what did you expect me to say?
When you’re waiting on the line for customer service to pick-up and the politely defiant voice says the old familiar phrase, “Sorry for the delay… We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes.”
When you’re contemplating a catchy offer you’re watching on the tube and the fine print is too small for anyone to read.
When you’re selling a base package for a vehicle that doesn’t include standard safety features.
There are some times when “what’s normal” needs to be revised to reflect the normal expectations your customers have. Why not raise the expected level of calls and plan to higher another rep? Why not make the fine print legible and add a percentage for the amount of times it actually gets enforced? Why not increase the base price of the car and offer an option to subtract features?
Why not build your business to accommodate the majority instead of treating every customer like they are asking for more than what’s normal?
i can wear that!
In the market for leadership? BUY NOW!
Thanks Jag.
the ad industry and the toronto maple leafs
There are lots of ways to tell if an opportunity is at hand. The best of them all might just be the feeling that more can be done for less. I’ve never felt so strongly a sentiment towards the ad industry.
Once you hit high school and the options around “When I grow up I want to be…” start to expand beyond astronaut and professional athlete, advertising becomes a very real and attractive option. And so it should - how often can one wake up every morning and unleash a wrath of creativity the world has never seen? Where else can revolutions begin with ideas conceived at the crossroads of two seemingly unrelated observations, that by some stroke of dumb luck, happened to come together in a moment equal in brilliance and simplicity? And to be paid for this vocation!?!
But as I basked in the glory of my television’s glow, I always wondered why so many ads were plain and bad (or more accurately, plain bad). Too many times they tried (too hard) to impress me. Too many times they left out the little things that I had come to know as the brand’s signals. It was, and still is, heart-wrenching to know that people paid good money for an ad that I will never remember.
This just made advertising more attractive. There was an opportunity to do more for less.
There are a lot of us who share a frustration with the status quo model of responding to RFPs, landing clients only to backpedal creative, or compromising where compromise means ‘lost in obscurity’. We still believe that advertising is a beautiful marriage between commerce and art. We know that technology has made “mass media” something you earn, not something you can buy. And most importantly, we respect the notion that, like astronauts and athletes, advertising is not for everyone and those that are busy soaking in the sun should move aside for those who live and breathe their craft the same way a talented athlete shows up first for practice.
And yet, as we plead for chances with the biggest names in the business. As we work for free - not because we believe in the strategy, but because if we don’t, then someone else will without asking these questions. As we extend our patience to support the assumption that all these coffees and missed markets are in the name of something great that is just around the corner… As we do all this, we put our faith and fire in the hands of fatter cats. And while we hope that they are still reaching for the top, we cannot kick the sickening feeling that maybe… just maybe… they are full.
Ladies and gentleman - your Toronto Maple Leafs.
random is the new relevant
I wrote that title with tongue in cheek (picture it if you can).
I noticed the last 3 posts (update: now 2) on my blog were categorized as random and hence, held no real value other than to serve as an indicator that I’m still alive somewhere in the world (if not inside the web).
Of course, those of us paying attention to the content that percolates the web most effectively, can’t help but mutter the word ‘random’ when trying to decipher the pattern of what tips and what doesn’t.
I listened to two gentlemen tell their story tonight. Their product is slick. Their profile growing. What I did notice, was the way in which they built upon their success through seemingly random acts of operational strategy (some would say tactics, but even tactics have the foresight to expect a return). And yet, it didn’t seem random at all. It was as if the acts, although random, were undertaken in context.
Then the real kicker. The context looked eerily familiar. It looked a lot like a brand, or at least, what I thought a brand was supposed to be the first time I heard the word.
feeding the kids
It’s been a long time between blogs. I will write again soon. I purposely set my blogging aside to launch a new project in the eLearning space (still a few days away).
And no… I don’t have any kids.
See you soon.
hmmm
can you tell it’s christmas?
Take a look around… it’s not hard.
WWE (WWF?) has bundled the greatest hits (pun intended) of the last 15 years.
Microsoft has “innovated” by adding 5 family-oriented games to the “new and improved” Arcade bundle.
And my personal favourite - 2Pac has released another album from beyond the grave.
Amazing! Buy now… these are limited time offers. In other words, if you have limited time to think, these are appealing offers.
big viral/little viral
A couple friends of mine have started a really cool thing over at CantWaitForChristmas.com. It’s even cooler for me because I have a general sense of who is posting despite the fact that most people only give a first name.
Conversely, there is a Facebook group which grew to over 1.6 million people in 48 hours. It’s called ‘Six Degrees of Separation - The Experiment’. I declined the invitation.
So what is the relationship between viral and value?
In the case of my friends’ site, a little less viral means a little more value. They’ll have an easier time building momentum within the first degree or two of the social graph, but is that their ceiling? Do they even mind?
The Six Degrees Experiment is also interesting in that the folks who join are part of something bigger than themselves. And yet, it didn’t appeal to me to be the 1,419,550th person involved. Are we counting upwards to 10 million? Downwards to 00:00:00? Does it even matter?
If the value you offer is entirely derived from participation, there needs to be a strong tie between “the ask” (i.e. join) and the feeling I’ll get from listening to you. This is why Facebook started with select campuses and still holds onto the concept of networks within networks - even at 47+ million people.
On a completely different note - I love seeing projects that are completely free of models, marketing and money. It makes me feel good inside - kind of like Christmas.
[Quick update: As expected, there is a little bit of monetization involved. Not enough to turn you off, just enough to remind you that Hallmark loves Christmas too. 
]
counting
It’s a popular thing to do. The web has made it even more so. So is there any difference between counting down and counting up?
Counting down to zero builds anticipation and anxiety. Then again, counting down is only important to people who value the climax (0) to begin with.
Counting up suggests you are building something. You are aggregating and acquiring. You are saying “I have more of this than the next person”. Then again, counting up gets tiring - it never ends. All it takes is for someone to say “This currency is useless - having a lot of ____ is more important to me.”
Sounds like a lose-lose to me. Maybe it’s time to find a new organizing structure for the mounds of activities we perform on the web.
[Take a note from the gaming community if you like - they count towards a goal then reward for attainment (called “leveling”) - then repeat...]
you’re interfaceless and i won’t stand for it!
‘Twas having ye ole Blackberry vs. iPhone discussion with a colleague (he’s down with the Berry) when he made the statement:
“Really though… the Blackberry is better in every way. The iPhone is just an interface.”
Yes. Yes it is I thought.
And while an interface - an element of design - is not a sustainable competitive advantage, a really good interface can buy you customer loyalty far beyond your wildest dreams.
Think of the iPod. The functionality has since been replicated by others. The interface has been 90% copied as well. And yet Apple loyalists (present and future) will not entertain another direction. The interface goes hand in hand with usability and most people think of usability in the same breath as functionality (largely because it’s nearly impossible to extract the full 100% of the functionality from anything).
I was beta testing a new social network last night. I left because I didn’t like the look of the menu.
I signed up for 2 new credit cards in the last month. I used them and went to pay my bill online. I didn’t like way they presented the information. I’ve since cut one up and buried the other.
The more choices we have available, the more our decision criteria rests on the surface.
If you were the Bachelor and you were making your first round of cuts, would interface be your first measure?
« go back — keep looking »
- Subscribe to ideas for conversations
-
find it
-
about
Someone who talks a lot, listens a lot, sings on the streets and loves big ideas. If you need a discipline or two for piece of mind, try Marketer and Entrepreneur. If you need a title to legitimize why you'd waste your time here, I can't help you. I work with people on fire for the things they love.
-
recently written
-
categories
-
monthly archives
-
blogroll
-
admin