
Its truly a shame that neither of those hot dog marketing teams (including their ad agencies) don’t sit back and think about the fun and memorable experiences of eating and marketing their brands around that experience.
Its also too bad that they cannot have fun and passion in doing what they do and perhaps even make us laugh with a set of parody spots about good ole boys touting the “mine is bigger than yours.”
Perhaps as Ad Age noted in its online news release yesterday, “consumers brace for downturn,” that the hot dog boys understand that they actually might have a product opportunity.
(And back in those college days when I had little to spend on meals, I have some fond memories of grilling out the franks!)
Fun because it exemplifies why a company like BRANDVenture is in business.
I stand proud as an American every day the sunrises. Despite all the turmoil going on in Washington and on Wall Street, I remain sold on what makes up the American brand culture.
I would be willing to put a $100 bet on the table that nearly all of you reading this blog have a story you can recall about a fun time eating a hot dog.
Could have been at an iconic brand experience like a parade, campfire, baseball game or picnic. Could have been back in college days when that’s all you could afford.
Hot dogs transcend income, age and urban-rural American culture.
So what was the news story that warranted a shift from the GDP to the good ole dogs?
Sara Lee Corp and Kraft Foods are suing one another in the US District Court over brand advertising claims of being the “top dog” (that’s the editorial term used by AP in the article).
The war between the brands dates back to 2009 when Kraft’s Oscar Meyer ads claim to be the best tasting franks beating out Sara Lee’s Ball Park brand.
Of course Ball Park immediately launched a counter campaign citing another taste test survey in which they were the better tasting brand.
The article showcases how each company is discrediting the other brand’s methodology like Sara Lee complaining that the Oscar Meyer test served the franks sans the buns on a white paper plate.
Last blog I wrote about the “crash and grab” marketing mentality; the hot dog fight is a great example of the good ole boy mentality of “mine is bigger than yours.”
And the hot dog scenario is only the latest example.
Over the weekend, I saw one of the Verizon coverage spots raise its head again claiming to have more coverage than AT&T.
That good ole boy brawl also made its way to the courts.
Coke and Pepsi are famous for their “taste better” campaigns too. But at least Coke made light of the “taste better” campaigns with Coke Zero taking on Diet Coke.
A few months ago, one of the brands that I work with on a periphery level decided to test out their product against the lead competitor to see which one consumers preferred.
This client had an ongoing panic-attack through much of the three-day one-on-ones because there really wasn’t much of a clear winner.
Outside of Indra Nooyi, Pepsico’s CEO, I would wager another bet that the leadership behind these brands are male.
Males are hell-bent on “strutting their stuff” and claiming superiority.
As my book title I am writing observes… All Men Are Pigs… but, the real issue at heart is that the leadership of these brands fail to hear the consumers screaming out there… “I DON”T CARE ABOUT YOU…TELL ME ABOUT ME!”
The Avis “We Try Harder” campaign might be dated, but at least Avis leadership was smart enough to know that it wasn’t about being #1 or #2 that matters to the business guy (or gal)… it was which car rental brand was dedicated to delivering the best brand experience.
Think about this… Can you imagine where Apple would be today if they elected to all of a sudden take on the “mine is bigger than yours” marketing mentality and change their brand claim to “the largest tech brand in the world.”
Apple not only could do that… but also say that they are now beating out EXXON for the highest valued company in the world.
Steve Jobs does “think different” than the CEOs at Sara Lee and Kraft.
Its truly a shame that neither of those hot dog marketing teams (including their ad agencies) don’t sit back and think about the fun and memorable experiences of eating and marketing their brands around that experience.
Its also too bad that they cannot have fun and passion in doing what they do and perhaps even make us laugh with a set of parody spots about good ole boys touting the “mine is bigger than yours.”
Perhaps as Ad Age noted in its online news release yesterday, “consumers brace for downturn,” that the hot dog boys understand that they actually might have a product opportunity.
(And back in those college days when I had little to spend on meals, I have some fond memories of grilling out the franks!)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Is Crash & Grab The Hip Thing To Do?
Okay … here is the headline on FOXNews.com…
Fan Nearly Falls From Stands During Home Run Derby in Phoenix
And about four sentences into the article, the reporter references the same drive-less lucky guy earlier this week in Dallas…
His near miss came the same day as the memorial service for Shannon Stone, a 39-year-old fan who died last Thursday while trying to catch a ball thrown into the stands at a Texas Rangers home game.
The reporter raises the most pertinent question… Is this a trend…the drive to grab the ball that the players simply could not catch with no rational sense of the actual physical parameters… defined by the environmental surroundings?
Could this be illustrating the newest “crash & grab” public release from years of economic stagnation?
Or perhaps, an urgent statement of diversion and denial of the economic, political and marketing mayhem firing up the heat of a global climate change summer?
Tonight, CBS Evening opened with more than 8 minutes of story coverage of Rupert Murdoch and his grilling today by the UK politico.
The Nets… spanning from CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CNN and all their children of incest… are like vultures feasting on the perception of a dog that just got hit by a car.
After all… if Rupert Murdoch can be admonished… can their despised competitor FOX News be destroyed as well?
Earlier today, I was on a conference call with a Canadian sister company of a well-known American direct mail promotion company.
The Canadian sister company has the opportunity to handle a network of Canadian direct marketing programs for one of my clients.
The client involved spent a significant investment in building a pretty cool segmentation model of top customers. The segments emerging are “niche-specific” with opportunity ranging from a mere 25% above average to more than 150% above average.
Now I have to admit that there are parts of the Canadian culture set with which I can certainly connect. Grilled salmon with maple syrup glaze makes my stomach growl.
But over the last week, the Canadian direct marketing sister company might be more illustrative of the “crash & grab” headset than a smart strategic mindset.
What did the sister company do?
They elected to fire away, with the client on the phone, about how the segmentation model that the client built was limited at best and that just going out and “bulk mailing was a much better strategy because it would reach out to every one in a retail trade area.”
I got a feeling that Canadian direct marketing sister company who vies to “crash & grab” might have just fallen over the railing.
Our team also won a great media buying account this past week based on identifying the client’s brand-equity audience groups and niche channels of reach and dialogue.
We were up against an agency that claimed the position of buying the top-rated network shows with the highest ratings and banging down the price to “the lowest rate per spot.”
Their argument? Brand success is all about reaching the masses!
No question, I cheered on the agency to lurch over that railing to grab that home run hit.
For some, long-term brand stewardship and rolling up the sleeves with a long-term commitment to growth and strategy is no longer in-vogue.
But CPG brands like TIDE, Coco-Cola, Kraft… long-term consumer brands like NIKE, HERSHEYS, JEEP… innovative technical brands like APPLE, INTEL, FACEBOOK certainly understand where the ROI pays out.
Fan Nearly Falls From Stands During Home Run Derby in Phoenix
And about four sentences into the article, the reporter references the same drive-less lucky guy earlier this week in Dallas…
His near miss came the same day as the memorial service for Shannon Stone, a 39-year-old fan who died last Thursday while trying to catch a ball thrown into the stands at a Texas Rangers home game.
The reporter raises the most pertinent question… Is this a trend…the drive to grab the ball that the players simply could not catch with no rational sense of the actual physical parameters… defined by the environmental surroundings?
Could this be illustrating the newest “crash & grab” public release from years of economic stagnation?
Or perhaps, an urgent statement of diversion and denial of the economic, political and marketing mayhem firing up the heat of a global climate change summer?
Tonight, CBS Evening opened with more than 8 minutes of story coverage of Rupert Murdoch and his grilling today by the UK politico.
The Nets… spanning from CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CNN and all their children of incest… are like vultures feasting on the perception of a dog that just got hit by a car.
After all… if Rupert Murdoch can be admonished… can their despised competitor FOX News be destroyed as well?
Earlier today, I was on a conference call with a Canadian sister company of a well-known American direct mail promotion company.
The Canadian sister company has the opportunity to handle a network of Canadian direct marketing programs for one of my clients.
The client involved spent a significant investment in building a pretty cool segmentation model of top customers. The segments emerging are “niche-specific” with opportunity ranging from a mere 25% above average to more than 150% above average.
Now I have to admit that there are parts of the Canadian culture set with which I can certainly connect. Grilled salmon with maple syrup glaze makes my stomach growl.
But over the last week, the Canadian direct marketing sister company might be more illustrative of the “crash & grab” headset than a smart strategic mindset.
What did the sister company do?
They elected to fire away, with the client on the phone, about how the segmentation model that the client built was limited at best and that just going out and “bulk mailing was a much better strategy because it would reach out to every one in a retail trade area.”
I got a feeling that Canadian direct marketing sister company who vies to “crash & grab” might have just fallen over the railing.
Our team also won a great media buying account this past week based on identifying the client’s brand-equity audience groups and niche channels of reach and dialogue.
We were up against an agency that claimed the position of buying the top-rated network shows with the highest ratings and banging down the price to “the lowest rate per spot.”
Their argument? Brand success is all about reaching the masses!
No question, I cheered on the agency to lurch over that railing to grab that home run hit.
For some, long-term brand stewardship and rolling up the sleeves with a long-term commitment to growth and strategy is no longer in-vogue.
But CPG brands like TIDE, Coco-Cola, Kraft… long-term consumer brands like NIKE, HERSHEYS, JEEP… innovative technical brands like APPLE, INTEL, FACEBOOK certainly understand where the ROI pays out.
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Story Of A Memorable Friday
Today started out simple. AT&T as an Internet provider of my corporate apartment in the city and a new router was to arrive this morning shipped overnight.
When the UPS truck pulled up at 9am sharp, I anticipated getting the box and getting the Internet running even faster.
Instead, the UPS driver handed me an overnight letter envelope.
Nope. Not addressed as coming from AT&T.
The UPS “urgent overnight” package was shipped to me from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Sounds like a law firm, but it’s instead a financial advisory stepchild.
Inside the envelope was a simple post card stating, “Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is pleased to announce that ‘so-and-so’ has accepted the position of First Vice President, Financial Adviser.”
So-and-so is a new agent that I have been working with from another financial advisory firm.
When I showed the announcement card to the UPS driver, he quickly replied… well I am sure it is something valuable they sent you on that card because that sender paid close to $30 to get it to you overnight.
I am sure that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Duluth, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) brand office was focused on getting me to switch over my investment portfolio to them since they hired the agent managing the account.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney… at least this local Atlanta office… probably has little-to-no understanding of what an action like this conveys about their brand in an economic environment where small business owners are having to tightly manage spending costs to deliver some form of financial return.
Shortly after I called the Atlanta Morgan Stanley Smith Barney office and left a message of concern, the agent they hired who I had worked with, so-and-so, called me. He was unaware of my calling concerned about the use of UPS “urgent overnight” delivery.
He laughed when I asked why would his firm spend close to $30 versus $.50 to mail the announcement card, and replied, “well, you know, that is the personality of my new firm.”
I quickly replied that while I think he’s a nice guy, there is no way in heck that I am going to move my investment portfolio over to a financial company that places little-to-no value on how it manages its own spending.
BIG BRANDS often do dumb, stupid things… round #2.
Later when I got the snail mail delivery, there was another letter that surprised me.
The letter was sent from a Volkswagen dealer also out of Atlanta… Gunther Volkswagen at the Mall of Georgia. The letter was sent “direct from the desk of Joseph Gunther” himself.
In the letter, Gunter “personally offered” me $29,883 for my Volkswagen Touareg … an offer higher than $28,460 that he offered me in a “personal” letter three weeks ago.
When I received the letter from Joseph Gunther three weeks earlier, I picked up the phone the moment I received it and spoke directly to Joseph Gunther about the offer.
Specifically I thanked him for the offer…the only problem was that I no longer had possession of the car and never owned it. I returned the leased car back to Volkswagen nearly 2 years ago.
Embarrassed, he told me it was a mistake in their “database” and he would personally make sure it was corrected.
Upon the receipt of the letter this morning, I picked up the phone again and called Joseph back. He was not there, but I was sent over to their “head of sales.”
When I outlined the scenario that occurred, the first response I received was that it was not a fault of the dealership. If anybody was at fault, it was the firm that does the mailings.
“The Buck Stops Here” can play several roles in this scenario… the least of which is that other customers receiving letters like this probably will not even take the time to express it directly over the phone to the dealership.
It my case... "The Buck Stops Here"... Mr. Gunther will certainly not be receiving any of my future business... along with the other folks who read this blog!
Dealerships of BIG BRANDS often do dumb, stupid things.
The third highlight of my morning was simply another chapter of an ongoing BIG BRAND saga.
After an hour and 20 minutes on hold, I finally… FINALLY… got a live person from AT&T on the phone to ask where was the router box that was to be delivered this morning.
The person at AT&T was a nice person. I give her extra credit for being nice.
Turns out, that the router box was not being delivered today.
Instead, the shipping order was placed today. The box will arrive on Monday morning.
Unfortunately, no one will be here to receive the delivery.
I know it sounds boring and you are probably wondering… why is this part of the story included in this blog? What does it have to do with BIG BRANDS doing dumb things?
Well, after being on hold for more than an hour and 20 minutes, an “aha” insight hit me.
When I called to place the order and keyed into the automated answer service that I was a NEW customer, an AT&T person answered on the other end of the phone within less than a minute.
Soooo… I ended the call where I had been left on hold and called the same number back…but this time when the automated system asked me for the phone number on the account, I entered in that I was a new customer and did not have a number.
Guess how long it took for the nice person from AT&T to answer the call.
Less than a minute.
Maybe someone needs to send the CEO of AT&T that chapter of Marketing and Sales 101 that it costs a lot more to land new customers than it costs to retain existing customers.
Then again, if you are a BIG BRAND that has a monopoly on the marketplace, perhaps you don’t care.
A new client that I landed yesterday is a German company that oddly is in the business of owning and constructing cell phone towers.
I am really looking forward to working with this client because they hired our team based on strong belief that a brand has to represent something of value… that is competitively unique… and most of all, believable and translated directly in the experience with the brand.
That’s refreshing.
Enough about AT&T, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Gunther Volkswagen.
Enough is enough!
My final observation on this Friday… the glass is indeed half full for businesses and entrepreneurs that care enough to venture out and deliver a positive brand relationship with their customer base.
When the UPS truck pulled up at 9am sharp, I anticipated getting the box and getting the Internet running even faster.
Instead, the UPS driver handed me an overnight letter envelope.
Nope. Not addressed as coming from AT&T.
The UPS “urgent overnight” package was shipped to me from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Sounds like a law firm, but it’s instead a financial advisory stepchild.
Inside the envelope was a simple post card stating, “Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is pleased to announce that ‘so-and-so’ has accepted the position of First Vice President, Financial Adviser.”
So-and-so is a new agent that I have been working with from another financial advisory firm.
When I showed the announcement card to the UPS driver, he quickly replied… well I am sure it is something valuable they sent you on that card because that sender paid close to $30 to get it to you overnight.
I am sure that Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Duluth, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) brand office was focused on getting me to switch over my investment portfolio to them since they hired the agent managing the account.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney… at least this local Atlanta office… probably has little-to-no understanding of what an action like this conveys about their brand in an economic environment where small business owners are having to tightly manage spending costs to deliver some form of financial return.
Shortly after I called the Atlanta Morgan Stanley Smith Barney office and left a message of concern, the agent they hired who I had worked with, so-and-so, called me. He was unaware of my calling concerned about the use of UPS “urgent overnight” delivery.
He laughed when I asked why would his firm spend close to $30 versus $.50 to mail the announcement card, and replied, “well, you know, that is the personality of my new firm.”
I quickly replied that while I think he’s a nice guy, there is no way in heck that I am going to move my investment portfolio over to a financial company that places little-to-no value on how it manages its own spending.
BIG BRANDS often do dumb, stupid things… round #2.
Later when I got the snail mail delivery, there was another letter that surprised me.
The letter was sent from a Volkswagen dealer also out of Atlanta… Gunther Volkswagen at the Mall of Georgia. The letter was sent “direct from the desk of Joseph Gunther” himself.
In the letter, Gunter “personally offered” me $29,883 for my Volkswagen Touareg … an offer higher than $28,460 that he offered me in a “personal” letter three weeks ago.
When I received the letter from Joseph Gunther three weeks earlier, I picked up the phone the moment I received it and spoke directly to Joseph Gunther about the offer.
Specifically I thanked him for the offer…the only problem was that I no longer had possession of the car and never owned it. I returned the leased car back to Volkswagen nearly 2 years ago.
Embarrassed, he told me it was a mistake in their “database” and he would personally make sure it was corrected.
Upon the receipt of the letter this morning, I picked up the phone again and called Joseph back. He was not there, but I was sent over to their “head of sales.”
When I outlined the scenario that occurred, the first response I received was that it was not a fault of the dealership. If anybody was at fault, it was the firm that does the mailings.
“The Buck Stops Here” can play several roles in this scenario… the least of which is that other customers receiving letters like this probably will not even take the time to express it directly over the phone to the dealership.
It my case... "The Buck Stops Here"... Mr. Gunther will certainly not be receiving any of my future business... along with the other folks who read this blog!
Dealerships of BIG BRANDS often do dumb, stupid things.
The third highlight of my morning was simply another chapter of an ongoing BIG BRAND saga.
After an hour and 20 minutes on hold, I finally… FINALLY… got a live person from AT&T on the phone to ask where was the router box that was to be delivered this morning.
The person at AT&T was a nice person. I give her extra credit for being nice.
Turns out, that the router box was not being delivered today.
Instead, the shipping order was placed today. The box will arrive on Monday morning.
Unfortunately, no one will be here to receive the delivery.
I know it sounds boring and you are probably wondering… why is this part of the story included in this blog? What does it have to do with BIG BRANDS doing dumb things?
Well, after being on hold for more than an hour and 20 minutes, an “aha” insight hit me.
When I called to place the order and keyed into the automated answer service that I was a NEW customer, an AT&T person answered on the other end of the phone within less than a minute.
Soooo… I ended the call where I had been left on hold and called the same number back…but this time when the automated system asked me for the phone number on the account, I entered in that I was a new customer and did not have a number.
Guess how long it took for the nice person from AT&T to answer the call.
Less than a minute.
Maybe someone needs to send the CEO of AT&T that chapter of Marketing and Sales 101 that it costs a lot more to land new customers than it costs to retain existing customers.
Then again, if you are a BIG BRAND that has a monopoly on the marketplace, perhaps you don’t care.
A new client that I landed yesterday is a German company that oddly is in the business of owning and constructing cell phone towers.
I am really looking forward to working with this client because they hired our team based on strong belief that a brand has to represent something of value… that is competitively unique… and most of all, believable and translated directly in the experience with the brand.
That’s refreshing.
Enough about AT&T, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Gunther Volkswagen.
Enough is enough!
My final observation on this Friday… the glass is indeed half full for businesses and entrepreneurs that care enough to venture out and deliver a positive brand relationship with their customer base.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Passion Does Not A Brand Kill
Passion does not a brand kill.
But process flows, corporate management hierarchy, systematic rational thinking, organization for the sake of organization… all of that… will.
I don’t know if you have seen the YouTube video about Grand Rapids yet.
If not… here is the link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI
Watch it.
But know that in less than one week, there have been 2,453,145 others that have as well… it’s on YouTube.
In fact, the YouTube video made the Major Net’s Nightly News on Friday evening this week so I guess we can toss in several million more that have watched it in the last week.
It’s a great video based on the song Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.
The production of the video was sparked by a young twenty-something who discovered that the city was cited in a Newsweek article of the Top 10 dying cities in the U.S.
He was so passionate about his city roots, that he raised $40,000 in donations and rallied together about 5,000 folks to be part of the video.
He staged and filmed the video in 3 hours with a single camera and film truck he rented.
The kids filming it, the local citizens, the mayor, the police chief, the fire post and the local high school band were all passionate about it.
Passion does not a brand kill.
Here in Atlanta-land, home of corporate giants like AT&T Mobile, Coke, UPS, Georgia-Pacific, InterContinental Hotels and AFLAC, the city was hell bent a few years ago with building a brand for the city.
Those MBAs and Corporate Cultured Leadership got together with the Chamber of Commerce and raised a pool of funds to hire an ad agency and do a research study to identify the rational benefit pay out of the Atlanta band experience.
Did they hire a local Atlanta shop to assist?
No. They hired the New York-based ad agency Grey that serviced what was then BellSouth.
Did they find a team of passionate local folks to bring the brand to life?
No. They played out their MBA models to craft a brand story.
Did they decide to tap into the online social networks and go viral with the brand message?
No. They believed strongly in using the local television network affiliates, the Cox radio stations (local Corporate “good ole” boy), the Cox-owned (and dying on the vine) Atlanta Journal Constitution and last, but not least, the local outdoor billboard giant.
I bet, if you’re reading this Blog- dialogue from anywhere outside I-285 (outside the perimeter – OTP), you have no idea what was the Atlanta brand campaign.
Well here is the link to the Atlanta brand campaign on YouTube…
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=Search&resnum=0&oi=spell&search_query=Brand+Atlanta&spell=1&suggested_categories=26%2C17%2C24%2C10%2C25%2C27&sa=X
That video has been up posted on YouTube for more than a week.
It’s actually been up on YouTube for more than 156 weeks.
And in 156 weeks, that video is posted a total of 1,216 views. That’s not a typo.
Those MBAs and Corporate Cultured Leadership crafted that campaign around the tagline… “Everyday Is An Opening Day.”
The day it premiered, about 2,000 folks over at Coke Corporate received pink slips and a few days later AT&T merged with BellSouth and announced that the headquarters was being moved to Texas.
The annual budget for the campaign was over $6 million. That’s not a typo.
I knew the woman that served as the “marketing director” of the Brand Atlanta team. She raked in more than $150,000+ per year for a couple of years.
The agency got its share of the dollars and so did Cox media, the local outdoor company and the local network affiliates.
I’ve posted stories on this blog before about interactions I have had with area Chambers and business organizations.
I have highlighted and shared how they see the world around them, define opportunity and believe that business will build in the future.
I have used adjectives to describe them and won’t retype those adjectives again, but you can go back and discover the type of adjectives I have used.
In one week, another city city that was on the death list is now back in conversation about cities which are taking on the challenge of change and paradigm shifts. Passion is moving that city forward, not a business model or the communication of a rational benefit.
A few days ago, I conducted a set of conference calls with some great travel agencies in the Midwest and the Northeast about how they can tap into targeted market potential sitting right in their own backyards.
We talked about using online newspaper and identifying new Millennials that see the travel agent in the same perspective as they see their “helicopter” parents.
One of the travel agencies is owned and managed by two Baby Boomer women that work out the basement of a house just outside the Philadelphia metro.
They both got excited about what was shared and said “Wow, we can share our passion for our those great resorts with some cool folks right here in our backyard.”
I am going to Email them this afternoon with a link to the Grand Rapids YouTube video.
Passion does not a brand kill.
But process flows, corporate management hierarchy, systematic rational thinking, organization for the sake of organization… all of that… will.
But process flows, corporate management hierarchy, systematic rational thinking, organization for the sake of organization… all of that… will.
I don’t know if you have seen the YouTube video about Grand Rapids yet.
If not… here is the link… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjjZCO67WI
Watch it.
But know that in less than one week, there have been 2,453,145 others that have as well… it’s on YouTube.
In fact, the YouTube video made the Major Net’s Nightly News on Friday evening this week so I guess we can toss in several million more that have watched it in the last week.
It’s a great video based on the song Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.
The production of the video was sparked by a young twenty-something who discovered that the city was cited in a Newsweek article of the Top 10 dying cities in the U.S.
He was so passionate about his city roots, that he raised $40,000 in donations and rallied together about 5,000 folks to be part of the video.
He staged and filmed the video in 3 hours with a single camera and film truck he rented.
The kids filming it, the local citizens, the mayor, the police chief, the fire post and the local high school band were all passionate about it.
Passion does not a brand kill.
Here in Atlanta-land, home of corporate giants like AT&T Mobile, Coke, UPS, Georgia-Pacific, InterContinental Hotels and AFLAC, the city was hell bent a few years ago with building a brand for the city.
Those MBAs and Corporate Cultured Leadership got together with the Chamber of Commerce and raised a pool of funds to hire an ad agency and do a research study to identify the rational benefit pay out of the Atlanta band experience.
Did they hire a local Atlanta shop to assist?
No. They hired the New York-based ad agency Grey that serviced what was then BellSouth.
Did they find a team of passionate local folks to bring the brand to life?
No. They played out their MBA models to craft a brand story.
Did they decide to tap into the online social networks and go viral with the brand message?
No. They believed strongly in using the local television network affiliates, the Cox radio stations (local Corporate “good ole” boy), the Cox-owned (and dying on the vine) Atlanta Journal Constitution and last, but not least, the local outdoor billboard giant.
I bet, if you’re reading this Blog- dialogue from anywhere outside I-285 (outside the perimeter – OTP), you have no idea what was the Atlanta brand campaign.
Well here is the link to the Atlanta brand campaign on YouTube…
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=Search&resnum=0&oi=spell&search_query=Brand+Atlanta&spell=1&suggested_categories=26%2C17%2C24%2C10%2C25%2C27&sa=X
That video has been up posted on YouTube for more than a week.
It’s actually been up on YouTube for more than 156 weeks.
And in 156 weeks, that video is posted a total of 1,216 views. That’s not a typo.
Those MBAs and Corporate Cultured Leadership crafted that campaign around the tagline… “Everyday Is An Opening Day.”
The day it premiered, about 2,000 folks over at Coke Corporate received pink slips and a few days later AT&T merged with BellSouth and announced that the headquarters was being moved to Texas.
The annual budget for the campaign was over $6 million. That’s not a typo.
I knew the woman that served as the “marketing director” of the Brand Atlanta team. She raked in more than $150,000+ per year for a couple of years.
The agency got its share of the dollars and so did Cox media, the local outdoor company and the local network affiliates.
I’ve posted stories on this blog before about interactions I have had with area Chambers and business organizations.
I have highlighted and shared how they see the world around them, define opportunity and believe that business will build in the future.
I have used adjectives to describe them and won’t retype those adjectives again, but you can go back and discover the type of adjectives I have used.
In one week, another city city that was on the death list is now back in conversation about cities which are taking on the challenge of change and paradigm shifts. Passion is moving that city forward, not a business model or the communication of a rational benefit.
A few days ago, I conducted a set of conference calls with some great travel agencies in the Midwest and the Northeast about how they can tap into targeted market potential sitting right in their own backyards.
We talked about using online newspaper and identifying new Millennials that see the travel agent in the same perspective as they see their “helicopter” parents.
One of the travel agencies is owned and managed by two Baby Boomer women that work out the basement of a house just outside the Philadelphia metro.
They both got excited about what was shared and said “Wow, we can share our passion for our those great resorts with some cool folks right here in our backyard.”
I am going to Email them this afternoon with a link to the Grand Rapids YouTube video.
Passion does not a brand kill.
But process flows, corporate management hierarchy, systematic rational thinking, organization for the sake of organization… all of that… will.
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