The Trouble with Trade Shows

I'm not a fan of trade shows. They seem to harkin back to the day of snake oil salesmen selling their wares from the back of a wagon. It seems in the age of the Web that demonstrations and in-depth sales information is all available online. And if someone needed to see a product in use, they would only have to go as far as their nearest Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target or Ace Hardware.

Today, I was proved wrong.

Julie and I visited the Kansas City Home Show this afternoon. One of our clients had a display there and I wanted to see it in use. I accomplished that objective, but wow, did I learn more than I expected.

The Kansas City Home Show is huge. I'm guessing close to 1,000 exhibitors and there had to be 5,000+ people in Bartle Hall while we were there. It was crowded. It was noisy. People were listening, watching and occasionally buying from the exhibitors. It was consumption central right there in downtown Kansas City. While a recession may slow new housing starts, it certainly does not appear to be slowing the move toward remodeling or enhancing homes.

What I was reminded of today is that people want an interpersonal experience when they are considering a significant purchase. They want to establish a relationship with a human when they're landscaping their home or purchasing new windows. They want to hear the story in person and take some reassurance (albeit from a salesperson) that the purchase they're making is going to be a good one.

They can't get that from the Web. They can get it somewhat from Home Depot or a Westlake Ace Hardware, but not so much from Target or Wal-Mart.

Selling is multi-channel. Trade shows serve a purpose. But if you're going to participate in them, be sure you have maximized your opportunities for the event. They are expensive and can be a huge waste of time and effort if not planned and executed appropriately. Which is exactly why I've come to dislike them so much — because most companies design a booth, put nice shirts on their sales people and go to the show.

That's not going to cut it.

A Second Helping of Let's Dish

I've been thinking a good bit about the comment by the anonymous owner of the other meal assembly kitchen concept store regarding my Let's Dish post on Thursday. He asked, and rightly so, if Let's Dish had been such a well-run operation, then why did it fail?

First, please allow me to clarify. I can only comment on the customer experience. After all, I'm only (was only) a customer. Therefore, my post was based on my experience. And to Julie and me, the Let's Dish operation ran smoothly.

Let me also state that my post was about the operation — not sales and not marketing. While the brand experience is what customers remember (operations), it's the brand promise that gets them in the door. And there was considerable room to improve the Let's Dish brand promise.

To answer the anonymous comment(er), I can only comment based on some assumptions. So here goes.

It appears Let's Dish Corporate gives its franchisees the ability to set their own prices. From what I can tell, the pricing varies from location to location nationally. Therefore, the Kansas stores had the ability to raise their prices, if they chose to. Julie and I would have easily paid 20% more for our meals from Let's Dish. We were comparing the Let's Dish costs to the grocery store. When we considered the waste factor of food going bad from the grocery store, Let's Dish was more economical.

There was no check-out process at Let's Dish. The two stores we frequented relied on the honor system for preparation, packaging and walking out the door. While I'm confident most of their customers were honorable, I know a percentage of them were not. Occasionally the Let's Dish staff would comment about food disappearing too quickly from the preparation stations. They knew how much they needed for the customers scheduled, yet occasionally they would have to re-stock earlier than anticipated.

A small percentage of shrinkage can have a huge impact on the bottom line because it's coming right out of costs of goods sold, which is a direct hard cost to the retailer. A simple check-out process where the Let's Dish associates did a "Okay, let's make sure you got everything you were supposed to tonight" would have been all it would have taken to slow down the shrinkage. If people know there's a check-out process where they may get caught with an extra steak, then they'll likely avoid the risk.

Loyal customers are the best source of new customers. While I don't know enough about the company or their margins to make a tight recommendation, I do know that Let's Dish had a number of loyal customers. They needed to find ways of getting those customers to tell the Let's Dish story and bring new customers to the store.

Make the Let's Dish Monthly Newsletter offer compelling — and available for advocates to subscribe. If you visit the Let's Dish Web site, you'll see the lazy offer of "Yes. Send me the Let's Dish monthly newsletter." First, when someone is signing up for their first Let's Dish experience on the Web, the last thing in which they're interested is getting more junk email in their In Box. Once someone has become a customer, especially a loyal customer, then they might be interested in receiving the monthly newsletter. But only if 1) the offer was compelling. Tell me what I'm going to see in this amazing newsletter. Give me a reason to want to receive one more email in my In Box and 2) the compelling offer for the monthly newsletter was in the store. The store has all kinds of opportunities to tell stories to their customers. There are menu cards for the coming month, there are refreshment areas, there are the apron and hand washing areas — any of these could have had a compelling message about why I should receive the monthly newsletter. But that did not happen at Let's Dish. There's no effort to connect Let's Dish advocates with the company to make it a deeper customer experience. Too bad. Because while Julie and I helped at least ten different people become Let's Dish customers, I'm guessing there were many other customers who would have been happy to if they had been given just a little direction on how to do so.

In store merchandising to existing customers. If existing customers are the best sales people, then give them a reason to bring others to Let's Dish. The national Let's Dish franchise system does not have enough critical mass to mount a significant advertising or promotional effort. The company must rely on initial publicity and subsequent word-of-mouth and referrals to keep it going.

There are a number of guerrilla tactics that could be implemented within the store to help 1) incentivize existing customers to bring new customers or 2) just nudge existing advocates by planting the idea of bringing friends to Let's Dish. Hold Let's Dish birthday parties for a girlfriend. Have a Girl's Night Out at Let's Dish. Charge a catering fee and actually feed the guests some Let's Dish meals while they're there. After the initial volley of publicity when the two stores in Kansas opened, there was no buzz whatsoever. Nothing. I don't know if this is an indictment of the local owners or the national franchise. It doesn't matter. It didn't happen and the stores are gone.

Create promotions with existing customers. Let's take the previous idea a bit further. Hold an event quarterly where you ask your best customers to each bring two of their friends to a Let's Dish catered evening at the store. It's our experience that once someone begins "Dishing," they continue to come back. Close the store for an evening once per quarter and introduce the concept to twenty or thirty new people. It's not hard to calculate the metrics on what numbers would have to be achieved. But a $5,000 evening that introduces 30 new people to Let's Dish beats putting $5,000 worth of advertising in the local paper or on a direct mail campaign. Let the advocates tell the story to their friends.

Advertise on Google. I just looked to see if any of the competitors in this category are using Google AdWords to drive traffic to their sites. No one is. The best I can tell, not a single competitor is using the Web to drive customers to their Web sites. That means 1) there isn't enough margin in this business for Pay-Per-Click to work (and that's really hard to believe) or 2) no one has exposed these national corporations to the Pay-Per-Click idea or 3) these companies are not sophisticated enough to try it or 4) they did try it and it didn't work financially or 5) they have not figured out how to put together market plans to help their franchisees roll out their own online marketing efforts.

That's a lot of "ifs." I'm just surprised no one is doing it. It could be the concept is still too new, but I doubt it. This is a concept designed for people in a hurry with limited time to prepare meals. The Let's Dish customer is Web savvy. They have to be since they must sign up for and pay for their sessions on the Web. Why doesn't the company advertise on Google?

In any organization there's always room for improvement. But to the anonymous commenter, if you have loyal customers in your kitchen meal assembly business, then they're your best source of new customers. Become intentional about finding opportunities for your advocates to introduce new customers to your business. Then, make sure you have the systems and procedures in place to maintain these programs year after year.

In most businesses there are only a handful of marketing ingredients that need to be part of the mix. The challenge is identifying the ones that will help bring new customers while encouraging existing customers to purchase greater quantity and more frequently. When you identify the right recipe, then your business will really start cookin'.

Last Dance for Let's Dish

Tonight our relationship with Let's Dish came to an end. A couple months ago, we learned the Leawood store was closing. Then last week, we learned the Olathe store was closing, too. So tonight we made our final trip to Let's Dish and brought home enough dinners to last us until June.

It's hard to say goodbye. The Let's Dish franchise came to Kansas City just over two years ago when Josh and Brandt Hill opened the two local stores. The food was terrific, the service excellent and the overall experience was fun. Julie quickly became an advocate, telling all of her friends, co-workers and a number of her customers at the bank about Let's Dish. We had a number of friends who were regulars. But alas, the franchise didn't make it in KC.

There are Dream Dinners and Social Suppers and I'm sure others that will work to fill the void. But as an brand advocate of Let's Dish, it will be challenging for them to match the experience.

My compliments to the local franchise owners, Josh and Brandt Hill. While they may not have been achieving the numbers they needed to for the business, it never showed in the employees, the service or the food. It was a well-run operation through and through.

While the stores in Kansas are no more, the Let's Dish brand lives on in the minds of the people who came to admire it. And that says a lot about the people who ran the Kansas stores.

As for our Let's Dish relationship coming to an end, I guess that's not completely accurate. We have 40 Let's Dish meals in our freezer. It will be a few weeks before we actually come to the "end."

Vera called

At 7:20 this evening my cell phone rang. The caller ID displayed a local, but unfamiliar number. It was Vera from my doctor's office.

I had called Vera last week. I'm in the process of adding some life insurance and the underwriters need something called an Attending Physician's Statement from my doctor. Supposedly, the underwriters had requested this a few weeks ago. But not hearing anything from them, I decided to call my doctor's office.

The call began as I expected — a series of phone prompted options leading me to a real person — Vera. I told Vera about the insurance request for the Attending Physician's Statement. She assured me their office had not received it since there was nothing in my chart about it. She did, however, have the most recent Attending Physician's Statement in my chart, and told me she would be happy to send it to the underwriters at the insurance company. All they had to do was send her a FAX and request it.

I thanked Vera and let her know I would follow up with the insurance company, which I did — last week.

Tonight at 7:20, Vera called to let me know she had not yet received a FAX from my insurance company. I was blown away. Not by the fact that my insurance company failed to contact Vera, but by the fact that at 7:20 PM on a Tuesday evening, I received a call from my doctor's office at St. Luke's Internal Medicine! Blood test results? Yes, I would expect a call. A life-threatening disease diagnosis? I would expect a call on that one, too. But a follow up to a life insurance underwriting issue? At 7:20 PM? That is one call I did not expect to get.

A few months ago I posted about my doctor's office getting online appointment setting functionality. Now, they're blowing me away with customer service. What's next? A doctor's blog that makes the whole medical experience authentic, relevant and engaging? Probably.

Vera, I'm impressed. Next time you see Dr. Perryman, you let him know I said you're doing a stellar job. You get five stars.

Fine tuning the customer experience

There are two restaurants on the Plaza in Kansas City I like to visit — Kona Grill and McCormick & Schmicks. Kona serves sushi along with a nice, somewhat eclectic menu. McCormick's is primarily a seafood restaurant. Both are chains, although there are far more McCormick & Schmick's restaurants nationally than there are Kona Grill restaurants.

I first visited McCormick's in May of 2000. The restaurant had been open only a week or so. And while the staff was a little shaky, they more than made up for it with their efforts and sincerity. The hosts were inviting, the servers attentive and jovial, the manager friendly and welcoming — it was a great experience. Over the next several years I became a regular. Each time I visited I came to know the staff better — because they consistently made an effort to know me. Today I can walk in to McCormick's and they know my name. I even know their names. They've made the effort to hone their customer experience. They care enough about the total customer experience to do it right — at every level.

I first visited Kona in the summer of 2003. And while the restaurant was packed, the service was excellent and the food outstanding. So Kona soon became a regular restaurant for lunch and dinner, too.

But there was a difference — and it was more than the fact that McCormick's cooked all their seafood. After visiting Kona several times within a two month span, I noted none of the hostesses remembered me on subsequent visits. The servers did. The sushi chefs did. But not the hostesses. Ever.

So I started asking others who visited Kona if the hostesses remembered them. Julie, my wife, commented that they never remembered her. Other friends said the same.

The food is great. The service is prompt and friendly. But the hostesses don't seem to understand their role in the overall customer experience.

Let me take this a couple steps further. Two years ago, a colleague of mine and I were to meet our clients at Kona. When we arrived, we informed the hostesses of our names and our clients' names, anticipating they would seat our clients with us when they arrived. The time for the lunch appointment came and passed. We called our client's office, we walked to the front to see if they had arrived, we looked around the restaurant to see if they had been seated. Finally, after the second time of walking around the restaurant, we found them sitting in a booth in the rear of the restaurant. They had arrived a few minutes after us, gave the hostesses their names and our names, and were seated — but not with us.

Yes, we should have seen them on the first walk we took around the restaurant, but we didn't. But more importantly, the hostesses should have made the connection and brought them to us.

Today, it happened to Julie. She arrived at Kona and informed the hostess she was meeting a woman for lunch. The hostess said, "We have a woman here named Julie. Is that her?" Julie responded, "No. Her name is Diane." In hindsight, that was a clue.

As Julie was being seated, she briefly looked around the restaurant for Diane. At 12:15, she sent Diane an email wondering if she had the date wrong. She then walked around the restaurant to see if Diane was there. No, she wasn't.

At 12:20, Julie received a voice message from Diane. She had been at Kona waiting on Julie, but left at 12:10. They had missed one another. The "Julie" name at the hostess desk was for Julie — from Diane, who had arrived before Julie did. But the hostess blew it.

Two thoughts on this. One, how can the food and the service be so consistently good at a restaurant and the hostesses be so consistently poor? I continue to go to Kona because of the first two attributes, not the last.

Second, the only thing people want from the hostesses at Kona is for them to care. Care enough to know their name. Care enough to think it through. Care enough to get it right.

The Kona Grill brand experience is good. It's not great. And good is the enemy of great. Left unchecked, the chronic hostess issue at Kona will cause them to lose business. Or at the very least, not ever achieve the level they truly should.

It seems it could be fixed with a couple of small tweaks. If I were Kona, I'd start tweaking.

Planning for Spring

I love the gang at Google. Earlier in the week they created a St. Patrick's Day Google logo. Today, it was tulips to celebrate the first day of Spring.

Yep, Spring. That time of year when all things are born anew. The time of year when grass turns green, trees bud and flowers bloom. I made a special point of listening to the bird singing this morning as I walked from a client's parking lot to their offices. Spring is bursting forth. But it didn't do it without some planning.

Last fall, all the plants began storing food for the long winter. They drew resources in from their leaves and stored them in their roots and bulbs. All these plants prepared for the coming season, and now they're moving forward with their plans.

Companies had the same opportunity. As the fourth quarter of 2007 was winding down, it was time to plan for the coming year. And if done correctly, about this time all those new initiatives are hitting the market place and you're eagerly awaiting the results.

Or. You didn't take the time to plan. You didn't properly allocate resources for the coming year. You didn't put down the fall fertilizer so the roots could grow strong and withstand a harsh winter. And now, as Spring arrives, your company is doing what it's always done — rolling along on the momentum it had, hoping for a better result than in the previous year.

Nature has an amazing way of weeding out the poor performers through natural selection. Separating the strong performers from the weaker performers takes time. Some plants will hold on for years before they finally succumb. The same is true with businesses.

In farming, seed corn companies create varieties of hybrid corn that can be planted late in the Spring and still deliver a decent harvest with a shortened growing season. If your company has arrived at the Vernal Equinox and doesn't have its plan in place for 2008, it's not too late. But you might want to get on it. Harvest is only 26 weeks away.

Word of Mouth

On my way to lunch today, I spied this truck. I've seen it dozens of times as I've traveled down Main Street in Kansas City. But today, I simply couldn't resist stopping to take the photo.

I've often heard of people angry enough at a car dealership to put something like this on their car, but I had never actually seen someone do it. Louisburg Ford and other businesses might want to take a lesson here. It would appear this truck owner purchased a lemon. And he created a personal billboard to share his news.

And here's some additional news. Within a short time, a few hours in fact, Google will index my post about this truck owner. And the next time someone does a Google search for Louisburg Ford, my post and this photo will show up in the search results. I'll even spell the dealership in an alternative manner to help those people out who accidentally misspell Louisburg when they key it in so Google will display the results either way — Louisberg Ford. Now anyone doing a Google search will find this post no matter how they spell the dealership's name. Just doing my part for this obviously disgruntled truck owner.

The point is, every business is at risk for having this happen. And the risk is more than having a disgruntled customer plaster an "I Hate (insert your company here)" sticker on their car. What if they began a fervent series of posts about your company on their blog? What if every day for two weeks they went on a rant about your company? And then their friends in the blogosphere joined in. Once it's on the Web, it's always on the Web. This is the kind of PR businesses want to avoid.

Social media intertwine us all. It cannot be escaped. It can be guided, but only to a certain extent. As professional marketers, we must understand its power, work to guide it and be prepared for those times when we cannot.

Bypass the Bandwagon

It seems every economist is jumping on the band wagon to hail the recession of 2008. Okay. Perhaps they're right. Having lived through a few of these economic downturns while in the field of advertising, I have a different perspective than I used to.

The media coverage of an economic downturn tends to validate the economic downturn. People hear there is a recession, and, believe it or not, they begin acting like there's a recession. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If my memory of my econ classes serves me, a recession is defined by at least three consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. Well, we still have a ways to go to see if we're really in a recession or not. But in the meantime, people are beginning to think we are — including your competitors. And therein lies the opportunity.

Today, starting right now, you have the opportunity to do something which requires much less effort to do in an economic downturn than it does when the economy is booming. You can take market share away from your competitors.

I know. It's scary to think about spending marketing dollars in a recession. But there's that old adage of "Zig when everyone else Zags" that you need to think about here. If your competitors follow conventional wisdom (and history shows they will), they're going to scale back their marketing efforts. They'll trim their sales staff, cut back on customer service people, end discretionary promotional programs, scale back R & D, find less expensive inputs which can affect product quality — exactly what they shouldn't do.

This is the time to think about how you can out-think your competitors. You don't have to spend more than you did in the previous year — just out-think them. If you spend the same amount this year as last, and they cut their spending 20%, you automatically out-spend them. Get serious about planning. Get focused on putting the right resource allocation in place and do fewer things, better.

If this is the beginning of a recession, then in about nine months the economy will improve. You have two choices, 1) wait it out, like your competitors will, and find yourself in the same boat with them at the end of the recession or 2) figure out how to take away their customers while they're waiting for the economy to get better.

Perhaps you think it risky to go against the conventional wisdom. To that I can only quote Seth Godin from his book, Purple Cow, "Safe is Risky."

Your Web site is a VHS tape

Ever notice how sometimes I get in a vein on a topic and can't seem to let it go? Well I'm in one. This whole topic of the increasing irrelevance of most corporate Web sites just seems to be hanging around in my head. Every day I'm in a conversation about some company's Web site. It used to be having a content-rich, engaging site was pretty much the cat's pajamas. But today, it's just the cost of entry. And unfortunately, for the most part, the cost is buying companies less and less engagement.

So let's say you buy in to the idea that corporate sites are (typically) becoming less relevant. It's been my experience over the last several days of discussing this idea that many people go into an unresponsive stupor when they begin to grasp the idea that social media is more relevant than their Web site. After all, they've spent months honing the message, shooting just the right photos, agonizing over the navigation — just to learn it's not as relevant as it should be? That's just not fair.

Okay. I get it. And I also understand that you get it, too. And on top of that, you are faced with the wholly unappreciated task of somehow informing your management that their Web site just isn't what it used to be.

Why is that? Why is the half-life of a Web site getting shorter and shorter? I propose it's because the advance of technology is getting faster and faster.

Think about video technology as an example. VHS video tapes were introduced in the early 80's. They were the state-of-the-art until the late 90's. Then DVD's took over. But the DVD's life span is going to be even shorter than the VHS tape. Now, you can download videos directly from NetFlix without ever touching a DVD. Television itself is rapidly becoming irrelevant. In a recent survey, people were asked if they had to make a choice between giving up their TV or their Internet connection, 80% said they would give up their TV. With streaming video and almost instant downloads, not to mention the interactivity of Web-based media, television is going to have to work at remaining relevant.

So it's completely understandable for senior management to go catatonic when you suggest their beloved Web site may not be cutting it and that you must now enter this unknown and somewhat ethereal state of social media.

There are two things you can ponder about this topic. First, you should know there really is no choice. If you don't move toward this solution, you will find your competitors well ahead of you in the not too distant future. And it's hard to play catch-up in this category.

Second, most companies would not have to do a lot to have a big impact in the social media realm. Candidly, a blog or Facebook page is a nice start. Remember, your competitors, if they're thinking about this, are going to be hesitant to go into this area too quickly. But they will go. So you have to go, too.

Take small steps. Start a blog. Start to connect with your stakeholders in a more meaningful manner than your Web site. You have to have a Web site. Today, it's kind of like having voice mail. But the Web site alone is simply not going to be enough. People are writing about you on the Web today. You need to take the lead and get in front of the game — just a little bit.

As you move forward with a holistic Web strategy, it will evolve — organically and intentionally. As long as you take the first step.

As each day passes, you're another day behind.

I gave a speech this week to a group of communications professionals at the Missouri Hospital Association. The topic was social media. And while, on an everyday basis, I'm somewhat immersed in social media, I truly became a student of it over the past several weeks as I prepared for this engagement.

My previous post on the growing irrelevance of corporate Web sites was one take-away from my preparation. Please feel free to argue, but as social media grow and citizens bring more and more content about their personal experiences on corporate brands to the Web, I don't see how traditional Web sites can maintain relevancy.

To see how corporate Web sites may evolve, you need look no further than the Web sites of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. These sites are masterfully designed content portals, providing their respective stakeholders with all kinds of content sharing opportunities, points-of-view and multiple ways to engage with their campaigns. They use Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Eons and Twitter. They've built micro sites for their top constituency groups (Women for Hillary and BlackPlanet) to get their stakeholders further engaged in their campaigns. They even have ecommerce sites to sell pins, t-shirts and bumper stickers. They have opt-in opportunities everywhere — giving the campaign the opportunity to connect on a regular basis via email.

Think about how this transfers to your business. What are you providing your loyal brand advocates so that they may better tell your story. Is your Web site simply "brochure ware?" Have you given thought to your overall Web strategy?

Your Web site is a small nucleus in the center of a large microcosm of social media. It is surrounded by social media opportunities. But connecting with these opportunities doesn't happen by accident. You must be intentional. You must stop and think about how you are connecting with the people who 1) truly want to help you tell your story and 2) can bring you more business.

Each day, the Obama and Clinton campaigns hone their Internet and social media skills as they compete with one another — likely right up to the Democratic Convention in Denver. The McCain camp, on the other hand, is not getting the opportunity to sharpen the saw against an opponent for the next four months. No matter which Democratic candidate gets the eventual nomination, their team will enter the fall race more prepared to win the Internet battle than the McCain camp.

How your company is honing its Internet strategy is a good question to ask. Because as each day passes, one of your competitors is figuring out how to hone theirs, which is a double blow to you. Not only is the relevancy of your Web site eroding, the overall relevancy of the brand message your competitors are putting in the market through a well thought out social media strategy is helping their brand become more relevant.

Now is the time to map out your social media strategy. Reallocate resources. Determine your objectives. Set up your metrics and move forward. As each day passes you're another day behind. And so is your brand.

Ice Cold Beer Here!

When we worked on the Ralston Purina business back in the day, we would go to St. Louis every couple of weeks to meet with our clients. We loved these guys. They were smart, had a great product line and a brand recognized around the world.

But every time we walked in to the building at Checkerboard Square, the security desk would hand us Vendor badges with our names on them. Not guest badges. Not resource partner badges. Vendor badges. They actually said VENDOR in all caps with our names just below.

Please realize this was several years ago. And I'm guessing (hoping?) that Purina has changed its practices regarding their visitor badges. But the term Vendor really rubbed me the wrong way. Ralston was our client. A long-term client, in fact. We had an ongoing relationship. We talked with these guys every day. Yet upon arrival, we were Vendors.

This is a Vendor.

I'm familiar with Vendors of this nature, having witnessed them multiple times at Busch Stadium with the Ralston team, as well as other major stadiums around the country. So I know, with little doubt, that while clients contract our services, I am not a Vendor.

Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to the term. Maybe I'm just over thinking it. Or maybe not.

Living in Kansas City with a few thousand Sprint, Hallmark, H & R Block, Cerner, American Century and other Fortune 500 Company employees, it's hard to not pick up on some of the corporate vernacular. Sprint, for example, doesn't use the term Vendor any longer. No. Instead, they use the term Resource Partner. Hmmm. That's better.

Resource Partner comes with a little more value-added cache. It implies that the company has earned the title of Resource Partner. It implies the company has something a Vendor doesn't. Trust. If a company is a Resource Partner, then the company purchasing from them must trust them at some level.

You may notice I said "earned the title of Resource Partner." Anyone can be a Vendor, but not everyone can be a Resource Partner. A Resource Partner has been vetted. The team that's going to work with them knows, as best they can, what to expect from the company. They've asked the tough questions, they've agreed on Service Level Agreements, they know how they'll handle conflict — all because it's been discussed up-front.

Vendors sell you a beer and move on.

Again, maybe it's just me. But I truly dislike the term Vendor. And it's probably because I want to believe, as advertising and marketing professionals, we're always adding value and earning our clients' trust. With that perspective, I suppose we are a Vendor until we are vetted and become a Resource Partner. Or, we could be a prospective Resource Partner. I would raise a glass of beer to that idea.

Corporate Web site Irrelevance

There are a lot of conversations about the relevance of corporate Web sites today. Companies are constantly struggling to keep content current and relevant to their audiences. And they're right to do so. Content must be relevant if it is to be engaging to the visitor.

But while corporations have been focusing on making their Web sites more relevant, an entire movement has taken place on the Web that, in effect, has surrounded traditional Web sites and, quite unintentionally, made traditional sites significantly less relevant. What movement is this, you ask? Social media and networking sites.

Today, a corporate Web site, no matter how relevant and engaging, is still a corporate Web site. It is the Company speaking to the Customer. And just like advertising, customers tend to be a little suspicious of something published and edited by the Company.

But in the Social Media world, consumers are creating content. Consumers are blogging about their experiences with your company. Want to find out what they're saying? Then go to Google, click on More, scroll down to Blogs and click on it. Then enter your company name (within quotation marks, preferably) and see how many blog posts have been made about your company. I bet you'll be surprised.

To accompany the millions of blogs receiving posts each day, there is the ever-growing group of social networking sites, with Facebook leading the way on the consumer side of the business and Linked In taking top honors on the professional side. These sites are being frequented by more and more people looking to gain information about your company and products. And they'll find it — because it's out there to be found.

Consumers now have the power to tell the story they want to tell about your company, your products, your people, your competitors — your brand. And they're telling it every day.

Does it mean your well-honed Web site is irrelevant? No. It still plays an important role in your business and likely will for some time. But the truly engaging stories about your brand are being told in a hundred different types of sites on the Web that have nothing to do with your Web site. And once these stories arrive on the Web, they're there forever.

Which is why you should be focusing on your brand more than ever. You should be leading the social media charge for your company versus letting it simply grow organically without an intentional strategy. While it's impossible to control what millions of people may write about you and your brand, you can give them some guidance.

But most importantly, each and every day you must live up to your brand. If you do, then you'll survive and thrive in the world of social media. If you don't, then at some point, you will likely suffer at the hands of your customers. And it won't be pretty.

Bonk.

Plaza Jen, a fellow blogger and advertising professional, also heard the story this week on Morning Edition about the caterpillars and moths (see previous post). She reminded me of the last part of the story, which I failed to include in my post. And after reading her comment, I thought it warranted a post of its own.

While moths somehow retain memories from their time as caterpillars, they still seem to be unable to learn from their actions. Why else would they crash into outdoor porch lamps and street lights again and again and again.

It is impossible to miss the correlation between the relentless (senseless?) moths and companies that continue to repeat the same actions year after year, hoping for a different result.

Bonk. Bonk. Bonk.

Hope is not a strategy.

Marketing Metamorphosis

I was listening to a story on NPR today about a study that showed moths can remember things they learned as caterpillars. As soon as I heard the topic I was immediately intrigued. These are the kind of stories best listened to by myself. I can't imagine a whole car full of people being as transfixed as I was listening to this story on Morning Edition.

My first reaction to the story idea — moths remembering things from their days as caterpillars — was that somehow the researchers had found a way to get them to take a multiple choice test. But I forced my imagination to calm itself so I could hear how the researchers came to this conclusion.

The researchers exposed the caterpillars to some highly unpleasant gases well before they were to begin metamorphosis. Over time, the caterpillars came to avoid the areas with the unpleasant aroma and stayed in the "clean air" section of the cage.

Within a few weeks, the caterpillars formed their cocoons and began the process of metamorphosis. During metamorphosis, the bodies and brains of these tobacco caterpillars basically liquefy - they turn into a genetic soup. And within a few weeks, a moth emerges.

The researchers then exposed the moths (those who had been exposed to the foul smelling gas as caterpillars) to the gas again. The moths immediately avoided the aroma. However, moths that had not been exposed to the gas as caterpillars were not turned off by the aroma. Hence, the researchers determined that somehow, the moths remembered the unpleasant experience they had as caterpillars, even though the "soup" they came from had been broken down into the most basic genetic building blocks possible.

Fortunately, learning to fail successfully in marketing and advertising doesn't require us to completely turn our brains to mush (although sometimes it feels that way). It does, however, require us to put metrics in place that allow us to learn what worked, what didn't work as well as we would like, and what never to do again.

If a moth can remember something that happened to it as a caterpillar, then as marketers, we can put metrics in place to help us gather facts to make better decisions going forward. Perhaps we just need to morph a bit ourselves.

Attack of the Distractions

I had lunch last week with an old friend, Jay Huckabay. We hadn't seen one another since 1998. Ten years! Think about that. Email barely existed. Web sites were in their infancy. Broadband was just becoming standard. Streaming video was a dream. Just ten years ago.

The irony of this reunion and the relevancy to the Internet is that it took Facebook to reconnect us. Recently, I received a note from Jay when we became Facebook friends. We decided to go to lunch to catch up.

We talked about the changes that had taken place in communications since we last saw one another. And we talked about how each of those innovations was (is) intended to make our lives easier and more productive. But have they?

If not for Facebook, Jay and I would not have reconnected. That's a positive. With email, we can connect with clients, suppliers and friends without playing telephone tag. Documents can be created and sent in seconds. More and more is getting done, but is more really getting done?

When I began my career in advertising, there were an average of five people per million of capitalized billings in the agency business. Today, the average is .8 people per million. We have driven the economics down to the point where fewer people are doing the same work as many more people used to do. But at what cost?

I mentioned to Jay that my most productive time is on the weekend or during the evening when email isn't pinging me and the phone isn't ringing. That is when real thought can take place. During the day most of us tend to suffer from Continuous Partial Attention. It's an onslaught of communication and stimuli that drag down real productivity.

The good news is that it can be controlled. We just have to take steps to do so. You can put your phone on Do Not Disturb. You can turn off your Outlook. You can schedule a couple less meetings during the day. But it requires being intentional.

The greater the number of distractions, the less productive you will be.

The Doctor is In: A Second Opinion on Mediocrity

The other day I posted about the how mediocrity loves company and gave the example of how Houlihan's is stretching the envelope with their Web site coaster promotion. Today, Seth Godin weighed in with his perspective on mediocrity.

His view is that unless you're getting push back from people who are against change, then you're likely not pushing in the right area. He says it's a myth that just because you have a good idea that people will line up and support you. Quite the contrary, in fact. When people are battling you, you're likely truly fighting for change. And they're likely battling for status quo, which typically equals mediocrity.

Jim Collins wrote a brief (about 30 pages) booklet for the social marketplace in response to his huge business book success, Good to Great. The monograph was titled, "Good to Great and the Social Sectors." In it, he describes a common comment that comes from professional business people who find themselves on not-for-profit boards of directors. The comment typically goes, "What this organization needs is to be run more like a business."

Collins response to that? "No. The last thing a not-for-profit needs (or any other organization, for that matter) is to be run more like a business."

Most businesses are mediocre. They deliver average results, at best. Why would you want to deliver those kind of results to a not-for-profit? They have a big enough challenge as it is. The difference between successful organizations is not between the business and the social sector, the difference is between good organizations and great ones.

People don't know they're working to settle for mediocrity. It's just that most have never been exposed to a company or a brand that could demonstrate outstanding results. And without this perspective, it is challenging to rally around an idea that is different. Unfortunately, failing to do so often leaves them squarely in the camp of mediocrity.

Good is the enemy of great.

Yes. No. Maybe.

When I was a kid I enjoyed sleeping over at my grandparents house. They only lived a half mile away, so getting up and making it to school was never an issue. But my parents played this game with me. I would ask my mom if I could spend the night at my grandparent's house, and she would say, "See what your father says."

I would then ask my dad, who would respond, "See what your mother says."

I was young. And it took me a while to come to understand the game. Of course, all along, they were having a blast having me run from one person to another.

This is probably why I came to understand that when my parents said "Maybe," it typically meant "Yes." I can't think of too many times when "Maybe" turned into "No."

Then I entered the business world. And in business, more often than not, "Maybe" means "No." Actually, "Maybe" often is just a non-decision. Proposals are made, initiatives are started, presentations are given, the decision point is upon everyone and... Nothing.

I can celebrate a "Yes." I can accept a "No." But I can't stand a "Maybe."

"Maybe" is indefinite. Whatever the idea or initiative was, it is now doomed to die a slow, painful death.

"Maybe" is kissin' cousin to "Try." Have you ever "tried" to do something? It's impossible. Yoda said it best in Star Wars, "Do, or do not. There is no try."

Corporate America could take a lesson from the little green extraterrestrial sage. If there's a decision, let everyone know. People can move forward with knowledge. However, ambiguity leaves them in limbo — it forces them to make their own decision as to what has really happened. And in the meantime, they've wasted days and weeks trying to figure it out.

The worst decision is indecision. Do your employees and company a favor. Work to stay away from "Maybe."

Good enough is not good enough.

Mediocrity Loves Company. That was the headline in an ad for Career Builder today in the Kansas City Star. And while it is an extraordinary message to deliver to employees who feel as if they are no longer being challenged in their work environment, it is also an indictment of many companies who have unintentionally decided to settle for marketing and advertising that blends in with the crowd.

Mediocrity. Can there be a worse curse?

Companies don't plan to settle. In fact, many of them work diligently to get past average. They hold strategic planning sessions, seek out channel marketing partnerships to leverage opportunities, bring in consultants to help chart a course for the coming year, but in the end, they fail to do the one single most important thing. Define their brand message.

The difference between companies who get past mediocrity and those that fall into the pot and simmer for twelve months, hoping to achieve a different result, is that some have figured out how to tell their story in an engaging manner.

Take Houlihan's Restaurants for example. On the Houlihan's Web site, you can design your own drink coaster and submit it as an entry in a national coaster competition for their restaurants. That is how you engage your customers.

Many companies fall into the trap of doing the obvious. The obvious is, well, obvious. It's also uninspired and frequently boring. Companies fall back on the traditional Features and Benefits selling proposition. That simply doesn't cut it any longer. Good enough is not good enough.

Twenty years ago companies controlled their brands. Today, the customer controls it. They get to tell your story — in their blog posts, in their Facebook pages, in their instant messages to their friends — the leverage is now in the hands of the many, not the hands of the few.

As a company, you want your customers talking about your brand. You want an ongoing stream of buzz. In fact, done appropriately, you can help propagate it — just as Houlihan's has. But trying to do so without a clearly defined brand message makes the likelihood of finding success nearly impossible. Which means you will find yourself, once again, floating in a sea of mediocrity.