I Agree with Leo

I regard a great ad as the most beautiful thing in the world.

- Leo Burnett

I went to the University of Iowa Museum of Art last weekend and saw this statue - Bob's Big Boy. I love it. I love that this is the part of the 'special exhibition' at an art museum that has a Picasso and a Pollock.

Being in the ad businesses I realize that I spend a lot of time looking at and evaluating ads. Then I looked at my walls at home and I realized that I spend even more time than I originally thought. I have an old Westinghouse ad over the stove and a Guinness poster in my office. To me, great advertising is great art. The converse is also true. Think Warhol's soup cans ...

Now let me be clear - I'm not saying that if you make it pretty 'n artistic it'll be good enough. Actually, I agree with another thing that Leo said:

Fun without sell gets nowhere but sell without fun tends to become obnoxious.

The Point? A simple equation for the narrow line(s) between art and science (and soft sell and hard sell) that great advertising must tread. And a couple great quotes from one of the great advertising men of the 20th Century. You can get more Leo quotes here and more info on the man from the company that still bears his name. Incidentally, the Leo Burnett site does a better job of infusing a brand with the soul of its founder than any other site I've seen. From quotes and stories to dynamic timelines and video, you leave with a clear picture of the man and the legacy he's left behind.

Redefining Breakfast

Last night I caught the founders of Cereality, David Roth and Rick Bacher, on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Now this truly is a remarkable concept - a bar/cafe that serves cereal. Not high-end, gourmet cereal. Just plain 'ol Apple Jacks, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, etc. But you - the customer - gets complete control of the experience. You can lay down a bed of delicious Golden Grahams, top them off with a few Cocoa Puffs, and add toppings like bananas to boot.

And the innovation doesn't stop at the door. They've invented a user-friendly (and environmentally friendly) container with a clever spoon that has a flue in it for sucking the sweet, cereal-flavored milk (left). This is a perfect example of taking an activity that users love and building an experience around it. And you don't sit at a table either. You stand at kitchen-island like counters.

Roth and Bacher came up with a winning concept. All of the parts already existed. All they had to do was connect the dots. Oh, and the pisser? They peddled this idea around to all of the cereal companies to solicit partnership opportunities and all they got was "good luck." All except Quaker Oats, who was an early supporter and gave these innovators some start up cash. (There should be an award for companies that serve as "business angels" and support ideas like this but because there's not I'll lay off complaining about the oat smell in Cedar Rapids.)

The Point? It's real "in" right now to talk about how companies like YouTube are changing the landscape of business and culture but this kind of shift can happen offline as well. Companies like Cereality are taking what's successful about YouTube - an experience custom-sculpted around the user - and applying it successfully offline.

Black Friday on Sunday Morning

There was a great segment yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning talking about retail strategies for the holiday season. CBS's Anthony Mason gets advice from two of my favorite marketing gurus - Seth Godin and Paco Underhill, retail anthropologist (love that title) and author of Why We Buy. And don't think the segment only applies if you're selling sweaters at the Gap or other holiday goodies. The retail tenets outlined apply to your online store as well. This story and Underhill's book can be instrumental in refining your both your physical and online retail experience.

Whole Foods Gets It

There was a great story on All Things Considered last night about the in-store artists that Whole Foods employs to create their unique signage. They employ them full time and provide health benefits. Wow. Read or listen to the story and if you're not already familiar with them, learn more about this remarkable business.

The New WesterBlog - NOW WITH COMMENTS!

Just a quick note to let you know that I've made a couple of modifications to the WesterBlog. The biggest is that I have enabled commenting (you have Larry Miller and his persistent lobbying to thank for that). Just remember to be nice and let's get some conversations started.

Not so new but worth a mention - I've also added category labels for my postings so now you can search for all of my rants by subject (located on the top right hand sidebar under the heading 'Labels' - just below my ugly mug). Enjoy! And if you are enjoying, feel free to comment.

I'm Nick Westergaard and I Approve This Blog Post

A recent study pointed out some stunning stats on political advertising. During this month's election, a viewer watching a 30-minute block of television was, on average, exposed to 4 1/2 minutes of political advertising. The real kicker? In a 30-minute newscast viewers only got about 1 minute 43 seconds of political coverage and even then it focused primarily on political strategy rather than a look at how the candidates actually differ on the issues.

Speaking of stance on the issues ... I'm not real sure where I stand on this. I guess it would be easy to say "yeah advertising!" but I kind of feel more like "forget advertising (in politics: spin), where's the beef?" I guess, love it or hate it, our society is really getting most of our information, on anything from pharmaceuticals to MP3 players to the people we elect to higher office, through perceptions shaped by mass media.

The Point? With reluctance, I say go advertising ... but we need to be careful. As David Ogilvy once said, "In a period when television commercials are often the decisive factor in deciding who shall be the next President of the United States, dishonest political advertising is as evil as stuffing the ballot box." You're now more than twice as likely to hear controlled spin from a politician than an objective fact so just remember that an ad for a politician is as objective as one from McDonalds espousing the dietary benefits off the Big Mac. Luckily our food has Nutrition Facts ...

Chuck Gets It

Larry points us to Slate where Seth Stevenson gives an Ad Report Card for the new "animated-reality" TV ads that Charles Schwab is using to announce their lower pricing structure. This article provides an in depth anatomy of an ad and is also a great example of targeting your message to an audience (men w/impotent anger who are upset at how their money is being managed). It even goes a level deeper and uses the media in a way that creates the right effect on this market segment (the ads leave you with a disrupted feeling -- it could really push the target audience into taking action). Kudos to Austin-based GSD&M for a kickin' strategy and execution. Well played. Quick things I love about these ads:

• The "Talk to Chuck" slogan. For the exact same reasons Slate points out. Saw it on a big billboard in Chicago and fell in love with it.
  
• The fact that for research Schwab created a "clutter reel" assembled of the bad advertising that is prevalent in financial services space (Adirondack chairs, sailboats, etc.).
• The strategic match up of a targeted message and a targeted media

The only thing they missed? Putting these sticky ads on their website. Cadillac and Snickers have this figured out. If you've created a remarkable, clutter-cutting ad that's getting some press and people want to watch it, shouldn't they go to your site to do it ...?

P.S. If you find a link to the Schwab ads, send it to me and I'll post it.

Buzzwords

Here is a great article on buzzwords from Yahoo! Finance. (Thanks to Mike for the referral.) It's a great read if you can find time in your day between working on your deliverables and your decentralization and unsiloing efforts and provided you don't have any drive bys from knowledge workers or managers who manage by walking around (MBWA).

The [Non-Business] Business Book

Last week I was in the Denver airport waiting for my flight home and I was faced with an unsettling feeling: I am bookless. There are so many books that I feel I need to read: Freakonomics, The Long Tail, or the one that I thought was at the top of my stack, Small Is the New Big by Seth Godin.

But as I scanned the shelves at the Hudson Booksellers the words of my wife and so many of my colleagues echoed in my head: "If you read another business book next, I'll kill you." Sounds threatening but I really do have a problem with this. It's unintentional. And I'm not trying to brag but I just read these books faster than others. (I must have a problem with fiction in general. Even when not reading business books, I love non-fiction. Sports non-fiction, memoirs, essays, and biographies.)

I was especially antsy that night because it was Game 3 of the World Series and I had to get to the airport sports bar to watch as much as I could before going "silent" on the plane. (I'm a bit of a Cards fan by default -- they're my son's favorite team. I prefer the more tepid, lukewarm response that I like all Midwestern teams equally.) So it was probably a subliminal thing that led me to purchase 3 Nights in August, Buzz Bissinger's take on a 2003 three-game series between the Cubs and the Cards told through the transitioned lenses of manager Tony LaRussa.

Well, the Series came out just like I wanted it to and the book appears to be headed that way as well. I've also come to the conclusion that 3 Nights in August, is actually what I'm calling a non-business business book. By that I mean seeing the series through Tony's eyes, you get a feel for the elements of strategic planning and management that go into a game simplistically referred to as "America's past time." You see LaRussa pouring over video and statistics but not being totally driven by them. This is important: he straddles the line of intellect and intuition in a way that is applicable to several aspects of day-to-day life in modern baseball and business.

He also posses what Tom Peters calls a "bias for action." When in doubt, do something. We see LaRussa's now famous (back then, thought to be crazy) experimenting with the injured Albert Pujols' position to get him back into the line up as a perfect example of trying something to get results (which he did).

The Point? I'm not saying Transition Tony is Peter Drucker but you might find this read interesting and surprisingly applicable. Plus, if you're a baseball fan it is a hell of an easier read than Drucker. I think 'The Point' is also like Tony pacing around and tinkering with the line up. You have to expose yourself to all kinds of non-linear things to be open to a crazy idea that could be the equivalent of getting Pujols back into your line up.

P.S. You might also enjoy this post by Tom Peters, if for nothing else than his free PowerPoint on Think vs. Do. Enjoy!

I'm Taking Pictures of My Trash Again

Again, you say? Yes. As some of you may remember I was similarly moved by some fast food packaging that I had to photograph and blog about pre-trash last year. Anyhow, I love this Pizza Hut box because they took advantage of their packaging to touch on a unique product need. "Dinner now. Breakfast tomorrow." Those four simple words sum up the added value of ordering pizza. Some clever copywriter took a personal moment of product interaction - not just the key customer need of satisfying immediate hunger - and found a way to market to it. Those sentences remind us why we have twice as much pizza delivered as we need.

The Point? Embrace and find a way to market to an atypical use for your product. I say embrace because I remember the story about the Preparation H marketing exec on the ski slope that begrudgingly admitted that a number of their customers (the skiing exec included) used the product as an exceptional cold weather lip balm. Now what if they found a way to embrace that need and market to it. And finally, remember that it's not just a box, or a sack, or an invoice. It's a piece of advertising that will be laying around your customer's home or office. Make the most of your packaging or I'll be forced to take more pictures of my trash!

Mousetraps and Marketing Metrics

It's that time of year again. Last night I was walking through my basement and I turned on the furnace room light in time to see a mouse scurry away through a crack in the wall. Luckily, I had just reset all of my non-humane, old-school mousetraps with fresh peanut butter over the weekend.

As I was resetting the traps, my thoughts wandered to marketing metrics. (Yes. I am insane.) You see, for one of my clients the past month also marked the beginning of their fiscal year and they have been celebrating with a lot of strategizing and planning.

How does placing mousetraps throughout your home relate to planning your marketing? Easy. As I was dropping off the traps I thought of my "mousetrap results" from the past year. The two mice I caught were from the same trap location (downstairs bathroom next to the shower). In my mousetrap planning this is the equivalent of a marketing campaign that works. All six other traps that I've set are essentially unproven as they have yet to yield a result. Did I do anything different? No. I set all of the traps in the exact same location I've always set them.

Was this responsible, results-driven planning? If I wanted to make decisions based on actual results I should have set the proven trap next to the shower and tested some new trap locations. But I didn't and the only reason was because I didn't bother to consider the results.

Now you may think that these are just mousetraps and marketing planning is a much bigger deal that always gets more careful consideration. Really? Take a step back and look at your current plans? How many of your proven efforts from last year are you repeating? (Your answer should be all of them.) How many of your unproven efforts are scheduled to be repeated this year? (Your answer should be none of them.)

Or, worse yet, are you in the dark on your efforts because you don't track and measure them. To continue with my mousetrapping metaphor, that would be like setting several trays of poison out and a random dead mouse shows up. Which poison tray (marketing campaign) got the mouse (your results)? You'll never know. So you also need to take an even bigger step back and make sure you are measuring your efforts. Remember, you can't manage what you don't measure. For my money, you can't beat actionable ads and mousetraps that kill. Both are dependable, measurable, and provide results.

The Point? It's simple. Make sure you are tracking and measuring every ad, marketing campaign, and promotion you do. Then when it comes time to plan, repeat what really worked, try to fix what kind of worked, and test something new in place of the stuff that failed. Failure isn't bad. My direct marketing mentor always said you either want a clear success or a clear failure because they give you a result that you can read and take action on. In other words, you know something. So take some time and think through where you "trap your mice and your customers and remember you can improve both if you know where your results are coming from.

P.S. "Try something!" and "Test. Test. Test." are some of the rules of one of my favorite analytical minds, Dr. Gregory House of Fox's House M.D. This week one of my favorite business minds, Tom Peters, did a great post with a slide summing up "House-isms" that can be applied to direct marketing and really anything strategically focused. Enjoy.

Why TiVo Has Us Peeing on Our Advertising

CBS Sunday Morning had a great cover story this morning that seemed to effectively encapsulate the state of the advertising business today. "Cutting Through Advertising Clutter" touches upon the "usual suspect" topics of the death of the TV industrial complex, the expansion of new media including experiential marketing, and the growth of digital product/ad placements in everything from baseball and video games to urinals. (Yup. There's a company called Wizmark that focuses on interactive urinal communicators.) All are presented as the cure to the TiVo ad-killing problem.

However, beyond being just the usual old-school slamming, TiVo-embracing diatribe on the current state of the ad game, this insightful segment makes an even more relevant point. Regardless of what media you utilize for your campaign, you have to try even harder to cut through the clutter in media today. The real challenge is finding new ways to reach the customer with your message that is memorable and entertaining and doesn't get caught in the spam filter with the rest of the things that look like "advertising."

I think the segment's quote from the president of the marketing firm Yankelovich, Jay Walker-Smith, sums it up best: "Consumers don't hate advertising. What they hate is bad advertising."

The Point? Great article. Worth your time. Read it and think of a new way you could be reaching your customers with a clutter-cutting message. In the end, the source of this story wasn't so surprising given that this is the network that boldly embraced promoting their fall season on eggs (we have yet to see if it's good-bold or bad-bold).

Talent

Is this an awesome example of true business acumen or am I just falling for Ford's spin?

As everyone knows, last Tuesday Bill Ford Jr. stepped down as CEO of the troubled automaker. (Quick aside: I can't take credit for that descriptor. I read it in an article while talking with an associate. We both agreed that it's never a good sign to be in the car business and have the press refer to you as "the troubled automaker.")

Ford pulled in former-Boening exec Alan Mulally to lead the family business through what may be its darkest hour. Sounds like Mulally is a good find. Primarily because he's been through what Ford is currently going through with Boening in the post 9/11 days. During that period he managed to keep the company in the black through improvements in productivity and product development. Conveniently both are key areas where Ford's North American ops are hurting.

But 'so what' you say. You could have read that in any number of business articles that have offered their take on this changing of the guard over the past week. I point this out because on the same day that the announcement was made, Newsweek subscribers like myself were being delivered an ironic and newly out-of-date interview with Bill Ford Jr. himself.

In it he talks about talent. "I'll always be looking to bring talented people in who can help us." When asked if he would consider replacing himself he replied "I'm looking to make sure this company is stocked with talent ... right now I'm focused on getting the North American operations back on track."

My personal take -- if Ford is on the up and up, he is to be commended for stepping aside and ushering in someone more talented to fill the CEO's office. I think it also makes him an impressive steward to a great American company. What would you do in the same situation? Would you be brave enough to replace yourself with someone more qualified if it guaranteed the survival of your business. "In that regard, I'm not a traditional CEO," Ford said about his quest for talent.

Just to show you all that I'm not Pollyanna, I can recognize that this could all be a marvelously executed PR campaign to protect the very public heir of a very historic business and I could be falling for it hook, line, and sinker. As a marketer, I believe in the power of persuasion and recognize it could be at work here.

Once during The West Wing, someone said something like "I love speech writers. They have to have the capacity to doubt and dream at the same time." I've always thought that the same holds true for marketers. Doubt and dream. Right now, though, I'm in Ford's corner believing in the dream that a major business today is smart enough to replace any key player with someone with more talent who could be doing the job better and add greater value to the company as a whole.

How committed are you to your quest to bring new talent into your company?

Black on the Edge of Customer Service

Those of you who know me personally, know I love rage-comic Lewis Black. Those of you who read this blog frequently know that I also love good customer service. So what a treat I got this week when I received the current issue of Fast Company in which they recognize good customer service with their Customer First awards. On the cover was Lewis Black, steam coming out of his ears, with the headline "Is This Your Customer." For me, this is right up there with their issue titled "The Boss from Hell" that featured Mr. Burns on the cover.

And to top it off, this wasn't just Lewis Black "modeling" and setting the tone for the issue with a cover photo. There's actually a great article where "Our customer-service curmudgeon suffers for all of us--but not in silence." It's an insightful read that offers a raw take on the state of service today.

Now take a step back and think about the impact of this cover design. (Actually, you could do this with any of Fast Company's cover designs.) Instead of doing the average BS about "The Customer Service Issue" with some sort of warm and fuzzy customer interaction photo they took it to the edge with the winning concept of the pissed-off customer. But the edge wasn't far enough so they scooted out a bit more and took it from being a generic pissed-off customer to one of America's most notorious pissed-off customers.

So, go to the edge and then move out a couple more inches just to make sure you're far enough!

Take this yet another step back and you can apply the concept of going to the edge to anything from business to backgammon. You can even apply it to the stage persona adopted by Lewis Black. Which would you rather hear? Another comic with a meandering story about airline service gone awry or a jolting rant from a man who appears to be on the verge of an aneurysm? Black even mentions as much in the interview. He recalls studying classical theatre and only discovering comedy because friends told him he was funny when he was pissed off. And the pissed-off thing seems to be working well for Black (regular Daily Show commentaries, three movies coming out, best-selling book, albums, etc.).

So, go to the edge if for no other reason than, to quote a Texas politician, there's nothing in the middle of the road except yellow lines and dead armadillos.

Do You Blog for Your Business?

You should. I could list of all the reasons but instead I'll further propagate the blogosphere by sending you to a great post by Janine Popick, President/CEO and founder of Vertical Response (my email service provider of choice) where she sums up the 5 Reasons on Why You Should Blog for Your Business. Hers is also a great example of a business blog. Great tone. Valuable content. And it's relevant to her customers and her business. Plus she does something uber smart: she links her email newletters to her blog posts.

To elaborate a little further, there is also a nasty misconception that blogging is a tactic for B2C marketers only. Sadly this lie was born of B2B marketers who have been slow to adopt the new technologies that Web 2.0 has brought us. Now to be fair, some of these tools, such as RSS, aren't exactly ready for B2B primetime. But others, like blogging, are.

So check out Janine's post and start blogging for your business today.

The Little [BLANK] Book of [BLANK]

Want a short cut to titling/writing a book? Come up with a color and a subject of interest and you're halfway there (provided it's a specialty you know something about). Let's play ...

Color - Green; Subject - Landscaping =
The Little Green Book of Landscaping

Color - Orange; Subject - Spreadsheets =
The Little Orange Book of Spreadsheets

Color - Puce; Subject - Pool Skimming =The Little Puce Book of Pool Skimming

Laugh but these formulaic titles are everywhere. If you want a digestible diatribe on a particular subject (especially aspects of business) you can easily run to your bookseller or Amazon and pick up The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Black Book of Connections (same author), and The Little Blue Book of Advertising.

There's probably more. I know there are across topics. Wanna learn golf? Check out Harvey Pennick's Little Red Book. If you're feeling broad you can read the colorless but comprehensive Little Book of Food or The Little Book That Beats the Market.

Now these titles sound may sound dorky but the formula must be a successful one to merit the kind of play it's getting. Take it apart, though, and it's pretty simple to see why titles like this work:

'Little' implies that it's small and as few people read books anymore you may need to telegraph to the unidoctrinated that this book won't hurt you. Toss the color in and it sounds almost fun. Like a children's book (I think subconsciously this construction draws strength in it's motivational tie in with The Little Engine That Could). So we've communicated twice already that it's easy and we've added a dash of fun. 'Book of' is just the exposition leading up to your closer - the subject of interest. Not the most exciting part of all but if I need to step up my selling game, a title like this preceeding the subject helps the medicine go down.

When you look at it this way, it's kind of brilliant. This title formula is just a step above the lowballing and wildly popular Dummies and Idiots series (and I'm not turning my nose up - I just got the Idiot's Guide to Wine).

The Point? One of these books makes a respectable case for "thinking inside the box." Careful now. I'm not saying stifle creativity but rather there are tested formulas out there that are tried and true. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Save your wheelsmith-ery for when it's time to change the game entirely. And chances are that will be simply taking one of these tried and true methods and turning it on it's side.

Is That Crap Under My Windshield Wiper or Guerrilla Marketing?

Or is it all in the eye of the beholder?

I had a philosophical discussion with a co-worker today about a Chinese restaurant menu that got shoved under everyone's windshield wipers in the parking lot. I cited it as a prime example of guerrilla marketing gone wrong. I made my case by saying that the effort was untargeted (I, for example, hate Chinese food; therefore this offer is irrelevant to me). I could understand flyering someplace close by but this restaurant was hardly that. Plus they flyered an office with a huge dining center that is widely known to have decent food at unbeatable prices. Flyering any other lot in town would have been a better use your excess flyers.

I cite targeting as being a key distinction because that is what makes a marketing tactic like flyering unique and gives it the scrappy, strategic guerrilla-like quality. I was at a conference and a vendor flyered all of the attendees a rooms one morning with a special announcement. That's great. Across the hall? No flyers because the vendor only targeted their audience with this relevant message. In my mind there was nothing targeted about this menu thing. It didn't have proximity going for it (as I mentioned this place is across town). It wasn't appealing based on who was parking in the lot (we have a cafeteria). All they had left were people who like Chinese food. I think you could target better.

But I believe it was Tevye that said, "On the other hand ..." (Actually, it was my colleague Larry Miller who wished to remain anonymous. I shall refer to him as Chuck moving forward.)

Chuck said: Untargeted? Come now. Chinese food is a pretty ubiquitous food category. Why not carpet bomb parking lots of big employers? Plus employees of large offices have been known to keep menus on file for days when they feel like changing it up. And as direct marketing tells us, when you scale a program like this, only a handful need to convert to break even on the promotion (unless you print your menus on heavy, embossed stock and hire a Ph.D. to do your flyering).

So am I right or is Chuck? Dunno. I'm just a marketer. I say that not as a cop out but in my almighty deference to trackable results. Could be this menu thing sends the restaurant through the roof. But to quote a book I just began, "you can't manage what you don't measure." So in the end, flyer or don't flyer. You don't know for sure until you try it but you've got to track it so the next time the promo gets put on the table you have some results to make a more educated guess. NOTE: I didn't suggest that you'd know for sure but that experience gives you some intelligence to make a more educated guess the next time. Happy marketing.

FREE MARKETING ADVICE:
Incidentally, if the Chinese restaurant was my client and was hell bent on flyering with their menus here's what I'd do ... Print off some mailing labels with a special offer/call to action: "Bring this menu in for a 10% discount on your meal." That would be a simple, low-cost way to track your efforts and give you some insight into what's working. But we want them to keep their menus! Great, hook them up with a new one when they redeem the offer. Or just let them take it back with them. (And so what if they reuse it? It's still business that resulted from the sale.) But we want to flyer several different targets! How do we know which is which? Get different colored labels and color-code your targets. At the end of the day, you can track almost anything. And you should.

I love that ... "You can't manage what you don't measure."

My Favorite Store That I Haven't Bought a Thing From (Yet)

Story time at the WesterBlog. Gather 'round ...

I run. Not real well but I run nonetheless. On Wednesdays I run with a group of triathalonians and ironmen. It's something of a brutal self abuse regimen. I run because I can't work out in any other way. I'm uncoordinated and have been banned from most sports involving a ball and I would rather drink paint thinner than sit in a weight room.

I digress! I also like running because I can think about things like ... my blog posting. For reasons like this running has become more and more important to me. Recently my old running shoes started cutting my Achilles. So I brilliantly surmised that it was new shoe time.

My favorite shoe store now is Running Wild here in Coralville. I say 'now' because did I go there when my shoes first gave out? No. I'm a cheap SOB and I went to Kohl's for $35 Nikes. They looked cool. But they started squeaking and squishing when I ran. I returned them but the other pair did the same thing. Basically, these shoes suck and you would be hard pressed to call the staff at Kohl's helpful on resolving the matter. So my shoes suck and I decide to just wear them until I've gotten my $35 out of them (it's been a couple of weeks -- I think I'm almost there).

Around this same time my wife got me a running hat for Father's Day from Running Wild. In the bag was an invite to their Sunday morning runs. A group meets at the store and runs as much as 16 miles or so. They've got maps, water along the route, and bagels and juice at the end in the store. But that's where the magic happens. That's where I got to hear their expert staff sell shoes.

"Well, these are my old shoes ..."
"Ah ... I see. It looks like you're right handed ..."
"Yes"
"... and you run on the outside of your foot."

All of that by looking at the old shoe! Maybe this isn't reading tea leaves like I think it is but compared with my Kohl's experience ...

"These shoes make a weird sound."
"Did you try on another pair?"
"Yeah. They make the sound too."
"Uhhh ... I don't know what to tell you."
"Can you recommend another pair?"
"I don't usually work in this department. Sorry."

Compared to that it was like hearing a mystic tell the future. (Instead of reading palms he was reading feet!) I made a decision then and there that this would be my new favorite shoe store and my replacement 'new' shoes would come from here very soon. This experience showed me that expert advice is worth paying full price for. It is also a perfect case study for how to add value to the customer experience.

And how about that weekly run? I'm sure that's a decent-sized amount of money and labor for a small business. Water, bagels, juice, opening the store up at 7:00 a.m. But it got me to the store and let me see something that you can't put on a sign that you can see from the highway. Ironically they have a sign in the window that I have seen from the highway that says 'Expert Advice' but never paid attention to it but when I witnessed it in person ... Wow.

There's not copy to describe something like that. It's something you have to experience. Because, at the end of the day, that's what you're buying from a store like Running Wild. Not shoes or running gear but the experience of getting these commodities from a learned expert. Bravo.

The Real Front Lines of the Customer Experience

Seth Godin makes a great point about receptionists. It pays to make every step of a customer's experience remarkable. Receptionists are your advance team who make impressions on your clients very early in the sales process. Sometimes this interaction is enough to make or break the whole relationship.

Another way to look at it: think about the other items on the front lines of your customer experience -- business cards, letterhead, packaging, and the like. Do you spend as much time and careful consideration making sure your receptionist is as unique and personal as your business card? And I'm not talking about someone with the basic social skills to work at Any Office USA. I'm talking about someone with personality and funk who embodies what it's like to be in business with you.

Virtual Ad Space

Want to reach the gamer audience? Microsoft-owned Massive Incorporated has it figured out: sell ad space in the virtual universes of video games. The above screenshot from the game "Anarchy Online" illustrates the point beautifully. If you're promoting Batman Begins, why buy a generic billboard on the freeway where you speak to the questionably interested masses when you could buy a VG billboard with it's targeted (and lucrative) demographic? Impressive. With new media you can always drill deeper ...

Size Doesn't Matter

The first stone thrown at my previous Monster Trade Show post is always, "Yeah, well they're Monster," the detractor says with emphasis on the company name that conjures a giant Philistine of a corporation. And I have a follow up to this implication that we should all remember from David & Goliath: Size doesn't matter. That's what I reminded myself as I was standing there staring at their both like some sort of brand stalker.

At the end of the day, the magical part of what was happening at that booth had nothing to do with how big a company Monster is. Sure the war chest helps launch an effort like that but they have something more important and more rare than money -- acceptance of BIG ideas. These big ideas yield remarkable results. And you don't have to be Monster-sized to yield remarkable results.

A company of one has the capability of producing a trade show presence like Monster's. Careful now, I don't mean literally a 20' x 40' island booth with t-shirts, parties, and limos. I mean a trade show strategy that, at its own scale, is remarkable and keeps the show buzzing in its own way. All you need is acceptance of some big (and perhaps even crazy) ideas to help your idea stick in the minds of the attendees.

Remarkability defies size.

Case in point, a recent favorite of mine was a small company that put a new spin on the ubiquitous iPod giveaway. They had about twenty of them stacked up at their booth inviting salacious glances from passersby. But the real magic came not from the Pyramid-o-Pod but rather from what you had to do to get one.

In your bag of conference goodies was a button. Nothing fancy just a plain ol' button with the company name on it and their new slogan. With the button came instructions to wear this throughout the conference because they would have their reps walking around and at certain times their boss back at the booth would call one of these reps on their cell phone. Upon receiving the call, the rep was instructed to give an iPod to the first person they saw with the button on.

The results: Everybody was wearing the button all of the time! Plus, you wanted to be near this company's reps on the off chance that if they got the call you'd get the iPod (you should win some type of a marketing award for inventing a scheme that makes a consumer want to be near a sales rep). Finally, it created an 'active' buzz around this company and their presence at the show. To put it another way: they had it "goin' on." Simple and remarkable. Who can't make a few hundred buttons and buy some iPods?

The Point? Size doesn't matter. Remarkability trumps all. You have the power to be like Monster et al. if you open yourself up to the permeation of BIG ideas that your marketers are probably trying to sell you on for something or other right now.

P.S. I often speak of remarkability and to not feel like a hack, I have to plug Seth Godin's book Purple Cow which defines the concept of building remarkability into your business plan. If you do one thing for me (besides reading this blog), read this book!

The Monster That Ate the Trade Show

Recently I attended the national conference for SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Managers. A big player at this large conference was Monster.com. Given this audience's relevance to them, it was no surprise that they decided to own the show.

I had planned to summarize their strategy for you here but I found an article from Exhibitor Online that explains in great detail their Monster trade show strategy first established at SHRM a couple years ago. (Just change New Orleans to DC and you'd basically have this year's show.)

A top notch strategy by a top notch (and innovative) outfit.

I love trade shows for a couple of different reasons ...

1. They're like marketing amusement parks
2. They generate new leads and business but they also ...
   
3. Provide important opportunities for brand interaction

It's this last point that gets to be sticky for Ricky ROI. You know the guy I'm talking about. The one at the end of the conference room table that questions trade shows all the time because of the sticker shock. Then you have to get into metrics that sell him on lead acquisition cost, etc.

Really, I think that lead acquisition can only be part of your objective at a trade show. There's something else at play on the trade show floor. It's several brands fighting for position in the already crowded real-estate of a consumer's mind. But at the end of the day, I think you've got to be there. (The caveat of course is that this is a relevant show to your audience, etc. A relationship that Monster has found with SHRM -- it just fits.) At some big industry shows you have to attend simply for perception. It tells your customer that you're a player in this market too.

After you make your case to Ricky ROI and you are resolved to attend, he will next try to flank you at the size and scope of your booth. "Just do a 10' x 10,'" he says, waxing budget management. I have a different axiom at this point: If you are going to go -- then GO! Once you've made the investment in a trade show, upping your real-estate is really a nominal expense and can beef up the perception of your company.

Finally, be like Monster. By that I mean, don't treat a trade show on your calendar like a meeting that you'll be attending. Treat it like an event or complex marketing campaign that you need to plan every detail of. Pre-show, on-site, off-site, post-show -- everything. Their simple act of sending limos to the airport to take arriving attendees to the conference hotels was a stroke of genius. With that they became my personal concierge for this show and were quickly on their way to owning the hearts and minds of many attendees.

After the personal experience one has interacting with a brand at a trade show (fun at the booth with giveaways and product demos, at off-site parties and functions, or even riding in their limos), I have all sorts of positive associations with Monster that Yahoo HotJobs and Career Builder will have a tough time un-doing.

The Point? Trade shows rock. Are they expensive: Hell yes. You can bleed money at these things. But if carefully strategized, you can knock the ball out of the park and get real results (for Ricky ROI) and brand equity (immeasurable -- sorry Ricky) that aren't possible with any other media.

P.S. I'm on a trade show bent. Please email me any great books about trade show marketing. They have to exist but none come to mind. It seems like a sort of bastard channel. I know there are mags like Exhibitor but I'm wondering if there is some book that is the cornerstone of this complex media.

The Internet Can Do Anything!! (Even Save Screech's House)

By even pointing this out, I realize that I'm being part of the problem but I like this story in a guilty pleasure kind of way.

You see the bank is foreclosing on Screech from "Saved by the Bell"'s house. What's Screech doing about it? Selling t-shirts on a website at $15 a pop to save his digs ($20 gets you one autographed by Screech himself). He is gonna have to move a lot of shirts to hit the $250,000 he needs but I don't want to underestimate the power of Screech's fame. Plus all of the recent press can't be hurting his cause. Actually that's what rockets this little fundraiser from gimmick to remarkable.

The Point? This little parable illustrates a simple point: If Screech can use the internet to move the needle for his cause, you can too. I feel dirty for even saying it but 'Think like Screech.' (By the way that little axiom doesn't apply to anything else in life!)

Words on Work

Recently I got an info kit from the ad agency Energy BBDO. In the prospectus it contained a remarkable bit of copy that sums up the value of creating advertising for a client and I can't get it out of my head:

The Work. The Work. The Work. - In the tradition of all BBDO offices, we are dedicated to producing work that meets a high standard of creative excellence. After all, the work is where the brand meets the consumer. It touches their hearts and minds. And it is what leads to the sale.

Remarkable. I've been doing this for several years and I've never heard the urgency and importance of advertising summed up quite so eloquently as that second sentence. It's "where the brand meets the consumer."

The Point? Remember that your advertising campaigns are on the front lines with your customer. Pretty simple when you think about it.

Coffee Posting #2

After my previous posting about Starbucks' magical copy, I must have been in a cup-reading type of mood ...

Truth be told, nowadays my wife and I actually more frequently get our daily java fix (she shuts down if she doesn't have her Vanilla Coffee Cooler, no whipped cream) from the newly opened Caribou Coffee. For those of you who don't know them (and you may not since they are only in a handful states), Caribou is number two in the gourmet coffeehouse biz. Think of them as Starbucks' quirky, socially conscious (cool positioning) cousin from the northwoods of Minnesota.

To be blunt they are second but it is a distant second to the clear market leader. But it's also a strong second. They have built a brand every bit as powerful as their erudite older cousin. Caribou's coffeehouses are like little lodges complete with faux fireplace, raw woodwork, and probably faux bearskin ottomans.

To do an apples to apples comparison with my previous post, how does their cup copy compare to the 'Bucks juggernaut?

You are holding our pride and joy

Hand-selected beans. Hand-crafted beverage.
It's in your hands now. Enjoy.

Not bad. And actually those simple phrases sum up their position in the market in an eloquent and concise fashion. They care about the coffee experience that Starbucks has sold us on. Pay a few bucks more and you enjoy a incomparable drinking experience. They acknowledge your involvement in this experience by referencing your enjoyment in tandem with their joy in creating it. The whole feel of their brand is targeted at coffee connoisseurs who may be after a more relaxed, lived in environment. Outdoorsy and soothing. Kick back by the fire and enjoy.

On a side note, their aforementioned social consciousness is easily felt with several signs proclaiming their support of social and agricultural responsibility in coffee production. Again, good differentiation but to be shrewd for a moment when they proclaim this so fervently it begs the question 'What does Starbucks do socially?' Probably a lot, perhaps even more given their size but they don't communicate it as prominently as Caribou and thus it escapes being a core component of their brand identity. To paraphrase James Carville, don't expect the public to know something unless you're willing to tell them.

The Point? There's something to be said for being a strong and respectable number two. In the end, you may even be number one in other measures that outweigh market leadership. Think Apple. Think Caribou. Think different. Happy Memorial Day!

P.S. I'll lay off the coffee posts for a while.

Magical Copy

STOP THE PRESSES!!

A marketing blog about Starbucks' unequivocal branding? Really ...???

No, I'm not hurting for topics but I'm daring to tread where -- um, like, every other marketing wonk has tread before. The holy grail of branding: Starbucks.

On a recent business trip I was killing time while enjoying a cup of my favorite Starbucks brew (plain ol' house dark roast, black) and was bored enough to actually read my coffee cup. And what nuggets of info does the cup contain? Caution: Hot! (McDonalds, trying dodge yet another suit). A little diagram on how much ice to put in (Burger King. -- like someone doesn't know? Like you could maybe mess that one up?? I digress). No, the copy on the Starbucks cup simply read:

There is a hidden magic in Starbucks coffee; proper brewing releases the subtle bouquet of flavors stored in each bean.

Wow. That, my friend, is why we pay 3-4 times more for Starbucks. With a story like that how could you possibly get anything else? Or, conversely, how could you not believe that Starbucks' coffee is better? This cup (a cup for crying out loud!) can teach us so much:

1. Talk about Copywriting 101. Take note: the imagery, the heightened language.
2. Not to mention Branding 201: Never underestimate any little bit of packaging. We all know it would be easier, cheaper, etc. to just order plain old boxes. But if you go that extra mile you could have a customer for life.
3. Finally it drives home either Tom Peters' WOW! Factor or Seth Godin's Purple Cow. Take your pick ...

The Point? Go there. Write magical copy. Create transcendant products and services. You don't just sell widgets! You sell an experience unlike any other. And if you don't believe that, well then, they'll always be a need for someone at the bottom for the people at the top to look down on. Oh, that and whatever you currently pay your copywriter ... double it and see what happens.

P.S. Just to show you the perceived value of the Starbucks cup with its magical copy ... While I was searching for an image for this post my Google image search brought up dozens of cups that people had taken pictures of and posted. The cup and its ideas have enough value for people to want to share them with their friends. Wow, indeed.

A Revealing - CORRECTION - Unveiling Look at Branding

I let out an audible "Wow" at the grocery store this afternoon when I saw how closely my regional chain had mirrored the packaging of GE's Reveal bulbs with its store brand.

This couldn't be a more timely discussion on the importance of design in branding. As I've said many times before, nowadays, everyone has to be a designer.

I also call this observation timely because I am reading Phil Dusinberry's agency memoir Then We Set His Hair on Fire. It's a great read. Among other topics, the author covers his work for GE with the "We Bring Good Things to Life" campaign. This illustrates the core credo of advertisers -- that brand building leads to overall equity and loyalty that creates lifelong users. According to Dusinberry, I should buy the Reveal bulbs just because they say GE and keep buying them for life.

Here's what's really happening. The first time I bought the bulbs, it was partially because of the GE brand and their commitment to innovation. And these bulbs live up to that -- the light is truely whiter. But the next time I went to buy them, I already knew I was pleased with this bulb but I found a generic counterpart for half the price. What could GE have that the store brand doesn't? Probably a lot but the packaging and it's superb design moves it into the same category as GE and helps resolve that dissonance.

The Point? I'm not saying we throw branding out with the bathwater. I think that it's an important tool in builing a remarkable company. But you also have to foster innovation, creativity, AND design (!) at every level in your organization and then keep on innovating after you've done it once or twice. Because you can't rest on your brand name and expect the masses to keep paying twice as much for your bulbs.

Everything is Connected: Email to Blog to Book

I can't remember what movie recently featured the tagline 'everything is connected' but I'm co-opting it here to make my point about how you can spread your ideas incrementally across media. Take these three commonly used marketing pieces:

• Email newsletter
• Blog
• Book

Alone, each of these items is a finite vehicle for you and/or your company's ideas. However, if you undertake the simple task of connecting them you can create a lean, mean marketing manifesto and quickly ensure the spread of your ideas.

How? I'm guessing, like so many out there, you collect customer email addresses and someone has said "we need to send out an email newsletter." So every quarter/month you are scrambling around for relevant content for your e-newsletter so that you can dredge up something to say to your customers.

Fast forward a couple of years when blogs crop up and, again, someone at the marketing round table said "we need to get us one of those." So now you're blogging. You now have two content driven pieces struggling for relevant content.

But what if you take a step back and tie these two pieces together. Janine Popick, CEO of VerticalResponse, my favorite email ASP, does just that. Every month she sends a newsletter that has a teaser to one of her recent blog posts that links to the blog site. And, as we all know, once you click through and read her blog how likely are you stay on her site ...?

Brilliant, right? So then you follow this thing through to it's next logical conclusion and you take your best blog posts and assemble a book like Seth Godin is doing with his upcoming book Small Is the New Big. Really, previewing potential book content on a blog gives you great insight into what your audience wants to hear from you. If I'm not mistaken "Small Is the New Big" was Godin's most popular blog post and is thus the central idea of his latest manifesto.

The Point? Connect your messaging dots. We spend so long searching for content for emails, blogs, books. Why not use one as a spring board to another and another. If you can get your message firing on all pistons, your ideas can build like a mighty snowball! I'd better get out of here before the metaphor police arrest me.

P.S. If you were really paying attention, I'm sure you noticed the key ingredient that I glazed over: the simple fact that you must have something relevant to say to your audience. This whole rant is null and void if you don't have a message. So ... uh, get one. Easier said than done. More on that later.

P.P.S. "Everything Is Connected" was Syriana's tagline but since I can't really connect this marketing riff to oil I'll bow out gracefully.

Personal MBA

Josh Kaufman proposes a new type of business education that I think is worth looking at. Maybe, I'm partial to his theory since I consider myself a graduate of his new school.

The Point? Josh sums it up best in the quote from Good Will Hunting below (P.S. I'd be cheating if I didn't give Seth Godin props for pointing me to Josh's site on his blog.):

“You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.”
- Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon), Good Will Hunting

Don't Forget Your MAP

When I develop a marketing plan, I call it a MAP -- a Marketing Action Plan. It's a pretty simple acronym and metaphor. You use your MAP to get where you're going and you can refer to it when you get lost. It should state some background (how you got here), your objective (what you want), and, of course, how you're going to go about getting it (your strategy and tactics).

It's the last part that, the strategy and tactics, that adds the ingredient of action and makes this thing a living, breathing document that guides you throughout your campaign or project.

Is it a locked, concrete document? No. What makes it breathable is that if something changes as you begin you can go in and modify your map (OK, so the changeable part breaks the map metaphor a bit -- bear with me). You have to be a cartographer during your journey (there!).

The Point? Just a name? No, it's more important than that. It's a label. And labels are important because they get your head in the right place. By the right place, I mean a place where you can take action. And action is where it's at. A map is your tool to get somewhere!

Hot Tip: The Lowdown on Email Subject Lines

As an email marketer, I've been known to spend a substantial amount of time crafting the perfect subject line. It's a big deal. It effects open rates. It's a split second you have to capture your recipient. It's like having a good teaser on the outside of your direct mail package.

No surprise yet, right ... Well, recently I conducted an experiment on carrying this practice over to my internal emails to clients and co-workers. Rather than typing 'Question' or 'Project Update' or 'Re: The Twelve Previous Emails We've Exchanged' in the subject line, I starting taking a couple of seconds to craft a zinger. 'Cause who doesn't feel like they send their emails out into cyberspace and into a co-worker's overflowing mailbox. In theory, if you want attention from a client or colleague shouldn't you employ the same tactics as the rest of the noise?

The results? No surprise here either. My own internal email response rate went through the roof when I go with a quirky subject line from left field like 'Fuel for Your Fire' or 'Caution: Low Ceiling' or 'You Can Thank Me Later.'

The Point? Am I crazy. Well, hell yes but I'm a crazy person who people respond to.

In Praise of The Geek Squad

I almost ran into a lamppost last week when I saw Best Buy's Geek Squad VW bug with its custom paint job in my neighborhood on a house call. Holy cow is that a remarkable concept.

Take a sec and consider all of the theatrical elements that they've managed to pull into the relatively straightlaced world of retail technical support.

• Costumes -- short-sleeved white dress shirts, black slacks, and a thin retro tie (also black). The uber geeks can also further trick themselves out with the dashing addition of spiked hair, think black glasses, and maybe even a chain wallet.
• Logo -- this division of Best Buy has it's own logo and look and feel that is independent and rebellious to the rest of the store's brand.
• The aforementioned wheels.

Can you name the any other electronics' superstore's dedicated commando unit of a support team? Probably not. And who will you think of the next time you need computer help? Gonna sit on hold forever and then have a boring tech explain something that is easier shown than told or are you gonna consider callin' that wacky bug?

The Point? What can you Geek-up about your product or service? Ever thought of trying a costume for what you do? Not tights but a certain type of look? Crazy or remarkable?

Get Up to Speed on the Live Web

Check out this great overview of the new web, or the live web as it's being called, in the current edition of Newsweek. It covers the rise of sites like MySpace and Flickr and summarizes that these successes and many others come from the fact that the new, live web is based on the intimate involvement of the user ... you. The web is replacing the phonebook and even phones! You owe it to yourself and your business to stay up to speed and involved.

The Point? The last two sentences of the article say it best: "Cyberspace is no longer somewhere else. The web is where we live." Wow. Definitely worth a read.

Cliff Gardner

A few years back, me and probably two or three other people watched a short-lived series called Sports Night. It followed the on- and off-camera goings on at a Sports Center-like show.

One of my favorite arcs centered on a fight with the network over low ratings. They bring in a consultant named Sam Donovan (brilliantly played by William H. Macy) who battles the show's team as they struggle to make improvements. When the network intercedes and offers to make the consultant the producer he tells them the following story.

"Do you guys know who Philo Farnsworth was? He invented television. I don't mean he invented television like Uncle Milty, I mean he invented the television.

In a little house in Provo, Utah. At a time when the idea of transmitting moving pictures through the air would be like me saying I've figured out a way to beam us aboard the Starship Enterprise. He was a visionary and he died broke and without fanfare.

The guy I really like though was his brother-in-law, Cliff Gardner. He said to Philo, "I know everyone thinks you're crazy, but I want to be a part of this. I don't have your head for science, so I'm not gonna be much help with the design and mechanics of the invention. But it sounds like in order to do your testing, you're gonna need glass tubes."

See Philo was inventing a cathode receptor, and even though Cliff didn't know what that meant or how it worked, he'd seen Philo's drawing and he knew they were gonna need glass tubes and since television hadn't been invented yet, it's not like you could get 'em at the local TV repair shop. "I want to be a part of this", Cliff said, "and I don't have your head for science. How would it be if I taught myself to be a glassblower? And I could set up a little shop in the backyard. And I could make all the tubes you'll need for testing."

There oughta be Congressional medals for people like that.

I've looked over the notes you've been giving over the last year or so, and I have to say that they exhibit an almost total lack of understanding of how to get the best from talented people. You said before that for whatever reason, I seem to be able to exert authority around here. I assure you, it isn't because they like me. It's because they knew two minutes after I walked in the door that I'm somebody who knows how to do something. I can help. I can make glass tubes. That's what they need.

One last thing: The first and last decision making authority on this show will rest with Isaac Jaffee until Isaac Jaffee says otherwise. And if you disrespect him again in my presence, I'll re-dedicate the rest of my life to ruining the rest of yours. If you think I'm just mouthin' at you, ask around about me, I have absolutely no conscience about these things.

The exit's right there. That's all. The meeting's over."

– Sam Donovan, Sports Night

The Point? I love that story and I think it applies to all of us who are working to produce great work with a talented team. In short, be someone who can make glass tubes.

The Divine Art of Self-Parody

A WesterBlog first: Well done Microsoft!

Recently they posted a parody of what the iPod box would have looked like had their team designed it. "It was an internal-only video clip commissioned by our packaging team to humorously highlight the challenges we have faced RE: packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding," said Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla. OK, Tom but it's also a pretty brilliant piece of self-parody.

I'm impressed not only with how funny this clip is but also with the sophistication required to be able to effectively mock oneself which MS surprisingly demonstrates. Anyone who has been a part of a marketing effort that has wandered through development should be able to appreciate this as well.

The Point? Easy. (Gulp!) Be like Microsoft. Laugh at yourself.

'P' is for Portman, 'V' is for Viral

Anyone watching Saturday Night Live on March 4 caught Natalie Portman's hilarious rap video (part of SNL's new digital short series -- lately one of the highlights of the show) in which she sends up her good girl image.

Or, if you're like me, try as you may have, you still fell asleep and missed it. So on Monday morning a friend emails it to you -- posted on YouTube or any other third party video site -- and you bust the aforementioned gut. Later you want to pass this funny bit of media on to another friend and go back to the site and find it yanked. The owner (NBC) has been policing and has ordered the content removed.

Bad for you. Good for NBC. Actually, once you snoop a bit, it turns out to be good for you both.

Good for them, not only for posting it on their own site but for adding a feature that encourages you to email it to a friend ... using the NBC website, of course. So now both you and your friend are frequent flyers on NBC.com. Plus, you've now been primed for when this situation comes up again and you hear about a new SNL video or see it and want to pass it on, you know that NBC.com is the place to go. While you're there you may even end up seeing who's hosting next week. Or watching more content. Or any number of activities that could lead to you becoming an even more loyal SNL customer. Smart.

The Point? If you see a trend out there such as people spreading free video online or any situation where your customers are engaging friends and colleagues about your product, find a way to include yourself in the loop and join the conversation.

Got 48 Minutes and One Second?

If so, watch Seth Godin's speech to the staff at Google. Sit back and enjoy this master class in which one of my favorite marketing gurus covers everything from the fall of the TV Industrial Complex to Permission Marketing and Purple Cows. And best of all it's FREE!

The Point? Take a minute (or 48:01!) and recommit yourself to being a life long learner.

Peter, John, and Contribution

Recently I read the late management guru Peter Drucker's classic, The Effective Executive. It more than lives up to its reputation as the definitive work on the subject of self-management and is worth reading and then stepping back and remembering that it was written nearly 40 years ago. Talk about a though leader. Anyone discussing business and management today has to own up to the fact that Drucker was probably there several decades ago.

I followed this up with another modern non-fiction classic, David McCullough's John Adams. In addition to being one of our founding fathers, Adams was himself an effective executive. The quintessential Drucker tenet that Adams exemplified was that of contribution. Drucker maintains that an effective executive focuses on their contribution to their organization -- what they contribute that no one else can that adds value to the organization as a whole.

Case in point, Adams was instrumental in recommending the appointment of George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army because he accurately assessed the strengths of the tall Virginian. A year later he would defer the glory of drafting the Declaration of Independence to another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. As McCullough notes, had he only made these two key contributions, he would still deserve placement in our history books. Say nothing of his work as president of the War Board, numerous congressional committees, his vice-presidency, and later his presidency that helped set the stage for centuries of chief executives.

The Point? Think of today in terms of your contribution. Think of Peter, John, and their contributions and go forth and add value to your organization!

On Presentations, Proposals, Reports, and the Like

Okay, so you have to turn in a big proposal or strategy document. You sit down and you labor for hours writing the thing. You condense your points, you support your thoughts with data and the whole piece comes together as a hefty two by four of your business savvy. Then you hit 'print' and are done.

WRONG! After your content is tight you should take at least half as much time designing and formatting your final draft as you did writing it. It never ceases to amaze me how many original, fast-thinking thoughts get documented using Times. Or Arial. For shame! Granted, these fonts are classics but you can find comparable and much more original-looking serif and san serif fonts out there. Grab fonts that will help support the voice of your writing.

What? I mean that your final document should look and sound like it came from you. Too often an over emphasis on business writing results in sterile text that reads like an instructional manual. Throw caution to the wind. Bend grammar rules like some copywriters (myself included!) do under the logic of “it’s necessary for marketing – it should sound like real people talk.” Guess what? Your report should sound like you talk. Don’t be afraid. To. Pause. And. Break. Things. Up. For. Emphasis. (That reads like William Shatner talks.) Embrace fragments and other imperfections if it reads more like you!

Once the voice of your piece is covered, play with the fonts and spacing. Don’t ug it up too much (consult a designer friend if you’re uncomfortable with this) but if you have a main point that’s a kicker, put it in caps. Or bold. Or bump the font size up to 36.

Check out any of Tom Peters’ books for a perfect illustration of written words that paint the speaker’s voice. (If you’ve heard Peters’ speak you’ll see in a sec that his newer books like Re-imagine! are spot on. If you don't already have a resolution for this year, please read any of Tom's books!!)

The Point? Any document you present, whether internally in the form of strategy docs and board presentations or external proposals, speak your words. The ante gets upped when the doc alone has to speak for you (without you present to glean key facts from it). The Point Even More Finely Whittled — The documents you crank out are a tremendous opportunity to say something about your personal brand. Don’t take it for granted.