Notes from a 21st Century “Mad” Man

Are You Providing A Showroom For Your Competitors?

2012-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

I recently read that the large brick and mortar retailers (particularly Target) are very concerned about the practice of potential customers walking their stores to see what's new and then leave the store empty handed only to purchase the same product online from a different company. This practice of turning stores into showrooms for online retailers is of grave concern to the future of conventional retailing.

To combat the problem, Target is challenging their vendor/partners to start creating products especially for Target that cannot be purchased anywhere else, thereby eliminating the possibility of comparison shopping. Whether this will actually happen or not is unclear. Only time will tell. But it does raise another question.

How many of your prospects are window shopping your website or your booth at a trade show to find out what is new so that they can look for the same or similar product from one of your competitors and ultimately buy the product from them at a lower cost?

What's the remedy for this problem? Several things come into play.

1. First, always be aware of what is out there in the market that is similar to your product so you are properly prepared to combat any arguments you may get relative to this other product.

2. Always know your competitor's price point for their product that is most similar to yours. You may wish to price your product higher or lower but you have to be working from a full deck to make that decision properly.

3. Innovate. One of the many things we learned from Apple is that if you make your products innovative enough, you not only eliminate price comparisons (because there can't be any), you can actually charge more for your product because innovative products are the best excuse for a value add argument.

If you happen to be in a business where are you largely selling a commodity product, you must differentiate in other ways. Maybe it's customer service (a tough thing to quantify), quality (an even more difficult thing to quantify) or some other attribute different from the product itself that separates you from the crowd. But whatever it is, you can't afford to provide a showroom for your competitors to use.

I Admit It. I Am Part of the 1%.

2012-01-18T19:10:00.000-08:00

Last time I checked my bank balance, it was just a touch under several millions of dollars but according to a recent item on cnn.com, I am part of the 1% (if we look at the figure globally).

You see, we continue to be United States-centric which, for some, is just fine. I'm talking to you Ron Paul. But for those of us that understand that we as a planet must now work as a team whether we like the other team members of not, the global 1% is a very different figure than the domestic 1%. Fact is, if you make over $34,000/year, you are part of the 1% if you consider all potential earners on the planet. That puts almost all of us in the super filthy rich category. Feeling better already, aren't you?

The problem is that the middle class globally makes just $1,225 a year. That's right, a year--not a month or a week!

Given the above, if we truly look at our economics as a global issue (and in my opinion we should), these figures put a whole new perspective on labor costs, minimum wage, pension plans, 401k's, child labor laws, etc.

As China's economy continues to "Westernize" and conditions slowly improve, workers are demanding, as much as they can demand, higher wages. As their wages rise, the divide between the low cost Chinese labor and American labor costs narrows.

There is already some talk that some of the jobs that left the States over the last 20 years may return in some numbers. Let's face it. A lot of the companies that sent jobs offshore in the last decade did so because the difference in labor cost was so substantial that they felt that they had no choice if they wanted to remain competitive with others who had already made the move.

Other companies remained stalwart in being true to "Made in America." New Balance shoes for one never made the move offshore like their competitors Nike and Adidas and although New Balance will never challenge the big boys, they are doing quite well by watching their costs and creating strong partnerships with retailers.

We have a client in the medical device industry that has seen all of their competitors go offshore and has pledged to never do so. His company pays a very fair wage with solid benefits and produces quality products that are in high demand.

It can be done. But if we are all in this together, we need to put a few additional zeros on the end of that global 1% number because even though I make over $34,000, I still have that Summer home in the Hamptons and the new Jaguar on hold for now. It's time to occupy the world!

Where Will Web Analytics Take Us?

2011-12-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

Statistics have always held a strong interest for me. It started with tracking baseball stats, a great hobby if you are into stats. When I later developed an interest in psychology, I found the statistics courses of particular interest. One thing I discovered is despite the fact that we all feel we are so very unique, the fact is we are all amazingly predictable. Just look at the few number of voters they need to predict an election (although there have been a few upsets over the years.)

Since I started my career in marketing so many years ago, I have always had a strong interest in media. As a result, I always enjoyed the media research and planning that went into the programs that we would recommend for our clients.

Now that the web has become such an integral part of any marketing program, I find that I am fascinated by the ability to now combine statistics, human behavior and media in new and exciting ways. And since every move on the web can be tracked, we have a very powerful tool in tracking human behavior.

This all came together recently when I was at the gym working out and listening to one of my regular podcasts called On the Media, a radio show carried on most NPR stations that examines the media. A recent show included a story about how a university was tracking Google searches to determine where racial epithets like the "N" word are used the most. Of course, answering this question does not necessarily answer the question as to why that word is used more in one part of the country than the other but that's where the human behavior part of the equation comes into play. For the record, it turns out that West Virginia and parts of Western PA had the highest number of searches for that word. Now of course, not every search that includes that word would be someone using it in a racially derogatory way. It could be included in a search for a variety of reasons but interestingly, these researches even factored in things like searches for rap lyrics which you might assume would use that word quite often. Fact is, rap lyrics use a word that ends in "a" rather than "er" and therefore, it did not prove to be much of a factor. Where is the "N" word searched the least, you may wonder? Utah. It turns out that where there are very few African Americans (like Utah) or mostly African Americans (some parts of the South), the word is not searched as frequently. The most searches come from an environment where about 30% of the population is African American. Kind of makes sense when you think about it.

So this one example got me thinking about how analyzing web searches can tell us so much about human interaction. As we review search engine optimization methods and review keywords, we get a hint of this but if we look at broader trends like the use of the 'N' word, just think what we can learn about our fellow humans.

I don't know about you but I am ready to dig in.

It's All About Relationships

2011-12-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

Early in my career, I became aware of the saying "People do business with people they like." At the time, I thought it sounded very simplistic. But over time, I came to understand the wisdom of that old axiom.

Doing business the right way, putting ethics first and placing a premium on long-term relationships rather than the quick profit will usually pay off in the long run. As with everything, there are going to be exceptions but if your customer likes you personally, that can cover over the occasional blemish along the road. On the other hand, if your work for your customer is virtually flaw-free but you are not personally liked, that customer will usually find a way to cut you lose.

Service companies like ours are most vulnerable to this truth because unlike a manufacturer, our business and product is closely tied to our "likeability" and our ability to sell our service. Like most service companies including insurance agencies, accountant firms and attorneys, our goal is to do a great job and be liked in the process. If you think it is only about doing a great job, you may be in for a painful surprise.

Unless you are a hotshot lawyer who, despite being a crass SOB, is also the best candidate to get you off the hook for some infraction, you are likely to forge a deal with someone you like.

Think about the interview situation. Isn't the interviewee trying to sell you on what a great person he or she is along with their particular skill set? They know that even if they have the best skills for the job, if they come off in the interview as a brooding, self indulgent loner, they are not likely to get the job. The same is true out in the workaday world.

At the end of the day, when it's time to retire, it's those business relationships that will ultimately determine whether you drift off into retirement with a smile on your face knowing that you treated everyone fairly and made some friends along the way or whether you squeezed every last penny out of every business deal and left people looking forward to your last day at work.

The human mind is a complex thing. You will never get everybody over to your side. Some will like you. Some will not. But if you can sleep at night knowing that you did your best and treated everybody with integrity, what more can you do?

News Flash: Apple 1, Adobe 0

2011-11-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

If you read about technology issues at all, you are aware of the battle (or should I say war) that Apple and Adobe have engaged in for quite some time. As Apple entered the smart phone market with the introduction of the iPhone in 2008, a funny thing happened on the way to the introduction. Much to the surprise of many people, Adobe Flash was not included on the iPhone or later iPad. That meant any video or animation designed to use Flash on a website got a big blank on the iPhone.

Many web developers started to think twice about including those jaw dropping but many times totally unnecessary Flash openings we have all seen on too many websites. But Flash is used everywhere. How could Apple stand off and win against such a ubiquitous piece of software and win? As we all know by now, backing off is not one of Apple's strong suits.

In fact, it turns out that the feud between Apple and Adobe traces back to 1999 when Chairman Steve Jobs asked Adobe to make a Mac version of the program Adobe Premiere. Adobe denied the request stating that there were too few Macs to justify the development expense. Jobs never forgot. And now the tables have turned.

Just weeks after Jobs passing, Adobe has changed course and will no longer promote Flash for use on mobile devices. Instead, Adobe will turn to HTML5, a technology that is backed by all major players.

A note about the browser wars.

It wasn't too long ago that Explorer ruled the roost due to the fact that it is pre-loaded on virtually every PC sold. Nevertheless, with the growth of open source Firefox in recent years and the recent introduction of Google's Chrome browser, Explorer has lost significant market share. But of all of the browsers, who would have guessed years ago that the upstart Apple Safari browser, a browser that was always trailing the pack and was just used by college kids and creative geeks would now hold the same position that Explorer did for so many years (at least as it relates to the iPhone and iPad. As Safari is the browser pre-loaded on those devices, it has become the go-to browser for many people who had never dreamed of using Safari before they purchased their first iPhone.

My, how things have changed.

Steve Jobs, Blackberry and the Importance of Planning for Disasters

2011-10-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

I have written recently about how the best way to add jobs is to follow the example of Steve Jobs. His vision and innovation clearly created thousands of jobs (albeit many in China too) to create, design and produce Apple products along with all of the secondary suppliers who make accessories and gadgets tied to Apple products. With his recent passing, we will all lose the leadership he provided to us.

In the graphics arts industry in which we operate, Apple products literally provide the blank slate from which our ideas evolve. This has been the case since we purchased our first Apple SE computer in 1988. It had 2 MGs of RAM, all we would ever need.

I also wrote recently about the downward spiral that Research In Motion (RIM), makers of Blackberry phones , have found themselves in based on the rocket-like growth of iPhone and Android phones which now dominate the landscape. There are still millions of Blackberry phones being used in business because they used to be the “go-to” phone for virtually every major (and small) business because they were reliable, had a great email system and tied in nicely to the companies IT system. Until yesterday, RIM was just having a bad year and they continue to lose market share to the “do-it-all” iPhone and Android smart phones. Now that RIM has suffered their second catastrophic network meltdown in two years, this will be the final blow that we will not recover from. They are on the mat, face down, bloodied, and gasping for air. If they do go down or are purchased by another company, clearly this will be one of the fastest demises of what had become the “Kleenex” of the smart phone business that we have every seen. Business courses at Harvard will use this as a case study of how to lose market share and not even see it coming. We saw Palm go through this same thing although on a much smaller scale when they went from the iconic Palm Pilot in the 90s to the Treo smart phone to being purchased by HP and now essentially dead. Nice to know you Blackberry. Now when we tell a business client :just call me on my Blackberry, we may actually receiving that call on our iPhone.

Do you have an event similar to RIMs network being down that could send your company reeling? We’ve all heard about disaster preparation but just as we know we should prepare for these events, it is only too human to think “it will never happen to us.” Nevertheless, it is best to prepare. We all learned this lesson the hard way when our computers died and we had the shock of remembering that the last time we backed up was 2004.

As the old saying goes, plan for the best. . .but prepare for the worst.

Thought Going Digital Was Easy? Take a Look at Netflix. ..but you may want to cover your eyes

2011-09-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

It wasn't too long ago that Netflix was the darling of every movie lover. Once the video store packed up its tapes and DVDs and went home for good, it was Netflix that came to the rescue. What could be easier. Check out titles on their site and have them mail them to you. No time limit. When you are done, return it in their patented postage-paid envelope. But something happened on the way to success (sound like Blockbuster all over again?). Netflix decided to add instant streaming to its offering. Great idea. The time had come. It had come so fast in fact that the CEO Reed Hastings was quoted as saying that the future of Netflix was in streaming. It almost sounded like the company had to keep sending out those nasty little DVDs for a while longer but they really didn't like it.

Obviously, the streaming model is MUCH more profitable. No disks. No postage. No irate customers wanting to receive their next movie but realizing that it is Sunday and they are not likely to get mail that day. To make matters worse, the postal service is losing money fast than--wait--I can't think of any entity that is losing money fast than the good old USPS. This mail result in the elimination of Saturday delivery. Trying to run a business today at the whim of the USPS is not the smartest business model around.

So what did Mr. Hastings do? First of all, he pissed off virtually all of his customers by substantially raising the fees to rent by mail or stream. After he had barely scratched the surface of his hate mail, he decided to rebrand the DVD side of the business as Quickster with its own website separate from Netflix and its own billing platform. In the middle of losing customers and alienating others due to the price increase, this split personality decision could be the last straw for many subscribers. There are other choices including those little Red Box kiosks just outside our favorite grocery store where we can pop in our debit card and make a purchase for $1.07 (including tax) to rent our favorite movie. Of course, the Red Box model is similar to bankrupt Blockbusters concept but at about a third of the price and with more convenient locations.

So Netflix is learning the lesson so many businesses are learning today. "Going digital" may not be as easy as it sounds. There are land mines, technology issues and unexpected competition around every corner. And in the time it takes you to go live with your new site, there are a half dozen companies you never heard of who had the same idea you did but beat you to the punch.

Everyone wants to "go digital" but gaining market share with that model could be as difficult as waging another 10 year war but this one could be over in 10 months--or even 10 week!

Jobs for Jobs

2011-08-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

Although it's true that Steve Jobs never ran for political office, one could argue that in this time of high unemployment where everyone is screaming jobs, jobs, jobs, nobody has done more for jobs than its namesake Steve Jobs. As a college dropout, he not only co-founded Apple and turned it into the iconic definition of beyond cool, in the few years where he left the company (or was summarily booted aside), he just created Pixar in his spare time.

When one thinks about all of the people who currently have jobs because of Steve Jobs vision, one has to consider those involved in everything from Mac computers to the iPod to the iPad and of course, the iPhone and that doesn't even address the new iCloud. Now it's true that many of the above devices are actually manufactured in China but the ideas, engineering and technology comes out of Cupertino. Just as the Big 3 automakers in their heyday supported a raft of Tier 2 suppliers and vendors, think of all of the companies, many of them domestic, who are supporting in some way all of the Apple devices whether it be the creation of Apps for the iPhone and iPad or a skin for the iPhone.

Yes, it's true that Warren Buffet just tossed 5 bill into BoA to prop it up but that is most likely going to result in retaining jobs rather than creating jobs. As for a job creator, one would have to look at Steve Jobs as one of the elite entrepreneurial visionaries. If you then look beyond Apple at all of the companies who created copycat products to compete with just the iPod, iPad, and iPhone, well you have a lot of jobs created from one company's innovation. None of us really know if these ideas all sprung from the brain of Jobs while thinking in the shower but Apple has certainly not deterred us from this made for movie idea. With Apple's stock taking a hit upon the stepping down of Jobs, clearly others share this thought.

Just Because You Can Do It Doesn't Mean You Should Do It

2011-08-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

All of our clients these days are interested in adding relevant articles concerning their industry to their websites. The reasons for this are obvious. This type of technical information adds to the credibility of the website and if the article includes mention of the client's product in a positive light, it acts as an endorsement of the product from a credible outside source. From a search engine perspective, this type of article can provide an important inbound link if the article includes a link back to the client's website.

But what if you want to include this article on your own website as a pdf rather than a link to the publication's article? There's the rub. Most publications offer three options.

1. Purchase reprints of the article (like in the old days) and use it as a hand-out at trade shows and for use by sales people in the field.

2. Purchase a pdf of the article from the publisher to host on your own website. NOTE: Most publishers offer a significant discount for the pdf if hard copies are also purchased.

3. Place a link on your website to the article on the publisher's website.

In this day and age when everyone expects everything on the web to be free or nearly free, clients questions why there should be a cost related to hosting a pdf of a given article on their website. The answer of course comes back to copyright law. The article is part of a publication whose entirety is protected by copyright law. One cannot simply place someone else's protected material on their website. The reason that you can link to an outside website without cost is that there is a tradeoff going on there. By linking to the publication's site, you are increasing their incoming traffic to their site and they are more than happy to have you provide a link to their site just as you would welcome someone outside providing a link to something on your website. The supposition is that you have something on your site that is so valuable that others want to link to it. But there is a difference between the compliment of linking to an article and taking it for the purpose of enhancing your own website.

Imagine someone grabbing a copyrighted photo from your website (something that can be easily done in seconds) and placing it on their website so they don't have to go to the trouble of finding a photo themselves or paying for a stock image. You probably wouldn't be too pleased if this happens. We know because we have had clients complain about this type of behavior in the past.

It's no secret that magazine publishers are looking for every opportunity to create revenue from the online world since their print ad income is down. They have a right to retain ownership for their content and charge for it's use just as you do for any content on your site.

Could you scan the article, make a pdf and host it on your site? Sure. But ethically, it's just not the right thing to do. In short, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it.

Do you like Watching Movies On Your Phone? I didn't think so but clearly a lot of people do.

2011-08-10T05:55:00.000-07:00

I just heard that cable and satellite companies are bleeding subscribers. The reason supposedly is that more people are streaming content on their phones, computers and tablets. I don't know about you but pouring a glass of Cab and watching a movie on my phone is not my idea of an enjoyable evening. But like many things, I may be in the minority.

It started with people watching youtube videos on their phones and computers and has now extended to full length movies. Evidence of this trend is the new rate policy that Netflix recently instituted to the dismay of most of its subscribers. They now charge separate fees for mailing DVDs and streaming movies from their site. As a result, many people (I suspect mostly young people) opted for the streaming only deal.

If this trend continues, that 42" HD flat screen you just purchased last Christmas could be gathering dust in short order. You think nobody would settle for the poor quality of watching a movie on a phone or a computer compared to a HD TV? That is what the record companies thought when they were faced with people downloading music in mp3 form (a highly compressed format that loses much of the richness of the intended recording). Look what happened to that industry.

As phones move to 4G speed and computers continue to benefit from faster speeds and wi-fi portability, the trend away from traditional TVs will increase.

So as I was looking into my futuristic crystal ball this morning, I saw the future of TV. Now listen up, you silicon valley tech heads. I'm giving you this one for free. The future should be a flat tablet about twice the size of the current iPad and competing tablets. Light as a feather and fast as a speeding bullet. You carry it around by holding it on a strap behind the screen like you would hold a shield. While transporting it, there is a cushioned cover over the monitor that protects it from harm when you drop it in the subway or bang it unintentionally on the table in the restaurant. You carry it over to a friend's house and play the latest movie (or your home movies for that matter) grabbing it conveniently from your own personal "cloud"using the ubiquitous wi-fi that is now available in everybody's house and at the end of night, throw in on your back and head home. I'd call it VOTG (video on the go) and price it at about a grand.

Should be on the market by 2013. Remember where you heard about it first.

The World We Used To Know

2011-07-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

The technology boom of the last decade has hastened the pace of seemingly everything in our lives these days.

First, we saw VHS rental stores move to DVDs. Then we saw the music industry caught with their pants down as young people illegally downloaded their favorite CDs rather than purchase them from the local "record" store. Then we saw DVD rental store chains close (Blockbuster, Hollywood, etc.) as first Netflix and later Red Box ate their lunch. Then we witnessed the supernatural growth of Amazon and their Kindle e-reader and the resulting demise of both independent book stores and now the second largest book seller in the industry (Borders).

For a decade, Blackberry smart phones ruled the roost in corporate America when getting email was all somebody needed from their phone. That was before Apple introduced the iPhone and and iPhone App Store and demonstrated all the things that people didn't know they were missing from their smart phone. Shortly thereafter, Android powered phones took on Apple and now are the fastest growing operating system in the industry. Now Fortune 500 companies are baling on Blackberry and scooping up the latest gen of iPhone and Android.

Until recently, nobody worried about how their website looked on a phone. That was before the crisp screens that now deliver beautiful looking graphics made looking at websites on a phone a much less painful experience. Now mobile websites are all the rage.

Just as we got comfortable jamming gig after gig of applications, photos, music, videos and more on our overtaxed laptaps, in walks "the cloud" all decked out in a sleek, modern get-up.

Now we will all move backwards toward "dumb" terminals and get all of our applications and content that used to reside on our computer from "the cloud."

So as we look at iconic brands today and think about how we could never do without them, let's say a prayer for Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Tower Records, Borders Books, Napster, AOL, Compuserv, Earthlink Saturn, Palm Pilots, Lehman Brothers, Kodak, Polaroid, Gateway Computers, Nextel, Northwest Airlines, Walkman, Circuit City, K-Mart, GM (the original one, not the new one), Oldsmobile, Pontiac and so many more. Think Google could never go away? Think Facebook is here forever? Just remember, we used to use AltaVista, Netscape and Ask Jeeves as our search engines.

I couldn't Remember How Much Google Helps Me Remember Until I Googled It

2011-07-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

Before Google, we all had to use our brains. Sometimes it was quite painful. Remember trying to remember the name of an actor in a movie you liked or the short stop for your favorite baseball team in 1973? We all racked our brains for hours, pacing around the house, calling friends, looking up information in reference books until, in a moment of miraculous relief, we danced up and down (at least I did) and celebrated finding the answer.

The internet changed all that but especially Google. Ergo, the phrase "I'm not sure. Let me Google it." The question to be raised is whether having the ability to "Google it" is ultimately going to have an effect on our brains. I have heard that if we remain active and use our brains more in our golden years, we are less likely to suffer from dementia but what about if you are 14 or 24 or 44?

A study just published in Science magazine by psychologist Betsy Sparrow and her team at Columbia University looked at just this phenomenon. The good news is that their findings showed that our brains are not atrophying into jelly but it did find that we are adapting to the ability to use our brains to look for information in different places. It we do not expect the information to become readily available, our brains make a greater effort to remember. If we believe that the information can be easily found on the web, our brains will help us know where it is "filed". Sparrow cites as an example that she enjoys watching baseball but is not a stats "freak" like her husband so if she wants to remember how many home runs their left fielder has, her brain knows that she can go to her husband for that information and therefore, it is not important for her to store that fact in her brain.

Interesting stuff but I think a follow up study in five or 10 years might deliver very different results. Stay tuned.

Where Is Your Teen Working? Probably Nowhere.

The Wall Street Journal reported that only 24% of teens 16-19 had summer jobs last year. That's the lowest rate since the government has been keeping this stat. In 2001, 42% of teens in that age group had summer jobs. There has been a lot of talk about flash mobs of teens gathering here and there. Part of the reason is that these teens have nothing to do. Not only are they not gaining the invaluable experience and pride of earning a paycheck, they are not helping to fuel the economy. Many of these jobs are either not there anymore or are being filled by seniors who are deemed more reliable and can continue on after school starts if the employer wants them to. I have said for a number of years now that our children's generation will be the first in our country's existence that does not surpass their parents in earning power and general living standards. With statistics like those above, the outlook is even more glum.

Who Says A Marketing Plan Starts in January?

2011-06-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

For years, the advertising industry was always timed to the calendar year. There were legitimate reasons for this. For one thing, when we planned a print advertising program, we were always researching key issues using the editorial calendars provided by the publishers. These calendars were of course keyed to a calendar year. The concept of frequency discounts based on 3-time, 6-time and 12-time programs were all designed around a calendar year because rates would typically "adjust" on the first of the new year.

Well guess what? It's not 1982 anymore. While most companies still do budget planning on an annual basis (whether it is calendar or fiscal), today, a marketing plan needs to be nimble, flexible and attuned to the changes in the industry and with your competition. Since small companies are in a better position to change course quickly, this gives them a distinct advantage over large companies who cannot turn the barge easily.

In short, there is no reason to wait for the fall to do planning for the following year. There is no reason to begin a new plan on January 1. If market forces dictate a change in course, that change should be affected as soon as possible. With online expenditures grabbing a larger portion of client budgets, the ability to move quickly is that much easier. Most online programs are not as tied to the calendar as print has traditionally been.

So with the first half of the year coming to a close, don't wait to plan for next year. Why not start next year now.

The Four P's and their place in marketing nirvana

2011-05-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Marketing classes have always emphasized the importance of "the 4 P's" when determining how to launch a product (or a company for that matter). For those who missed class that day, the 4 P's are
• Product
• Price
• Place (distribution)
• Promotion

To have a successful company, one must succeed in all 4 of the P's. Like most things though, after knowing that you need the 4 P's, determining the relative importance of each "P" is where the magic comes in. A simple comparison might be the ingredients to a cake. You know you need eggs, flour, etc. but if you don't know the exact measurements of each, you could be in for a nasty tasting cake. The same is true in marketing. Unfortunately though, in marketing, the cook books are all guesstimates and just one person's opinion as to how to make the best cake.

So let's take a quick trip through the P's as I see it.

Product

It all starts with the product. If the product isn't great, you can only BS people for so long. They may buy the first time (if you have great Promotions, a low Price and solid Place (distribution) but they won't come back. So in my opinion, product comes first and everything else is based on starting with a good, viable product that is useful and well designed.

Price

Pricing a product properly has to factor in a number of different issues. First is manufacturing cost. What does it cost you to produce the product including any outside costs? What are you hoping to add to that cost to create your profit? Is there a standardized formula in your company or does each product get its own assessment based on other factors (competitors, etc.)?
The second factor is competitive pressures. If you have competitors that make very similar products, how does your price compare with theirs? How important is it that your price be priced similar to the competition? That brings us to the third factor -- the perceived value of your product by your customers. For instance, certain brands like those from Apple, can get away with a higher cost than the competition based on the preconceived value proposition placed on those products by the customer. This also explains the real value in dollars of creating a company that has that special gloss to it that gives you this kind of pricing flexibility. Not many companies have it but if you do, you have probably earned it and you can definitely exploit it.
If your product is unique in the market and you don't have to bow to competitive pressures, you are in the enviable position of setting the price for the market. But be careful. If you set the price too high, you leave the barn door open for competitors to jump into the market at a significantly lower price and undercut what you have worked hard to establish.

Place

OK, I'll admit that the word "place" isn't really a great word for this one but if we called it Distribution, we couldn't call them "the 4 P's". So for purposes of this essay, we will call it distribution. How your product is distributed can be a critical factor and can spell disaster even for a great product. We have seen products that otherwise would have been successful fail due to poor distribution and other products skyrocket when they achieved national distribution through the recognized channels of distribution in their market.

Distribution can fall into various categories. With the onset of more and more ecommerce sites, some companies are choosing to go direct through this channel. That means they have no middle man, no distribution costs and they are able to maximize their profit. So why doesn't everybody do this?
Going direct requires that the entire burden of getting your product to its intended customer falls squarely on your shoulder. You have no reps, no wholesalers, no distributors, no dealers with "boots on the ground" pitching your product to potential customers. So while you benefit from not having the pay those "middle men", you also don't enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Selling through dealers or distributors can put your product on the map almost instantaneously. Some dealers/distributors (different markets use different terminology) have catalogs that may include your product and put it in front of thousands of prospects. This can significantly shorten the selling cycle but of course, there is a price to pay (usually 40-50%). Add in the cost for using reps if you go that route and you add another 6-10% in cost.

There is no right or wrong method. It depends on the product, the market and your ultimate goals.

Promotion

Not that we are prejudiced but there is the area where we become involved. Let's assume you have a solid, viable product. Let's assume you have also priced it appropriately for the market.
Let's finally assume that you have the distribution in place that will take you to market in the manner in which you have all agreed to enter the market. Now you have the all important final ingredient to your cake. It's the icing, if you will. Like a good cake, the cake may taste fine on it's own but it's the icing that makes it special.

So regardless of how you price and distribute your product, you need to tell the world (or at least your niche of the world) that your product is available and what benefits it will bring to them.
That's where marketing comes in. Now you have the quandary of what type of marketing tactics you should use to get the message out. Should it be print? Online? PR? Trade shows? E-mail marketing? The answer is probably a combination of all of the above in a well constructed marketing plan designed to meet your objectives.

I wonder who could do that? The same people who bake delicious cakes with scrumptious icing.

How Does a Company Achieve Marketing 2.0?

2011-05-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

For a couple of years now, we have been hearing about the concept of Web 2.0. This is typically defined as the second generation of the web where we go well beyond simply having a website and add more information sharing, user-centered design elements, social media and much more to create an overall improved user experience for the visitor/customer/prospect and improved analytics for the marketer.

Rather than restrict this concept to the web, I prefer to talk about Marketing 2.0. I see this as the sum of Marketing 1.0 (the traditional marketing tools we have been using for years) with the new media tools (e-blasts, e-newsletter sponsorships, search engine optimization, web banners, blogs, videos, social media, QR Codes, etc.) that, together result in Marketing 2.0. In other words, the new Marketing is not just new marketing tools but the best of the traditional combined with the best of the new. In effect, we have been preaching this for some time under the banner of Integrated Marketing. Let's consider Marketing 2.0 a synonym for Integrated Marketing. Every marketing campaign should include elements of traditional and new media to accomplish it's goals. The proper mix varies by market and audience.

An interesting study was just published by Gardner Research, the marketing arm of Gardner Publications, Inc. Gardner publishes Modern Machine Shop, Plastics Technology and a number of other business publications that reach the manufacturing segment. Their study was designed to answer the question we have all been asking ourselves recently. What is the best way to reach our prospect? Print? Web? E-mail? Trade Shows? The answers were quite surprising in some areas. For instance, when looking for new products, 90% of the people choose trade magazines with search engines, industry websites and supplier websites close behind. Even more interesting, while there is a slight bias for print from the 50 and older crowd, the differences are not great. Use of the web, search engines and trade shows is virtually the same. This not only indicates that the older crowd clearly recognizes the importance of the web but it also indicates that younger people still see a strong benefit in reading trade magazines that target their industry and job function.

Marketing 2.0 is not a futuristic idea. It is here today and if you are not participating, you will be playing catch-up. Need more direction on Marketing 2.0? Call, e-mail, check our web, Skype. You get the idea.

What Are We Doing Here Anyway?

2011-04-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

No. I'm not going all metaphysical here or quoting French philosophers. My question is more intended for what we are doing at work here? As in any profession, the answer to the question "what are we doing here anyway?" gets to the core of your company's mission.

Sometimes there is a disparity between what a company claims its mission is (read: Google's phrase "we will do no evil") and what it really is about.

So I got to thinking what our company is really doing here anyway. Many of our clients would say we produce ads, turn out PR, create websites, assemble catalogs, etc. but is that really what we are about or are those things simply the tools we use to do what it is we do? One would probably not go to a quality home builder and say that they stack bricks, insert windows, top it off with a roof, etc. whereas that is clearly part of what they do. But like the quality home builder, we would prefer to be known for the big picture--that we find the best ways to help one company communicate their message to another company in the most interesting and cost-effective manner possible. Using that same analogy, once the customer has bought into the vision of what the home builder has designed, it is down to the details of what types of materials, finishes, etc will be used to complete the final construction. It is the same in our business. Once the vision has been established and accepted, it is the details of execution that take days, weeks or months to complete (depending on the complexity of the project). Obviously the execution of those details is extremely important because without quality workmanship, the house will surely come tumbling down.

I believe in our business we are guilty of sometimes getting lost in the building and forgetting to go back and look at the original plans more often. Because what we are really selling is the vision--the concept--the message. If that original vision is not adhered to, the house may stand for many years but it will be lacking the character that would otherwise differentiate it from other nondescript houses on the street.

My stream-of-consciousness brain led me to this topic after we watched a great 2008 documentary on the iconic graphic designer Milton Glaser called " To Inform and Delight." Probably best known for his I (heart) NY logo and numerous other instantly recognizable logos, marks and illustrations, Glaser is now in his early 80s and still working. He lets the "kids" do all of the computer work but his mind is as creative today as it was 40 years ago. Hearing Glaser talk about his passion for design and communication and how he looks for simple, yet perfect solutions to communication problems was truly an eye-opening experience. It is interesting to note that Glaser spent over 20 years designing the interior of large chain supermarkets with the goal of making the shopping experience easier and more interesting for the shopper by planning how products were arranged, the lighting in the store and other things we would not even be immediately aware of but clearly make a big impression in our decision-making in the store.

Milton Glaser has the vision thing down. His clients are very clear about where his talents lie. But he is not only a great visionary. He can also build a pretty darn sturdy house as well.

It is my hope that we can follow in Milton Glaser's footsteps even if we are several steps behind.

We Told You So

2011-03-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Far be it from me to pull the old "we told you so" out of my bag of marketing tricks but the fact is, we told you so. Back in the Summer of 2010, we started talking to our clients about the marketing potential of QR Codes. After our description and more importantly a quick demo unfurled the brow and brought a smile to our client's face, I explained that this is one technology where we may be a little ahead of the curve. But I promised that 2011 would be the year of the QR Code.

Now in mid-March, it seems my prediction may come true. Everywhere we look, from billboards, to advertising fliers to direct mail pieces, we are seeing QR Codes. The good news is they are out there and marketers are excited about the potential. The bad news is that most marketers are doing a poor job of explaining what exactly a QR Code is and why it is important. I can't tell you the number of places where I have just seen the Tag used with absolutely no instruction as to what it is, why I should scan it with my smart phone and most, importantly, that it even IS scannable by my smart phone.

So, here's a free lesson on how to use QR Codes.
1. Determine if you are going to use the generic black and white code
that can be scanned by multiple QR Code apps or if you are going to use a proprietary code like the Microsoft Tag which can only be scanned by downloading Microsoft's app.
2. Remember that even though awareness is growing, you still need to assume that a large proportion of your audience may not know what a QR Code is and therefore, you need to include a line of copy explaining that it can be scanned with a smart phone once an appropriate app has been downloaded.
3. Give someone a reason to scan your code. Taking them to an informative video is one great option. Scanning it to enter a contest is another.
4. Check what kinds of "stats" are available for your campaign. How will you know how many people scanned your code to determine if it was a success?
5. Once you create the code, try scanning it with an iPhone (3 or 4), a phone using Android software and a Blackberry. See how the experiences differ from one phone platform to another because these will be the types of experiences your customers will encounter. NOTE: It has been our experience that the Blackberry platform struggles with QR Codes. My guess is that newer Blackberrys will address this in the future but "standard issue" Blackberry phones were designed to be great e-mail devices and not much more.

Recently there have been a number of articles hitting the marketing world about good stories and bad stories relating to the use of QR Codes. For instance, Jet Blue placed large billboards in NY subway tunnels only to discover that most cell phones work poorly underground and therefore, the tags could not be read. Others reported that even early adopters of new technology are not running around scanning every tag they see so they surmise that even though marketers are jumping on the bandwagon, their message is not reaching the target. We recognized this early on and recommended to our clients that they provide a strong incentive for why someone should scan their code. A trade magazine we received this week had a Microsoft Tag in the upper left hand corner of the cover with no explanation of why it was there. Because I am interested in this topic and knew what it was, I scanned it just to see where it would take me. It was linked to their home page. I was underwhelmed. Why not just put your URL large in that same place. I would probably be more likely to use that rather than scanning a tag when I have no idea where it will take me.

The current unbridled use of this technology is like watching a baby play with a new toy designed for an 8 year old. He will probably slobber all over it but it is unlikely he will figure out how it works.

Good News for the Economy

A Forrester Research report entitled "Bigger B2B Marketing Budgets Come with Great Expectations" notes that marketing budgets for 2011 will increase by an average of 6.7%!
High-tech products will lead the way while manufacturing companies will show lower increaeses of 4.3%. Pharma and medical device products are expected to decrease budgets slights (most likely due to lower reimbursements).

Resilience - You Either Got It Or You Don't

2011-03-16T03:18:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot about resilience these days. What is it about us humans that provides the spark for some of us to bounce back from adversity while others shrivel and wilt? Obviously the tragedy in Japan got me thinking of this now but I have been fascinated with this idea for quite some time.

The Japanese just keep coming back. Whether it was rebuilding after two H-bombs in WWII, numerous earthquakes (even before this mother of all earthquakes) and an economy in the doldrums for more than a decade, the Japanese seem to just keep on keepin on. Some of this is obviously cultural and a wealthy society (let's not forget that Japan is the third largest economy in the world) certainly can attack problems easier than a poor country (read: Haiti) but I think it is more than that.

In our deep recession, why did some companies fold their tents and go home with nary a fight while others fought back to reclaim their position as viable, profitable companies?

We see the same thing in the sports world all the time. In fact, it is the essence of the coach's halftime plea to "dig deep and find out what you are made of" that we hear about over and over again. Some teams respond to the impassioned speech. Others do not.

If your company is still struggling through the current recession and you're wondering whether you are ever going to make it to the surface to gasp another breathe, take heed. It can happen but it takes a team effort and it takes everyone truly believing in themselves and in the cause. From Katrina to the BP oil spill to Egypt, we have seen great examples of how resilience can bring a people back. Now it's time to take stock of your company and see what you are made of.

Grabbed from the Headlines

2011-02-04T04:22:00.000-08:00

I do a fair amount of reading about business, politics, marketing, technology, music, and sports and every so often, it inspires a comment. So here goes.

Borders is in trouble. Serious trouble. The kind of trouble where you announce to your creditors that you will not be making your monthly payments because you need to get your house in order.
This is not the first time this has happened. These problems of course are partly the result of how the retail book market has changed dramatically in the last 5 years but also the result of some poor management at the top. Barnes and Nobles is having similar problems but not as bad.

All of this reminded me of our visits to Ann Arbor, the home of Borders in the late 80s. We had reason to go there with some regularity back then and the downtown Borders store (the only one that existed at that time) was a thing of beauty if you liked books. A block long and two stories tall, they had whatever you needed and plenty of it. They also had an extremely knowledgeable staff that probably would have worked there for free (except that they had to pay rent). That store had such stature in the city and was a magnet for intelligent people. How the mighty have fallen thanks to greedy investors and a plan to expand too quickly.

By the way, on a recent trip to Portland, OR, we visited a store that reminded us of the original Borders. Powell's Books (an icon of the NW for anybody who has been there) is everything that the Borders store was and then some. It has rooms for each subject and some of their rooms are larger than most stores. Just wonderful.

Speaking of the problems of how we access print, whether we are talking books, magazines or newspapers, News Corp (good old Rupert Murdock--still can't believe he owns the Wall Street Journal), has come out with the first national, all digital newspaper to be distributed on iPads and the like. Dubbed "The Daily", it is a daily paper that will be fed to your "Pad" each morning like the paper boy dropping today's paper inside your front door. Given News Corps ability to fund a project like this, it will not be a typical start-up. Will be VERY interesting to see if this catches on. Could be more bad news for those of us who still like to turn the page and priced at 14 cents a day or $40/year, a lot of people are sure to bite.

Finally, a movie pick. My wife has a knack for finding obscure but fascinating movies on Netflix for us to watch. Her latest gem--Helvetica. This 2007 documentary explains more about typography than you can imagine in 90 minutes. For those of us who have been in the graphic arts biz for many years, we remember cold type, press type, type books, etc. Our designers would labor for much longer than I liked choosing just the right type from the thousands of type faces available. Choosing between a serif or sans serif was just the beginning.

Today, we all use essentially the same fonts that our computer has trained us to use. Even 8 year-olds probably know Helvetica. It is, for most of us, the default typeface. But why? This documentary explores exactly why. You will see the building in Switzerland where Helvetica was born. You will hear all of the arguments about why it is the best type face ever invented and can never be topped vs those who feel that it is so ubiquitous that it is beyond boring. One thing I can assure you about is that you will appreciate the passion that these type masters bring to their craft. Maybe a lesson here for the young designers coming out of school today. Check it out. Helvetica. Directed by Gary Hustwit.

If you do rent it, I would love to hear your review.

Image by oshin beveridge. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/shed

Out with the old, in with the new. Well, not exactly.

2011-01-06T05:08:00.000-08:00

With the new year comes turning over a new leaf, resolutions and other fairly mundane proclamations, most of which are forgotten by January 15th. In the world of business-to-business marketing, we're not throwing out the old. We are blending it and refining it with the new to create a new concoction that we believe will provide a recipe for success for our clients in 2011.

As we enter our 57th year, we know all about the old but we are constantly researching new and innovative marketing techniques to show our clients that, despite our age, we are not at all stodgy.

E-mail marketing, webinars, blogs, QR Codes, Google Analytics analysis, Search Engine Optimization, youtube videos, apps and other 21st century marketing ideas are all things that my Dad would have known nothing about when he passed away in 1989.

With my daughter Margie heading up our third generation of marketing prowess, the new ideas keep flowing along with the tried and true principals that never change. One thing that all clients expect today is a documented return on their marketing investment and although we still can't promise specific results based on a certain budget, we are a lot closer than ever before to demonstrate real results based on all of the analytic tools that are available to us today.

None of this is meant to replace the real value of branding that is a little more difficult to measure but it sure beats a bunch of reader service card leads that your reps always told you were garbage anyway.

So, all hail 2011. The economy is brightening. The congress and the president look like they may not kill each other. The sun is coming up and my favorite cop show Southland is back on TNT (Tuesday nights at 10). What more can you ask?

Marketing Magic

2010-12-21T11:47:00.000-08:00

Every company is looking for the marketing magic that will differentiate them from their competition. In my opinion, two companies have done this better than any other company in 2010. Just because both of these companies are consumer companies doesn’t mean that there aren’t lessons for us to learn in the B2B marketplace from what these companies have accomplished.

Exhibit 1 – Southwest Airlines

Already the only major airline to make money during the recession, Southwest Airlines was not satisfied. While virtually all of the other major airlines started instituting baggage fees, seat fees and food fees, Southwest just kept doing what made Southwest #1: good online record, reliable service, larger planes than some regional airlines and most importantly, NO BAGGAGE FEES. They strategized that this would give them a clear advantage while all others were imposing fees. In so doing, they built their entire TV and online campaign on this advantage. With Southwest running this campaign all year long, I questioned how long it would be before one of the other companies broke the ice and joined them—but it hasn’t happened. Billions have dollars have been added to the airline coffers by these fees and they are not about to give them up. One can only assume that they did the math and decided that the extra profits from the business they have is greater than the amount of business they are losing to Southwest. Now of course, the airline hub system does not create a level playing field. Southwest does not serve every city and in some places, you have no choice but to fly and airline that charges fees. But our Cleveland-Hopkins airport is a good laboratory for looking at this further. With Cleveland a hub for Continental (for a little while longer anyway) and a mini hub for Southwest, there are many times when we have the choice. If it is a long trip and will require luggage, the ‘No Fee” Southwest offer can be a deal maker. This is of course one more reason that airlines try to suck you in with their mileage membership clubs. Many people feel “earning” the miles from the trip trumps the free baggage and for frequent fliers, it probably does. But for most of us who do not earn hundreds of thousands of miles a year, the free baggage is a winner. If that wasn’t enough, Southwest also differentiates themselves by not being part of any travel site. Southwest, as they have continually preached in their ads, can only be booked on southwest.com. You will not see Southwest options on Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz or any other travel site. Once again, Southwest has chosen to do business differently and none of their competition has followed them. Now if they were an upstart company trying to buck the odds, that would be one thing, but if you are about to get your PhD in Marketing and are looking for a good thesis topic, I think the Southwest strategy would be a textbook case of how to win in a very competitive environment.

Exhibit 2- Kia Motors

Let’s face it. When Hyndai and Kia started marketing in the US, their cars were low quality, low price cars that provided a viable option to low income people and students who, otherwise, could not afford a car. Nobody ever confused these cars with a quality automobile. Oh my, how times have changed. Following the Japanese model, each year the Korean car makers improved their product and early on, they threw in a sweetener that they realized was needed to assure that people would give them a chance. They offered a 10-year warranty on major wear items that assured buyers that they would not have to spend a fortune on expensive repairs during the life of the car. Now Hyndai is giving Toyota and Honda a run for their money with quality while offering a lower price point. When Toyota ran into their unexpected quality problems this year, the Korean companies were ready to pounce and used the opportunity to gain market share. Unlike with Southwest though, in this case, the Japanese car companies are now following the example of the Korean companies by offering longer warranties to compete with the Korean car makers. And Toyota was even forced to offer a 2-year full coverage program to combat their quality issues they had this year.

Southwest and the Korean car makers show two sides of the marketing equation. In one case, you have a market leader who is doing things differently and managing to stay on top in a very tough business. In the other case, you have two upstarts who began at the bottom and have clawed their way into viable competitors.

What can your company do to separate you from the competition.? Yes, quality and service is vital but offering a key point of differentiation that can provide the foundation for your marketing program can ultimately make the difference between winning and just competing.

A Taxing Dilemma

2010-12-06T08:19:00.000-08:00

As the house and senate continue their bickerfest concerning tax cuts on the one hand and the extension of unemployment benefits on the other hand, I can't help but think both sides are missing the point.

Republicans on the one hand want tax breaks across the board (even to multi-millionaires) because they essentially still believe in the Reagan "trickle down" theory that has been disproven numerous times since the mid-80s. For the younger readers, the idea is that if wealthy people get tax breaks, they will spend more money, hire more people, buy more for their businesses and, in general, stimulate the economy. The only problem is it doesn't happen.
Although Republicans want tax breaks for all, they are not interested in providing further help to those lazy millions who just won't leave the house and get one of the thousands of jobs just waiting to be filled.

Democrats, on the other hand, want tax breaks only for those who earn under $250,000 and want to extend the unemployment benefits recognizing the challenging job market that currently exists (because those wealthy business owners are NOT hiring).

The one common ground that both sides share is that the deficit is a freight train already off the tracks and tumbling down the hill. To stop the bleeding and end deficit spending requires actually putting more money in the coffers than we take out. Works just like your budget at home. Therefore, since the lion's share of the country's money comes from taxes, how exactly do we cut the deficit while at the same time continuing to cut taxes for all? Nobody likes to pay taxes but it happens to be the way we pay for everything in this country. Want a strong defense? Taxes. Want the government to help you out with medical expenses in your golden years? Taxes. Want the government to kick in a few bucks for your retirement (especially if you have no company pension to look forward to)? Taxes. Want government help to assist the poor who need basic food and shelter? Taxes.

There is clearly a divide between rich and poor when you weigh in on the tax issue. The ironic thing is that the people who scream the loudest are typically the wealthiest. If you are making $500,000 and you have to pay higher taxes, it will not affect your life in any meaningful way. You can actually live quite comfortably driving an Acura rather than a Jaguar. But if we cut programs for the poor and other needy causes, there will be immediate negative ramifications to the lives of these people who are already just getting by.

President Obama appears poised to compromise by agreeing to continue the Bush tax cuts for ALL people, regardless of their income and the Republicans, in turn, would extend unemployment benefits. The only problem with this compromise is that the two issues are unrelated.

The unemployment benefits should be extended anyway. We just heard the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke stating that unemployment could run high for the next 4-5 years! As for the continued tax cuts for the wealthy, I ask you how again are we going to get this country out of debt if we just keep cutting taxes?

I have written before about the fact that the current generation of young people will be the first generation in our country's existence to not have it as good as the previous generation. If we keep going the way we are going, that will be the case for generations to come.

Prove It All Night

2010-10-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's the title to a great Bruce Springsteen song on his album Darkness on the Edge of Town.
But even though that song is about young lovers on the cusp of decisions that will frame the rest of their lives, it's taken on a different meeting in my life.

We are in the midst of what we tenuously call in the ad biz "planning season". This is the time when we develop the master plan that we hope to sell to our clients for the following year.
Much effort and thought goes into these plans and the presentation is just the first step. The follow-up meetings determine what aspects the client likes and which they want tweaked, or dropped. These are stressful times as they go a long way toward determining the success of the future year. Of course, new business gains can and do happen at any time during the year so the Fall does not determine the final score card for the following year but it is certainly a leading indicator.

Marketing programs are not a science like a math problem that has only one correct answer.
You can't look in the back of the professor's book to find the answer. Marketing programs, like politicial campaigns are designed, polished and honed from experience, careful research and an understanding of the market in question. But at the end of the day, they are the best guess of people in our business as to what will work. There are no guarantees. Just look at how many pilots for new TV shows flop each Fall even though they are developed by seasoned professionals who have had success in the past and thought they had their finger on the pulse of what the viewing audience wanted and yet, they guessed wrong.

This Fall, clients are looking for more proof of why a plan will succeed. They want measurable results so they can keep score and render winners and losers at the end of the year. This means more online options, more metrics and more discussion about why a particular element did or did not work. We've come a long way from placing a print ad and adding up reader service cards.

For the first time in two years, the clouds are starting to part and the sun is sneaking through.
Clients are asking "buying" questions again. But just as the consumer is wondering if this is the right time to make that big purchase, our clients want to be sure that they will receive a return on their investment.

Our job is to prove it. Prove it all night.

Apple Is Going Corporate and I'm Not Happy About It!

2010-10-19T10:31:00.000-07:00

For years, our clients (virtually all PC users) snickered at our Macs. They considered Mac computers high priced toys that were just not buttoned down enough to inhabit the corporate C-level halls. Sure, some of them bought iPods for their kids and then later themselves. A few years back, the more techie of the bunch bought iPhones to benefit from the cool interface and the enormous App store. Now many of these same execs and sales and marketing types are even buying the iPad.

While all of this was going on, a strange thing has also been happening. The Mac computer (the Apple product that started it all) has slowly been prying its way into the corporate world. In fact, Apple has made this a priority. Believe it or not, over half of the Fortune 100 companies now support or are testing iPads according to the Wall Street Journal. iPhones which could not compete with Blackberrys until recently can now talk with Microsoft Corp.'s business e-mail tools. This is part of the reason why Apple is experience meteoric growth--even by Apple's standards.

All of this is good and well except for one thing. I don't want to see Apple grow its computer market share too much in the corporate world. Why you ask? Yes, I am a big believer in Apple technology and they are clearly the leader in innovation. But one thing we "Mac people" have always benefitted from is that because Macs represented such a small percentage of the computers out there, Macs were never really a target of the kind of vicious viruses and spyware that constantly attack PCs. As Apple in general and Macs specifically gain market share, our serene island of security may disappear.

The ultimate irony is that the tables may then be turned as our PC clients snicker as we hustle to buy all of the latest anti-this and anti-that to combat all of the evil computer attacking demons that have been making their PC lives miserable for so many years.

I guess what goes around comes around.

Blockbuster Is A Blockbuster No More

2010-10-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

It's seems like just yesterday when Blockbuster video was as recognized a brand as McDonalds but while our taste for hamburgers never seems to wane, such is not the case in the world of technology. If you are under 30 or have kids, the Blockbuster brand has been an icon for the last 15-20 years. You probably made at least weekly trips if not a couple of time a week to the video store to pick up the latest action thriller and browse the other new releases.

Netflix changed all that and ultimately caused the demise of Blockbuster, Hollywood and all of the smaller regional and local video stores that had done quite well for a number of years. The switch to Netflix hit Blockbuster like a sucker punch. They never saw it coming. Blockbuster and the other big chains were so busy counting their money that they didn't properly plan for the future. When they tried to match the Netflix online/postal service business model, they were too late to the game. The upstart had taken down the behemoth.

I bring this up because in the digital, fast moving world in which we live, one always needs to look over his shoulder. MySpace was the Facebook before there was Facebook. Today, Myspace has been relegated to a place where musicians have their digital homes and not much more. Could Facebook ever suffer the demise of Blockbuster? As we stand here today, it seems unlikely but if I had asked you in the year 2000 if Blockbuster would go bust in 2010, what are the odds you would have thought that could happen?

There are lessons to be learned from this. As we reinvent our business and some of you do the same to make sure you are catching the wave rather than getting caught under, one needs to try to read the tea leaves and anticipate what the future may hold. The companies that succeed are the ones who see the future in advance and plan accordingly.

Blockbuster and the like are certainly not the first companies to get caught with their pants down when it comes to change. In the graphics arts business, we saw typesetters, pre-press houses and numerous printers with old technology go out of business because they could not morph into the next big thing. We used to be on a regular route where a typesetter from Cleveland would drop off the type we had speced and ordered. This would happen two or three times a week. Yet, when desktop publishing made these companies obsolete, they were caught off guard.

The future is right around the corner. Only the ones with the ability to correctly forecast the future will survive. Will you be a Blockbuster or a Netflix?

Still Think Social Media Is Not For You?

2010-09-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking.

"Why are you you guys burning up so many brain cells talking about social media? It's not relevant to us in the business world. I can see how it is a great "connector" for the kids and I see how it works for getting the word out on consumer products but what does that have to do with us?"

Well, as with most things in the media and communication arenas, we who live in the B2B world don't jump on the newest thing right out of the gate. We wait for the consumer world to work out the problems and suffer the missteps and then, when the water is safe, we jump in. About 18 months ago, we stuck our big toe in. About a year, ago we dove off of the high dive board and now we are swimming laps.

Watch for our next edition of the Claymanite (our e-newsletter) where we include an article called Social Media: A Case in Point -- Building Gatorade Sales. When we started our "fly-on-the-wall" ClayComm social media service about a year ago, we may have been ahead of the curve but that is exactly what is described in this upcoming article about how Gatorade is attempting to reach their target market. The Gatorade folks (a team of young people who would probably be doing this kind of stuff anyway and are now getting paid to do it) monitor a variety of social media sites looking for references for Gatorade and then jump in when the opportunity presents itself. The very same technique can be used in the B2B world. The social media sites may not be Facebook but the principle is the same.

In the political world, social media has literally turned that world upside down. Barack Obama became president largely because of an army of volunteers who built an even larger army of engaged young people all from online networks. Rallies were planned online and the "get out the vote" campaign was organized through an e-mail network that was second to none.

Ironically, it is that same network that fell apart once their candidate was elected. Therefore, now, when they need that help, the network has to be reconstructed and strengthened. Just like any customer in any market, the customer (or in this case, voter) must be coddled and cuddled in an ongoing basis or they will move on to the next big thing.

Staying on politics for a minute, the Tea Party has also used social media to build a strong network to support their beliefs but all political parties and interests are learning that social media both giveth and taketh away. Just as quick as you can create a date, time and location for your next rally through Facebook and Twitter, old youtube videos that you would prefer to forget can come back to haunt you.

In this totally transparent environment, that are no more secrets left. It has taken a couple of years but 2011 will be the year of social media for B2B. Many companies have experimented with it but now the gloves are coming off. Chances are, you are not ready. Now training camp is over and season is about to begin. Let us help coach your team.

When The Teacher Becomes the Student

2010-08-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

My daughter Margie recently celebrated her 6th anniversary at Clayman Advertising. As with any family/business dynamic, it hasn't always been peaches and cream. Like any seasoned professional, I thought I knew it all. And like any smart offspring, she was sure she had all of the answers. She came to marketing a little late in life after earning graduate degrees in both library science and history. But once she got the bug, there was no curing her disease.

I have taught her a lot about what I have learned about marketing over the 30+ years I have been practicing my craft and more recently, she has been the driving force for promoting social media to our clients. At first, I was slow to the dance. I didn't see how our business-to-business clients would benefit. And in this world of "show me the ROI", I had serious doubts about whether we would be able to deliver the goods. But I am now seeing the light. More importantly, what I am reading in the business press is supporting what she has been saying from the start.

There are many reasons to ramp up your social media efforts. Not all of those reasons will be relevant to your company but here is one reason that is relevant to any company with a website. We have all learned the growing importance of incoming links to the overall success of our search position. Having a strong social media program in place is like having your own traffic cop at a major intersection directing everybody to go down YOUR street. Whether it is youtube videos, Facebook, a Twitter feed or a blog, this traffic is the food upon which your website feeds. Add to this the chance to develop real, meaningful relationships with potential customers, partners, etc. and it is not hard to see how social media can play a role in your marketing efforts in the immediate future.

In the current issue of B2B Marketing. a recent survey quotes some interesting results. This year, 29% of marketers plan to increase their budget for social media while 56% plan to provide additional resources for social media. That's significant traction in a short period of time. You can continue to say "that's stuff my kids do" or recognize that the time for social media marketing is here--whether you like it or not.

If you are a client of Clayman Advertising, be prepared. You will likely see a social media component to our proposal for you this year. Don't reject it out of hand. The time is here.

And by the way, I am not the only Clayman with a blog. Want a different perspective?
Check out Margie's blog.

Micro Marketing to Success

2010-08-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

It's summer and that means our family makes frequent trips to the local farmer's market down the street from our office. They grow the best bi-color corn in the world (in my opinion--and my opinion is shared by many others). Their corn fields litter either side of the street and my mouth begins to water as the stalks grow taller and taller as the Summer grows hot.

We didn't need to be sold on the quality of their product but they must feel that some people do. So this year, they engaged in a campaign of micro marketing that really got my attention. We got a call the other day from Graf's Growers asking how many people work at our office because they wanted to reach out to their "neighbors" and drop off some free corn so we could try their product. When I heard about this, I thought it was a joke. Who would do this?

Well, it wasn't a joke. A couple of hours later, in walks a nice young man carrying separate bags of 4 ear of corn each for every member of the staff. Included was a nice insert that explained their desire to get to know their neighbors and some tips on how best to cook corn. I was completely blown away. This was micro marketing at its best. Even though I was already one of the converted, this marketing ploy made me feel even better about the good people at Grafs than I already did. And imagine how some of the people who had not yet tried their corn had to feel with this amazing gesture. I'm sure they made some friends for life.

Let's say they gave out 500 ear of corn (that would be reaching 125 people as each person got 4 ear). At their retail price of .59 per ear, that would equal a marketing cost of $295. Add in a little for the accompanying printed materials and the time it took someone to look up phone numbers of the neighboring companies and reach out to them, and a gallon or two of gas to deliver the corn and the whole thing comes in well under $400. Now keep in mind, their cost for the 500 ear is far less than .59 per ear so the actual cost of the campaign is even much lower. Now, let's say out of the 125 people that received their corn that 75 really liked it and ended up buying two dozen ear over the rest of the summer. That's 1800 ear of corn @.59 each or $1,062. Not a bad ROI on their little micro campaign.

I don't think that is thinking small. I think it is thinking big and thinking creatively.
It's taking social marketing out of the computer and playing it out in real life.

We like to talk about target marketing in our business and it certainly makes the most sense to direct your marketing dollars to those most likely to purchase your product but what if you went one better like Grafs corn did? What if you took a chance on micro marketing?
Let me know if you want to talk about how we could adapt this concept to your business.

The Biggest Balls in Journalism

2010-08-01T05:24:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the semi-crude title but I refuse to substitute what I mean for more "acceptable" terms like "cojones" especially when talking about Daniel Schorr. Though he has only been gone for a couple of weeks, I miss him dearly. Every Saturday morning, I would look forward to his insightful commentary on NPRs Morning Edition with Scott Simon. Mr. Simon clearly revered Mr. Schorr and correctly thought it quite the coup for him to have Daniel Schorr to himself every Saturday (to the best of my knowledge, this was the only news program on which Mr. Schorr offered commentaries).

I have literally grown up with Daniel Schorr, from his rocky times at CBS to Ted Turner making him the first employee when he started CNN to his later years at NPR. I marveled on Saturday mornings as I made the rounds on my various weekend errands (stop by the office, pick up pastries for mid-morning "second breakfast", grab a lottery ticket and hope for a miracle), that at 93, Daniel Schorr could absorb the week's events and put it all in perspective in a little over 5 minutes. I wasn't that sharp when I was 25, let alone 93. Mr. Schorr had lost nothing.

I would call him "old school" but that would imply that his style is no longer in vogue. Of course, that would imply that reporting news the right way and having uncompromising principles is out of vogue today and I would never imply that.

Of course, probably the most famous Daniel Schorr story is when he got a copy of Richard Nixon's top 20 enemies list (this was before Letterman narrowed it to the top 10 list) and discovered, while reading the list on the air before screening it beforehand, that he was firmly planted at #17 with a bullet. He didn't pause. He just read it.

After his fearless style finally wore thin at CBS, Ted Turner, himself a trailblazer, recognized a true maverick when he saw one (sorry, not talking about you Mr. McCain) and hired him.
Mr. Schorr's unique contract stated that he could refuse assignments if he believed that they would "compromise his professional ethics and responsibilities." When CNN tried to pair him with former Texas governor John Connally to offer political analysis, that was it. Mr. Schorr cited his contract and refused to do it. Needless to say, his days at CNN were not long after that.

I've written in the past about other old school journalists like Walter Cronkite but the list is growing very thin. Other than Bob Schieffer who is still doing a reputable job at CBS, very few of his generation are still around, let alone lending their voice to the issues of the day. For the younger generation, Tom Brokaw is probably serving that role but to my generation, he was still the young reporter prowling the floor at both political conventions during the 70s and 80s.

Has Google Compromised Reliable News Gathering Techniques?

2010-07-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

As we transition from the print to the online world, certain principles of traditional news gathering are taking a hit. As we know, long time newspaper and broadcast news sources were always careful about having at least two sources before they ran with a story. If it was a major story like the Pentagon Papers that Danial Ellsberg leaked to the New York Times in 1971, the "Times" contacted the administration to alert them that they were going to run the story so they would have a chance to rebut or at least prepare. We saw this in "All the President's Men" when the Washington Post did the same regarding Waterwate in terms of alerting the Nixon administration what they were about to run before it ran.

Such is not the case today. Whereas in the days when print ruled the roost, the goal was to beat the other guys to the punch, get the story right and sell more newspapers, today, any website can leap to the fore by breaking a story. Today, it's all about hits and search position. And it's all being done in lightning speed, damn the details.

First, we had the story of Shirley Sherrod where every media outlet known to man, let alone the Obama administration, jumped the gun and put this wonderful woman through a tortuous week completely without merit. The result was apologies all around when, had people waited long enough to take a breath and watch the whole video that the right wing blogger had edited to match his intent, they would have seen that Ms Sherrod's speech was one of inclusion and harmony--not racist in any way.

Next, we had the recent leak of the Afghanistan memos to a website that most of us had never heard of before, (this blogger included) Wikileaks. Is it beneficial for us to know that all parties (military, government, etc.) have had serious questions about this mission from the start? Of course it is. But there is no question that some of these documents would fall under the category of "classified" and now the cat is out of the bag. No media were alerted that these documents were going to be posted. The government was certainly blindsided. This would not have happened years ago.

The media (such as it is redefined today) is off the rails and has no plans to get back on the tracks. Welcome to the wild west media world. But be forewarned. Seeing something in print or online today does not carry the weight that is did years ago when we could be fairly assured that the story had been checked and double checked.

An interesting offshoot of this situation is that major media companies are rarely sued anymore by people who feel they were libeled or otherwise wronged. Why would this be? Two reasons.
First, the media source can immediately do a correction online and secondly, the offended party can now fend for themselves by attacking the media source on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other websites. In other words, no need to get back. Just get even.

Tiger, LeBron, Lindsay, Mel and Me

2010-07-22T03:56:00.000-07:00

No. It's not the name of the latest sitcom or the romantic comedy that everybody needs to see. It's the sad tale of celebrity in the 21st century. Beginning with Tiger's meltdown on Thanksgiving night of last year, continuing with LeBron's LeDisaster of a dramedy called "The Decision" and Lindsay Lohan's sorry life being televised as an update of Cukoos Nest to finally hearing the "real" Mel Gibson lambast his ex-girlfriend, we are living in strange times.

Social media and the 24-hour news cycle have virtually made supermarket tabloids irrelevant. The gossip they spew is just too little--too late.

Personally, I am not a gossip hound but one cannot avoid these stories. Just open your favorite home page (Yahoo, CNN, Salon, Slate, etc.) and you can't avoid them. They are right up there with the new financial reform bill, the healthcare reform bill and the BP Oil crisis.

The latest PR disaster was inflicted by a right wing blogger with a trigger finger who edited a speech by USDA employee Shirley Sherrod to imply that she was making racist remarks when, in fact, her speech was just the opposite. Everybody from the NAACP to the administration took the bait and is now backtracking as hard as they can to save face. The network evening news (take your choice) even had to lead on this story for a third of the broadcast before even mentioning that the president had just signed the financial reform bill (as flawed as it may be), a major move forward in attempting to avert another financial crises like we have just lived through. In any normal world, that is the lead story.

You can bet that Tiger, Lebron, Lindsay, and Mel (let alone the president) all have a slew of PR moguls working for them and whose job it is to keep these bigger than life people bigger than life. Yet, they fail miserably.

What is the lesson for we simple folk? It doesn't take much to keep your nose clean but if you or your company experience a PR problem, do the simple things we have always preached: admit the problem, apologize immediately, address the problem by righting the wrong and change policies to assure that the same thing does not happen again 6 months later.

The Age of the DIY

2010-07-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Back in the 70's when I was coming up in the advertising business, the term DIY was just starting to be used. I remember it being used primarily in the hardware and home center markets where baby boomer guys and gals were trying to take on a number of tasks around the house that had formerly been the domain of the professional plumber, electrician and painter. In fact, these new home center stores, which later morphed into big box stores (The Home Depot, Lowes, etc) were created to serve this growing market.

The DIY age has continued to grow since that time. We may not call it DIY anymore but in essence, we are all attempting tasks that we used to save for the pros. You even have the famous lawyer Robert Shapiro (who rose to national fame as part of OJ's dream team) hawking the website legalzoom.com, a website where people like you and me can create our own simple legal documents like wills without the need for an attorney. I'm sure his colleagues appreciate him recommending that consumers no longer need legal advice for many issues. WEBMd now provides information for us to diagnose all of our maladies and tell our doctor (should we decide to go to one) exactly what our problem is before it is professionally diagnosed. By the way, thanks to consumer pharmaceutical advertising (one of the worst ideas ever), we can also tell our doctor which drugs he/she should prescribe for us.

So, given this DIY trend that has only grown since the 70's, I suppose it is not surprising that the fine art of advertising, marketing, printing, graphic design, web design, photography, typography, photo retouching, stock selection, color choice and other art forms are rapidly falling into the DIY bag. After all, if we don't need an attorney to create a will, why do we need a professional marketing communications company to create an ad or a website or a simple piece of literature?

The answer is simple. Just because we have the tools at our disposal does not mean we are professionals. Yes, I could go to legalzoom.com and have a will done for a few bucks but I would prefer to go to a professional who has executed hundreds of wills and can bring his experience to the process to guide me and warn me about potential pitfalls based on all of his years of experience.

Just because I buy bricks and mix some mortar does not make me a mason. My father-in-law was a brick mason and he was an artisan--a technician who knew when a brick was set properly and true.

As many small and medium sized companies move toward a DIY model for their marketing programs, it may be wise to consider what is being lost. Does the added filter of outside marketing counsel have true value worth paying for? We obviously think so. Now I may need my head examined but why go to a psychologist? I'll just phone a friend.

Why Do We Do What We Do?

2010-06-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

A friend and long-time client recently sent me a link to a video from the group TED -- Ideas Worth Spreading. In case you are not familiar with TED, I'll get to that in a minute but let's jump start to why I found this video so fascinating and why I think it will provide you with much food for thought as it did me.

The speaker, Simon Sinek has written a book called "Start With Why" and his speech at a recent TED conference defined the principles of his premise that most of us know WHAT we do in business and we know HOW we do what we do in business but many of us have not figured out exactly WHY we do what we do. It is his position that until we can define why we do what we do, we are just going through the motions. We may be successful despite not knowing the WHY so it may not seem immediately important but ultimately it is answering this WHY question that can provide a company with the buzz and differentiation to take it to the next level.

He uses examples like Apple to make his point. He claims if Apple was just in the business of making computers, they would not have been in a position to create next generation tools like the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad. Apple starts with the idea that everything they market will challenge the status quo and be different from everything else on the market. When they start with this simple idea, it is not a surprise that everything they create is different because that is where they start in their R & D process.

The whole thing struck me as a different take on the old idea of the elevator speech. This is the idea that if you were asked to define your company in the short time an elevator takes you up a few floors, what words would you choose? How would you capture the essence of your company to a stranger? Would you just define what or how you do what you do or would you try to get to the why? Most people (myself included) take the easy way out and do not go for the "why".

Since Simon Sinek can make his point much better than me, I urge you to take 18 minutes out of your life and watch this insightful presentation. Then, think of how it relates to your business.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started as a small conference in 1984 bringing together people from three areas: Technology, Entertainment and Design (ergo the acronym TED) but has grown much broader in its scope today.

The website is chock full of presentations like the one by Mr. Sinek covering a myriad of fascinating subjects. Bookmark it and check it out from time to time. It will be time well spent.

Just Fill The Damn Hole

2010-06-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ah, that it were that easy. But we are all members of the instant gratification club and have come to expect immediate answers for our problems, no matter how large or complex.

The BP Oil Spill will not be solved by simply "filling the damn hole." If it was that easy, it would have been done weeks ago. Big problems do not typically succumb to knee-jerk solutions.

We are still recovering from the tech bubble that burst almost 10 years ago (remember the NASDAQ hovering around 5,000?). The residue from the financial crises fueled by greedy bankers and unethical mortgage lenders will be with us for years. It took us a year and a half to decide that we could pass a half-baked health care reform plan that will be lauded in the future just as Medicare is today.

All kinds of businesses have been dramatically affected by the meltdown that took a stranglehold on our country over the last two years. We have seen our automotive industry taken down to where two of the former Big 3 are now under significant government ownership. We have seen many of the industries that feed the automotive monster barely hanging on for survival. We are watching the publishing industry as we have known it for over 100 years brought to its knees by technology and changing preferences that is bound to make it obsolete.

We have seen our own advertising industry have to reinvent itself while still trying to do business as usual.

I think it will be 5-10 years before we look back at this time and recognize that we lived through the greatest period of change in our history – some of it self-inflicted – some of it the result of a technological evolution the likes of which we have not seen.

What we are going through this time around is not going to be solved by just "filling the damn hole."

Pulitzer Prizes and Financial Troubles Sometimes Go Together

2010-05-11T05:44:00.000-07:00

I was very interested in a story I heard on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The story was about two reporters for the Philadelphia Daily News who just won Pulitzer Prizes for excellent investigative reporting only to have their newspaper, as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer, sold to their largest creditor.

Investigative reporting is possibly the most important reporting that a newspaper can do. But to do it right takes time and money and a commitment by the newspaper's owners and management. Without investigative reporting, we might not have untangled the Watergate web and so many other explosive stories. Good investigative reporting can take weeks and even months to get to the bottom of the story and even then, there is no guarantee that there is a story. That's why one is investigating in the first place.

In a time when newspapers all around the country are bleeding, investigative reporting is sure to be one of the first things to go because it is also the most expensive kind of reporting. Why is this a problem? Part of the role of the press is to provide the checks and balances we need as a society. There will never be a lack of corrupt politicians, rogue cops, etc., and as long as those people roam the land, someone has to call them out and help bring them to justice. That is part of the role of the press. If newspapers can't afford to fund this type of reporting, who will provide these needed checks and balances?

If you think this problem is relegated to just small town newspapers, think again. The prestigious Washington Post has been losing money for years now and is even putting its news magazine, Newsweek, on the block. The only reason that the Washington Post can continue to do great reporting is not because it is making money in its newspaper or magazine divisions. It is because its owner got into the for-profit college business about 20 years ago and as that business has taken off in recent years, that side of the business is producing over 60% of the profit to the Washington Post parent company.

Back to the Philly story. Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker are to be commended for their great work but now one must wonder if they will be out of a job or looking for a new newspaper that will support this kind of reporting. Good luck on that one.

Like global warming and the Gulf Coast oil spill, these types of problems creep up on us and before we know it, society suffers a terrible loss.

What Goes Around Comes Around

2010-05-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

Eleven years after its launch in 1999, I have begun to watch the award-winning series The West Wing. I always knew that this was one of the best-written TV shows in history but now I know why. Aaron Sorkin, who developed the show, is a superb writer and really had his finger on the pulse of politics in the beltway. A few insider consultants didn't hurt either. By the way, the first season of the show, which we just completed, takes the viewer through the first 19 months of the Bartlet administration. Martin Sheen plays Bartlet convincingly. In the show, this is a democratic administration much like we have now. What is amazing are the parallels between the Bartlet and the Obama administrations and how everything that goes around comes around.

One of the episodes centers around polling and how important it is to the engine of the administration. A downward trend really takes the air out of the balloon for all involved while a rise in the numbers can make everybody feel like they just won the Super Bowl.

This got me thinking about polling in a broader sense. How do we measure the success in what we do every day? Is it just the purchase order from our customer that tells us we are doing a good job or is it our own internal compass that tells us we met the project head on and we delivered? Every business is different. Certainly service businesses are measured differently from manufacturing companies whose products are either accepted or rejected by the market.

In the last couple of years, we have added a number of products to our former role as "the print specialists." This blog and our e-newsletter are just two examples. A growing web development business along with associated search engine optimization support have been critical additions. Our PR services have gone digital and are distributed with a broader reach. We now do e-blasts and e-surveys while continuing to produce print ads, all types of collateral pieces, trade show graphics and so much more.

I'm sure your businesses have undergone major changes in recent years to keep up with technology changes as well as to adapt to the "lower cost without sacrificing quality" expectations that has taken over global marketing.

I would like to hear from some of you on how you measure your work in this new world. The pressures to succeed are never ending but the path to success seems ever changing.

Out of Our Control

2010-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

After hearing recently how the U.S. Postal Service's move to eliminate Saturday delivery could cripple NETFLIX's business model, it struck me how so many times, things well out of our control dictate how our business will go - or not go.

NETFLIX has built a phenomenal business delivering our favorite DVDs to our mailbox. Six days out of seven, we can go to that box and find a little treasure stuffed into that brilliantly designed "two way" envelope. But this whole business model depended on one thing - dependable mail delivery service. It was already bad enough that you could not receive movies on Sundays. I also knew that if it was a holiday that federal employees took off, there would be no movies on those days either. Even so, I could live with this and if I was really organized (which I usually was not), I could coordinate my deliveries to work around those minor inconveniences.

Now, with the threat of no Saturday delivery looming, will that be the tipping point to force people like me to consider Red Box or to use NETFLIX's download service? I don't know. For whatever reason, I have resisted the NETFLIX download option. As for Red Box, we tend to order a lot of obscure back catalog kind of movies that Red Box would never carry. One of the great things about NETFLIX is that, like Amazon, it is the largest DVD warehouse one could imagine.

NETFLIX is by far not the only company whose business is affected by the actions of others. Any company that subcontracts out some or its entire product is subject to the same concerns.

In our business, our clients rely on outside companies to help make us look good. Everyone has horror stories on how everything went great on the project until the shipper delivered to the wrong company (or destroyed the package in transit).

One thing always seems to hold true. Murphy's Law. If anything can go wrong, it will.

Think about your own company. How many outside companies do you rely on to create your final product? Think about an automobile manufacturer. Literally hundreds of suppliers make the parts to produce the final car. If just one of them does not deliver quality, we blame the automaker. Although Toyota is certainly not without fault in their recent problems, some of those problems resulted from the quality issues of trusted vendors. Is it still Toyota's problem? Sure is.

But they were let down. Yet, when you start crying about the vendor's mistakes, it sounds like you are making excuses.

We all ultimately must take full responsibility for our final product whether we manufacture 100% of it or none of it. To our customer, it's all the same.

Still somehow, when we make the mistake ourselves, we feel more in control to right the ship. When one of our vendors makes the mistake, we have to still step up to the microphone and take the blame but we do not have the power to change the quality procedures ourselves to assure that the mistake will not happen again.

Everyone is human. Everyone makes mistakes. But if you find yourself too many times facing your customer and making amends for a problem that was not of your own doing, it may be time to change suppliers.

Want To Get Away?

2010-03-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

It's been a tough year. For that matter, it's been a tough two years. That's why it might be time for you and your significant other to consider a get away.

And do I have a place for you! For the past 25 years, my best friend has lived in Hawaii. For most of that time, he lived in Honolulu. But Honolulu is so yesterday so a few years ago, he built a small cottage on the edge of the forest at the bottom of Volcano National Park on the Big Island. He lived blissfully there as a freelance writer until fate would intervene. He reconnected with a woman that he had met while wondering through Europe after college back in the 70s.

They fell in love and married last Fall in Canada (she used to live there and had friends and family there). There was only one problem. She had a great job, family and roots in Geneva, Switzerland and he was on the other side of the world (12 hours apart by phone) in Hawaii. The plan was set that he would join her in Geneva and start their lives anew there.

So yesterday, he and his cat made the voyage from Hilo to Honolulu to LA to Washington, D.C. to Geneva. Only one problem. What to do with his beautiful cottage in Volcano? When he first built it, he was still living in Honolulu and the plan was to make it a B & B. That plan never quite came to fruition and it was completely squelched when he moved to the cottage to live there himself.

There is where you come in. The cottage is now truly for rent. Rather than calling it a B & B (there is no breakfast served), he refers to it as a rental cottage.

Here is a link to what he affectionately calls Kipuka Cottage

Rates are very reasonable and once you get there, you are in heaven without even having to be good your entire life.

Pay To Play?

2010-03-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

It’s strange how some traditions begin. In the world of consumer magazines, the publisher’s revenue is derived from three sources: advertising, subscriptions and newsstand sales. We think nothing of paying for our magazines even if it is a highly reduced price from a subscription.

In the world of business and medical publications, most rely exclusively on advertising. Through a system called “controlled circulation”, readers “qualify” themselves by filling out a form or answering questions over the phone that determine that they are indeed part of the target audience that publication pledges to reach for its readers. There are even outside auditing companies that make sure this happens correctly.

Now as advertisers bail, the walls are closing in on many of these publications. They have no other sources of income. Oh sure, they can cut their frequency of issue from 12x to 6x or 6x to quarterly but what if you really like reading the publication and find it has useful information for your business but it is wilting under the pressure of this economy. If it were on the newsstand, you would buy a copy to help support them. But how do you support a dying business publication (short of advertising)?

One publisher has chosen a path so obvious you might ask yourself why others have not considered his solution. He simply asked his loyal readers to cough up a few bucks (like a subscription) to help him survive and publish another day. Although this publisher has a unique magazine with a distinct point of view and some very loyal readers (including yours truly), it will be very interesting to see what comes of his plea.

Many trade magazines are boring and seem to survive simply to provide a forum for their advertisers (readers be damned). Good luck to them ever trying to ask readers to support them with their wallets. Just wouldn’t happen. But if your readers love you and your advertisers simply can’t afford to buy ads during this deep recession, can you survive by asking for a hand? After all, isn’t this how NPR and PBS have done it for years?

What we are really talking about here is going back to old idea of patrons who support something they love whether it is an orchestra, a radio station, an artist or a business publication. Maybe in his desperation, this noble publisher is opening the door to the future of the business press.

The next couple of years should be interesting. Keep your checkbook nearby. You could become a patron.

Is Print Ready for a Comeback?

2010-03-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

I used to enjoy watching a good boxing match. I rooted for the underdog who looked like he was down for the count after the third round but somehow brushed himself off, got that determined look on his face, rose to his feet and came back like a man possessed. He didn’t always win but he made a game of it when you would have said he had no chance.

Today, that boxer is print. Bullied, bloodied and beaten, print is on his butt in the middle of the ring but there are plenty of rounds left. The question is whether or not he will rise with a fury to win.

We have all seen print take a terrible beating over the last two years. The combination of the growing strength of the web and the low blow from the economy has almost been too much to bear.

Our clients have complained about their thinner and thinner print products—the same ones that just a couple of years ago were kings of the ring. As advertisers baled, the domino effect took hold. If my competitor is not advertising, that gives me license to drop out as well. As a result, many of these thinning magazines went completely bald and ceased publishing completely.

The real question here is whether advertisers are dropping out of print because “nobody reads magazines any more” as so many of them lament or whether advertisers are dropping out of print because other advertisers have dropped out of print and the remaining advertisers don’t have the belief in their own convictions to hold the line.

Well, finally magazine publishers have had enough and they’re not going to take it anymore. Five of the largest consumer print publishers have combined forces (and dollars) to launch a huge campaign to promote the fact that print is not dead. The five companies are Time Warner’s Time, Inc., Hearst, Advance Publications’ Conde Nast, Wenner Media and Meridith. The initiative was orchestrated by Jann Wenner, CEO of Wenner Media. Check out an article on this subject from the Wall Street Journal. Just as TV did not kill radio and video stores did not kill movie theaters, the web will not kill print. It may change reading habits. It may change how and when magazines are read. But it will not kill print. The fact is that print is already waging a comeback. As in any industry that has taken its lumps, many titles have died and will not return. In many markets, this was a necessary change, as few markets require four, five or even six titles to serve that market. But the top two or three titles should continue to thrive and serve their markets for many years to come.

If you’ve thrown in the towel on your print campaign, think again.

This fighter is not down for the count.

Is the Editorial Headline the Future of Advertising?

2010-02-21T16:26:00.000-08:00

We all know by now that traditional advertising is in the midst of a change equivalent to the hundred-year flood. In fact, this kind of change has not happened for 100 years. Since we are in the business of business-to-business marketing, we concentrate on that world in most of these postings. For just this once, let’s venture into the world of consumer advertising—something we can all relate to.

Most of us have spent much of our TV-watching lives trying to avoid advertising. Some of us have it down to a science—channel surfing when the ads interrupt our favorite show only to return at just the right time as the show returns. We have the one-minute surf, the two-minute surf and the 3-minute surf (the long ones on the half hour).

With marketers spending so much money on those ads, why is our instinct to avoid them at all costs? The answer is that we want to choose when and where we want to learn about that new car or that new drug (with all of the horrible side effects) that we should ask our doctor about. We don’t want it washing over us like a tsunami of useless information. When TiVO was introduced, ad agency people got really worried. This device could skip commercials. I never got one but then my cable company offered me a DVR, which is almost as good. True, it won’t skip commercials but I sure can FF past them. Of course, there is now research from desperate marketers that says that even when you FF past those commercials, they are still making an impact on you. I suppose that is true in the same way that a billboard would make an impact on you if you were driving at NASCAR speeds down a city street. So where will this all end?

We could end up right where we started. Soap operas are called soap operas because, in the beginning, the show was actually paid for and sponsored by the soap companies. There were no commercial interruptions. The viewer was simply told at the beginning of the show that the show was “brought to you by ABC Soap Company”. That was it. The approach is similar to what PBS does today and you’ll notice that non-commercial PBS has longer and longer intros—but I digress.

We still have the dilemma that marketers want to tell people about their products so they can sell them and consumers want to learn about new products so they might consider purchasing them—but how do consumers want to learn about products? That is the question.

Let’s take a recent product introduction—the Apple iPad. So far, no commercials but everyone seems to know about it. How has this happened? It’s a combination of Apple’s superior PR machine being able to get virtually every media outlet (broadcast, print and online) to do their work for them by talking about and reviewing their new product. But how did most people initially hear about it? Probably through a headline of an article on one of their myriad online news sites. Most people probably did not click on and read the article unless they were really interested but that headline still made an impression. So when that person was cornered at the water cooler the next morning and asked whether they heard about that new Apple iPad, they could answer, “yeah, I read something about it.” In many cases, that something was simply the headline to an article titled “Apple Rolls Out iPad But Where Will It Fit?”

Think of your own online behavior. I’ll bet you learn a lot about what is going on in the world just by reading headlines—no different than if you glanced at the headlines in your local newspaper. Then, when something really grabs your attention, you click and read. With marketing so prevalent in today’s society, many of the headlines in the “news” are product driven.

It’s a good day to be a PR mogul. It’s a good day to write a good headline.

Practice What You Preach

2010-02-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Like many, I have been reading with consternation the trouble affecting Toyota concerning their defective gas pedal and Prius brake problems. Any company can have a faulty part. I don’t take issue with that or expect Toyota to be perfect. But what I think has many of us concerned is the idea that Toyota has known about this problem for years and done nothing until now to resolve it. It doesn’t help to have the finger pointing between Toyota and their Indiana supplier CTS. I have driven Toyotas almost exclusively for more than 20 years. So too have my wife and children. I am not “into” cars. The reason I chose Toyota is that I wanted a well made car with a high safety rating and lower than normal incidence of repair that would get me from point A to point B reliably. My Toyotas always did that. Now, my daughter’s car is part of the recall and I feel responsible for recommending that she purchase a Toyota.

If you are going to build your reputation on quality and safety, then you need to make an uncompromising promise to deliver. That means following up on reports of sticky gas pedals as soon as they are reported and not just after multiple deaths have occurred. Like the Firestone 500 tire did to Firestone, Toyota will be forever tarnished by this safety overlook. Toyota also pulled the plug on a major new marketing campaign that, in part, promoted the company’s record in terms of safety and reliability. Consumer Reports editors—get out your red pens.

Large companies take a major risk when they build their reputation on certain principles and then fail miserably on those same principles.

Take Tiger and Accenture as a prime case in point.

But it doesn’t end with just corporations. How about John Edwards and his fall from grace as the real John Edwards reared his ugly head over a two-year period. His reputation as the consummate family man may have been a larger fall than Tiger Woods because whereas most of us knew precious little about Tiger Woods private life (and now we know why), we felt we knew John Edwards. How can you not when you are running for the highest position in the land and the press hounds you day and night? Once again, the PR machine did not ultimately match the product.

Ever think what your company’s reputation is? If your company could afford to run a super bowl ad, what image would your company be projecting?

Be Glad Your Name Is Not John Smith

2010-01-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

Occasionally, I Google my own name to see what comes up. Save the e-mails about my ego. I am hoping that I will find links to our company website, links to my LinkedIn page, my blog, and other industry associations I am apart of.

What I hope not to find are links to any other “Larry Claymans” that are up to no good out in the world. In a recent search, I found a link that stated F**K Larry Clayman. Quite disturbing but in this case, it was a Larry Clayman who is head of a group called Judicial Watch and is sometimes a controversial or polarizing figure. This was on Page One of a Google search for my name. OUCH!

What can I do about it? Not much. The only thing I can hope to do is to create enough links about the “good” Larry Clayman (that would be me, dear reader) so as to push the link to the “bad” Larry Clayman off of page one. Easier said than done but that is one of the reasons why we recommend having as many different opportunities as possible for someone to find you or your company or products. You never know through which door they will come—and ultimately it doesn’t matter which door they come through as long as they enter.

If you do not have a common name (and my last name is not that common), you will have fewer issues in this area. But if you have a very common name such as John Smith, you can be assured that among all of the “good” John Smiths, you will have to fight for your position among all of the “bad” John Smiths. Good luck with that one.

Go ahead. Try Googling your name and see what you find. You might be surprised. I would be interested in hearing about your experience.

Oh yeah, don’t feel that you are an ego-maniac for Googling your own name. It’s all in the name of research, you know.

Word Choice

2010-01-16T11:57:00.000-08:00

As we enter the world of content, word choice becomes a considerable factor as we create all of the content we need for our website, our blogs, our social media sites, let alone our literature, ads, etc.

Content has become the “handle” that we all use when we discuss what will fill these vast empty spaces. It’s one thing to say we need to revamp our website. But with what? And where will that content come from? When I was young and asked my Dad for money, he would often say, “I don’t see any money trees growing in the backyard.” Well I don’t see any content trees growing back there either. Creating good content doesn’t just happen. It takes time, effort, research and good writing.

Proper word choice is a key ingredient. One only need watch the tube for any period of time to find examples of poor word choice. For instance, two days after the earthquake in Haiti, a CNN commentator noted that if help did not come soon, officials were concerned about looting. LOOTING? Looting is what happens when riots take place or when protests go awry. On the other hand, when one is starving and there is no help in sight, I don’t see how anyone could call that looting! If the quake had hit us, don’t you think you would do what ever it took to keep you and your loved ones alive—including “stealing” food from wherever you could find it? I would hardly call that looting. Yet, I have seen many other networks and reporters pick up this unfortunate word choice.

The above may be an extreme example but you can see how choosing the wrong word can create the entire wrong connotation.

So next time you need to create content for your various marketing vehicles, think about word choice. The right word can make all of the difference in your message.

And those are my words of the day.

You Took That Out of Context

2009-12-17T13:56:00.000-08:00

How many times have we all heard that phrase? Usually it’s a politician, sports figure or a Hollywood type outraged by a story in the press where they claim they were quoted “out of context.” The underlying assumption of course is that had the entire quote been used, the complete opposite position was actually the one intended by the subject of the quote.

In advertising and marketing, context is also vitally important. In fact, it may be the most important aspect to good media buying decisions. After all, is it any surprise that we see beer commercials during football games? Yet while that logic is easy to deduce, one must wonder if everyone watching the nightly national news reports is suffering from some serious health issue requiring numerous prescription drugs. What’s more, one must further wonder if most of the people watching the national news at 6:30 are impotent men. This conclusion would also be logical given the number of Cialis and Viagra commercials in this time slot. I guess they don’t call it “broadcasting” for nothing. Network TV is “broadcast” to the masses. It’s like a direct mail piece going out to everybody. You know your target is in there somewhere so you’ll deal with the waste to find the gold. Cable channels created “narrow casting” where science lovers could tune in the National Geographic channel; animal lovers could dial in Animal Planet and history buffs could watch The History Channel. This provided the opportunity for much more targeted advertising, knowing that you are reaching a specific audience. I must admit though that I don’t see this being done with great aplomb as one would think.

So it reasons to follow that if it makes sense to have your advertising message in proximity to an audience who is predisposed to that subject matter, your message will be more roundly approved.

Having said all that, the world of online contextual advertising is certainly where it is at as we enter 2010. In a broader sense, Google AdWord ads (the little text ads to the right of the organic search results) are the best example of this. Unfortunately, as we all have learned, those little ads don’t always deliver the goods for what you were hoping to find. So what other options are there?

Here are just a few:

• sponsorship of an e-newsletter with relevant articles related to your product or service

• sponsorship of a specific page of an industry website with highly targeted information related to your product or service

• an online ad on a key trade show site where your company will be exhibiting

• an online ad on a major distributor’s website who handles your product

There are many more opportunities to engage in contextual advertising but don’t feel that your opportunities are limited to Google, Yahoo or Bing. In the industrial sector, thomasnet.com, globalspec.com and industrynet.com are just three online directories that provide an opportunity for advertisers to do contextual advertising based on keyword searches.

So as you prepare for 2010, keep it all in context and spend your marketing dollar where it best reaches your audience.

Healthcare: How Did We Get Here?

2009-11-28T11:54:00.000-08:00

I keep coming back to the healthcare topic not just because as I write this, the Senate is about to start debate on the proposed new plan. No, I keep coming back to this topic because it affects every single American whether or not you currently have coverage. If you do, you are seeing your premiums (or at least your contribution) go up by double digits almost every year and if you don’t have coverage, we who do are paying your freight. This madness has to end.

But you may have wondered as did I how we ever got into this mess in the first place. How and why was our health insurance system first started through employers? What are the various roles of insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical facilities and physicians in this complex mix? Who is really calling the shots and what needs to be done to right the system?

These are questions that should be of interest to all regardless of what side of the aisle you sit.

Fortunately, I can point you in the right direction. It will take 2 hours of your life but given the gravity of the situation, it might be helpful to have this background information before you start sending letters to your congressional representative pleading with them to vote one way or the other.

The NPR radio show “The American Life” hosted by Ira Glass has investigated the healthcare issue from a historical perspective right up to the current crisis. I guarantee you that you will learn plenty from these two shows that you most likely did not know. I certainly did.

I challenge you to listen to these two show and then let me know what you think so we can have an informed dialogue. I assure you that it will be well worth your time.

The first program explains why costs keep rising.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1320

The second program goes deeper into the healthcare insurance industry. You need to hear this.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1321

Remember, I want to hear from you. Comment to this blog, send me an e-mail or pick up the phone. Let’s talk healthcare. It’s a subject we can all relate to.

3 for the Price of 1

2009-11-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my friend Jack the other day. He is one of my most loyal readers of this blog (that means he has read at least one posting one time in his life). He commented that it had been a while since I had last offered my meanderings. So, loyal readers, I offer you the ultimate brownie sundae—three topics for the price of one! That’s right—you get three somewhat fully formed missives for the low, low price you have been used to paying in the past. So, without further ado. . .

Can Print Take On A New Life?

If you are a football fan, you are well aware of the technology introduced a few years ago that allows broadcasters to artificially show you where the first down line is through a bright yellow line. This line somehow is not “painted” over any players who may stand in front of it or even on it. Although I am not a hockey fan, I am told this same technology is used to help viewers follow the puck during the action. This technology is called AR—short for augmented reality.

It turns out that AR may play a significant role in the future of print.

The current issue (December) of Esquire magazine incorporates AR that allows the reader to hold the page up to a web cam, which, in turn, triggers a video, to play. I know. Sounds like science fiction but it could be the next wave in making print more interactive. Would B2B publishers ever consider using AR? Who knows? But since B2B publishers typically adopt ideas from the consumer world once they are convinced it will fly, we could see AR in our favorite trade magazine as early as—say—2015?

I Walked Into My Office and Nothing Made Sense

OK, if you’ve ever walked into my office, you would know that nothing has made sense there for quite a few years. But in this case, I’m not talking about your every day disorganization or slovenliness. I am talking about a much higher order of chaos.

I am talking about the fact that we marketers may not be sitting on top of the mountain preaching to the masses (our customers) for much longer. Through the power of social media, which effectively is the universe’s largest word of mouth vehicle, the masses are now talking amongst themselves. They are tired of being preached to. They want to tell US what they want and when they want it. And if we still want to get their attention, we had better find a damn creative way to do it that entices their curiosity. The world of marketing and advertising is in the midst of a mind-numbing storm that makes Katrina look like scattered showers (no offense intended to the tragedy of those who suffered and or died). I can assure you that nobody knows where this will go. If somebody does attempt to tell you the end story of this seismic shift, they are probably the same people trying to tell you which stocks will go up or down and which teams will win on Sunday. In short, they are taking educated guesses. Stay tuned because when everything in my office stops flying around and finally settles, it will be a much different world. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, I’m wearing a hard hat.

What Does LeBron James Have To Do With the Machine Tool Business?

Absolutely nothing. But that is why I love Today’s Machining World.

This wonderful trade magazine is the brainchild of Lloyd Graff. Lloyd is a different kind of trade magazine publisher. First, he knows of what he speaks as he has run a company – Graf Pinkert—that actually sells equipment into the industry about which he writes. Conflict of interest? Maybe but he addressed that long ago. Other than one self-serving ad for his company in each issue, his presentation is even handed. So not being the most technical guy in the world (some would say that is an exaggerated understatement), why do I enjoy this magazine? Because Lloyd is one of the only people in B2B publishing that recognizes that if he put a variety of content into his magazine, people are more apt to read it. Therefore, each issue includes a book review, a puzzle, and an article on an out-of-the-box thinker who may or may not be part of the machine tool industry. In short, I read Today’s Machining World with the same mindset that I read magazines that I subscribe to at home. I’m relaxed. I pour a glass of wine and I dig in. It is always a pleasure. Lloyd also puts a lot of himself into the magazine both through his regular column, which includes snippets about local Chicago sports, his religion, his health, his family, and politics in addition to his keen insight on what is going on in his industry. It’s the ultimate gossip column for his readers because, after all, we are not just what we do for a living. Lloyd recognizes this and brings this to his readers. It was Lloyd who actually inspired the blog you are reading. It has been my mission to infuse my marketing blog with a lot of other issues important to me. Not all of these topics will be important to you but hopefully enough will be to keep you reading.

NOTE TO READER: Here is the self-serving part. Lloyd was kind enough to ask me to write a book review on Shooting Stars, the new book by LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger about LeBron’s high school years. He asked me because he wanted the spin of an Akron observer.

Hush money, blackmail and extortion, oh my

2009-10-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

In the Wizard of Oz, it may have been lions and tigers and bears that put fear in the hearts of Dorothy and her friends but today, hush money, blackmail and extortion are much more in vogue. But be ready to pay the piper because the price of hush money has risen far faster than the cost of living.

About a month ago, I saw the Hollywood film Frost/Nixon that depicted the back-story of how the Nixon interviews with David Frost came to happen. This later inspired me to check with NetFlix to see if they had the actual Nixon/Frost interviews. Sure enough, they did. I had seen them back in the day, but I was not the political animal then that I am now so they were seen through the eyes of a 20-something college kid as opposed to a more shall we say seasoned observer. A couple of things caught my eye. First, the amazing fact that Frost was able to pull this interview off by cobbling together financing for an independent production is amazing in itself. The networks were sideline observers to an event of colossal proportions. They were not willing to offer as many hours in prime time as Frost was guaranteeing. Not only did Frost beat them at their own game, he actually got Nixon and his people to agree that they would not be privy to any questions prior to the interview nor would they have any ability to see the final program before airing. Now stop right there. Imagine an interview with any former president (or any key figure for that matter) agreeing to those terms today. Not a chance.

The other interesting thing I noticed was the kind of money being offered as “hush money” to make sure that people like E. Howard Hunt and others would not spill the beans. In Hunt’s case, the payoff being bandied about was the lofty sum of $120,000. A tidy sum to be sure in those days but certainly that figure pails by comparison to the 2 million that Bob Halderman allegedly tried to extort from David Letterman recently to keep some untimely sexual liaisons quiet.

So, the bottom line is this. In 2009, it takes 2 million dollars to keep a sexual tryst (or shall we say several sexual trysts) quiet and a mere 37 years earlier it only took $120k to keep a white house “plumber” from springing leaks. And they say we’re in a recession?

Health Care Redux

2009-09-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, I blogged about the current healthcare debate. I noted that no matter where you stand politically, most people agree that something radical must be done.

Now here are some facts to chew on. Just 15% of the people use 75% of the benefits. This disparity will only grow as the baby boomer generation continues to age. Today, the average cost to cover a family with reasonable health insurance is $13,000 a year.
At the rate the health insurance costs have increased over the last ten years, it could cost as much as $25,000 per year to cover that same family ten years from now—if nothing is done to stop the bleeding (no pun intended). Most families simply cannot afford that. Furthermore, I can’t think of too many employers who will pay that kind of a premium for an employee and his or her family.

Add to this the fact that Medicare was not funded to handle these kinds of increases and our aging population is destined for serious trouble if nothing is done.

Yes, it is going to be expensive. Yes, it will be painful. Yes, we are leaving a terrible legacy (and debt) for our children. But in the long run, this will be less painful and less costly for all than the alternative. Nobody is saying the next few years will be a picnic while we go through this transition as a country. There is no good time to do this so we best take it on now.

Got a better idea? I’d love to hear it.

OMG, Where Have Our Communication Skills Gone (LOL)?

2009-08-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Working in a field that is in the middle of a cyclone of change, I am constantly fascinated by what the long term affects will be of some of the things we are currently experiencing. For instance, I have already instructed my staff that when preparing our e-newsletter, make sure the most important information is covered first and clearly. We know that people “scan” copy online where they are more inclined to “read” it in print. Therefore, we must make our copy “scannable”. If we are building a website, we must keep in mind that our copy needs to be “SEO-friendly”. If we are sending a Tweet, it must be 140 characters. If we are posting to Facebook, nobody wants to read a book. Keep it short and mostly inane. Where is this going to take us as a society? We are already seeing the death of print. The question is “what is it being replaced with”? Will our children and grandchildren be writing their Master theses with 3-letter acronyms since that is what they have been using for much of their correspondence throughout their life? More importantly, will their professors accept it?

I am in a quandary. I make my living in communications yet I wonder how we are communicating today and what it means for tomorrow. Am I just getting old and not in touch? Yes to the first part but I think no to the second. I think there is a real issue here that needs more attention.

In his new book, “The Tyranny of E-Mail”, John Freeman, acting editor of Granta magazine, makes some of these points much better than I could. He points out “The faster we talk and chat and type over tools such as email and text messages, the more our communication will resemble traveling at great speed. Bumped and jostled, queasy from the constant ocular and muscular adjustments to our body must make to keep up, we will live in a constant state of digital jet lag.” I couldn’t have said it better.

The US postal service is going broke because it is handling a fraction of the mail it used to. Our fax machine lies almost dormant since almost every communication is through e-mail. I explain to my 30-year old daughter that our media orders used to be mailed and the acknowledgements from the publications were also mailed. And yet, business got done.

It is our business to guide our clients through this maze and consul them about the business benefits of social media and yet, one side of my brain is saying, let’s back away and send a customer a hand written letter and then knock off early and take a hike in the park.

Historically Speaking

2009-08-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

These days, we hear the phrase “historically speaking” a lot. It is typically used in analyzing the current economic meltdown we are experiencing. Oh, I know, things are getting better so they tell us.
But everyone admits that unemployment numbers always trail an economic improvement. But if we still have double-digit unemployment six months from now, are we really improving?
Is the average family going to feel better? More confidant? More likely to spend money on big-ticket items? I don’t think so. And since consumer spending is 2/3s of the GDP, I think we still have a long way to go.

When you delve into the phrase “historically speaking”, you are really talking about statistics about how the economy has returned after past recessions or depressions. But are all times we live in the same? Are we the same country that we were in the 30s, the 70s, the 80s? Hardly. We are now living in a global economy that simply didn’t exist during these past meltdowns. We are also living in a time when many Americans have their retirement tied up in the market. This was certainly not the case in these past times and has only been the case since 401K pension plans were created. Before then, only wealthy people were “in the market.” The rest of us saved as much as we could and planned to retire on social security.

As I’ve stated in earlier columns, I love statistics. I first fell in love with statistics because of my love of baseball. For any serious baseball fan, the game and the stats are never far apart. But in my beloved sport of baseball, where all of the lore is based on past statistics, we now have the added element of steroids and other performing enhancing drugs. So, the term “historically speaking” in the world of baseball has taken on a whole new meaning. Do the stats of Bonds, A-Rod, Ortiz, Manny, Clemons and so many others really mean anything when compared to players who accomplished their stats with no more than a couple of beers and a pack of smokes?

In a similar vein, how do we then feel that we can do comparable statistical overlays between what our country is experiencing now and what it experienced in decades past? I am of the belief that we are comparing apples and oranges and that no one really knows how we will come out of this and when and what we will look like when we do. I have read scores of articles and listened to hours of “expert” testimony on the subject, much of it one expert reading the “tea leaves” completely opposite to his counterpart. Therefore, who should we really choose to believe anyway? Look at how the big banks are bragging about huge profits in the quarter after they received billions in bale out money. Does anybody really believe they are miraculously solvent again?

Whether we’re talking economics or baseball, I say take your history, flush it and start all over again.

A News Junkie Mourns Cronkite

2009-07-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Back in 1981, I was not the news junkie I am today. Let’s face it. There weren’t as many opportunities to get at the news as there are today. After all, CNN had just been launched in June of 1980. But back to 1981. That was the year that Walter Cronkite retired as the long-time anchor of the CBS Evening News. As I recall, I kind of split my time between CBS and NBC in those days. NBC had the Huntley-Brinkley report early on and then John Chancellor for quite a few years after that and finally Tom Brokaw until recently.

In those days, anchors were reporters. That is, they reported the news. They did not comment on it, raise their eyebrow or show a disapproving scowl when they were reading a news report that might have upset them if they were not sitting in their anchor seat. I always felt the sign of a good newsperson was whether I could tell if they leaned left or right. There was no way to know in the “old days.” That was before news was turned over to commentators.

Today we have the Olbermans and the Oreillys purporting to deliver news. What they are really doing is serving up partisan politics and preaching to the choir. What liberal is going to watch Oreilly? What conservative is going to watch Olberman? There is nothing wrong with these shows but they are not news. You are not getting an even-handed presentation of the day’s stories. You are getting a heavily slanted view of that side’s perception of that day’s stories. If that’s what you need to make your own beliefs seem more credible, that go for it. I’m not saying there is not a place for those kinds of shows but in the old days, the “entertainment” division and not the “news” division would have produced those shows.

So what do we have for our evening anchors today? Brian Williams honed his game doing an hour news show on CNBC and MSNBC for eight years prior to being anointed anchor when Tom Brokaw stepped down in 2004. Mr. Williams is a good newsreader and plays well on TV but he has not forgotten from where he came. He still occasionally plays to the camera and makes side comments about stories that would have been sacrilegious back in the day.

After the untimely death of Peter Jennings, a consummate newsman who worked as sole anchor at ABC from 1983 until his death in 2005, Charles Gibson ascended to the ABC throne in 2006. He came from a 19-year stint with Good Morning America, ABC’s entertainment/news morning program. He does a fairly straight presentation and has actually caught NBC in the ratings and the two go head to head. Nevertheless, Gibson came from more of an entertainment background originally than news.

CBS on the other hand has never truly recovered from Cronkite’s retirement. Dan Rather certainly came from a strong news background and earned his stripes as a top-flight reporter during the Vietnam War but Rather was always tagged with the liberal badge and after 24 years (a longer stint than Cronkite), he left under controversy. Interestingly, Bob Schieffer, a true throwback to the Cronkite era, replaced him for a time. Although Schieffer would never be accused of being flashy, he has a strong delivery and a believability that comes with the credibility he had earned as a long-time reporter with CBS. When CBS decided that they needed to “go young” since their demographic was definitely skewing gray (given the age of most of their 60 Minutes reporters and Schieffer), in 2006, they threw the long ball and snagged Katie Couric from NBC. Although Couric had started out as the cute, bubbly morning co-anchor on The Today Show, she was always acknowledged as a tough questioner and a strong reporter. Even though her ratings are far behind NBC and ABC, I have watched all three broadcasts for various periods of time and, after a rocky start, I believe that Katie Couric’s CBS Evening News is by far the best network newscast on the tube. Katie has crafted her newscast to make sure that she did not carry over any morning show smiles and over the top personality. The newscast is even handed and has a number of long form series that explore important topics in ways that they other two broadcasts are not doing. Is she the reincarnation of Walter Cronkite? Hardly. But these days, I will take my real news where I can get it?

Lest I neglect to mention the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,
the presentation is as dry as Melba toast but two sides are always presented on any given topic. Also, kudos to the News Hour for always leading with the top real stories of the day. Example, on the day that Michael Jackson died, the networks led with wall-to-wall coverage as if the president had died. Other news was relegated to a 5 minute wrap up at the end of the show. The News Hour led with the real stories of the day and included a brief segment on Mr. Jackson as their 5th story of the night.

The evening cable battles go on but I think Anderson Cooper does a nice job on CNN with a 2-hour show that allows him to go in-depth on key issues. CNN’s worldwide bureaus allow them to get right in the middle of many foreign stories with their own people.

Finally, a shout out to Rachel Maddow, clearly the most intelligent person addressing the news on TV. A Stanford grad and a Rhodes scholar, Ms Maddow is quick on her feet, extremely well read and can react to a response from an interviewee without checking her notes. She actually educates herself on a topic before engaging in an interview. Nevertheless, I would still put her in the category of commentator.

Well, there it is—the news landscape as seen by this blogger. There are still small islands of real broadcast news out there but watch out for the commentators. They are trying to convince you it’s all about them.

Something Is Wrong With This Picture

2009-07-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

OK, we all know that print is in trouble. We also know that our newspapers are losing money at an alarming rate—but they aren’t losing readers! People still want news. They just want it in different ways today. So readers of the Plain Dealer (formerly the Cleveland Plain Dealer) now turn to www.cleveland.com. Readers of the Akron Beacon Journal now log on to www.ohio.com. Both sites of course offer free access. Also, both newspapers can brag about a growing readership overall but that growth is coming from the online segment of their business.

If you are on the ad side of things as we are, you are aware that online advertising is less expensive than print. But here is the dirty little secret. One of the reasons that online advertising is so inexpensive compared to print is based on an age-old model. Print journalists and photojournalists have normally been paid a fair wage for their work. Many newspapers were unionized years ago and the writers were part of the newspaper guild. Now those same writers are seeing their print columns appear online and they are NOT receiving any additional income for all of those additional eyes that are reading the fruits of their labor.

There are really two issues worth noting. First, some local, regional and even national online publications are paying slave wages or even nothing (you heard me right) to freelance writers who provide editorial content. Why do these writers do it? Some are young, and their need to get published trumps the fact that they are not paid for their work.

Secondly, for many freelance content providers, their contracts for print work INCLUDE a clause that allows the publisher to “repurpose” their work in any way they so choose. So now that print piece that they were paid for finds its way on to a website and then is picked up by other newspapers in the chain for their website–all without additional compensation. This would be like a syndicated columnist whose column appears in 50 newspapers just getting paid for the original column in their “home” newspaper. Doesn’t work that way.

Now when you combine the above information with the low advertising rates for online content, you can see that there is something wrong with this picture. You are benefiting from that low cost for online advertising because, in many cases, the writers of that content are getting paid little or nothing.

At some point there will be a revolt and this practice will stop. Music has already gone there. A few years ago, almost every college student downloaded music for free. Then Apple introduced iTunes and offered downloads at what the public felt was a fair price and the level of illegal music downloads has dropped off dramatically. Yes, even poor college students will pay a fair price for a product if the argument is made properly.

Screenwriters are also waging this battle. They write a screenplay for a movie company and then that company also sells the rights to HBO or Netflix for a streaming download. The writers want payment for this added exposure and they are entitled to it. So it seems that we consumers will eventually have to pay more in the future for our online content or music or movies (vs free). It’s no wonder, because I would say that we’ve been benefiting from a business model that can’t sustain itself. So soon the free party will be over. Enjoy it while you can.

Crystal Balls Are Nice If You Can Get Them

2009-06-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

For about a year now, I have been counseling our clients about the fact that every company needs to reinvent themselves and make themselves ready for the new reality that is forming out of this recession/depression. I have constantly preached that in this case, you DO have the throw the baby out with the bath water because the way you did things in the past and the methods that made you successful in the past just may not work anymore.

I have certainly tried to practice what I preach with our company.
Recognizing that we have to evolve with the times, we have implemented new services, re-tooled our website, started an e-newsletter and a blog (which you are reading right now). We are not done as we continue to explore new opportunities in social media that I would have thought just 6 months ago would not have been of interest or appropriate for our B2B clients. I could not have been more wrong.

If we get too complacent in our business, we are certainly going to be left behind. A great example of this is Netflix Inc. As noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article (June 23rd), currently life is good at Netflix. The company actually added more subscribers than ever in the first quarter. But CEO Reed Hastings is not happy. He sees the future and it is not DVDs mailed to customers. So here is a case where a company is very successful and could be pounding their chest about how they have bucked the odds and made money in these tumultuous times. Not Reed Hastings. He is looking at where Netflix needs to be 5 or even 10 years from now. He recognizes that people want to stream or download movies for instant gratification and, in many cases, show them on their HD TV. His biggest expenses now are negotiating contracts with the movie companies to allow him to do just that. It’s not an easy job given that he has to complete with TV networks, HBO, Showtime and the like. Will he continue to beat the odds? Who knows? But what we do know is that he is not satisfied with where the company is given the tenuous future.

What about your company? Have you thought about where your company will be in 5 or 10 years? Have you thought about whether your current business model will make sense in the future? What if the trend is for more B2B companies to go e-commerce? Are you ready?

Let’s all take a lesson from Reed Hastings and Netflix and plan for the future. Get out your crystal ball and see what you think the future holds. Once you find out, give me a call. I want to know too.

Maybe We Should All Be 85

2009-06-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I went to my cousin Rose’s 85th birthday party. In addition to her children (50s and 60s) and grandchildren (teens, 20s and 30s) and great grandchildren (still in diapers), many of the party goers were her siblings, friends and cousins who were 75 plus. Her 90 year old brother was also in attendance. In talking to the 80+ crowd, I was surprised at how upbeat they were. They were all aware of the current economic crisis but they were so happy to be alive and were simply looking forward to the next day, the next hug, the next meal and the next chance to watch their great grandchild laugh.

This unique perspective was just what I needed to adjust my outlook. Let’s take a second look at what is really important and enjoy what we have. I have read some stories about people who said that getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to them because it allowed them the time to step back and take a hard look at their life. Many adjusted their life goals and consider themselves happier now. Is this the case for everybody? Clearly not.

But as I wrote some months back, I really believe our response to this economy is as much psychological as anything else. If we get caught up solely in the gloom and doom of what we read, we can become frozen. If on the other hand, we approach each day like Cousin Rose, well then, “life is good” and we’re ready to tackle anything.

Don’t Think Our Healthcare System Needs to be Retooled?

2009-06-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

If you are one of those people who think “let’s leave well enough alone” and leave our health care system just the way it is, you need to read this. I’ll give you a few minutes and then we’ll discuss. . .

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124407903047283723.html

I’m not going to get political here and tout Obama’s plan (or anyone else’s for that matter). I am simply going to say that the only people the current system is working for is

• pharmaceutical companies

• health insurance companies

• people like me who can afford a good health plan

Forgetting the minority of people in the third category for a minute, that leaves two mega industries (pharma and insurance companies) and two mega lobby groups who prop them up.

A very revealing insight to the way health insurance companies work is detailed in the above article. For those who did not read it, the article recounts the fact that some insurance companies require that the insured (that is you) CONTACT THEM when you have paid out the maximum on your deductible. You read right. They put the burden on the insured to let them know when they have to start paying out. How convenient. It’s funny that the insurance companies have an excellent memory when it comes time to up your premium because you have hit a new magic age (55, 60, etc.) We are fortunate to have a great insurance plan but I see how much a doctor’s visit would normally cost without insurance. And I see how much some drugs would cost without insurance. Isn’t something topsy, turvy here? Those without insurance pay the retail while those that have a job and a decent insurance plan get the big box warehouse price. And don’t for a minute rationalize that those who are not insured don’t deserve the same great benefits that we insured have earned. Guess what, we are paying for their service anyway through higher premiums when they visit emergency rooms and the like.

This mess must be cleaned up and cleaned up now. We are talking about our health here. Don’t these pharma, insurance and lobby execs have loved ones who have died or are dying of terrible diseases? Should this business really be a place to gouge profit? Why don’t we start adding service fees when a cop pulls you over for a ticket. You pay the ticket and a convenience fee (like Ticketmaster) for the inconvenience of them having to stop their car and pull you over.

Let’s have fire fighters charge by the gallons of water they use to put out the fire on our stove.

This situation is completely out of control. That is why our medical insurance premiums have gone right off the chart. My parents generation had major medical to cover a major health problem, a hospital stay, etc. You paid the doctor and your drugs out of pocket because doing so didn’t send you to the poor house. Over 60% of bankruptcies right now are due in part to health care expenses. Just think about that. You’ve been diagnosed with cancer. You have the extreme stress that the diagnosis has put on you and your family. And now you have the added stress because you can’t pay the medical bills for the tests and treatment you need because you lost your job due to the illness and you have no insurance. Isn’t something wrong with this picture?

This is inhumane treatment. This is truly torture and we are not terrorists!

The Smartest Guys in the Room

2009-06-07T13:30:00.000-07:00

With unemployment running over 10% in Ohio, it got me thinking. For many of those who have lost jobs, they were autoworkers or people employed in machine shops—in other words, they made stuff. Many, rather than going to a 4 year college, went to a trade school to learn their craft and have been working at it making a pretty nice living, in some cases, until this recession/depression hit.
Unemployment figures are almost always more optimistic than reality. If someone loses a factory job making $42,000/year with great benefits and now must take a much lower paying job with little or no benefits to make ends meet, they are no longer on the unemployment roles but they have clearly taken a financial hit which is not reflected in the unemployment number. If a person is unemployed for over 18 months and is seen by the government as “no longer looking for a job”, they are no longer counted but that person is still not working.

So the question I ask myself is, “Where will all of these ‘blue collar” workers get jobs and how much will those jobs pay?” Then I realized that I was falling into the same trap that so many white collar mid and upper level management types fall into. I assumed that because these people were doing this one kind of job, that’s all they could do or all they wanted to do. In many cases, nothing could be further from the truth. Many people employed in blue-collar jobs have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and stayed at their old jobs because of the benefits and the pension. Meanwhile, many had side jobs on the evening or the weekends doing plumbing, electrical work, landscaping, etc.

How do I know this? My brother worked for the City of Akron Water Department for over 25 years. First of all, as for “smarts”, he had it all over me. He just chose to go into a job where we could have more free time to indulge in his hobbies. He would often talk about his colleagues who had second jobs that allowed their families to take wonderful vacations or even purchase a second home. Many of them made well over $60,000 when looking at their total income and that doesn’t even count the income of a working spouse. I have experienced this same kind of thing when I have had the opportunity to interface with many of the people working in plants of my clients.
Many of these people are highly intelligent but find more fulfillment producing a product rather than selling the fruits of their labor.

Now let’s look at the white-collar job losses. How many of these people will consider painting houses or working with their hands?
They may remain unemployed longer because they are waiting for a job with the prestige and salary of the one they lost.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next year or two. I believe the American worker will turn out to be a smart, resourceful, entrepreneurial type person who will create his or her own new jobs and ultimately challenge the larger companies they came from with the knowledge that they learned.

When it’s all said and done, it will be fascinating to watch who ultimately is the “smartest guy in the room”.

Don’t Fall Prey to the Bottom Feeders

2009-05-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

When I was young, my Dad used to take me fishing out on Lake Erie. Occasionally, we would catch a fish that my Dad would immediately throw back with the terse comment “Those are just bottom feeders. We don’t want to eat those.”

As I got older, the term bottom feeders took on another more important connotation. Bottom feeders were people who scooped up the residue of life and lived off of it. These days, we might apply the term to irresponsible mortgage lenders, credit card companies who prey on people who can barely make ends meet and now, worst of all, companies who claim they will help people magically eradicate their debt. This last group is the same kind that move into a city right after a natural disaster and take advantage of people who have been devastated by a storm and are just clinging to hope that somebody is going to help them.

Recessions like we are experiencing bring out the best and worst of people. Some people, like those described above, see it as an opportunity to strike when their target’s guard is down. Others see it as an opportunity to spread their creative wings and think in innovative ways that they might never have done otherwise.

Within our company, we have opted to swim above the bottom feeders. Rather than looking for a quick payday, we are working with our clients to seek solutions that will help them through these troubled waters while still allowing them to come up for air when needed. If we can help our clients survive and in some cases thrive during this economic crisis, they will be stronger when the stress lifts and we will be rewarded for being a helpful ally in their time of need. Isn’t that really what strong business relationships are built on?

Bottom Feeders? We’ve got enough of them out there.
Let’s choose to swim in clean, fresh waters. And while we may have to continue to swim against the tide for the short term, we’ll swim cautiously and avoid the bait for the time being.

The Power and the Glory

2009-04-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

My wife Sandy called my attention recently to a new Harris Poll that found that people viewed the media and advertising (yes, advertising) as partly responsible for our current economic plight.
According to this poll, the people saw the media as fanning the flames (what a new concept) and they saw advertising as responsible for “making people buy things they didn’t really need”.

Now I am the first to admit that there is bad advertising like there is bad anything in any given industry but the interesting thing about this poll is that it reveals that once again, people want to take no responsibility for their actions. If your child is obese, it’s that damn McDonald’s advertising that did it. If you smoke, you were unable to resist Joe Camel. And if you bought a half a million-dollar house on a 50k income, it was that convincing bank advertising that forced you to sign on the dotted line. And that Hummer you bought to scoot around town to run errands? Don’t get me started. You needed that power to get through the Wendy’s drive-through line.

If only our industry was as convincing as this poll would have us believe, we would all have leading roles in our own movie. Remember, the goal of our industry is to get prospective buyers to consider purchasing our client’s products. The more we succeed, the better job we are doing. The difference between advertising and editorial is that in advertising, we are intentionally playing to our strong suit. We are telling you everything great about our client’s product or service and leaving out the things you might not be so excited about. Sort of like when you told your Mom that Johnny beat you up in the playground while forgetting to mention that you threw the first punch. You simply were selling your story without including any negative details.

Now we are being told that everyday people are taking our messages straight to the heart (bless their souls) and are deciding that they need to do no independent research on their own. Who are these people? Stepford wives? Automatons? When and where is the thinking taking place? If this research is true, our job just got a lot easier. Just lay out our story, tell it in a convincing fashion and the customers will line up with smiles on their faces. If only it were so easy. I have to cling to the idea that most people still have brains and include advertising as part of their decision-making process. If they are looking at buying a car, they look at the ads but then they also see what Consumer Reports has to say and they read independent articles comparing makes and models and they talk to their friends and family about their experiences. I hope that is what most of us do. That is intelligent consumerism.

Power to the People

2009-04-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

Something strange is happening in the world of B2B marketing. For most manufacturing companies, the way to move product has traditionally been through distribution. Set up good distributors throughout the country or even the world and let their salespeople bring your product to market. For the most part, the system worked beautifully. After all, the distributors had the relationships with the end users. Their salespeople were the people who took the purchasing manager out to lunch (if the company allowed that). In short, they were the face of the manufacturer.

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to market. The web interrupted the path and created a quandary. What if some of our customers want to buy direct? Manufacturers could get giddy just thinking about the margins they would enjoy cutting out the distributor. But wait a minute. Not so fast. Distributors can roll out a long list of all of the benefits they offer: warehousing, marketing, invoicing, collecting, relationship building. The list goes on.
But let’s face it. Today, some of the traditional distributor benefits are simply not there. Many manufacturers drop ship to the customer, thereby eliminating one of the traditional benefits of the distributor—warehousing. Some manufacturers feel that if they are going to ship directly to the customer anyway, do they really need the distributor?

There is a parallel here in the world of politics. It all started with Howard Dean’s campaign for president in 2004. It culminated with Barack Obama’s successful campaign last year. These candidates continued to use their operatives on the Sunday morning news shows and on the 24 hour “news” stations but for the most part, they eliminated the distributor and went direct to the people through their website. Now, add in a heavy dose of Facebook and Twitter and you can be in front of the electorate on an hourly basis.

Maybe I’m reaching to draw a comparison between these two worlds but I don’t think so. One of the reasons that Obama’s campaign grew so quickly is that he took the campaign directly to the people. Is it now possible that some manufacturers could enjoy the success that rocketed Obama to the White House by going direct to their people? We’ll see but some will certainly try. But just because you build it does not mean they will come (sorry Kevin Costner). E-commerce sites need to be heavily marketed to be successful. Since the manufacturer cannot now count on the distributor to take their message to market, that burden now falls on the manufacturer. Therefore, search engine optimization takes on a critical role and all forms of marketing (print, online, direct mail, trade shows, etc.) take on a new sense of urgency. Of course giving the customer a good experience at your site will determine if they return. Nobody said this would be simple.

But at the end of the day, if a number of manufacturers are successful with this tactic, we could see a quantum leap in
e-commerce in our copycat world. It should all play out in the next five years.

Do You Have A Target On Your Head?

2009-04-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

You may not be able to see it in the mirror but we ALL have targets on our heads now. They define who we are, how we do what we do, with whom we do what we do and where we do it.

In both our business and consumer lives, every time we fill out a survey, ask for more information and other wise indicate our likes and dislikes (Amazon, Netflix, etc.), we are marking ourselves. The marketing gurus have even given this process a name (that would surprise you?). It’s called self-identifying. We do it everyday. It’s just that most of the time we are identifying ourselves, we are not always cognizant that we are engaging in a behavior that is changing the way marketing is taking place today and will change it even more dramatically in the future.

In the not too distant past, we went about “target marketing” in a less precise way. We chose a target—say males 18-35 who enjoy sports—and we promoted to that market. It might have been tennis shoes, sports drinks, beer or chips but we had a pretty good idea from our research that guys in this age range would like this kind of stuff. But the fact is, even though we humans can be pretty predictable, not all of those young dudes liked all of that stuff. Wouldn’t it be even better if we didn’t have to guess? Wouldn’t it be better if they went so far as to tell us marketers exactly what they did like so we wouldn’t have to guess? Well, guess what? Today, they are doing just that whether consciously or not.

This change is a 180 from the way marketers were used to doing business. And this change is not reserved for the consumer market.
We are starting to see self-identification happening in the B2B world as well. Prospective purchasers are telling us in advance what type of products they like, what they have purchased in the past, whether their budgets have increased or decreased, what part of the country they are in, etc. This takes the term target marketing to a whole new level. Just as cable TV created “narrowcasting” rather than the big network “broadcasting”, this same narrowcasting makes it possible to send highly targeted messages to a very select audience that has already expressed an interest in the kind of product you are selling.
This means rather than looking for that needle in the haystack, that needle is now magically rising out of the haystack and saying “Pick me.”

Now that your targets are self-identifying, you still have the not so easy job of discovering the best way to reach them. Is it e-mail, traditional direct mail, telemarketing? There’s the rub. There is no one answer. That depends on your specific market. Do you reach a doctor the same way you reach an engineer? Probably not. Nobody said this was going to be easy. The good news is that we now have the ability to even have this dilemma of how best to reach our self-identified target audience and what better time than now to go after them with everything you’ve got.

Media Matters

2009-03-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

I am inspired to write about media matters today because in this media-driven society, media matters more than ever before. It is everywhere (print, online, social media). We are bombarded by media all day every day but how much do we really learn from all of this media scrutiny?

When it comes to politics and many other issues, many of us gravitate to media outlets that tend to validate the positions we already hold. That’s OK but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate hearing all sides (even if hearing the other side does not usually persuade me to change my opinion). Just hearing both views is a valuable exercise.

Towards that end, I bring you The Week. A friend and business colleague, Arno Szegvari, who was kind enough to purchase a subscription for me, introduced me to this weekly magazine. To be honest, I initially thought it was fluff and didn’t really get into it. Then one day, I was sitting in my reading chair and found the latest issue of The Week nearby and give it a read. The Week is not really a news magazine. It is more like an online directly that gathers opinions from numerous sources on both sides of issues of the week and runs snippets of columns so in the course of a page or 2, you can see how the various pundits on both sides weighed in on a topic. So whether it is stem cell research, AIG bonuses or the threat of Pakistan, it’s all there. A virtual primer of the week’s news from all sides. The Week does not take a side. They simply provide all positions and leave it to you to use your brain (a novel idea). Unlike a more substantial publication on the media like Columbia Journalism Review, The Week is not intense reading but it does get you up to speed in a short period of time and in these times, there’s something to be said for that.

On a similar note, the BBC has a radio show called “World Have Your Say.” This hour long show runs on many NPR stations in the states and is also broadcast all over the world via the BBC (after all, they are the BBC). The great thing about this show is that they start with an interesting topic and then have some “experts” on to provide some substance and then they open it up for phone calls, e-mails, etc. from all over the world. During our last political cycle, it was very interesting to hear how callers from Africa, India and the Middle East (among others) viewed our process. Even though The World Is Flat as Thomas Friedman’s book notes, we are still living in the bubble that is the United States. Most of us do not get perspective on how we are viewed outside our country unless we are world travelers.
If you are reading this in NE Ohio, the show is broadcast on WCPN, the NPR outlet in Cleveland from 1-2:00 PM weekdays. 90.3 on your radio dial. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Finally, if I may stretch the word media to include the “media” found inside your fortune cookie in Chinese restaurants, I had the pleasure of opening up such a fortune at a recent visit to my local China Gourmet. Although most of these small pieces of wonderment are throwaways, the last one I got was quite interesting. It read:
“Ability will enable a man to get to the top, but character will keep him from falling.” I couldn’t help but think of Bernie Madoff when I read that. If the fortune fits. . .

Picking Winners

2009-03-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

Like many people at this time of year, I am engaged in March Madness. Unfortunately, this year, I define March Madness as the process of recovering from January and February. Nevertheless, I picked my bracket, gave my home town team (Akron) some run and promptly found myself in last place in a “league” composed of many people who know nothing about sports, let alone college basketball.
Needless to say, as a sports aficionado, this is a humbling experience.

But really, is this process of trying to pick winners in the big tournament that far a cry from picking stocks or mutual funds?
We go with a lot of big teams with historic legacies (Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citi, BOAmerica) and throw in a few upsets just to keep things interesting. The difference is, in the tournament, no matter how many upsets there are, there will be some winners—at least as far as winning a pool is measured. In the market, apparently there were no winners—save for Bernie Madoff who cheated and went to jail with no Get Out of Jail Free card available.

As a person who enjoys gambling, I have made more than a few treks to Las Vegas and I am finding it difficult to differentiate the intensity of the people hunched over their favorite slot machine and the crazies on the floor of the NY stock exchange making strange hand signals as they run around the floor with expressions on the face that say they have just seen the apocalypse and it is coming down on us like a tornado with a bad attitude.

I think next March, I’ll skip the brackets, put my money under my pillow and enjoy the transformation that is spring.

Under 30? I’m talking to you!

2009-03-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

I have been running an informal survey for a couple of years. Whenever I meet a younger person (we’ll call “younger” under 30 for the sake of this discussion) I ask them if they get a newspaper where they live. It will be no surprise to learn that almost none do.
“I get my news online,” they all respond. And I’m sure they do. They all seem fairly well informed about the big issues of the day and can comment about whether Rush is really the spokesman for the Republican Party and who won the war of words between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer (Stewart won by the way). But when the subject turns to their local community, are they really informed?

I sense a huge knowledge gap is happening when it comes to younger people having a deep knowledge of their own surroundings. Do they know who their mayor is? Do they know what the big issues are of the day in their town? More importantly, when they go to vote (and all indications are that they are voting in much larger numbers which is great), are they fully informed about the local issues on the ballot? Do they know if the fire and police need a yes vote on the levy to assure that they will have that service when they need it in the future? Are they aware that the park system needs their vote to expand services? Are they aware, as is the case in my fair town, that there is a strong movement afoot to recall the mayor who is in the midst of a 23-year run?

This lack of involvement in the local community is one more reason why city newspapers are dying a fast death. The younger generation does not see the daily paper as a part of their life like so many people my age. I find it almost impossible to go to bed without at least pursuing my daily paper every single day. But I am a dying breed. Most young people don’t even use the paper to find a job or sell a car. That is done either on Craigslist or some other online service.

It seems to me the battle for print will be between your major daily paper and localized weeklies that in some cases are doing a better job of reporting on the local community. What we don’t need in the local daily is a ton of AP and Reuters stories that we CAN glean from the web. What we need from our local paper is local news. In fact, I would suggest that the Local section of your daily should be the front page and the national stuff can move to section B. For many of us, we have already checked out CNN while we were getting dressed or been online to check overnight sports scores or stock futures and we have already been exposed to the big national/international stories of the day. What CNN and NYTimes.com are NOT giving me is who got murdered in my neighborhood and what my local unemployment rate is and who is firing and who is hiring. Sure, each local paper has an online version where that local news IS available but again, how many young people bookmark their local newspaper website? I would say very few unless you live in Washington D.C. or New York and you are lucky enough to have your national news site also be your local news site.

Where will it all end? I don’t know but I do know it will not end well for newspaper readers like me. As for Gen X and Y, many are already into buying at local (non-chain) stores and eating at local (again, non-chain) restaurants. Now they need to complete the circle and “know” local.

Personal Vs. Business Blogs

2009-03-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Many of my posts thus far have been my personal take on life as it is happening. Some have commented to me that this blog seems like more of a personal blog than a business blog. To be honest with you, I don’t differentiate. I pride myself on being the same person to my business partners as I am to my family and friends.

If that is a problem, that I am guilty as charged.

Now I invite you to read my past blogs and give me your thoughts. Feel free to disagree. That’s what this is all about.

The Cult of Personality

2009-03-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

I just read that former Illinois gov Rod Blogojevich signed a 6 figure book deal. This is one more reinforcement that in our society, it is all about being famous—not about being good. Beside the fact that I can’t imagine anybody forking over hard earned money to read anything by this lizard, it makes me run for the bathroom to think that this guy can lie and cheat his way to a book deal and so many good people that were just living their life, doing their work and towing the line are now out of work. What is wrong with this picture?
Why does our society put a value on people like this?

Want to hear a musical take on Cult of Personality? Try the song called Cult of Personality by Living Colour.
See them perform it here:

Cult of Personality

Interview With A Mad Man

2009-02-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

Q: What’s our topic today?
A. Advertising.
Q: Whoa, that’s a real stretch.
A. It’s time for me a make a confession.
Q: What, now you’re a Catholic?
A. No not that kind of confession. Its just time for me to come clean. Leave the closet and breathe in the fresh air.
Q: Are you about to tell us you are gay?
A. No, it’s not like that. Remember, the topic is advertising.
Q. OK, so what are you confessing?
A. Alright, I’m just going to blurt it out. I HATE ADVERTISING!
Q. Wait a minute. Hold on. Are you telling me the guy who has been working in this field for 33 years now is telling the world that he hates advertising?
A. OK, in my field of expertise, we sometimes exaggerate a point to get our real point across. So if the truth were told, I don’t really hate ALL advertising. Just 99% of all TV and Radio ads and most of all consumer advertising.
Q: So because you specialize in business-to-business advertising, you get a pass? How convenient.
A. Come on, admit it. I am not alone. Why do you think they invented TiVO? The fact is my wife and I care barely tolerate network TV anymore because we just can’t stand wading through the ads. As a result, we have gravitated to C-CPAN, HBO and Showtime. Even PBS is dumpster diving. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer used to be an actual hour long show. Now, by the time they get through their 5 minutes of ads masquerading as “sponsorships”, you only have a 55 minute show. I happen to love watching football but seeing how they can take a 60 minute game and stretch it out to 3 hours to sell beer and sneakers is just too much.
Q: And your advertising is different how?
A. First of all, we don’t irritate the hell out of you when you are home trying to relax and just indulge in a little entertainment. The worst we do is irritate the hell out of you when you are trying to leaf through your favorite trade journal. But that’s different you see. You are reading that trade journal as part of your job. You want to learn more about the new products being introduced into your industry. We are simply providing a bridge to that knowledge. A public service if you will. The more I think about it, we are the heroes of advertising, In a sense I am the caped crusader coming to save the world from all of those uninformed engineers who need to know what my client offers. You don’t have to thank me. You’re welcome.
Q: Getting a little full of yourself, aren’t you?
A. Well I do believe in what we do but it is important to differentiate it from that other stuff (although the Geiko ads aren’t bad). So there you have it. The real truth. I feel a tremendous burden has been lifted from my shoulders. Can I now go back to work with my head held high and my eyes on the prize?
YES I CAN.

What Did He Just Say?

2009-02-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

A recent survey indicated that 42% of us baby boomers smoked some pot in our younger years. Some of us still do (I prefer a good Cab these days). Personally, from my experience, I think that 42% figure is probably low.

Given that, I can’t believe all of brouhaha about poor Mr. Phelps. The worst thing he did was allowing himself to be photographed in a compromising position. Yes, I understand the role model thing, especially as it relates to kids but if the irresponsible photo opp was not blown out of proportion in every print and online vehicle known to man, most of these kids would have never heard about it—let alone seen it.

Let’s face the facts. Alcohol and cigarettes are the big killers in our society. Last I checked, nobody died from smoking a joint. To prove my point, I have not yet heard of medicinal alcohol or medicinal cigarettes. Neither offers any medicinal effects (save for my red wine of course). Yet marijuana has proven benefits for certain medical problems.

All of this leads me to my real point. The war on drugs. If this country wants to save some real money, “soft” drugs like marijuana should be immediately legalized or at least decriminalized. Most of the prisons are filled with marijuana hustlers who were doing no more harm than your local liquor store manager. This would free up half the prison space for hard core criminals and druggies who can be a harm to society (crack, meth, heroin, etc.). In addition, all of the money being spent on keeping the borders free of pot would be saved. We are talking about millions of dollars here. Let the government sell the same marijuana that they are selling as medical marijuana and tax the hell out of it. You not only would save the cost of trying to round up these harmless people. You increase tax revenue just like was done on cigarettes and alcohol.
It’s a simple formula. And we need it now more than ever.

Don’t Knock The Rock

2009-02-21T11:28:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid growing up in Northeast Ohio, my favorite baseball player was Rocky Colavito. He would go through a series of calisthenics before each at bat including pulling the bat behind his head and stretching his back and shoulders. Next, he would menacingly point the bat at the pitcher and hold it there until the pitcher was ready to release the ball. I of course followed his routine to a tee throughout my little league career. And although Rocky was a homerun hitter and I was a singles hitter (at my best), I loved emulating my hero.

Baseball also turned me into the stats freak that I remain today. Although I almost flunked algebra and geometry, I could and still can add a column of numbers in my head faster than anyone I know. The history and longevity of baseball always made the stats meaningful. Breaking a record really meant something. And to the thousands like me, knowing and understanding these records was a sacred art.

We were befuddled when the season was lengthened from 154 games to 162. What would this do to the records? Roger Maris would soon find out. How would domed stadiums and artificial turf affect the speed of the game and hitting for average? All of these things kept the stats world abuzz. Thank God we never had to worry about the effects of steroids. That would have put us over the deep end. And that is why I pity the 12 year old kids who were like I was and now must find some other way to while away the hours. It would seem that under the present circumstances, finding meaningful records seems to be a waste of time. I guess Facebook and Guitar Hero will have to do.

I’m glad I had real baseball. I’m glad I had Rocky.

What Goes Around Comes Around

2009-02-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

Many people know that I am into music in a big way. Always have been. Having grown up in the 60s, I’m still of the belief that we witnessed the greatest popular music revolution of all time. We’ll give the classical greats their due so I’m talking popular music here. Yes, there have been exceptional artists in the last couple of decades. Talking Heads and Radiohead come immediately to mind but my first love in music still goes back to my earliest influences.

Dylan, Van Morrison, Tim Buckley (Jeff’s dad), Tim Hardin, Leonard Cohen, Jimi, Janis, The Doors, the Stones, the Airplane and so many more. My tremendous love of Jazz runs the same way, as my favorite artists today are the same ones I loved 40 years ago. The only difference is most of the jazz greats are dead: Coltrane, Mingus, Miles, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler just to name a few.

My wife Sandy and I exposed our children to all of these artists and our children’s eclectic tastes today (I have been told) owe much to all of the music in the house.

I was a big fan of English folk music back in the day. Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, John Martyn (who recently died), and many others. The lead guitarist of Fairport was a 19-year old guitar virtuoso by the name of Richard Thompson. He has gone on to a heralded solo career that has spanned 40 years.
He is always on everybody’s “top guitarists” list and has continued to produce new music and hone his craft. I have probably seen Richard Thompson play close to a dozen times and each concert is a unique experience. At 59 and still a touring demon, Richard is an inspiration to me to keep thinking young and creating till the end.
You will not find him doing covers on the Holiday Inn circuit.

Well now the tables have turned. My son now knows way more about today’s new music than I ever could. He is always opening my mind to what is happening on the scene. This turning of the tide has not been easy for me. Going from teacher to student has been a difficult transition but I have come to grips with it now and embrace it.

So today, my son Andrew, who writes music columns for entertainment papers in Cleveland, Knoxville, Nashville and Chicago, interviewed the same Richard Thompson, my own personal guitar hero. The loop has been closed. The chain completed. What goes around comes around. The student has become the teacher and the old teacher loves this class.

To read some of Andrew’s work (and to learn a lot about new music), visit his music blog at www.aclayman.blogspot.com.

Let me know what music inspired you?

Don’t Cave In to The Negativity

2009-02-12T08:23:00.000-08:00

It’s easy to say. Not so easy to do.
When we are bombarded with bad news on top of bad news and it just keeps piling on, how can one stay positive?

Eric Claire, a veteran and very knowledgeable magazine rep for a publisher that we do business with said to me the other day, “our company simply made the strategic decision that we are not going to participate in the madness.” Again, easy to say. Not as easy to do. But if one thinks about it, your psychological approach to this recession will play a major role in your reaction to it from both a personal and business perspective.

If we get overwhelmed, we will go fetal and remain stagnant. If we fight through it and remain positive, we will help bring about a better, quicker recovery. If you are a market watcher, you are certainly aware of the impact that negative thinking has on the market. Yes, there is bad news aplenty out there but there are many days that the market swings south just because it gets depressed just like we do.

That is clearly why so many people were attracted to Obama. He spoke in positive terms and represented a brighter day. Poor guy. Just think of how the economic terrain has changed since he announced his run over 2 years ago. This was the guy that based his early campaign around ending the war in Iraq. Who is talking about Iraq today?

Bottom line is this. When I am upbeat in my head, my actions follow and I get things done. I exercise. I release stress. I have a good glass of wine and listen to some of my favorite jazz and all is all right with the world.

Give it a try and let me know how it works.

What if we all got a check tomorrow for $10,000?

2009-02-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

Regardless of what side of the aisle you side with, I am betting that if you got a check tomorrow for around $10,000, you wouldn’t save it all. Chances are, that might be the “stimulus” (there’s that word again) for putting a down payment on a car or maybe even a home. It might be time to purchase that new HD TV or even take that vacation that you thought you could not afford.

The fact is that having $10,000 that we did not expect would most certainly stimulate the economy. The question is for how long?

Now where did that figure come from? A recent CNN Money Summit was held and the question was asked if the government took all of the bank bailout money AND the stimulus money and simply sent checks to all of us taxpayers, how much would we each get?

Here’s the formula: Take $700 billion (the original bank bailout figure) and mix in about $820 billion in stimulus boost (currently the figure being discussed) and you have about $1.520 billion dollars to play with as it were.

Now take the $1.520 billion and divide it by the 156.3 million taxpayers and you have checks of $9,718.49 going out to each of us.

Now truth be told, $350 of that first $700 billion bank bailout is out the window with nothing much to show for it. The second $350 billion if about ready to fly with a few more rules but in essence, it is spoken for as well. Ah but the stimulus money. That is still on the table (at least until tomorrow as I write this on Monday, February 9th). So even if we applied the above formula to just the stimulus, we would still get checks for around $5,000. Not chump change.

So the question is, do you trust your government more than yourself?

Radio Rewards

2009-02-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

THIS AMERICAN LIFE

I’ve been a long-time listener to the radio program This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass. The one-hour show is found on many NPR stations typically on Saturday (check your local listings).
Usually, I listen to the show over the weekend to escape from the daily rigors of life or play it back on my iPod while I exercise. Each show focuses on an interesting topic and has various stories that speak to that topic. Lately though, I’ve also been able to gain a unique education just by listening to this show and I think you’ll agree that these two episodes represent some of the best explanations out there for how we got into our current financial mess as a country.

Give it a listen and then give me your thoughts! Just click on the links below and then click on the link for "full episode" along the left side.

Giant Pool of Money

Another Frightening Show About the Economy

Marketing In A Down Economy

2009-02-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

I just read a series of excellent articles about marketing in a down economy. Authored by Tony Mikes, head honcho of Second Wind, an ad agency consultancy association that we belong to, the concensus of the articles confirms what we know. That is, during a downturn, marketing is essential.

In the past, marketing was one of the first things to be cut when the economy took a turn south, but today, that’s a luxury that companies can’t afford. Customers are used to information accessibility and have become accustomed to familiarizing themselves with brands and even corporations with whom they can identify. To turn off the marketing machine is to possibly turn away those customers. At the very least, it leaves the door open to competitors who may keep on rolling.

When the economy is in turmoil as it is now, you need to think differently. What worked in the past may not work now. Are there new ways to bring your message to market? Are there advantages you can promote during a down economy that your competitor’s can’t match?

Consider this food for thought.
Check out this blog in the future for ideas you may want to consider as we all fight this recession/depression.

An Hour Well Worth Your Time

2009-02-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

Mad Men

If you haven’t caught the award-winning AMC show Mad Men, you are missing out on an amazing hour of television. The opening credits and music alone are enough to make the show noteworthy.

The show takes place at an up and coming Madison Avenue ad agency in the early 1960s. The term “Mad Men” was a name that the movers and shakers in the advertising world gave to themselves to highlight just how wild and crazy they were. These were the days of three Martini lunches, secretarial pools, blatant sexism and client/agency relationships that really pushed the limits. Because my Dad was an ad man during this period, much of the dialogue really rings true.

But you don’t have to have a connection to advertising to enjoy the crisp writing and the amazing attention to detail as they chronicle this unique period of time.

True, I might be a bit biased towards the topic, but nonetheless, if you have a chance, this show is well worth your time. If you want to start at the beginning (to appreciate the character development), Season One is available for purchase or you can rent 3 episodes at a time through Netflix or your local DVD rental store.

Let me know if you try it out. I’d like to hear your comments.

Mad Men opening credits