For longer than I can believe, in my book, my blog, and my presentations, I have been telling you how important good ideas are. How creativity and innovation and the unexpected will help you build your brand, stand out from your competition, and even probably be fun.
But for those of you who have read the above paragraph as “blah, blah, blah,” after hearing my message so often, let me add the input of three disparate business people, whom you might be more apt to listen to. The quotees(?) have nothing in common, except their shared high opinion of the necessity of not boring people with your marketing.
One is from Bill Kling, founder and president emeritus of the American Public Media Group. Another is a quote from Anna Lingeris, a spokeswoman for Reese’s Minis. And finally there is In-Soo Cho, president at the StarKist Company. (Read the links to the full articles to see who said what.)
“If you don’t push the envelope, you never evolve.”
“The big thing we learned from the launch is do something unpredictable.”
“I think the strongest criterion is creativity or innovation.”
If these three biggies all are telling you the same thing, maybe it is time you listened.
The Los Angeles Times, among other publications and blogs, talks about Wimpy, a South African 500-restaurant chain.
To promote its new Braille menu, it created burgers with words in Braille spelled out on the buns with sesame seeds. Each bun had a description such as “100% pure beef.”
Diners at three Braille organizations were given 15 of the burgers. And in case you are curious how much impact 15 burgers can have, Wimpy claims 800,000 people have heard about their menu through Braille publications and organizations. In addition, the YouTube video below has been viewed so far by over 250,000 people.
I occasionally nitpick about, and point out typos in ads. But I do realize that stuff happens.
It certainly happens to me, though I do try to be extra attentive. And while I won't usually confuse "their," they're and "there," when it comes to finer grammatical points, I am sure I often mix my metaphors, split my infinitives and in general mortify my old PS 99 principal (not "principle") Fletcher.
I have no excuse, so naturally I will offer one. I write solo and usually on deadline. And the truth is, I am usually delighted to just get the damn blog finished and posted, just as, to be honest, when I check out a print ad of mine, the first thing I look for is that it has indeed run. I figure that if it actually appears, that puts me way ahead of the game. After that I can worry about typos, reproduction and placement.
But I do assume that when New York City prints something, there must be hundreds of people who make certain it contains no mistakes, since the audience is so large, and they probably don't want to embarrass Mayor Bloomberg, who I imagine has a low threshold for error.
So when I saw a sign inside the front of a Manhattan bus that stated, "For passenger safety, Federal law prohibits operation of this vehicle when anyone is standing forard of the white line," I figured it was a black swan; an unexpected and exceptionally rare error that happens once in the proverbial blue moon.
Until last week, when I spotted this beauty:
Truth is, I had seen that sign many times. Truth is, I can't believe that the MTA doesn’t have spell check. And though I am not certain the Mayor does indeed read my blog, at least on a regular basis, I bet someone will point this out to him.
So, be careful out there. It may not be the Mayor. But someone is watching.
A very fancy-shmancy blog title indeed. Shakespeare, in fact. Which is part of a quote (full quote below) that basically means there is a time to take action, and if you hesitate, and wait and wait and wait, the opportunity will disappear and you will be the poorer for it.
Believe it or not, the reason this quote came to my mind was a whole wheat everything bagel. A couple of years ago, after cutting one in half prior to toasting, I was scooping it out. (That’s what my wife insists on; she claims will get rid of a large amount of the calories and not reduce the taste.)
I was using my fingers to pull out the dough, when one of those little light bulbs, like the one on the cover of my book, appeared over my head. How about a metal scooper, sort of like the old fashioned strawberry hullers, that would make the task easier and more sanitary. In a flash, I could see it being sold everywhere that people enjoy bagels. And in a flurry of inactivity, I did nothing about the idea, just filing it in the overflowing mental cabinet of ideas that I might do something with, “someday.”
And every time I scooped out the insides of a bagel, I revisited my idea, still thought it had merit, and then closed the imaginary drawer it was filed in.
Then I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal, which included a mention of Meghan Musgnug and Liz Teich, who had created and patented a bagel scooper!
Now, it turns out that Ms. Teich's father, who aided in the design, is an aerospace engineer. But that is just another rationale for my never doing anything about the idea. I have a long list of excuses, ranging from what the heck do I know about designing a bagel scooper, to how big is the market actually. But the real reason is what Seth Godin calls the lizard brain.
Seth says it is the voice in the back of our head telling us to back off, be careful, go slow. The lizard hates change and achievement and risk, it is a physical part of your brain, the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear.
So basically, I just was fearful of getting outside my comfort zone, and rationalized being too busy, or that I should be giving priority to other things.
The point is easy. Wait long enough to produce your idea—marketing or product—and you will come in second, which is the same as last, to the person who grabbed the tide at the flood.
Got the idea?
Brutus: There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224
Our favorite take-out Chinese restaurant suddenly closed. No warning, no notice. The metal gate was down, and when you peered inside, the refrigerator and other equipment was gone.
Since it was our go to take-out, we felt bad for the owners. But we also had to select a replacement. Granted, since we are talking Manhattan, there are many choices. But which one would it be?
The replacement decision was made easier when I passed by the closed store this morning. Very simply—and cleverly—a nearby competitor had put a bunch of their menus on the chain that locked the door. And I couldn’t think of a single reason not to try them.
Now I am not suggesting you should be cold and calloused when one of your competitor’s is going through a rough patch. But if there is a simple, clever, not mean-spirited way to demonstrate that you are available as an alternative, then go for it.
(Have you noticed I have been focusing on things Chinese ever since my book was translated into Chinese, available at amazon.cn? Just saying, it might make a wonderful Chinese New Year gift. January 23, Year of the Dragon.)
It’s only reasonable for me to share what I consider to be funny with you. It’s one way for you to decide if you agree with the way I look at things in general, including my viewpoint regarding good ideas in particular. (Just as with creating humor, generating good ideas often consists of unexpected new ways of putting ordinary elements together.)
So here is something that popped up on my TV screen that I thought was unexpectedly, unintentionally hilarious.
The juxtaposition of two names, (Gain, a laundry detergent, and Jenny Craig, a weight loss program) when the announcer said, during a station promo, “Brought to you by Gain and Jenny,” just struck me as hilarious, and worthy of being included in one of the New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott’s “ 20 questions about advertising” columns.
You may not agree that the coincidence of the two names was funny. And you may not agree that when your bank contacts you to let you know that they are shortening the hours you can access your safe deposit box, and their letter starts off, “In order to serve you better…” is comical.
And you may not even agree that when you are in a crowded, stuffy, stalled New York subway car, and the electronic lady’s voice tells you to “Have a nice day” there is an element of humor.
But you must agree that I have gotten a rather interesting blog post out of a very flimsy premise.
I know. I know. But the blog title did get your attention, didn't it? And it is not "borrowed interest." For today I do want to talk about moms and good ideas. Which is where I found this piece (Bright Ideas) about moms who, when they couldn't find what they wanted in the marketplace, invented it themselves.
According to the article, if you Google "mom inventors" you get about 300,000 results. That's because "a mom runs into a problem with her child and, unable to find a solution, invents one herself." The Internet and social media allow these child-raising women to develop and exchange ideas without even having to leave their homes.
So when you tell yourself you are too busy to develop new marketing or product ideas for your business, look around at your support system of assistants, co-workers, departments, friends, bosses, employees and others, and realize how comparatively easy you have it. And then go do it.
Well, in one sense my post title is literally true; since this my first blog of the year, it has to be the shortest (as well as the longest, best, worst...). But I really meant it in the sense of shortness of length.
So without further ado, a great, relevant, marketing quote from a New York Times book review of "How to Think Like a Neandertal" taken completely and preposterously out of context:
"The uneasy balance that had lasted for 10,000 years gave way, and the Neanderthals were forced to retreat, eventually to the Iberian Peninsula, where they died out. Homo sapiens had the gift of innovation, and that proved decisive."
And the simple question for you for the New Year is this. Are you a Neanderthal or a Homo sapiens?
Many of us bloggers put together a “Best Of” list for the final posting of the year. It is easy, readable and we really don’t want to devote a lot of time to writing during this busy joyous season. And, seriously, how much time do you actually devote to reading your favorite blogs at the end of the year?
This year, I am reaching a new laziness low. Instead of even compiling my own “Best Of” list, I am merely going to link to one. And I will understand if you are too busy—or too stuffed, exhausted or whatever—to even click on this link.
See you next year. (Obligatory—and sincere—thank you to my readers, favorite fellow marketing bloggers, etc. goes here.)
This is indeed the season of good cheer, merriment...and lumps of coal for those who have not been as good as Santa would like. So here is my first annual holiday "Lump of Coal" Award.
I do not know what criterion Santa uses, but my only constraint is that I don't go the big, obvious, "Madoff is a bum" route. That kind of villainy and treachery gets plenty of coverage.
My selection is on a smaller scale. That's because just as I usually leave the coverage of multi-million dollar TV campaigns to blogs that specialize in that sort of thing, and concern myself more with things that might affect my small business audience, this is purely the result of my saying to myself, "Hey, that's not nice."
This year's winner/loser is Dan Ariely. He recently wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal offering tips for selecting presents that please. The paragraph that caught my eye, and made Dan a finalist for my prize, was this: Another category of gift, which I like a lot, is what I call "paternalistic" gifts—things you think somebody else should have. I like a certain Green Day album or Julian Barnes novel or the book "Predictably Irrational" and I think that you should like it too.
Now, there is no reason why that paragraph should give you pause, unless, like me, you read the entire article and then went on to the credit after the end of the story. Which states Mr. Agley teaches at Duke University and is the author of "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden forces That Shape Our Decisions.
So the book he is recommending in the article, as one he likes and thinks you should like too, is one that he wrote himself. Full disclosure...oh, wait, he had no disclosure.
So again, in the scheme of things, with all that is going on in the world, this scarcely merits a slap on the wrist. But as an example of what I would classify as marketing chicanery, it certainly deserves a lump of coal.
Image by John Kratz via Flickr
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