That's a clown question, bro.

Who knew? Ron is a brand ambassador. But, "what, at this point, does it matter?"

To belatedly welcome 2014 to this blog, I lazily link you to this spot-on criticism of the makeover of make of Ronald McDonald.

Build a marketing plan using old school journalistic style

There are as many ways to write a marketing plan as there are marketers in the business. Ultimately, each has to answer six fundamental journalistic questions, that is, akin to the 5 Ws (and one H) taught in any undergrad journalism school:  WHO am I selling to? WHAT am I selling? WHERE will I sell it? WHEN will I sell it? WHY will they buy it? HOW will I reach my customer?

WHO you are selling to is your demographic and psychographic, who they are and what makes them tick. “Everyone” isn’t helpful. Even products that have nearly 100% saturation identify their customers and those customers’ unique reasons for buying.

WHAT you are selling is less obvious than simply naming the product. It encompasses the reason the product was created, the problem it was meant to solve.

WHERE you sell it is key to reaching the correct demographic, above. You can’t reach the middle class at Tiffany’s, you can’t reach the super-rich at Target. And you can’t reach anyone if the display and packaging fails to engage the shopper.

WHEN you sell a product is more than seasonality, it can also, and more often does, involve identifying the ‘compelling event’ that triggers a desire for the product. Experience, such as a burglary that precipitates a security system sale; information,  such as a health alert on the news the encourages a purchase of a supplement are important to understand.

WHY will customers buy it? What alternative do they have? What are the competitive, ‘substitution’ products? What do people do without your product? What benefit does only your product offer? This is oversimplifying a critical part of the plan, so take some time to really study current and desired consumer behavior.

HOW will you reach them? This is the last part of the puzzle – the tactics. The ads, the media, social outlets, PR, events. The marketing mix that makes customers aware of and interested in your product or service.

The format and style of the marketing plan is not important. As long as it addresses and honestly answers these critical questions, it will improve your chances for success exponentially. 

Where's the shame?

I hereby proclaim my intention to mount a grassroots campaign to restore the concept of 'shame' into political and popular social discourse. Seppuku, the Japanese ritual suicide response to being shamed might be an extreme action in response to it, but the now-absent emotion leading to Seppuku is immensely valuable to a society. 

Anthony Weiner, Bob Filner, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, Bill Clinton retain their ability to mount – and win- political campaigns. 

Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian – the latter with her mother’s encouragement-have built empires on the back of sex tapes. Farrah Abraham and Sydney Leathers hope to be so ‘lucky’. 

The term “Sex Scandal” returns 399,000,000 Google hits. “Shame”, less than half that many. 

And it isn't just about the sex, really. 

Driven by the fame of reality television and tabloid journalism, we’ve come to not only to accept but to celebrate the ignorance of young Italians from Staten Island (home of the Jersey Shore roommates), be amusingly appalled at guffawing Cajun swamp dwellers; giggle at ignorant pageant queens and cheer nouveau riche housewives. We concern ourselves with the lives of pregnant teens and celebrate their ‘bravery’. Even Ryan Lochte was an Olympic hero until his own reality show unforgivingly exposed him as a brainless dolt. We reinforce stereotypes and fuel race baiting by giving the worst of us far more attention than the best of us. 

Of course I know as a marketer that we air, publicize and laud that which sells. And in a social, economic and political environment that constantly reinforces what is wrong with us, and politicians leveraging this to tell us that it will never change (at least without a handout to you or a contribution to a PAC), it is far easier to glory at others’ faults far worse than our own than to think better of ourselves, our circumstances, and take action to improve them. As for the ‘performers’, they fulfill their media-manufactured need for identity in an increasing anonymous society by farting on camera to gain 15 minutes of fame, and then are easily forgotten thereafter.

Television, and the media in general, has always been populated more by mindlessness than by great art or even modestly passable programming, but only in the past several years has it been about not only publicizing, but celebrating and encouraging what is, (not by puritanical - but ‘contemporary community' standards, to quote our own government (FCC) regulations), strictly aberrant, overwhelmingly embarrassing behavior for political and public figures – and then to feed the ensuing frenzy by actively creating new public figures of citizens willing to do the same things publicly. Only in this environment can "Pregnant and Dating" be a real show, and not a punchline. Sigh.

Shame was once a powerful motivator for social obedience. I understand that society moves on and social mores liberate. But moving on needn't be moving backward; liberation doesn't mean public exposure of activities reserved for the bedroom, a celebration of ignorance, or reinforcement of negative stereotypes. Further, the ubiquity of internet doesn't require that you be validated by mentions, re-tweets, and ‘likes’. 

We’re better than this. I’m ashamed of the abandonment of shame. 

Why marketers owe a debt of gratitude to IT

In this Forbes article by Eric Lai of SAP, Lai addresses a recent report from Gartner that predicts marketers will outspend CIOs in just a few more years.

As I've been saying for years, marketing is far broader than marketing communications, the role with which it is often wrongfully equivocated as marketers become increasingly reliant on data to drive decision-making .

Today Mr. Wanamaker would know which half of his advertising is wasted because today's Wanamakers have professional, data driven marketers fine tuning lead generation, demand generation, lead nurturing, campaign analysis, social media automation, mobile marketing, and so forth.

It's the thing of science, not art, and marketing is increasingly the purveyor of both, making marketing a 'real job' in the eyes of executives and mothers-in-law alike.

Avoiding a 'Nightmare': Small business lessons from Gordon Ramsey

I’ve noticed, from watching too many episodes of Kitchen Nightmares (a DVR is a curse), that all small business can learn something from Gordon Ramsey's formulaic approach to restaurant turnarounds.  The show is eminently predictable  but entertaining nonetheless. It's formula, and it's lessons, are applicable to many small businesses. First, the typical revelations for featured restaurateurs on Kitchen Nightmares, followed by the truism for all small businesses:

·         KN: Your issues are grounded in the fact that you have no prior restaurant experience.

o   A track record and case studies are important tools in selling. Know what it is you are offering your customers

·         KN: You think Gordon will love your food and you just don’t know why business is poor.

o   You can’t be so close to your business you miss the bigger picture.

·         KN:  You will be surprised and angry when Gordon doesn’t like your food.

o   Your business is your baby, but you have to be realistic about how good and how unique what you are providing actually is and be prepared to change. A lack of complaints is not a series of endorsements. Regularly poll customers to identify areas of improvement.

·          KN:  Gordon will not like that you use a microwave and use canned and frozen ingredients.

o   Your offering must be unique to you. What is your vision, mission, your unique value proposition? You cannot simply do the same thing faster or cheaper

·          KN:  You will yell at Gordon and ask him who he thinks he is.

o   Invite criticism. Criticism and failure are difficult but necessary to success. Do not create an atmosphere where employees fear complaining or offering suggestions.

·          KN:      Gordon will find icky things in your kitchen.

o   Stay organized and responsive to your customers.

·          KN:     Gordon may close your restaurant for a good scrubbing if it is extra icky.

o   Remain ethical and fair in all your business dealings.

·         KN; Gordon finally makes you realize some things about yourself.

o   Take time to think, strategize, and redirect.

·         KN: You will agree to start acting an owner.

o   Know your goals, your priorities, and create plan to move forward.

·         KN: Gordon will simplify your menu and feature fresh, simple ingredients from local merchants.

o   Keep it simple, stupid. Always worked, always will.

·         KN: Gordon will update your drab, 80s décor.

o   Thought leadership is critical to your brand. Stay on top of changes in your industry. Better yet, create them.

·         KN: Your service will initially be poor on re-launch night.

o   Change is painful. Change takes time.

·         KN: Suddenly your staff will get it together.

o   Hire good people and trust them to get the job done.

·         KN: Gordon will meet with you and your staff afterward and tell you how far you’ve come.

o   Reward and recognize small wins along the way.

·         KN:  You will hug Gordon.

o   Sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

...and there will be cursing. Lots and lots of cursing.

What are your 'real' priorities? A simple test.

One of the most difficult questions we answer to ourselves are 'what are our priorities?'.

To be clear, that's not, 'what do you say your priorities are', but what they really are. That's the hard part.

To determine how well your stated priorities align with your actual priorities, try this trick: Next time you say to yourself, "I don't have time to... (activity)", change 'time' to 'priority', by saying instead "It's not a priority to me that I..."

It's revealing. And in some cases, disappointing. It quickly reveals the real priorities we've set for ourselves.

Because when the average American spends hours in front of the television every day, its easy to allow time to slip away unnoticed. But time is a finite resource that must be placed into a triage - and that simple change in wording will help you determine if you truly do not have time, or you simply have other priorities.

Next time you miss the kids' school play or ballgame, skip studying a new language, or stay in instead of going for a run, is it really a lack of time, or simply not, truly, a priority for you?

 

Your dream is a sunk cost: Facing reality with your start-up

This article from the New York Times underscores a point I've made to unemployed friends, my college students, even in articles a few years ago for the Dallas Morning News, and I've alluded to it in this blog, here.

Treat your dream to build a business as a sunk cost.

Feel good Successories posters and legions of Twitter career coaches would have you think otherwise. They've no skin in the game. Of course they're going to tell you to 'go for it'. They aren't investing their savings, their time, their energy.

A sunk cost is a cost that is irretrievably lost. Business professors tell us to ignore them when making go-forward decisions. Any entrepreneur, hell, any gambling addict will tell you that it's hard to do. One more sale, one more roll of the dice, and it's all alright again. But it's not real. Your dream is a sunk cost. No getting it back - that is, it's there, it's been imagined, it exists. No turning back on having the idea. The 'one day'. It's a yearning, and therefore a drain on your energy, but not yet your wallet, or your family. Turn your back on it. Because everything that follows is not, not yet anyway, a sunk cost.

Now, hopefully this allows you a bit more objectivity. Every additional moment you put toward this dream is a sunk cost. An opportunity cost. At some point you invest in research and site location reports, engineering drawings or trips to see investors or check out competitors. Sunk costs of time, energy, initial but modest expense. But you still have money in the bank and a steady job.

The dream, the drawings, the unsigned lease agreement, a logo, and business cards. Sunk costs.


Now the question is, IGNORING your sunk costs, ignoring the biggest sunk cost, that is, IGNORING the fact that this design/store/studio/idea is 'your dream', are you ready to move forward?

Really?

Because if you are really ignoring the 'sunk cost' of this emotionally compelling dream of telling your boss to f- off and instead go it alone, then you need to be able to tell yourself this: That you are sufficiently distanced from this dream such that even if this was someone else's dream, you'd still invest this level of energy and money into it.

Because in the end, dreams aren't real. Sunk costs, on the other hand, are real. And bankruptcy, particularly self-inflicted bankruptcy, is a nightmare.

Okay, still? Great. Dream's over. Wake up and get to work.

Squirrels first. Golfers second.

I live on a golf course and more than occasionally golfers either walking, searching for a ball, or in golf carts driving near the wrought iron fence toward their lay get too close for my black lab and he'll bark incessantly with a menacing tone until they move on (I try to keep him quiet during the backswing).  He doesn't understand that the entire golf course - even just the fifth green - is not his to protect.

No, his focus should be on his own backyard. A modest yard, two mature live oaks, a flower garden, shrubbery, patio, arbor. Not acres of well manicured greens running the length of the neighborhood.

But I, myself, too often try to 'boil the ocean' when all I can really control is my own pot. In truth, that's all we ever can do. But if we do a good enough job at that, collectively, the ocean - world peace, world hunger, the environment, the industry, the company - will come along in time.

Seeking to solve the bigger issues is noble. These issues may be they charitable, or simply problems at work beyond your authority (not ability) to change. Ultimately they are past our own ' fence'. In reality, our real responsibilities lie within our sphere of influence, in our own backyard. While we need to keep our eyes on the ultimate, broader objectives (in my Lab's case, ridding the world of golfers) it is because results matter that for our objectives, our sanity, our accomplishments, we focus first on what we can impact most directly in our own sphere of influence, that is, within our own backyards.

Proving that social media is not a slam dunk.

Here's a broad, but direct and succinct analysis about the role and effectiveness of social media... as a tool, clearly not a solution in itself. Numbers tell the story on Oreo's real-time response to the Super Bowl blackout - what I still see as perhaps the best use of social media (creatively and contextually) since we as marketers started talking about it. But as good as it was, it wasn't a slam dunk. Read more here.

Three rules for managing third party resources

Harvard Business Review publishes an interesting article here on how smaller companies can hire third party services to get the same data insight (as in the case featured) or resources as bigger competitors. Managing these resources is a separate issue altogether, but there are best practices for getting the most out of, well, companies like mine. Essentially this involves three key areas: Shared objectives, regular benchmarking, and communication.

Tomorrow's lawsuits start here

I've written for years about the failure of the biggest companies failing in the most fundamental ways, like here, here, and here. 

And now there's this. East Carolina University Suing Cisco Systems Over Slogan ‘Tomorrow Starts Here'.

Simple due diligence. C'mon people. If you're gonna steal, don't steal from a client. And if you steal from a client, at least make sure it's a good slogan. This doesn't even pass the 'bakery and bedpans' test.

When Harry met silly

So tomorrow I start teaching my college class and curriculum be damned, I’m going to do my best to once again speak to the class of teens and twenty-somethings about personal brand, privacy, and the impact on their future selves. 

I posted once or twice before on this topic, notably years ago when Michael Phelps was photographed taking a hit off a bong, and my essential points are the same: nothing is private. That is true of royals and celebrities, and it’s true of little ol’ you, too. The difference is whether we have the coverage thrust upon us (Harry, Michael) or we go looking for it (future employers, clients). 

I don’t think the point is lost on Gen Y and Millennials (after all, Harry was quoted in Vegas, in a prediction worthy of Nostradamus,  that he had to be careful or else he’d be ‘up on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube thanks to somebody’s mobile phone camera’ ) but the understanding of privacy and long-term impact of their actions is lost on young people. Even on young men like Harry - steeped in tradition, highly scrutinized, with a closely guarded upbringing. In fact, it should be noted that unlike the US, and in spite of its tabloid history, the UK has laws meant to keep certain scandals out of the papers. The Royal Family argued that if UK papers were to publish photos of Harry’s Vegas game of strip billiards (which he apparently lost) it would violate UK press and privacy laws. Of course, the UK’s Sun argued that the photos are already in the public domain, and that publishing them is therefore not a privacy violation. It’s an antiquated notion... it's just not possible to take back a digital photo or badly worded tweet. As former democratic representative Anthony Weiner certainly understands, once it’s out there, it’s done. That’s the benefit and the curse of communication technology today. 

So let me suggest to those who find temptation…, well, too tempting. Be aware that every decision you have made has led you to this moment. Every decision you make from here on out will determine the course of the rest of your life. That has always been true, but in today’s digital age, there is no longer an opportunity for a do-over. Every decision you make is one-and-done. 

Here are three things to understand to help evade the seemingly inevitable:

1. You do not need to be on camera to legitimize yourself.  Learn to understand the importance of private moments, private thoughts, private actions, and private lives. Work hard to keep them that way. There is power in having and keeping secrets.  

2. You must choose your friends wisely. You may only have only had a single beer at that party, but there you are in the photo, standing next to the naked dude being held upside down on the keg. I’m not suggesting you can’t let loose and have fun, but you need to understand that the concept of ‘guilt by association’ is valid, like it or not. 

3. Remember what Ben Franklin said. No, not “early to bed…,” although that’s a good one. I’m thinking of “Three people can keep a secret only if two are dead.” 

Finally, remember this, which ties in particularly well with pictures of Prince Harry’s ginger crown jewels: Privacy is like virginity: It’s the most valuable thing you possess, and once it’s gone, it’s never coming back.

Related articles

• How Facebook design tricks people into trading away privacy
• How U.K. Tabloids Are Getting Around Prince Harry's Nudity Warning
• California To Tackle Privacy Crimes With New DOJ Unit