I is what I is...

If your hobby (like mine) is to determine what the business trend of the year is, I have it, so you can stop looking. Brace your self.. BRANDING.

Everything I read is about branding. Be the brand. Companies are spending their time developing a strong brand (yes, I know.. they've been doing it for years in marketing) through their people. I haven't seen anyone doing a good job yet, but it seems to be the ideal... I know Southwest Airlines blah blah.. but ok... name another...

Newsflash to everyone not on this critical journey towards people centered branding - your brand is not what you WANT your customers to think about you, it is what they DO think about you.

Therefore, all the catchy jingles, fancy logos, and cool marketing collaterals are worthless unless your people back everything up. It's like the quote I read in (one of the most brilliant books out there..) becoming a category of one by Joe Calloway:

"There's an old saying: Don't wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty, and it annoys the pig. Let me add: Don't claim to be something you are not. You just look stupid and it annoys the customer."

You don't own your brand, your customers do. You can give them something to talk about if you work hard at it, good or bad - take your pick.

Tortoise and the Hare...

I am a big fan of competition, heck, I am a fan of Hypercompetition...

So yesterday... there I am at a hotel/conference centre, which out of respect will remain nameless.. but, even now I wonder why I'm hiding.. whatever..

Anyway, this hotel, towered over all others in the neighbourhood, both structurally, and with the amount of business it attracts...it is the local fall back, when all the other smaller venues are booked up..

It was appalling. It was messy, poorly managed, and run down. However, it was the most expensive, and the most popular...

My point? When companies, organizations, or even hotels for that matter feel that they have the market sewn up, and they are head and shoulders above their rivals, they get lazy. It happens time and time again. You stick to a model so long, that you start to lose focus in it.

I can only imagine if a rival hotel sets up shop in the area, building a world-class facility, run in a world class manner... How long would it take this existing hotel to get in gear, let alone up to speed...?

Everything is in motion, stay in motion. To quote the US Marines, "the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war".

Now I'm not advocating slow and steady wins the race.. it doesn't! Fast consistent change has to happen. Always.

Believe me, the next event we book, I will try EVERY other hotel in the area before I go back to that one...

How many of your customers think this type of thing about you?

We interrupt this post with a message from our sponsor...

It's amazing, isn't it.. Moore's Law in all of it's glory, here we are touting the benefits of our 3.2 Megahertz processors, and we still have to wait for things online.

If I had a nickel for the number of times that I have been subjected to viewing a webpage with a message stating.. waiting for the page to load...(heck web designers often come up with cool little 'icons' that you 'watch' while you wait for the page to load, or pre-load..) I find it fascinating that the businesses themselves tolerate this. As a consumer, I'd rather get what I want, when I want it, and have a stripped down version. Sure, when the internet was on it's way up, and dial-up was common place I might not have minded waiting. But now that I see that most 'rich-media' is superfluous fluff, can we please just get to the point. So, as a closet marketing fiend, I love to (as I have mentioned in other posts...) analyse marketing messages.. party on... here's my latest find.. Waiting has a new friend. And it's from advertisers, online. I guess having realised that banner ads are no longer effective, and pop-ups are being suppressed by software, there has been a wonderfully annoying addition to the constant barrage of marketing messages.. and it has a name.. the premercial. Yes, now that my computer and my broadband connection are lightning fast, I now have a wonderful new reason to wait, because the advertiser wants me to... thanks.

Imagine forcing your customers to wait. Call centers strive to minimize waiting time, however, there isn't (yet) a case to be made that a person has to listen to a marketing message prior to receiving customer service. Who thinks that forcing someone to watch something is effective.

I know, the internet is predominantly free. Thanks for the update, however, there has to be a better way..My mother used to force me to eat broccoli... ask me the last time I had it...

Why hire R&D staff at all?

So I just went through my most recent Trendwatching.com Newsletter, and came across a really cool site concept - www.ipodlounge.com. On this site, SERIOUS iPod users can talk about, learn about, their iPods. The interesting concept is that there is an area within the site where users can post suggestions, and diagrams of how they would like to see the iPod evolve.

To build a link with an earlier post of mine on collaboration, and this post, I then remembered how my favourite (heck... the only shoes I wear) shoe designer, John Fluevog has a section on his site entitled "Open Source Footwear", wherein serious Fluevog owners can submit deisigns for future shoes. The only twist (so far..) is that Fluevog allows site viewers to vote on their favourite designs. The winning design actually gets put into production!!

So, my point is, why are you and your teamates sitting in a conference room beating your heads against the wall trying to create the next big product for your customers? Why don't you let them design it? It's cheaper? And you're right 100% of the time!! Trendwatching.com calls this new trend, yes, I did say TREND - co-production, I call it brilliant.

To make things more exciting, if your 'co-production' site becomes wildly successful, why don't you, as the in-house design team anonymously compete with your customers, and post designs, to test market reaction. To take it even one step further, why not require designers to sign up, prior to posting, that way, if they achieve success after success, you can decide if it's a smart move to HIRE them. Sure beats recruiting costs...

Lets see, cheaper, 100% Guaranteed, and a great source of talent? How fast can you build your site?

April 30, 2004

Did you hear about what happened that day? I giant died. I guess it proves the old adage.. if a tree falls...

On this day, the VERY last Oldsmobile was built. 107 years of history couldn't save it. There will be no more Oldsmobile.

Kinda makes you take stock of just how valuable this whole "Innovation!" "Change!" "Competitive!" state of mind REALLY is.

Don't let this happen to you.

No time to wait...

Here I sit building a (fanstastic, if I do say so myself) workshop on Collaboration. And, rightfully so, one of the case studies is on Linux, the brainchild of Linus Torvalds, the open source operating system, that is FREE. (To learn more about Linux, click on the penguin - the Linux Logo - below)



This interesting aspect of thsi operating system is the fact that it is being worked on, and expanded and improved, constantly, by millions of developers around the world. Wow, what a wonderful demonstration of collaboration.

What would happen if you uploaded the files from your R&D department? What if you involved your customers in the development process of your 'next' product at a much earlier stage in the process. Do you think that the designers of the latest Barbie actually play with Barbies?

All I'm saying that suggestion boxes, and comment cards are lag indicators. With the world moving as fast as it is, can you afford to wait for feedback? You should involve your employees, your customers, and your critics as early as possible in the process. It will only make you wiser, and will ultimately help your organization.