February 16, 2006

Can you tell me what your job is in 3 seconds? Read this before you write your resume!

"If you can't describe your job in one sentence, you are either a nuclear physicist or your job shouldn't exist."

Recently read a great article in the FT by Lucy Kellaway, entitled "Waffle and waste of money are hallmarks of the non-job" where she goes after some of the incredibly awful job descriptions you can find in the job columns. Here are some examples and her wit in vivisecting them:

• "Liveability Theme Manager" at Oldham council, in the north of England... The council is searching for a "motivational leader with determination and stamina to successfully deliver our key strategic outcomes". The ideal candidate must have "a good understanding of neighbourhood solutions", and will earn up to £38,010 a year. (She sees this as an affront to the English language - is Livablity a word? split infinities, half a dozen cliche's wrapped in hyperbole)
• The British Transport Police: "Due to internal growth we have a rare opportunity for a Positive Action Support Coordinator to join our Leadership and Diversity Team" (the internal growth makes her think of tumors)
• The Westminster Drug and Alcohol Action team looking for an "Information and Performance manager" "Joining our busy and vibrant team, you will facilitate and manage reporting systems that ensure DAAT partnership and DIP teams are fully briefed on all relevant data" (she is confident only that the team is not vibrant and that the Westminster drug problem is not about to get any better)
• An HR head whose duties include "implementing and embedding HR policy and process, ensureing delivery of a value added service" (she sees only three word that do not set off alarms - "and", "of" and "a")
• She also highlights several typcial problems: verbs like develop and implement, warning words like effective, systems, strategies, best practice, deliver, meaningful, sustainable.

Read this before you write your resume. And also how about reading it before you put up the "about" copy on your website. Go through any corporate website or browse any VC's porfolio and you will ikely see a lot of maximizing and leveraging and providing premier solutions to non descript customers with problems so vague that only a psychiatrist could help them. Keeping it simple and straight forward it key to pitching not just for you but for your company, product or offering. Remember your ABCs and XYZs.

(PS: take a look at Jobster - an Ignition portfolio company - for their job listing. Personally I have to say my favorite is Microsoft MSN's "Be the Butterfly")

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January 05, 2006

Now You're Ready (for a very good tagline)

I have bemoaned the lack of good taglines for some time. I have always thought that less is more and that if you can get the essense of your marketing down to 1-5 words that really work and aren't just B.S. then you have done your homework right.

Well, I have a Leatherman and geek that I am I wear it to the office. I love the thing. And I like being able to always have a Philips head screwdriver, corkscrew and pliers avaiable at my side for those sticky board room situations. And therefore I just have to take moment to praise their headline:

Now You're Ready

It's big. It's simple. It's specific and it totally captures what Leatherman means.

Hear, hear!

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December 02, 2005

Three Vehicles, One Planet. Zero Clarity

Was walking through O'Hare airport yesterday and was barraged by huge banners and signs everywhere for Toyota's new campaign pushing their Hybrid Synergy Drive.

The banners and adds had the above huge logo and only four words:

Three Vehicles
One Planet

Now some folks, seem to like this campaign (Mark at Being Reasonable likes it), and I know I havent seen it all. But I have to admit to be completely confused and annoyed by what I saw.

I mean, this is the US. Why do they say "Vehicle"? How about "Car" or "Truck"? Are they selling motorcycles, Segways, boats, rickshaws?

This logo as the only visual? Using the fancy secret sauce "Hybrid Synergy Drive" as the only visual or evidence may be mysterious but where the heck is the benefit or the proof?

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I think direct promises are good. Why not:

More speed
Less gas
Cleaner Air

Toyota Hybrids: No Compromises

Simple and clear (can't really say "Cheaper" - I priced a Highlander Hybrid and boy was it steep). And how about showing us what these mysterious vehicles look like. There seems to be a reason car ads have had cars on them for a hundred years.

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November 08, 2005

Beauty Gets "Real" in China too

We have already written and talked about how much we like the The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.

It is cool to see them extend it and localize it around the world. They are doing much the same in China. And the ads are everywhere. Love the imagery and continue to love the campaign.

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September 22, 2005

5 Benefits - is that all you need?

We've written a lot about the importance of benefits in your messaging vs. submitting to the techie temptation to focus your communications on "cool" features (with proof best of all).

So in chosing the benefits you want to highlight, which are the best? Well, we recently ran across a great list of categories of benefits you might want to consider having your offering ultimately accrue to from Skip Lineberg's cool blog. He keeps it to just 5 (which is a number we like ;-). Here are the 5 Benefits:

"… it does not matter what the product is or what industry one inhabits, you have to present your case so that you tell your audience within the first ten seconds of your message which one of the five possible benefits you are offering. There are five, period. F-I-V-E.

1. Make me wealthy
2. Improve my appearance
3. Help me to be more well-liked by my family or friends
4. Make me live longer
5. Get me laid more often

Money, looks, popularity, health and sex. That's it."

I like these - I wonder where you fit some enterprise kind of benefits like security, risk management (maybe they fit under "make me live longer").

Hat tip to the NonBillable Hour.

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August 25, 2005

VC Pitch Tips (reprinted with permission - from myself ;-)

We talk a lot about messaging here, well in our day jobs as Venture Capitalists, investors are a key marketing target just like any other. A while ago we wrote a post on another blog (NW Venture Voice) translating some of the Playbook concepts into tips we have really seen work in making investment pitches. A bunch of folks asked us to repost, so here it is:

...........................

The most important thing in having a successful pitch to a VC is to have a great business and a great team, but even if you have both it doesn't hurt to have a super crisp, logical, compelling pitch. Here are 5 basic tips that I have seen really work.

1. Outline
First, have an outline. Be organized. The best top level outline I have heard it from one of the super masters of presentations, Jerry Weissman. Before you focus on all the snazzy charts, make sure you do the following:
• Tell them what you are going to tell them: Show them where you are going to take them, on the title slide.
• Tell them how you are going to tell them: Have an agenda slide and stick to it.
• Tell them: make sure the body of your presentation always reinforces your opening point.
• Tell them what you told them: wrap up, recap and go for the close.

2. In a nutshell
One great tool for making this organization stick is what I call the "in a nutshell" slide. This is using your agenda slide to tell the skeleton of your whole argument. When presenting to Steve Ballmer it often happened that you never got off the first slide after the title, so make sure it really works for you.

Normally, I like to see In A Nutshell slides that act as a template. On one side they highlight, even number the key elements of your story/pitch/argument and in parallel on the other side they give the top support points in summary. As you then move through the deck you keep the left hand template to reinforce the whole argument and help people remember where you are in it.

3. Clear, simple case
Show why your company/investment should exist in the first place. Do the simple case using what we call your ABCs or situation/gap analysis. Where:
• A = Today: the current situation in the market/big growing
• B = Tomorrow: the place the market should be/juicy opportunity
• C = Gap: what's missing to get to B/the special play you are poised to make to fill it and win

4. Simple positioning and proposal
Then tell why your way of filling this gap is better than everyone else's. One simple outline for this is what we call the XYZs - "We are the only X company/product that solves Y customer problem in Z unique way," where
• X = your category: critical for VCs, we need to put you in some box, to make comparisons; never invent a category, improve one.
• Y = the target: the buyer, the person who actually writes the check, great if you actually have some.
• Z = your differentiation: your advantage, or the key positive distinction you have over your competition.
It also helps if you can back all this up with real support, like your team's track record, customer traction, a real competitive analysis (their ABCs), etc. A demo is not enough. Proof is better than claims.

5. Best foot forward first and strongest
Tune the organization of your story to the stage of your company. And always put the strongest stuff upfront.
• An EIR: It's all about YOU and the market opportunity/competitive gap.
• A seed: It's all about initial market validation (quotes from friends with important job titles in your target customer's industry), then about the product spec, the team and the above.
• A round: It's all about initial customer traction and economics - some demonstrated willingness to try and pay - show the best real numbers you have, then about the product itself relative to others, then the above/
• B round: It's about momentum - show the sales numbers, the trends and the economics, then all the above.
Then of course have a well thought out and aggressive enough ask.

...................

Here are some other resources and inputs on VC pitches:

• Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullets. Very nice stuff on how to have the maximum impact with PPT.
• Brad Feld with a wide set of thoughts on The Torturous World of Powerpoint and 15 questions you need to ask in making the pitch
• Marc Hedlund with a pretty funny powerpoint on VC funding for geeks (also has some good insights about not needing money as the best way to get it, and how raising money really is a full time job)
• A VC referring to an interesting/funny elevator pitch podcast by Eric Lunt, CTO of FeedBurner
• More on podcast pitches from David Hornik
• Startup Law Blog referall to a Businessweek article on the topic by Allen Morgan
• Allens more complete thoughts on this, especially commandments 4, 5, 6 and 7, emphasizing the importance analogy, no more than 13 slides, and knowing the audience
• Seth Levine with some excellent does and don'ts that sound basic but so few seem to follow, and
• Nick Morgan with a bunch of guidance of how to grab your audience's attention and tell them an emotional story.

Note: Cartoon courtesy of Les Posen's CyberPsych blog

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July 18, 2005

Real Beauty: In the Eye, Ear or Brain of the Beholder

Images are powerful marketing tools. They say alot about the marketers using them and our response to them says a lot about us as consumers, as people and as a soceity. Nowhere is this more true than in images of women.

Not that I am qualified to comment, but early today I was priviledged to join a radio discussion on WBUR in Boston on exactly these topics, sparked by Dove's ongoing campaign, the Campaign for Real Beauty. The other, much more qualified participants included:

• Dr. Nancy Etcoff, Harvard Medical School psychologist, and author of the book, Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty
• Julia Savacool, senior news editor at Marie Claire, and author of the article, One Woman, Two Messages: Does your attitude about your body influence the way other people see you?
• Kathy O'Brien, Direct of Customer Marketing at Dove
• and Jennifer Westaway as host.

It was a fascinating discussion with lots of interesting data about how women see themselves and how media imagery influences that self perception. And also about how the new Dove campaign, which uses unretouched imagery of all kinds of women who aren't models relates to those findings. Interesting call ins as well. A few who felt patronized but others who really loved the diversity.

Despite some questions about the possible cynicism of Dove, who is owned by Unilever (who also sells Slimfast), most everyone felt - including, as I posted previously, myself - that this campaign was a refreshing step in the right direction.

To listen to the full show, click here (note you will need the Real Media player).

As a quick follow-up to the show, I thought I would do my own survey of the blogsphere. Here's a summary of what I came up with:

• Bohemian Yuppie loves the realistic approach to beauty and has some good perspective on the Etcoff study
• On the other hand, Stephen Newton dissented, his wife hates the campaign and wouldn't want to be seen with Dove products for what it says about her - that she is a fat, unattractive person
• World Magazine blog, a Christian oriented site had tons of commentary almost all in support, including a comment that the Christian right should spend more time preaching postive self image than indicting others
• AdLand admired the campaign and had a good overall survey of the all the aspects of the campaign
• Noise Between Stations, like the integrated nature of the campaign, including the online customer interaction, feeling that they helped make it more genuine
• Tokyo Times, noted a recent blond wig tossing event with support
• CMO Magazine quoted Mary Lou Quinlan, CEO of Just Ask a Woman, a New York marketing consultancy saying "To say that you’re beautiful just the way you are, it’s a warm, fuzzy feeling, but does it make the cash register ring?"
• Moon Rocket felt that the in "differentiating Real Beauty from beauty depicted in traditional advertisements" the campaign became disingenuous. And that it "would have been better served had Dove made this transition in their marketing ideology without issuing numerous self-congratulatory press announcements meant to lure customers to their brand of beauty products."
• Collaboration marketing, another marketing blog, really appreciates the campaign
• The Guardian found some folks, real beauties in their own rights that felt the models aren’t flawed enough
• Dragon Fly Grrl, an LA woman's blog,
  found it really refreshing living in the land of the super model and super model wannabes
• This is What We Do Now loves it too
  
  So net, net, it is at least generating a lot of commentary and attention and - I think - a healthy discussion. And most folks are in support of it.

If it raised awareness of Dove too, I continue to call it a really good campaign

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July 07, 2005

Yes AND So

We've written a lot about how the words "Yes" "But" "So" can really work as the outline to any kind of persuasive arguement you want to make.

• "Yes", establishing empathy, understanding of your audience's situation.
• "But" pivoting to the challenge, allowing for disagreement or change
• "So" introducing your conclusion

Sounds good and works, in most cases. But recently my wife pointed out that while the word "Yes" is great, and really helps lower your audience's (in this case our pleading son's) inherent resistance, the word "But" can bring that resistance right back up.

"But" can signal "oh yeah, here it comes, the negative, the disagreement, the disappointment..." So, in her dramatically greater sensitivity and wisdom, she said why not use the word "AND" instead? In most cases it accomplishes the same thing in terms of your arguement but it doesn't raise hackles.

Why tell someone "Yeah, yeah I see your point, but you're wrong, so I have a better idea?" Just to make them mad and more resistant. Maybe in some cases, but that is not usually what you are trying to do in marketing. Instead, why not say, "Yes, I see where you are coming from. And, we could take that further. So, lets come to the following conclusion together."

Yes, I see my wife's point, and she is generally right. So, let's take it a little further...

• Yes, "And" and "But" are both coordinating conjunctions: "joining two items of equal syntactic importance" (part of the group "for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so" that form the mnemonic FANBOYS) - i.e. in structural logic terms they mean exactly the same thing.
• And, my wife is right that "But" also can connote negativity - "Implies that the following clause is contrary to prior belief."
• So, "with the result or consequence that," although I frankly think "But" works better than "And" in the above arguement, I am going to use "And" instead whenever I talk to my wife because it works better for her. And besides S.O. is also an abbreviation for "Significant Other" and I want to keep it that way.

And if all the above contortions of "And" and "But" wasn't confusing enough, here are a bunch of links to others I found googling "Yes But So":

• A whole blog called Yes But Still - very nice statement that "life is what happens when your reading aphorisms" (remember if you can't be a poet...)
• "Yes saddam is evil but.." Boy, what do you follow that with?
• Yes, But Why Are the Grammys So Awful? Got me, maybe it's a requirement for awards ceremonies and political conventions.
• Living Longer, yes! But living well? - Hey, eat drink and be merry!!
  (Simple measures that will help keep you healthy)
• Yes, But Is Weight Loss the Be-All and the End-All? I certainly hope not
• Yes, character counts, but so does winning. Hey, wait a minute I thought that was my excuse for getting picked last for the football team.

Note: there were almost no entries for "Yes And So" Hmmmm....

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May 17, 2005

In the Line of Fire

Jerry Weissman is a phenomenon. A powerhouse. We owe Jerry a great deal – for teaching us just about everything we know about presenting, for inspiring us with some great concepts, and for being a big supporter of our efforts in writing our own book.

I recently had the distinct honor and delight of receiving an advance reader's copy of Jerry Weissman's newest book, In the Line of Fire : How to Handle Tough Questions...When It Counts. It's being published in July by Prentice Hall.

I enjoyed this book even more than his last (which is saying alot). This is a very focused, very hands on book. It is all about dealing with the heat, not of the prepared pitch but beyond it when you open yourself to questions. This is something all of us can use because life goes way beyond the Powerpoint slides. Here are a few highlights:

• Control the time – before starting with questions, set a time limit or an excuse to end the session after only a few questions
• Control the traffic – raise your own hand and ask for questions
• If you don’t know EVERYONE’s name in the audience, don’t call anyone by name
• Make the questioner feel like you heard them (or make the audience feel that way)
• Resist thinking of the answer while the questioner is talking – instead look for the key issue around which to formulate your MESSAGE
• Focus on that key word and sound clear and decisive in using it to deliver your MESSAGE as an answer
• Create a buffer between the question and your expression of the answer, keeping you in control and not on the defensive (boy he has a bunch of great techniques for doing this)
• He’s also got a very useful variation of Yes, But, So called “Buffer – Agree – But – Evidence – Call to Action” You have to check this out.

Can’t wait until the full book comes out. Congrats Jerry on a terrific accomplishment and on a truly terrific Rude Q&A/interview/Debate Taser to put on your communications utility belt.

Note, we are far from Jerry’s only fans in the blogsphere, here are a few other who sing his praises:

• Tina Ornstein found the wonders of WIFFY (what’s in it for you) in Jerry’s last book
• Watertank and Dennis Kennedy recommend Jerry’s as one of the two books you should read about making powerpoint presentations “Interestingly, neither is really about PowerPoint."
• Fast company highlighted Jerry’s great five rules for great presentations (which I love)
  

  Focus on what matters.
  Converse, don't perform.
  Plain talk is the best talk.
  Let me rephrase that!
  The pause that refreshes.

• Mike Clark has a great list of powerpoint resources, commentary etc. and of course highlights Jerry
• And Doc Searls highlights Jerry as “the presentation guru whose influence on the corporate selling skills of Silicon Valley CEOs should be valued in the billions of dollars, at the very least” in his own classic post “It's The Story, Stupid
  Don't Let Presentation Software Keep You From Getting Your Story Across” - also a must read:
  

  “Begin with the end
  Come from who you are
  Tell your story
  Write from an outline
  Talk from headlines, not headings
  Use graphics
  Use numbers for lists
  Research
  Make comparisons
  Stand and deliver”

What fun. Keep your eyes open and pre order his book!

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May 02, 2005

Yes, But, So

Recently, we've been doing a lot of analysis of the landscape, in venture, in technology, etc. We've also been seeing a lot of pitches of course. And in each one we keep coming back to this simple formula for both assesing the situation and making your case for the right action in the situation.

We've talked about the ABCs of situation analysis a lot already in this blog. But we have not walked through the analog formula we use all the time for translating this assessment into a compelling arguement or case - no matter what the topic. We call this method Yes, But, So, and boy have we been using this a lot lately.

So here it is "Yes, But, So" excerpted, paraphrased from Chapter 13 of our book...

For people to buy into what you are proposing, they need to understand the rationale behind it. The “Yes, But, So” approach offers a simple formula for making this clear in three sentences that acknowledge the situation, challenge the status quo, and propose an alternative.

To prevent yourself from getting lost and tangled up in the minutiae in doing all this complex analysis, you followed our simple ABCs method — With A representing the summary current situation, B representing the better way or possible future, and C, the gap or path from point A to point B.

For conveying your summary case (and, in fact, for holding people’s attention when you are making just about any argument you will ever need to make), there is an equally simple method to match the ABCs.
This wondrously magical technique is called… Yes, But, So.

The Yes lets your listeners know that you’ve heard their position and you understand. But announces that you know there can be a better way. So presents your idea for how to get there. These three little words are the only ones you really need to kick off any logical argument. And they will help you keep it down to three sentences.

Yes. Of course your case starts with “Yes.” However often it's actually used, “yes” has got to be one of the most popular words in the English language. It's what we all want to hear most. And there's a reason. Finding a way to empathize, to identify with someone, is the most important starting point to any interaction. That's the purpose of the Yes in our little Yes, But, So formula. Yes shows that you understand and acknowledge the facts of the situation—market situation, customer responses and desires, competitive strengths and responses, and the immediate feedback of your audience.

But. “Yes” is not enough. Nothing does, can, or should stay the same. That's where But comes in. Only when you understand the gap between the current situation and the desired or potential situations can you make any progress. The But statement forces you into a position of being open minded, critical, taking things from a different perspective. It is questioning, challenging; it’s what keeps things fresh. In this context, But drives you to recognize the opening, the potential break in the situation, the kernel of change.

So. What’s next? It’s pretty dissatisfying to leave a conversation on a negative note, focusing on just the problems. Once you know your limitations and challenges, you have to decide what to do about them. That's what So is all about—taking all this analysis and converting it into a call to action. It's about embracing the possible. It addresses the need to find some resolution, hope, goals, or motivation in a tough situation. So is your way of taking all this analysis and hypothesizing and converting it into recommended action, into resolve, commitment. So means, “Let’s go!”

Here’s an example. We started out the section on situation analysis with the story of Henry Ford and the Model T. Behind all the momentous business and technology dynamics and historic industry forces was a very simple three-sentence case:

• Yes, cars remain the domain of elites and aficionados, not regular people.
• But, the underlying auto technology and manufacturing techniques are becoming more efficient.
• So, we should now be able to make a reliable car that the mass market can afford.

Another example updates the Ford story with similar challenges and opportunities in the modern time—the Volkswagen approach, especially when the company first relaunched with its more daring line of cars like the Jetta and the new bug.

• Yes, there are terrific, German-engineered cars available on the market for driving enthusiasts.
• But, they are very expensive and appeal only to those who can afford them .
• So, let’s offer a high performance German car for normal enthusiasts.

Sounds simple, but frankly, we think it’s profound. Why? It’s the psychology of getting someone to agree with you.

By, the way, this works great as well with kids and spouses (say "yes" first to empathize, inject "but" to begin explaining the issues and provide a "so" to suggest something positive rather than just disagreeing).

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March 31, 2005

What's your destination?

Any marketing, any business starts with where you are, where you want to be and how you are going to get there. Here's a company that seems to have embraced these simple ideas in a very intriguing way.

Have you seen the billboards for Point B around in airports lately? Black and white scenes of empty hotel rooms. Clearly the place you are currently looking at going to (with not a lot of relish). With headlines about how their consultants get you there without lots of travel. The implication that they will take you to the Point B of that state (rather than the point B of another drab hotel room). Pretty provocative.

They say they are the "first professional services firm entirely dedicated to our clients' success through the power of project leadership. We keep things moving in the right direction."

I'm not exactly sure what that means but I really have to tip my hat to them, for three reasons:

• Their name: I love naming and they have done a great job. Ever since Jerry Weissman taught us that it is the place our audiences want to be and that we need to take them there we have been huge believers in the power of PointB, . And of course we believe that it really is the core motivator of any gap analysis. We often tell folks to think of their names as reflections of their mission or vision of the future. That it should imply to customers the state the company will take them to. So what a terrific, open, mission/vision-oriented name Point B is, for just about any destinatiion - you the customer define it. Here, here!
• Their imagery: think they could be a little more explicit in their website but boy those billboard do get you wondering as you tramp around from airport hotel to airport hotel. Very nice branding from a relatively small company.
• Their discipline: Hey, we're venture capitalists, so our job is to invest in companies. But we have often told folks that if they don't need financing, they shouldn't take it. Well, according to Evan Carmichael the company is profitable, had sales of $31 million, and employs 185 people, all with no VC money just a $200 investment from the three founders.

What an accomplishment. Look forward to learning more about this mysterious company.

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March 27, 2005

Talk is cheap, proof is powerful stuff

And worth the effort...

We have long talked about the value of proof over benefits over features. Nice to see Steve Neiderhauser talk about it applied to all kinds of things, like even you and your career. Even when it comes to hiring a demo is a lot more powerful (and reliable) than a resume full of features (went to this school, held this job, etc.)

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March 18, 2005

Job Descriptions as Marketing/Positioning

I have long thought that doing a good job of articulating your play, positioning and values is not just for external targets but for your own employees. Well here is recent case where working on the job description of a key role - VP of Marketing of course - helped the company drive their overall positioning and messaging to a clearer, stronger place.

The company is an Ignition portfolio company (surprise, surprise), with a truly inspired mission and vision:

It should be easy for anyone to live the dream of running their own business.

Mpire's job is to bring together all the right technologies, services and resourses to make this dream not just possible but practical.

They are extremely passionate about this. And their job description reflects/and sheds light on this passion:

Chief Marketing Officer of the American Dream Ready to join a revolution? It’s the chance to make a real difference in the lives of small-business owners. We’re obsessed with helping anyone live the dream of running their own business. What is it that we do? We’re creating seriously amazing small-business software. We’re not talking about recycled enterprise software. Our stuff is user-intuitive small-business software that’s been constructed from the ground up to leverage Web services and a bunch of other cool technologies such as Linux, Apache, MySQL, Python, Flash, XML, software-as-a-service….you get the picture.

Why do our customers love it? It empowers them to finally manage their finances, keep track of their customers, oversee their inventory, sell their goods over the Internet and take care of anything else on the typical entrepreneur’s to-do list. It allows them to get control of their business. Do our users have to buy a new computer or download software? Nope. Why clutter their computer with a half-dozen clunky, one-trick-pony software packages! Our software is available in one easy-to-use, fully integrated hosted environment.

Who are you, exactly? You’re the Chief Marketing Officer of the American dream. You get PC’s. You get the Internet. You get marketing. You take a $1M budget and beat the pants off a company with a $100M budget, because you never – ever – give up and because you truly are that good. You’re an A player and recruit A players who will, in turn, attract millions of customers. You get people. You know how to talk to a 64 year old grandma about the Internet, and a 22 year old metro sexual programmer about podcasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting). You’re a charismatic leader. You’re a Jack Welch in the making who tells the CEO a thing or too about business and marketing. You’re also ambitious, smart, entrepreneurial, and focused.

What would you do for us? You’d create and drive our overall marketing and customer-experience strategy – and when we say “strategy,” we aren’t talking about a PowerPoint presentation. It’s all about taking the right action at the right time. You’ll be creating, identifying, and raising awareness of what we’re doing as both a social and a technological experience. You’ll increase our market share exponentially by implementing an aggressive customer-acquisition strategy – focused on viral growth and on positive testimonials from our existing customers. You forge partnerships with leading small-business service providers – office-supply chains, educational channels, companies that provide high-speed Internet services, and the like. You’re a firm believer in the power of PR, and you know how to drive the large-scale awareness campaigns that will build our brand while boosting our reputation as a thought-leader throughout the industry. You’re even something of a viral-marketing whiz who knows how to generate buzz and to maximize the impact of it.

We’re Mpire (www.mpire.com) – a Seattle-based startup. We may be small, but we’re a team of A-level players that has been funded by other A-level players. Our people brought you eBay, Windows, and MS Office, just to name a few. We know about great software and top-notch Internet businesses.

There’s a reason our customers started their own businesses. Maybe they wanted the freedom to control their own destiny. Maybe they finally wanted to turn that dream into a reality. Maybe hey wanted to spend more quality time with their families while also being truly proud of how they spend their working hours. Whatever their motivation, Mpire is here to help anyone live the dream of running their own business. That’s our vision. Come join our revolution.

Sound like you? Contact them here. I wish more job descriptions were like this - no matter what the job title.

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March 07, 2005

Office Pre-Historic Marketing

Touchy subject (for me given my own pre-historic - 1995 - marketing of this product) but Steve Rubel has some good input for marketing this product that most of us use everyday. Much of what he suggests is a bloggy update of things we did back in 1995 to drive both competitive zeal and user enthusiasm. Worth considering.

(Note we too think that the nice humans at Microsoft doing their blogging are doing a lot for the image of the company)

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March 06, 2005

The power of sorry

Humility is not only reality it is a great way to relate to people. John Jantsch points this out in a recent post about how powerful an apology when working your troubled or lost accounts. I think this is true everywhere.

But don't just apologize, fix it. The combination and result is both humanity and renewed customer intimacy and trust. When I worked at American Express we noted that the retention rate of customers who had had a customer service problem and had it successfully resolved was dramatically higher than that of customers who had never had a problem. (tempting to engineer fixable problems but remember the core lesson - humility and dedication). Relates to what Evelyn Rodriguez had to say recently - that marketing = love. When they fall in love with your service or product that is great, but to have a long lasting relatioship is more than just romance, it's trust. When you love someone you don't have to say sorry but you do. (via Dig Business)

Boy, given the last few posts I must having you know what on the brain. Signing off...

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February 26, 2005

What is happening to job titles?

Flying home from a glorious but entirely blogless vacation in Hawaii, I found cause to reflect on job titles and how they have increasingly become messages themselves and seem to be going through some very strange and interesting contortions in the process. Specifically I found it really interesting, that during the lovely, somewhat cheezy, Aloha- and Mahalo-filled flight preparation video that they referred the in flight staff as "customer experience agents."

Wow. That is a long way from "stewardess" which I understand had to change because of its sexest undertones. But why they move away from "Flight Attendant." Maybe that just wasn't cool or modern or elevated enough for an industry plagued with bankruptcies or near bankruptcy, longer and longer lines, more security issues, strikes, and low wages for attandants/agents or whatever you want to call them. Maybe they read something about CRM and thought they ought to get with it. (By the way, no complaining. I like Hawaiian Air. It's quaint. I like the in-flight entertainment with really cheezy Don Ho style music videos, the friendly "experiments" with inter-Island assigned seating and they generally casual attitude - which makes this title even more incongruous.)

Who was this title change aimed at? Employees? I have long heard of title inflation. In fact an acquaintance once bemoaned the "debasement of the currency" at his former employer with everyone getting promoted to VP and SVP etc. as an employee retention strategy.

Supposedly fun or cute titles are interesting. They seem to arise from an effort to maintain consistency with the brand character. Take a look at the titles of the folks at Cranium. They are a whimsical company so they ought to have whimsical titles, like Richard Tait (co founder and grand poobah) and Whit Alexander (co founder and chief noodler). Seems better than a lot of the other Chief business school buzzword Officer title that were especially en vogue in the late 1990s.

At the same time as all this inflation has gone on, I have noticed another interesting trend. Embracing insults and elevating them into praise. Clearly it used to be an aspersion to be called a geek. But now it is more than cool, it is an important job qualification, a badge of honor and even a branding device.

Geeksquad is the 24 hour computer support "task force" (from Best Buy) that makes being a geek seem as cool as being an FBI agent. For more geek love check out Think Geek, where, to borrow from Crosby Stills Nash and Young, you can "Let Your Geek Flag Fly" (originally "Freak Flag" another instance of embracing an insult - then it was long hair not pocket protectors).

Finally, I leave you with a wonderful site where you can come up with your own "bulls__t" job titles, inflated, distorted or otherwise. Here are some of the ones I generated:

• Senior Paradigm Planner
• Senior Implementation Orchestrator
• Dynamic Communications Coordinator
• Customer Creative Architect
• Future Usability Specialist
• Legacy Directives Technician

Where do I send my resume?

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February 14, 2005

Vonage running bus and billboard ads

Vonage is running a huge set of bus and billboard signs here right now. It is interesting to watch as they drop their prices from $40 to $25 with a low of $15. We also have seen interest from comcast to enter the same market.

As a play, it will be interesting to see who wins, the access provider or the value-added service. Yahoo is rumored to be doing the same thing.

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December 02, 2004

The Death of Taglines: How about Taglines Galore?

Recently we wrote about the death of taglines. The smart folks at 37 signals picked up on this and generated a very interesting discussion. Net net – there are good taglines, bad taglines, confusing taglines and no taglines. Some work wonders, others act as a prison or a tax you have to pay. But the task of making less really be more, of really communicating your positioning, aspirations, culture and attributes – current and future – is a very, very tough one and one that may just as easily lead you astray. You be the judge on your own business. 37 signals themselves came up with a very novel approach - which I think is just as interesting as posting your values – they posted all the taglines they thought made sense for their business. Check them out.

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November 25, 2004

A world without - God forbid - taglines?

Have you noticed lately amidst all the talk of the death of brands, of branding, of brand consultants, of advertising, of sex selling, of even - oh no! - marketing that something else seems to be slipping quietly away?

Remember the days when taglines were essential to sum up what it was all about - the uncola, making it easier, drivers wanted, just do it, the ultimate driving machine, all the news that's fit to print...

Well today we still have things like "Invent" "i'm lovin it" and "it's the cola" but can you think of the taglines for brands like Google, Starbucks or even, that paragon of marcom prowess, Apple? No? Why? Because they don't have taglines, either never did or don't have them anymore.

Interesting. And maybe just plain smart. No tagline, no need to shift one when your businesses changes. Maybe sometimes what you don't say sends just as strong a signal as what you do (i.e. not just search, not just coffee, not just Macs).

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November 17, 2004

STP

Was recently talking with a friend of mine, Russ Stockdale (very smart guy, big brain, big heart) and we got on the topic of positioning. And he reminding me of something - STP.

I am kind of a broken record about putting the positioning horsebefore the messaging and media cart. Well he reminded me that in many circustances you aren't even ready to do your positioning. That in fact very often you really need to understand your base value proposition before you figure out how to position it relative to the alternatives.

The old S T P - Segment, Target, Position:

• Step one - segment the market into group that actually could actually find value from what you have
• Step two - target one of those segments and make yourself most relevant to them
• Step three - position your value to this target as superior in some important way relative to the competitors.

OK, maybe this is Marketing 101 but hey, it is still useful to remember, especially with early companies or technology innovations in search of the right place to go. And by the way, while refreshing my memory on STP I did find this cool site called Marketing Teacher (great for those of us who never tire of Marketing 101). Check it out.

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October 30, 2004

Lessons from an "up and coming market"

The Origin of Brands Blog: An up and coming market. Really interesting analysis by Laura Ries of how the (ahem) erectile disfunction market has worked. Some interesting lessons:

1. It is better to be first than it is to be better.
2. A #2 brand that only differentiated by claiming "better" is rarely a big success (not a good enough way to win a dragrace)
3. If you can’t be first, set up a new (sub)category you can be first in.
4. PR builds brands. Advertising maintains them. (This is one to drill home to every start-up)
5. The target is not necessarily the same as the market. (another great lesson - seperate your thinking of your market gap from how you want to target the product, aspirations matter)
6. Names matter. (I am always a huge proponent of putting the time in to come up with the right naming)

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Nike vs. New Balance: Comparative Positioning

A great positioning analysis from Ageless marketing. Really worth reading. Clearly both have been very successful at creating and supporting distinct, powerful, pointed positioning. And clearly I am getting older - I no longer see myself as a greek god, I have flat feet and wear new balance shoes.

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October 22, 2004

Hurt and Rescue

We talk a lot about persuation. The art of changing someone's mind. One of the methods we have is called "Yes, But, So," where the first part is acknowledgement of the target's situation, the second is introducing an issue or challenge, and the third is offering a solution.

Heard a great variant of this today from a friend who does branding, Lorraine Nay. She said that recently heard of a method called Hurt and Rescue. Check it out. It is not really negative but it is a means by which you introduce conflict/pain/trouble or highlight that it exists and then you offer the way out. Interesting technique.

Also check out this site Changing Minds. Just beginning to look at it, but looks interesting on a whole host of topics relating to persuation.

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October 07, 2004

Being Yourself and Still Doing Marketing

Crossroads Dispatches: We Lived in a World of Cultured Messages Really provoking thoughts by Evelyn Rodriguez about genuine communications vs. put ons. Worth chewing on whether you are talking to a customer, vendor, employee, boss, spouse or your kids.

And she had a great quote:

"A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than yesterday."
- Jonathan Swift

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October 06, 2004

Naming Basics Again

Naming is key. I love naming. And if I do say so myself the basics of naming that I've outlined before came in handy again with a company we work with. Just really helped them stay on track so worth looking at again.

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September 24, 2004

Kryptonite disaster

I'm sure that the Kryptonite people haven't slept for days. Someone on the Internet figured out that you can open one of their locks with the cap of a BIC pen. You just take a $100 lock that has a $5,000 equipment guarantee on it, shove a BIC pen into the key and then wiggle it.

What a nightmare. Your core value proposition attacked by a $0.59 pen. So what to do. Most folks would duck and cover and say it ain't so. But in the world of instant Internet information it takes 48 hours for it to propogate everywhere and think of the lawsuits.

So what to do? Deny is one thing, but Kryptonite did the right thing, offer a free exchange for all the locks. Put it at the top of your website in _RED_

Nice job Kryptonite and I hope your engineers are working like crazy right now!

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September 15, 2004

The Science of Listener Attention

Was watching a re-run of West Wing and was struck by some stuff that my favorite character, Toby Ziegler said about oratory. He called it the Science of Listener Attention.

You want the benefits of free trade? Food is cheaper. Food is cheaper, clothes are cheaper, steel is cheaper, cars are cheaper, phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That's 'cause I'm a speechwriter and I know how to make a point. It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with "lowers" and "raises" there? It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now you end with the one that's not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. And that's it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest! One world, one peace. I'm sure I've seen that on a sign somewhere.

Sounds like the art of persuation or marketing to me. Repetition sounds like what we call the Rule of Three (keep your benefits/claims to just three - awesome, awesome, not screwed up). Floating opposites sounds like what we call the Rule of Pardox (e.g. Tastes Great, Less Filling).

Smart for any kind of campaign, product or political.

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September 14, 2004

Not All Proof is Created Equal

Making a bold claim is important to get an audience's attention, but supporting it is even more critical if you want to convert that attention into action. You can support a claim at three levels:

. Functionality and Features: What you have.
. Needs and benefits: Why they should care, what's in it for them.
. Evidence or Proof: Why they should believe you.

And in our calculus not all support it equal. Features are great but not as important as the benefits they provide to customers. Benefits are the center of all good messaging. But proof speaks the loudest. Therefore Proof>Benefits>Features.

Beyond that, not all proof is equal. Depending on where you are in the market, you can leader with weaker or strong proof of your claims.

The strongest is when you can say you are number one overall. The next strongest is when you can claim leadership of some subset of the category (e.g. "choosey mothers choose Jif"). The next best is individual endorsements from folks your audience trusts. And the weakest (but still essential at whatever stage of market development you are in) is simply to show how you are better.

Proof may be the most powerful marketing but always make sure to engineer your proof to put the strongest foot forward. End of soapbox.

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September 11, 2004

Pitching to VCs

For many, if not most companies, investors are a very important target audience. Here is a short guide from Northwest Venture Voice on how to persuade them in your pitch. It's very good (because it's by me ;-)

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September 08, 2004

Winners - Fast Company Better Brand Contest

The Fast Company "This Brand Can Be Better Contest" has a winner. And it isn't us. But hey, we were one of TWO honorable mentions. Pretty cool. We got our mention for our thoughts on Radio Shack. To see our thoughts on all the brands Fast Company suggested could be better, see entries 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

The winner was Dan Limbach of Siren Interactive (who also has some pretty intriguing thoughts on topics from advisory boards, to krispy cremes and books). He won for his really smart thoughts about Brooks Brothers. In sum that Brooks Brothers should own ambition, focus on loyalty with the most pivotal target and the pivotal moment - collegue students and the job interview and surround this with help for that target inclusive of but beyond just "dressing for success."

The other honorable mention was Christy Saito of Nike for her right-on input for McDonalds. Stay focused on the kids (and their parents). "If McDonald's encouraged and promoted actual physical activity and exercise for kids in their product marketing programs, it would not be so bad for an active child to indulge in a Happy Meal every now and then."

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August 16, 2004

Hey, get with the program

Talk about a call to action. How about this slogan for Expo 2010 - on the front of the City Planning Department in Shanghai:

Keep pace with the time
Blaze new trails in a pioneering spirit

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August 10, 2004

Fast Company Better Brand Contest - Part V

Below is the final of five installments of our attempt to use the Marketing Playbook ABCs to answer the question Fast Company recently posed in its contest (for which we got an honorable mention).

Brand 13. Tiffany & Co- Diamond Depot

A. Yes, great job at going mid-market while retaining high end image

• In all kinds of malls everywhere across the country
• Still conjure images of Audrey Hepburn that all brides to be long for

B. But, You're way behind online.

• Lot's of men would prefer not to go to a Tiffany store, esp. with their intended.
• Your site is too complicated and not helpful to a diamond dummy like me.

C. So, Buy Blue Nile and Be the Best of Both.

• Take your great brand to the world wide web
• Leverage Blue Nile's technology and selection.
• But add your mystic and aura (and your lovely gift boxes) to all these orders
• And use your stores as the ultimate bricks and clicks showrooms and pick up depots (so guys can look really suave when they bring the bride to be or anniversary wife in the store).
• If not Blue Nile then buy someone else online - like Ice.com

Brand 14. The USA - Inviting, Uniting States of America

A. Yes, this is the greatest country on earth

• For more reasons than any of us can count.
• Our freedoms, our say in government, our courage, our common sense, our goodwill, for starters.

B. But, we are at a crossroads.

• Where we can grow to resent the freedom of those who disagree with us.
• Where we let the threats we face alienate us from the rest of the world.
• Where we can take refuge from our challenges and fear in patriotic slogans and comforting consumption.

C. So, Be Humble, Be Proud, Be Open, Be Responsible.

• Whatever your party, I don't think you could do much better than Barack Obama's Democratic Convention speech.

• We are not and cannot be the Blue and Red, the liberal and conservative, the protectionist and globalist states of America.
• We have to be the United States of America
• So, express yourself, listen to others views, disagree but do not belittle or deny, try to understand and find commonality, here and throughout the world
• FINALLY, VOTE. IT MATTERS!!

Brand 15. Virgin - Eve's Apple

A. Yes, you appeal to the youth in all of us.

• From records to planes to wireless service.
• You say, fresh, fun, functional and why not nice looking at the same time.

B. But, you do all the creating, why not give me a chance.

• If I'm a Virgin person, I am creative in spirit. I like new experiences.

C. Buy Apple.

• Take the Virgin style to computers, music players, software etc.
• Take the Apple design and thinking to all of your services.
• Put creativity, style and fun in the power of all your customers with the coolest tools.
• Richard Branson/Steve Jobs - President/Vice President, now that's a compelling ticket!?!

For the previous set of brands click here.

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Aristotle and Powerpoint

beyond bullets: Aristotle's Top 10 PowerPoint Tips Great post about Aristotle's Rhetoric and how it applies to PPT (and frankly any kind of communication). Just goes to show you how few new ideas there really are and how useful it is to look at the old ones over and over again. Here are Aristotle's tips and tricks:

1. Be logical.
2. Think clearly.
3. Reason cogently.
4. Remember that argument is the life and soul of persuasion.
5. Study human nature.
6. Observe the characters and emotions of your audience, as well as your own character and emotions.
7. Attend to delivery.
8. Use language rightly.
9. Arrange your material well.
10. End crisply.

Not always easy to do but boy these make sense.

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Fast Company Better Brand Contest - Part IV

Below is the forth of five installments of our attempt to use the Marketing Playbook ABCs to answer the question Fast Company recently posed in its contest (for which we got an honorable mention).

Brand 10. Radio Shack - Helpdesk Hut

A. Yes, Radio Shack is great when you need to find a special wire

• Still have a surprising variety of hard to find electronics in those little stores

B. But, what are you really all about - Radios?

• You have a weird range of stuff in your store from capacitors to robot cat toys.
• You're too small to compete with CompUSA/Best Buy on electronics prices or with Sharper Image
• And, frankly, your staff is not as knowledgeable as it should be.

C. So, embrace being small, be special, be expert.

• Your stores, often in malls are more the size of boutiques than warehouses.
• So, go ahead be an electronics boutique, and like a boutique sell hard to find accessories AND the expertise on how to best accessorize.
• Hire or train the experts, become the folks people turn to cope with or even fix the ever more complicated world of wiring (or wirelessing) stuff in their homes.

Brand 11. Starbucks - More than a "Coffee Company."

A. Yes, an unbelievable, positive, global coffee/cafe brand.

• Honestly just doing an amazing job on quality, consistency and ubiquity.
• Symbolizing the "you deserve a break today" of this generation.
• All with basically no advertising. Wow.

B. But, just scratching the surface.

• You already have a store on almost every block.
• You've already priced beverages about as high as you can.
• Yet people can?t get enough of your brand.

C. Sell more than coffee, sell the whole Starbucks lifestyle.

• No longer "Starbucks Coffee Company" but "Starbucks, Inc."
• Take a cue from Virgin, who sells almost everything but is more about an attitude and a way of delivering value than about the stuff they sell.
• Go all the way with your concept of a "third place" where people meet, do businesses, feel relaxed and pampered - offer massages, Cranium tournaments, poetry readings, classes, install printers and MP3 stations (nice job by the way on the coming XM radio station!).
• Take that third place online, what better place for web/blog cafes than Starbucks? And when people are done meeting online let them schedule a face to face at the perfect Starbucks location (which includes online dating, what better place for a safe first date than a Starbucks).

Brand 12. Tide - Washing Machines for Wetlands."

A. Yes, a big bold brand that's been used forever.

• With a great logo and a memorable name in a very, very broad category.

B. Not hip or eco enough for the REI/Whole Foods Generation.

• Who knows what your chemical make-up is?
• Who knows how well you wash hemp, flax or bamboo?

C. So, embrace a cause, go green.

• Create a green box, that is the lowest phosphate etc.
• Give some percentage of profits to wetlands charities, under the "Tide Tidal Pride Foundation"

Click here for the previous installment and here for the final one.

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August 08, 2004

Fast Company Better Brand Contest - Part III

Below is the third installment of our attempt to use the Marketing Playbook ABCs answer the question Fast Company posed recently posed in its contest - how to make these brands better (for which - by the way we got an honorable mention).

Brand 7. Microsoft - More Wealth by Sharing It More

A. Yes, the most recognizable, cash rich, powerful brand in technology today.

• On almost every computer on every desk and every home
• And incredibly cash rich

B. But, competing with nearly everyone they used to business with.

• Getting into every single business there is
• Or believed by most to get into them eventually
• Thereby making partners less and less happy and incented to work with them

C. So, go back to being a true platform for others to make money.

• Not just operating system as platform, company as platform
• Not just dividends to shareholders
• Real incentives, openness and benefit for tons of partners, developers etc to make lots of money by using Microsoft.

Brand 8. Office Depot - A Depot for Offices, Actually

A. Yes, great job becoming a mass market category killer.

B. But, what category are they actually killing now?

• Seem to offer everything to anyone who has a job
• (from snack food for the kitchen to office chairs to games)
• How do you compete with Costco?

C. So, be a Depot for Office services, physical and virtual

• Stop trying to be a consumer business, embrace that you are selling to business
• Use your locations more effectively, be even better bricks and clicks solution
• For any business service - daily replenishment, business services directory, meeting rooms and of course a depot for pick up.

Brand 9. Old Navy - Salute Your Own Colors

A. Yes, Old Navy stands for nice casual clothes for not too much money.

B. But, what really is the difference between Old Navy and the Gap?(and the Banana Republic for that matter)

• Other than a little price differentiation, it feels like they buy their stuff from the same place and from a very similar design template.

C. So, Let Old Navy Be/Buy Old Navy.

• Set the buyers and the designers free for each store
• Let us consumers have a real choice to make.
• And let Gap be Gap, Let Old Navy be Old Navy and Let Banana Republic be Banana Republic.

For the previous set of brands click here and the next click here.

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August 07, 2004

Fast Company Better Brand Contest - Part II

Remember, Fast Company did a contest on how to make 15 brands better. We entered using the ABCs (for which we got an honorable mention).

Here are our thoughts on the next set of brands:

Brand 3. Fast Company - Faster/Safer Company

A. Yes, Fast Company broke through, survived, and thrived post the bubble burst as one of the very few most compelling new magazines to make it in the tough business category.

B. But, the Fast Company generation is now at least 5 years older

• We were pulled in by the desire to be "in fast company"
• We've