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Playing Good Defense: Taking Advantage of Turnovers

March 24, 2010 By 5 Comments

hoops
BEWARE: Sports Metaphor usage by a non-sports guy follows…

It's that time of year when even the non-sports people are following tournament brackets just to fit in around the office. Not me. Nobody here gives a rip. Really. HOWEVER, I thought it would be a good opportunity to make a point, and include a pointer. (let the sports talk begin)

Let me spell it out. It's basketball. Your business is one team. You're playing against your cross-town rival. The customer is the ball. The net is a sale. Don't make me draw a diagram.

What if nobody scrambled for a loose ball? What if your competitor drops the ball and you just stand there slack-jawed and let it roll through your legs while another member of your competitor's team picks it up and scores? What if the rules allowed a third competitor to run onto the court and grab the loose ball with his own portable net?

Reminder: You're in business, not watching basketball on TV. If you see a loose ball, pick it up. If your opponent dropped it, grab tightly and don't give it back. In basketball, the ball goes to the team who DIDN'T score (I guess to give them a chance). In business, after you score, the ball stays with you. Don't drop it. Pick it back up and guard it. Protect it. 

Business isn't basketball. You have permission to run onto the court with your own net and grab a loose ball.

Do I need to draw a diagram?

photo credit: stuseeger

Filed Under: Customer Experience, musings

Kia: Telling The Truth in a More Powerful Way

January 24, 2010 By 8 Comments

"Our story began with a bicycle, back in 1951."

It's the opening line of a Kia ad that has been airing the past few months.  I like the ad. It makes you feel good. I like the Kia models that I've driven. My wife likes the ad. She suggested that I write about it. It works at making you feel good about Kia.

The ad opens with a kid from the past. This helps us suspend disbelief when the announcer gets to the part about Kia. We're quickly ready for more because we've been instantly transported back to Mayberry. We're ready to feel good! When they tell us about the new Kia plant in Georgia, it all makes sense to us and we feel good about that too.

The interesting/curious part: there are elements of the ad that just don't add up.

True: Kia has opened their first U.S. manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia.

True: This is a good thing for Georgia, and for the U.S.

Strange: That a kid who looks like he stepped off the set of Leave it to Beaver could be riding a bike that was manufactured in South Korea in 1951. He is later seen riding it in the Georgia factory.

Stranger still: By all accounts (Kia's web site and Wikipedia), Kia was started in 1944 in Seoul. Wikipedia says they manufactured bikes, but Kia's own site says bicycle parts.

Question: Why does the ad say 1951 instead of 1944? Why an American kid and not a Korean kid?

I get it. All Marketers are Liars Tell Stories.

The story is, "Kia is a successful company that has been around a long time. We used to only manufacture our products in Asia, but now we're manufacturing cars in the United States. We hope you will like this fact and buy more of our cars."

The inconvenient facts are that it simply wouldn't be effective to show a Korean kid playing with bicycle parts. 1944 was also right in the thick of World War II. 1951, not so much.

If viewers get the idea that those bikes were made in America, so be it.

And, if Kia can avoid tying itself to WWII, instead, to a time when we were allies, what's the harm?

Also…certainly, nobody is going to check the facts are they?

What do you think?

And…was that really a Kia bicycle in the ad?

Filed Under: Advertising, Automotive, musings, Television

Book Review…from me?…Look Both Ways

January 6, 2010 By 1 Comment

I don't do many book reviews. Mainly because of press agents. As soon as you start talking about a book, they smell blood and a week later the Fedex truck arrives with stacks of books that you'll never read.

Today, I'm reviewing a book that I haven't read. I probably won't read it. Ever. (maybe I will).

But, I love it.

Lookbothways
I like to open it up and get a whiff of some smart design. When I open this book at random, I'm knocked over by Debbie Millman's incredible use of some very cool hand-made design elements that totally align with the words she chooses for each chapter. I'm not so sure that "chapter" is the right word. The book reads more like a portfolio.

It's a great way to kick-start the right hemisphere of your brain. Open at random. Enjoy.

The book is called "Look Both Ways – Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design" by Debbie Millman. If you want a real review…go look at what they said on The New Yorker's Book Bench. Those people know how to write reviews.

Filed Under: Books, Buzz This, musings

Do You Really Want to Succeed in 2010?

December 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Mirror, mirror on the wall…is it just me, or what?

click for image credit


True story: A man has 6 different wives, over a period of 10 years.

True story: A woman goes to 7 different dentists, seeking the perfect dentures, which none of them can provide.

True story: A business owner seeks the advice of 5 different marketing consultants over a stretch of 7 years, yet the business continues a steady decline.

Question: What do the woman, the man and the business owner have in common?

Are they just unlucky in love, periodontal disease and commerce?

Or, are they simply unwilling to find success?

As you head into a new year, spend some time in self-examination. Failure isn't a bad thing, as long as you can learn from it and apply what you've learned in the future.

If you find yourself as the lead character in any of the above stories, you'll find the villain staring back at you in the mirror.

The only thing those dentists had in common was an unreasonable patient. The only thing those wives had in common was a lousy husband and the only thing the marketing consultants had in common was a client who refused to do the hard things.

Filed Under: musings, Wizard of Ads

Nice Try Samuel Adams

December 1, 2009 By 1 Comment

"Beer is banned in 13 states!" scream the press releases.

(AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Samuel Adams recently uncorked this year's version of its biennial Utopias beer with lots of hype about the 27% alcohol content that exceeds the legal limit in 13 states.

Wow. You'd think people would be up in arms. You'd expect lawsuits, protesters, speeches from the pulpit, yet I haven't been able to find much negative news about this evil brew.

It turns out that it's not really a beer at all. Technically, yes it is beer. Functionally, not even close. What they've really done is make a sipping cognac out of beer. At $150 a bottle, even the Mothers Against Drunk Driving doesn't have a problem with Utopias, and they are quoted as such in the original press coverage.

In chapter 8 of Tom Wanek's new book, "Currencies That Buy Credibility," he talks about risking your reputation and prestige to buy credibility. In essence, you do something that will cause some of your customers to be repelled while others embrace your brand more tightly than ever.

In the case of the Utopias press, it's a surface-level ploy to seem cutting edge and risky. They want you to be shocked that this is a beer that has been "banned" in 13 states. You should be outraged that it costs $150 a bottle at retail. Yet, when you dig a little deeper…or just blow the marketing dust off the label…you find out that this just doesn't live up to the hype. It's just another bottle of expensive sipping hooch for connoisseurs.

So, how could Samuel Adams ACTUALLY risk reputation and prestige?

They'd have to do something that would actually enrage the MADD crowd. They could put out a beer that's both strong, cheap and easy to guzzle…something that would attract the high school drinker as well as the street bum. They need a beer that would get them written up in BumWine.com for the hallucinatory side-effects of the dangerous secret ingredients.

Give that one a try, Sam.

Filed Under: Books, Current Affairs, Market Share, musings, Rants/Raves Tagged With: , , ,
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