Dave

Aug 30 2012

Marketing Without A Conscience

Scruples? Ethics? A Conscience? Remember Those Things. Please.

(UPDATE: There’s a video, too. See the link at the very bottom.)

In the race to the top of whatever industry you’re in, you will encounter all types. The go-getters, the trend-setters, the over-achievers. Etc., etc.

Hopefully, you’ll also encounter people with scruples, ethics and a conscience.

But something got Dave’s blood boiling

First of all, and this is Dave speaking, I wish James Cordova the best in his battle against cancer. I wish his wife, Tasha, the best as she and her family cope with this terrible disease.

And this blog post is not about them – it’s about the company that is using them to sell product.

Witness this photo, making the rounds on Facebook yesterday:

ViSalus Photo — Company uses dying man to sell product

NOTE: Scroll down if you want to read the full text of the Facebook post.

ViSalus is a Multi-Level Marketing product in the wellness universe. I can’t vouch for whether it’s great or not.

But what I can vouch for is that scruples, ethics and a conscience are all missing from the people behind this marketing campaign.

Rather than a lengthy dissection of what is wrong here…

I want to focus – as a human first, and a marketer second, on some things I’m going to suggest you CAN do when marketing your product or service. Here goes:

1. Show compassion as if the cameras aren’t there.

Cameras are everywhere, but what’s that line about integrity – doing the right thing when nobody is looking?

2. Leave your product or service out of the discussion.

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve been part of corporate discussions – LOTS of times – where the people are focused on doing the right thing first, come Hell or high water. Believe me, it has happened. “How big a check can we write for the victims of…?” OR “What if we were to pick up the cost of…?” (NOTE: These discussions actually happened at big, faceless, “evil” corporations. They did. And there wasn’t an executive saying “Let’s leverage this for maximum PR benefit.”)

3. Gut check.

Even if someone IS telling you “it’s okay to use my image and likeness to promote your product,” someone needs to actually ask themselves how this is going to look.

Are you lifting people up just for the sake of lifting people up?
Are you looking like a good company – or an ambulance-chaser?
Is this the right time? Or is it too soon?

The company in this example is Marketing Without A Conscience. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one.

Do the right thing. Know the right time. And ask yourself how this makes you look.

UPDATE: We found this video on August 30. httpv://youtu.be/U4meAO0BRos

Aug 23 2012

Remake Your Own Song

Two pieces – one old, one new, and both with a hook for you, your brand, your job, and where you’re headed next.

Lindsey Buckingham — Photo by Neeta Lind - Used with Creative Commons License

If you know me via Facebook, you know that I have a tendency to over-share music. (If you don’t know me on Facebook, here’s a link to the Dave page. And a link to the Area 224 page.) I’m not an expert – but I know what I like and I’m more than willing to share it.

Two songs lately got me thinking – is it time for a remake?

Lindsey Buckingham Remade His Own Song

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsay Buckingham is a music industry veteran. At age 62, he is still going – sometimes with the Fleetwood Mac folks, and sometimes just by himself.

Rolling Stone Magazine, in its 2011 ranking of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time,” included Buckingham – barely, ranking 100th.

One song of his – well, technically the band’s song – is called “Big Love.” The original video from Fleetwood Mac has an over-produced 80s sound to it.

httpv://youtu.be/rjKL469SpR0

Very bland, 1980s pop rock. Right?

A funny thing happened, though, once Buckingham started performing the song live, by himself. The song took on a completely new, raw, powerful, dare I say brilliant sound. Like this:

httpv://youtu.be/naAWX6OsHVI

What did we learn?

By taking away several unnecessary elements of the exact same song, it became more awesome.

Here’s what you can ask yourself – no matter where you are in the world, as a brand strategist, as a job-seeker, as a student of the game or someone heading off into something completely different, what can you take away to make something more…awesome?

Are you adding 3 steps to a process where only one step is really necessary?
Are you creating more hoops to jump through – for clients, for prospects, for site visitors?
Is there a way to practice “addition by subtraction?”

Gotye Remade His Own Song

You’ve heard. The song. It’s everywhere.

Gotye. “Somebody That I Used To Know.”

Almost as many views on YouTube than residents of the U.S.A. (300,000,000 and counting.)

You can brush up on your Gotye knowledge if you’d like – here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry, where you learn, among other things, that he’s Belgian (so he’s GOT to be a good guy).

As for the video – here’s a link – if you’re one of those who haven’t actually seen it.

httpv://youtu.be/8UVNT4wvIGY

No matter what you think of the song, you can’t escape it. And, if the song itself can’t be escaped, neither can the remakes.

We’ve seen this happen before – dozens upon dozens of remakes, on YouTube, from artists looking to showcase their own talent by singing Somesong That You Used To Know. (Google the phrase “Gotye Remake.” I dare ya.)

Sheer brilliance can be found from…well, Gotye himself, who mashed up dozens upon dozens of the YouTube remakes, creating a song called “Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra.”

httpv://youtu.be/opg4VGvyi3M

So, in one instance, an artist strips his own song bare. In this instance, the opposite – a crowdsourced piece of…awesome.

What Can You Learn from Gotye?

Back in the days when yours truly was a radio sportscaster, I’d have to deliver the same story at 6:05, 7:05 and again at 8:05. In the morning. I’m a morning person, so that part wasn’t a problem – but there was always the threat that you were delivering the same exact story over and over. If the Nets beat the Knicks 101-95 last night, the score won’t change in the next newscast.

But the story could. In fact, I learned, it SHOULD. It had to.

There’s another angle to explore. There’s another side to the story. Even when you’re talking about the same thing, there’s a different way to say it.

Your company’s pitch: can it be more succinct?
Your mission statement: can you cut out the BS?
Your resume: does it do you justice?
Your relationships: should you move from the text message to the Google Hangout, or from online to off?

Go. Remake Your Own Song.

Aug 08 2012

Don’t Believe The Hashtag

Not all hashtags are created equal.

One of my favorite sayings is one of my own, probably stolen from somewhere: “the answer is always somewhere in the middle.”

Another saying that we’re twisting a little is one from Chuck D: “Don’t believe the hype.”

Public Enemy Frontman Chuck D

How do the twain come together, and support the premise that you shouldn’t believe the hashtag?

Here goes…

#NBCFail = $1 Billion

You read that right. After first projecting that they’d lose $200 Million on the London Olympics, NBC is now saying that they will break even on the games, bringing in ONE BILLION DOLLARS in advertising revenues.

Whether or not NBC’s Olympic coverage is a success or a failure depends entirely on a little word we’ll call “perspective.” Which brings us to “hashtags.”

For the uninitiated, the “hashtag” is the “pound sign” (“#”) that precedes a statement or saying that is shared on Twitter. When the Olympics started, corners of the internet started complaining that the events they wanted to see weren’t on live – since NBC’s main network was planning on showing the good stuff during prime time. Michael Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte in an epic swimming duel? Mass appeal, according to NBC, so they’ll save that for prime time.

Dumb move, according to the interwebs – if you trust the “trending” hashtag of “#NBCFail.”

Except…well, NBC DIDN’T fail, if you look at little things called “objectives.” To posit a guess, here are a couple potential objectives:

Show the good stuff during prime time, when we catch the casual viewer and pull in key demographics, like Moms with money
Sell lots of advertising so that people who watch during prime time can connect with brands
Make every single Olympic event available online so no one can complain if they have a cable package.
Break even on the games.

NBC has gone 4-for-4

We’re living in the instant failure world – where brands get pilloried for not answering to the masses in real time. (Want more on the implications for all sorts of businesses? Read this post from Sidera Works. It’s darn good. Link: )

But I’ve got news for you: brands don’t answer to you, Mr. Consumer. They answer to the bottom line – and what’s in your best interest (“Seeing Michael Phelps Swim”) may not be in the best interest of their bottom-line, and the masses, and the time-space continuum. (London is 6 hours ahead of New York.)

Would I do things differently if I were head of NBC Sports? Sure – in a few cases. But, with ratings up and people able to consume all the NBC Olympics content from anywhere and everywhere…I have no major complaints.

Somewhere in the Middle…

When you’re setting your own marketing strategy, social media strategy, or communications strategy – the extremes aren’t where you want to be. NBC could have kowtowed very early on to the social media diatribes, decided to abandon their ship and cause all heck to break loose. They would have then made a bunch of Twitter people very happy, and they would have “won the Internet.”

They also would have angered the people – and there are lots of them (Ad Age reports that the ratings for these Olympics are the best for any held outside of the US since 1976) – who turn in every four years and want to watch the Gymnastics. Or the Swimming. Or the Track and Field.

Beware the Angry Mob

Angry Mobs like to mobilize online. They can do so quickly, they can be loud and boisterous.

But they don’t pay the rent.

NBC, on the other hand, had a group of advertisers to keep happy, and a formula that they have used quite a bit (the network has carried every Summer Olympics since 1988).

Listen to the feedback, sure, but stick to your knitting as long as you know your knitting is what works.

Aug 06 2012

Stop. The. Humblebragging.

Humblebragging is a new name for an old idea: sounding “humble” while you’re actually “bragging.” It needs to stop.

Welcome to another blog post that will get me unfriended. (You know about unfriending – when you’re “friends” with someone on Facebook and then, all of a sudden, you’re not friends anymore.)

Social Media is the worst for humblebragging – and some of you need to take a long, hard look in the mirror – followed, possibly, by a nice, cold shower.

I know, I know, we’re living with the “Awesomeness Generation” and there are these youngsters entering the workforce who are used to being told how okay they are, then being handed a trophy for showing up. Those of us in Generation X are guilty of allowing this behavior to happen – and we can do something about it, too.

And this whole humblebragging movement is exacerbated by everyone’s bully pulpit (read: your blog, your Facebook page, your book, your speaking gigs, your Tweets). The appearance of awesome is just a few followers, blog comments or likes away.

Humblebragging Basics

I once got interview advice from a friend that sounded like this:

“If they ask you for your weakness, use something innocuous, such as your proprietary filing system that no one else can figure out, but allows you to do tasks in 25% less time.”

That. Is. Humblebragging.

A real-life example came from President Obama, when asked to focus on the mistakes in his Presidency. (See here for one side of the story.)

His filing system is so good that he was able to get Obamacare done!

Or, to be more direct, he was asked to talk about mistakes, and he used something that, in his mind, he got SO right that it couldn’t possibly be wrong.

Humblebragging is not limited to politics. Social Media makes it easy.

Top 400 Bloggers in the World of Metallurgy

Lists like the above – and there are “Top Whatever for Whatever” lists all over the Internet – make the Social Media component of this humblebragging even worse.

The usual formula goes like this: (1) get on a list and (2) Tweet, Facebook and Blog the fact that you’re on the list. The status updates to do that normally sound like this:

“Humbled to be on the Top 400 Bloggers in the World of Metallurgy List with (insert famous person here).” (Link follows.)

Ah, but, see, that’s the point: you’re not humble, you’re bragging. Humblebragging.

Humblebragging Instead of an Apology

This is the other sad reality – often, humblebragging is one way to deflect attention from what you’ve done wrong. And, if you’ve got enough friends, fans or followers, off you go: talk about how you were too busy to get it right, because you were traveling the globe, or you were working with too many clients. Say that your mistake is that you were too busy. Keep fueling your own awesomeness fire – talk about how your dialogue is helping your industry grow – discuss that you learn from mistakes.

But don’t apologize.

Fess Up. Own Up. Shut Up.

Here’s why some folks need to take a long, hard look in the mirror: President Obama is doing whatever he can to get re-elected, and Governor Romney will likely do the same.

You are not these people, you are not in the political arena.

You CAN say that “the biggest mistake of my first term was that I worked too hard and too long to push through a bill that could set us over a fiscal cliff.” You don’t have to worry about getting re-elected, or elected in the first place.

You SHOULD apologize if you didn’t get the facts straight and were able to attach yourself to a firestorm and grow your own list, blog traffic, affiliate revenue or book sales as a result.

You MIGHT want to think about the perceptions of what you say, and how you say it, and whether you’re perceived as the person who talks a good ballgame but doesn’t really know how to PLAY that ballgame.

Stop. The. Humblebragging.

Jun 07 2012

I’m on a Break…from Marketing Books

Decide to embrace your inner polymath? That’s okay.

Business Model Generation — Not a Marketing Book

With summer rapidly upon us, maybe it’s time to start talking about books that AREN’T about marketing. Or social media.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t check out some of the higher profile marketing books out there – but, to be honest, they are starting to all blend together. Unless you’ve got some unique spin to add to the marketing campaign of the future, at some point it’s time to broaden your horizons.

So, Dave, What DO You Recommend?

Funny – if there’s one thing this site has been known for, it’s a healthy dose of counter-intuitive thinking. Zig when other zag. Things like that. Alas, some tips for your summer reading:

1. Rediscover the Magazine

In the early part of the 90s, I was a subscriber to The Economist. I let my subscription expire…then felt something missing and re-upped. But, to be direct, to understand the workings of modern business AND get a healthy dose of counter-intuitive thinking, there’s no magazine right now that does the trick better than…Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

When Bloomberg bought the property in 2010 and rescued it from the precipice of bankruptcy, they refreshed the design (it’s slick) and the editorial went up a couple notches, IMHO. The writing is rock solid. You’ll learn something new every week.

Oh, and even though I’m a “flip through the pages” kinda guy – the website is great and there’s an iPad version of the magazine.

A tip from a wise person I worked with ages ago: score inexpensive trial subscriptions to something you’re sorta interested in – this will broaden your horizons. So if you KINDA think you want to be a Surfer someday, there’s a magazine for that. (It’s called…Surfer.)

2. Anything Michael Lewis

Moneyball? It was a book before it was a movie. I have a copy sitting here, and I’ve re-read it a couple times.

I’m a baseball guy – sorta, not one of those “Sabermetricians” that Lewis talks about in the book, but a fan from way back when. But this isn’t a baseball book – it’s about thinking differently about how you approach business, decision making, and life. Really. Even if you don’t care to watch the movie, read the book.

Or Boomerang – that’s a great read, too, and will put the whole Euro Mess into perspective.

Lewis is really cool because, well, he’s a polymath. And he has a great writing style.

3. Ask People Who Run Businesses What THEY Read

This is one of my favorite tricks – and I’m not talking about asking bloggers to recommend other bloggers’ blogs.

Smart people have suggested books to me such as Business Model Generation (photo above, worth checking out, thank me later) and Aftershock (which will scare the crap out of you). Neither are marketing books.

4. Pick Up an Almanac or an Atlas

I dig reference books. But, in this “look it up on Wikipedia” world we live in, the need for an Almanac isn’t there. Or is it?

Ditto the Atlas – why would you look through an actual book when you can just go to Google Maps?

Well, think what you want about these beauts – they’re dinosaurs and people don’t need them – they can spark creativity.

Maybe I’ll return to marketing books one of these days, but my plan is to read lots of other stuff this summer. What about you?