As seen from far away

A HUMAN guide to sift through the marketing essentials in times of crisis

2020-03-20T07:22:00.002-05:00

Brands & Marketing During Crisis Times

A HUMAN Guide to Sift through the Essentials

Downturns always bring new anxiety and pressures - with little or no economic growth, marketing efforts are typically put on hold as potential damage is assessed. Everyone seeks to survive by “taking it one day at a time”. In the midst of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic crisis and a looming recession with talks around the creation of solidarity funds, many are taking it several hours at a time. Markets are roiling as plans continue to shift or get cancelled. While larger corporations are coordinating to roll out policies from their procedural guidelines, medium and smaller businesses are likely to feel isolated in decision-making. Questions such as “how do you create or reframe value for customers in this context” and “how can you lean on commercial innovation in the absence of product innovation or lost demand for your current portfolio?” loom large.

We wanted to share some insight gleaned from past experience, research, analysis in managing and assisting smaller and medium sized enterprises through unexpected crises (earthquakes, financial crisis, epidemics). Robust marketers from any scale of business should favour a long term visionary plan over a short term survival kit. Once the current crises does pass, and it eventually will, your consumers, users and customers will remember whose actions resonated and stood by them. Gimmicks are out; honesty, reliability, durability, safety and performance are in.

We came up with 5 idea shifts we hope will be helpful to sift through and navigate this crisis the best possible way. Since human nature and relationships are what lie beneath all the fluctuating business figures, we sift through potential business and marketing issues through a “HUMAN” lens Here’s what that means when it comes to baking new strategic ideas in crisis times:

Honest

Business leaders will cement the loyalty of employees, suppliers and customers by being upfront about uncertainty and focusing their communication and action on the current challenges. Listen to understand employees, share knowledge on how the company has survived difficult times before. Strive to maintain “pre-crisis” quality standards. Spend more time connecting with your suppliers, customers and employees, leveraging tools (Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, WeChat etc.) if you have not already. Connect with the whole chain. Continue nurturing a “one on one” relationship, even at a distance. Deliver personalized offers as much as possible. Be flexible and accommodating with your employees. Remember that honest and empathetic employee communication also means strong advocates for your organization’s brand as best human practices (as well as horror stories) can always be shared across social media. Share your crisis-related measures and actions as transparently as possible with your customers and consumers. Use friendly human language to correct any heavy legal terminology in outgoing official statements.

Useful

It’s time to know more than ever how consumers are redefining value and responding to the recession. Price elasticity curves are changing. Must-have features of yesterday are today's can-live-withouts.

Consumers take more time searching for durable goods, are negotiating harder at the point of sale or are panic buying in bulk (thus destroying the supply chain balance for days and weeks). Others are more willing to postpone purchases, trade down, or buy less. Understand how you are useful and unique to your consumers. What would they do if you did not exist? Would they trade up/down or trade aside (replace you with a new compensation behavior or alternative)? If you are threatened by a different type of competition, can you pivot to offer it before others do? Can you provide better return and warranty benefits to anchor your business relationship in the long run versus cheaper competition?

Reforecast demand for each item in your product lines in the case that consumers trade down to models that stress good value (white and durable goods with lower energy consumption, cars with less features, etc.) Tough times also favor multi-purpose goods over specialized products. Weaker items in product lines should be pruned or discontinued for a while. New products, especially those that address the new consumer reality, should still be introduced but marketing should stress superior value for money, not corporate image.

Meaningful

In uncertain times, marketing spend is usually one of the first budget cuts to be made. Yet, a lack of brand investment also leads to the erosion of the meaning that drives loyalty and preference. At worst, a trickle down effect saps the advertising income that allows other services, like the media and social networks, to keep running free for consumers. Successful brands do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession. They adjust them and calibrate their content to avoid being tone-deaf. It takes years of time and resources to build engagement based on trust, reliability, expertise and shared values with customers – it is essential to keep engaging, effectively and meaningfully. Be a brand that cares and acts that way.

Reviewing your approach and adopting a genuinely helpful yet direct tone in your communications helps. Avoid zany topical memes and appeals on the basis of fear or staying-at-home comedy jabs. Identify how to reach out to your target consumers if uncertainty prompts them to stay at home but also remain connected with family and friends. Seek small yet meaningful ways that go beyond profit-mindedness to assist those in need that your infrastructure can help the community with. For example, can you help vulnerable populations like the elderly have access to basics like grocery shopping and errand fulfillment? If you have underutilized resources that you can afford to share, do so. A larger-scale example of this is electronics firm Sharp’s repurposing of its TV factory to manufacture surgical masks.

Adjustable

Becoming adjustable in everything from managing cash flow through to messaging is key. Management of cash flow issues can be tackled in two ways: 1. Avoid tying up working capital in excess inventories. Early-buy allowances, extended financing and generous return policies can motivate distributors to stock your full product line. 2. Run a thorough and critical analysis of your cost structure to ensure which cuts or consolidation initiatives will save the most money with minimum customer impact. Accept that your customers will be shopping around for the best deals. You do not have to cut list prices but you may need to offer more temporary price promotions, reduce thresholds for quantity discounts, extend credit to long-standing customers, price smaller pack sizes more aggressively, and develop subscription models with weekly deliveries rather than quarterly re-orders cycles. We can learn from retailers in China who moved to adjusting stores opening hours, expanding businesses through online channels and encouraging deliveries at no/limited costs.

To help manage working capital and balance marketing spend, renegotiate terms with your marketing partners if cashflow is an issue, they need to keep you in business too. Finally, adjust the message: “Available in March” is simpler and calmer than “out of stock until March”.

Networked

Using networked effects to partner with businesses and customers helps. Now is the time to enter partnerships not based on monetary terms but on shared business objectives. Seek to partner with brands which are complementary to yours and bundle your offerings, whether it is a tie-in with delivery services or product bundles. Finding meaningful ways to motivate existing customers to become advocates for your brand, thereby helping recruit new ones, also creates a networked effect.

We hope these can provide some guiding answers to your most burning questions around an uncertain landscape. For everything else, we are always an email or video call away to help you bake resilience into shifting plans.

Why some sports heroes are black swans and not brand ambassadors

2012-10-10T19:12:00.000-05:00

Interesting piece of news today on www.lequipe.fr....the FC Barcelona, employer of David Villa, have banned him from releasing a commercial he shot with EAS some time ago. Why? Because they are very cautious about what image their players convey. And the impact it would have on the club's image. The link here David Villa kicks it bad.

Here we are : the modern gladiator, the football ( sorry I cannot get used to that soccer thing!) player think he can get away with murder and gets caught the hands in the cookie jar. Seriously, David, what were you THINKING?!

Truth is, FC Barcelona have just prevented a marketing "black swan"...

Many contemporary marketers, for lack of ideas, will monetize ( what a bad word ) the supposed moral / ethical / emotional attributes of professional sportsmen-women and seek to turn them into brand assets. Along the lines of "champions with standards know that my " ( insert your product ) " is what they need to perform. So it must be good for you, kiddo / lady / macho man"....and then the whole thing will collapse at regular intervals. Very much like Nassim Nicolas Taleb's black swans ( as defined on wikipedia : unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences . read the book, it is brilliant ).

The Magic with black swans is that they WILL happen. And most probably when you dont expect them....Examples are aplenty , especially for us French fans.
Our biggest football star, ...EVER...., head buts an italian bandit in the finals of the world Cup 2006. The finals, dumbo. The one event more televised than the birth of the heir to the english and japanese crowns united. In one head-but, millions spent on yogurt and water advertising are thrown through the window. Even though the French are still debating the case because the bandito had actually insulted the guy's sister. But if you sell yogurt and water to my mum, it really does not matter. Zidane is off and sent into penitence for a few years.
4 years later, our football players go on strike ( yes, we French people love to go on strike ), during the world cup ( yes, we also love to screw up things very publicly ). That is, after some of the leaders of the team had been sued for having sex with an underage lingerie model. Hu...sponsorship deals anyone? More yogurts and spring water ?
To top it all, the captain of our national handball team, double olympic gold medallist, double world champion, etc,...decides to put some butter in his spinach by betting ...against his own club team for one of the last game of the season - because they had already won the championship anyway. But because he knows he is not even allowed to bet FOR his own team, let alone against, he asked his girlfriend to do it for him so that he is legally safe ( sweet and smart ze French ). And he will probably...but without the yogurt and the spring water deals.

I am not saying the French are all bad. Nor that the ypgurt and spring water guys are thick. And i stay away from mentioning Lance Armstrong to avoid being sued. I am saying sports heroes are not always an easy way to invest your marketing monies. And a significant proportion might even be black swans in waiting.

Just talk to the folks at Nike, they have become brilliant at handling crisis management. Now, here is another thing one can admire with Nike..they stick with their guys, no matter what, in a very sporty way. Kind of us guys understand each other. They stick with Lebron, with Tiger, with Lance ( even though very discreetly these days, please do not sue me). Because they know sportsmen are more gladiators than gurus. And that their business is "panem and circuses" ( bread and circus ) not the League of Virtue. Does it mean than Nike has no morality. For sure not. But their brand message is clearly dissociated from the performance messages "their" modern day heroes champions help them convey so that they do not only rely on champs to sell you the fantasy that you body is a temple. And when they want to communicate their values, they portray...you and me! Which would indicate that they have thought it through before they sign those contracts. Its a strategy, not an opportunity.

I have now lauded Nike twice in 2 weeks. It might be time to return to my real work! And let me develop the most brilliant sports strategy my employer has ever seen.

Good night and good luck

If I had a million years more to live...i would give it to Nike?

2012-10-02T15:02:00.000-05:00

I came across this new NIKE commercial today and felt compelled to share. The challenge is obvious : this generation ( yes, your kids ) is the first one that is expected to die 5 years younger than their parents. Note that the folks at Nike do not give you the watered down version of ...will live 5 years less than their parents on average, based on a WHO survey.....No, they go for the formulation that will make you stop and do not shy away from the "D" word.
But who or what is the Nike foundation or what are they doing that allows them to talk to me like this?
the only thing that i would grant them as a consumer ( i would prefer the latin "hombre de pie" but not sure how it translates in Engellish ? ) is that they are legitimate in the world of sports. And what they bring to the party is their knowledge that the "habit to practice sports is disappearing at alarming speed in some parts of the world"...so that is it. You are smart human beings and you make the connection...health / sports habits / Nike....they have a legitimate role, even more so as they communicate via the Nike Foundation and not just by using one of their sports athletes or shoes. The idea to go through kids to get a watchable piece of communications is simply brilliant as kids do better at inventing a bright future than adults who would have a tendency to just want to rewind 5 years back and watch jersey shores again, this time with the knowledge that snooky ( schnooky? Spooky?) gets pregnant in the end. As for me, I am forever grateful to the little girl who would get more hamsters or the boy who would go after aliens. without mentioning the kid who would build something in wood. except she just realises she has no woods and that Nike cannot do anything about this. You made my day.
Now, if you want to know more, simply log onto www.designedtomove.org.
And get those running shoes out of your closets.
Good job, ladies and gents at the Nike Foundation.
Good night and good luck

the challenges of teamwork

2011-12-02T11:11:00.001-05:00

Unless you are a complete and highly dysfunctional genius, you need to work within a team to let the best of you shine through. It took me 10 years to be able to even think that " I would not have done it like this, but I think it can still work". So I apologise to my first teams who had to suffer my dictatorial experiments....and I give them this trailer as a gift In any case, giving honest feedback seems to work. And it makes even the most obnoxious @#$%^&*( seem sympathetic. Good night and good luck.

Swiss irony

2011-06-29T23:50:00.001-05:00

I had not been in Geneva in summer for 4 years and forgot the sense of irony that at times permeates in the Swiss otherwise very pacified environment.
Geneva in Summer is a magnet for outrageously wealthy members of the world economies...you name it... eastern European oligarchs, Gulf oil magnate, African dignitaries, Latin American new billonaires from very old families...all congregate here.
The interesting thing is also that most of the countries our modern heroes come from are known for taking a very "liberal" stance on environmental issues, freedom of speech, democracy, humanitarian issues, armed and religious conflicts...and the same way all the French are all collectively the bearers of the French goods and evils ( no, I do not rape maids when I stay in luxury hotels. This is not taught at school either ) , the wandering billionaires inevitably come to represent their countries.
Someone in the Canton of Geneva must have thought than you cannot simply take the money and shut up. They decided to use the President Wilson lakeside promenades to host the www.cartooningforpeace.org exhibition. A UN supported exhibition that basically aims at using the power of journalistic cartoons to attract your attention and mine on all the things that can go wrong in the world...with an ironic focus on the countries where some of our vacationing billionaires come from.
There I am, strolling along the Quai Wilson a night, looking with gourmandise at all said tourists being "forced" to endure cartoons making visible to the world the sufferings and pains some of their own people have to go through back home in a place they chose for its "neutrality"!
I cannot believe noone thought of this before authorising the exhibition. Nor can I believe something good cannot come of it. This is probably the closest you can find to a Swiss revolutionary initiative. The Swiss sense of irony is alive and kicking. I will enjoy it again another night before flying back to Panama, the country that is now waiting for the return of Noriega with anger or passion. make up your own mind on the issues of the world on www.cartooningforpeace.org. That is one no censors can stop anymore so it would be a waste to turn our back to. One of the drawings mentions malnutrition...a way for me to remind all of us that 2 billion people in the world live with less than 2 dollars a day, half of which suffer from chronical malnutrition and 800 000 do not have access to clean water. You can help by donating a dollar or luxury car to www.csdw.org. My friend Paul in Malawi and my brothers in Haiti will be thankful.
Good night and good luck.

The globetrotter's guide to marketing

2011-05-13T13:32:00.000-05:00

23 years ago I boarded a train in Beijing that was heading towards Paris via Ulan Bator,Moscow, Warsaw , East - and West - Berlin, then Maubeuge. Think Soviet Moscow, with the first Macdo on Poutine Square which was a tourist viewpoint , Jaruzelski Poland. That trip taught me everything I ever wanted to know about marketing. Today, I am boarding a plane towards Lilongwe, Malawi, via Nairobi. It may well be my refresher's course.

The advantage of trips that last more than 12 hours is that they leave you time to think, to look and to feel what is happening around you. Waiting in airports or train stations, without mentioning motorway rest areas, is one of the best observation point there is. Beats any focus group for sure. Most times, it is an observation point from which one stands and watches as opposed to being a part of the crowd. But that is where my Transiberian and malawi extravaganza differ. I am sitting in row 28 on Kenya Airways and trust me, this is as much in the middle of the plane as I want to be. No fancy shmancy food menu for me today. 23 years ago, I even had no idea there was a business class anyway. And i thought anything above 2nd class was luxury. Little did I know that first class in the Chinese Transiberian was just below deluxe and 2 seater wagon...and just above wooden benches. Scotty beam me up back to my youth!

On both trip, I can feel that insisting knot that freezes my brain and whispers...what is around the corner? what does it look like on the other side? How do I call for a taxi, make friends, what food will I eat, will it make me really sick? Did I take the right clothes? Do I have enough money? As i think of myself as the proud product f a multiracial family, how will I face the "real deal", where those who surrounds me do not look like me and have no clue that grandmother of mine was black?

It challenges everything I know and leaves you hanging there with the task to find all the answers by yourself. And there is no pre-testing in this world. It is not Livingstone's survival but close enough to get the thrills of traveling pumping again.

Now, imagine a moment you are in the office, tasked with developing that great new idea that will rock Brazilian's socks off and get them to rush "en masse" for your nicely packaged profit sweetener. You wrote the concept and someone else translated it so that you do not even have a clue about what you are doing but you will assume somebody else , from a highly qualified research institute, can give you the answers. And you will compare with poland because the demographics are similar enough to draw statistical conclusions. Based on those, you will get the mad men to work. All brought up in the cult of Bernbach and Burnett who did not have a clue what a street market in Campinhas looks like. And you may even have a nice film produced in Uruguay because the purchasing people love Uruguay these days.

Rewind. Invert the roles. become the learner of your "consumers". It will piss off your partner and your kids because things do not necessarily happen where you sit and you have to go away to learn. By the way, why do we bring our kids up with the love of the world when the only thing we want is for them to live at the end of the road?

That is what I learnt in that train and which comes back to me since I left Panama last night...the best marketing I ever did was when i assumed I knew nothing about what I was looking it. it was easier 15 years ago because...well, I did not know much to be honest. About motherhood when working on Pampers or about breakfast when mine was very often taken in a bar after a long night. I did not assume I knew. so I would question everything...the nagging why? why do we say think visualize things the way we do? is there another way out? What would the Japanese do ( yep I went to business schools in the 80s, China was not yet existing)?

This permanent uncertainty was and still is for me the magic of great marketing. That is when you are not Steve Jobs or Jonathan Ives. Because I have no clue how these guys do it but I have a feeling they would never say they are into marketing anyway.

Voila, this was me and my moment of doubt sitting in Schipol. malawi, here we come.

Good night and good luck

The radiologist will see you in a minute

2011-04-27T12:49:00.000-05:00

Today is medical check up day at the Punta Pacifica "John Hopkins affiliated" Hospital in Panama. The highest standard health facilities in the country, courtesy of the corporate world. It is normal procedure for a guy my age so nothing to worry or joke about; apart from the now traditional Panamanian hiccups of "your name does not appear on our register" at the 7am check in, followed 15 minutes later by the legendary "now you appear but you were not born on the birthdate you indicate on your forms". At which point, the really nice lady of the "programa ejecutivo" offers to take all your info by hand and then type them in the form for you. First victory on the system, you can now get in and hand your body fluids samples to a lady you will probably meet with embarassement at the cafeteria at lunchtime. Who ever forgot to think of embarassement as a motive not to get tested for stuff !...even if it is true that when you actually are sick, embarassement tends to rank very low on the scale but what if it were a factor for actually getting sick ?
The rest of the day is supposed to be rather uneventful, which does not match with Alexandra`s twinkling eyes when she wished me good luck on my way out this morning. It starts in a routine that offers nothing to the inspired blogger...until I get to the echography room ! Now, so that you know, the only echography I experienced so far where the - not so few- ones granted to get to know Pala and Titide ( how did Alexandra manage to get one a month and still get it covered by the insurance is still a mystery to me?). So imagine me lying there whilst the lady rubs the gel on my belly and rolls her scan on me, pushing hard on my ribcage and whilst still not moving her eyes from her screenw asks " sure it does not hurt?" in Spanish. At which point I confess I do not speak spanish to limit the interactions between Cruella and me. THEN...THEN....she mutters " the radiologist will see you in a minute" , "el radiologo va a llegar en un minuto".

So, here is me thinking "why do I need to see the radiologo? I thought I just needed a radio! "Have they found a foetus in my belly? Paloma would be thrilled but I am not convinced this is how I want to make the headlines of the local newspaper...has she seen something that is so bad she cannot even discuss it herself and needs UN DOCTOR.....Just with 5 words, the nurse transports me from the world of the healthy to the world of the sick. In the next 10 minutes, waiting for the radiologist - who will never come in the end so do not expect a Dr House moment with me today- I will be thinking of my Parkinson suffering dad ( which one obviously diagnoses with an echography of the lower parts of the human body), my granny who only went to hospital because the food was better than at home, and all other things that tie me in to the hospital scene.
I know the medical world, I know some doctors, I watch Dr House and Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. I even once had a fling for a woman who would come home at lunchtime and announce in the most charming voice.."I just told a 25year old he had leukemia...what is for lunch?" I should not be surprised nor obsessed.
But everytime I am confronted to the harshness of the medical way of saying things...I am puzzled. And I am even more certain that at least one of my child has to be a doctor. The other one, in true Guadeloupean way, being destined to become a lawyer and the third one whe he comes a famous football player ( no plans yet if it is a girl, as he / she is not even conceived so we have some time). When I enter an hospital, I dream to be talked to as a normal individual. I long for transparency and honesty and empathy. Why should the radiologist come in to sign the examination scans if there is nothing to examine or if he / she has nothing to tell me? as we say in my line of work, "if it ain't broken, don`t fix it". And then why does the doctor not come in the end when I have been told the doctor would come.
See, I am not even sick and I already when to get out of here asap.
It is time to go out for lunch. I am dreading the encounter with the samples lady. I shall pretend I do not have body functions and come from a strange planet called France where they put dicators in prison and behead the kings. That was my moment of hospital terror. Even less eventful than an episode of Shwarzwaldklinik. Mental note to self : never ever use your professional jargon with the beotians. Or call in a more senior expert if you can handle the situation. EVER. Even if I do not plan to heal or kill anybody with advertising anytime soon.
Here is to the experts fo their trade, whatever that might be. And those who always want the senior guy to sign on on the report. Live from Punta Pacifica Hospital which I prefer to remember as the place where Aristide was offically named Touchaud Touchaud by an officer of the Panamanian registro civil.
Good night and good luck.

The magic of being wrong

2011-04-19T17:02:00.001-05:00

I just watched a TED conference during which kathryn schulz talks on being wrong and links it to our compulsive urge to understand what is going to happen in a world where failure is terrifying.....It illustrates one of the questions I keep asking myself...why is it we keep making the same mistakes? Here is the trick...geniuses got it right when everybody thought they would get it wrong. Think of Hayek Senior, going to a meeting during which he demonstrated to Swiss bankers that a profit could be made by manufacturing watches in Switzerland. And apparently got a very cold reaction along the lines of " if your eally believe it can be done, why dont you do it yourself...?". I remember him saying 20 years later that it taught him never to ask anything, let alone money, to a banker....
So where can you draw the line between being stubborn to the point of failure and being the only one knowing you are right ? I really liked the 3 assumptions stages described by Kathryn Sculz in her TED talk...if they disagree, assume they must be ignorants. Try to explain again until thay change their mind. But if they still do not agree, then assume they are idiots. that is, until you realise they are not. At which point, if they still disagree when they have been provided with the same facts and exposed to your brilliant reasoning and the same brain power to process it, assume they are evils. And probably try to get rid of them or ignore them.....
For those who do not wnat to fall ion the EVIL trap, I would recommend the reign of the fools; In every royal court, a wise king would always walk with a fool ( le fou du roi in French ) to let them know when they were going off board. Some fools lost their life doing so but some kings gained empires. We shall never know the ratio....however, when you go up the executive ladders, fools become a scarcity because it is hard to pay people to disagree with the boss. And especially if you want to make sure they do not want to replace the boss. Which is tricky...as we are all todl from oru firtst days making coffee for the big guys to treat the job as if it were for your won company......So today, here is my pledge to create the function of official fool in all companies..and see where it takes us.

Good night and good luck. Here is to the corproate fools.

The rise of philantropic propaganda

2011-03-24T18:44:00.002-05:00

Nearly a year ago, I was stuck on the highest floor of an apartment building in Santiago de Chile with Alexandra and the kids when the 8.8 earthquake struck. A lot has been said about natural disasters but the noise and the smell and the feeling of panic never really leave you. To this day, I have an primal reaction when the winds get too strong and I can no longer come close to the windows of my 28th floor apartment. Alexandra is even bugging me to change the bed because she feels it is moving too much when I move at night ( for the record, I dont move that much). But this is not the only visible effect it had on me. Though I did not suddenly develop a limitless capacity for empathy, I started to look at the news with a different eye, always looking for the people beyond the broken landscapes. I started to wonder how I could DO something about the whole situation. Some call it finding a purpose, others think it is a certain sense of charity or an education. To me, it was a healthy way to make some sense of what had happened. And also the deep conviction that I have time, money and even without the capacity to turn back time and change the course of events, a certain ability to manipulate others to spend their money on things they may not need or want in the first place......A conviction that I share with a few individuals who I really like and trust . They are all in the propaganda business in some way but have been able to do some good at the other end of the planet. I wanted to give them a share of my blog today. They are the living proofs of the rise of the philantropic propagandists.

When we got back from Chile, we gave money and diapers to Haiti; it never felt enough. We thought of adopting an orphan child to get one human being a better life; it did not feel right. So, we ( I ) gave more money. Alexandra supported this without ever asking me to consider setting up a University fund for the kids. In Haiti, I could see all my Caribbean brohers and sisters. I know it is a cliche but I grew up reading secretly the life and works of Toussaint Louverture and hoping one day to get to know the first country to free itself from colonialism. I never went to Haiti before though I have met with tons of Haitians, from cab drivers in New York to friends in French Guyana and have been an undeterred fan of Tabou Combo. It is ironic then that the light came from my Irish friend, Camilla, a reformed advertising executive ( she is so going to hate that description ) and up and coming script writer ( and that one even more), who announced on December 8, 2010...."I'm proud to launch the HaiTee shop with the support of the Soul of Haiti Foundation. The unique ''Purrrsuit of Hoppyness'' design was inspired by the uplifting, true story movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness' starring, of Haitian descent, Will Smith and his real life son, Jaden. 100% of HaiTee profit go directly towards empowering Haitians to rebuild their communities after the devastating earthquake last January"..........A long way since her days trying to convince teenagers to drink more Minute Maid OJ than they can swallow. By the way, whilst we are at it, you can do more by checking www.haitee.com, and www.soulofhaiti.ie .

Last year, my friend and movement master, Scott Goodson, founder of the Strawberryfrog agency, announced the launch of another initiative : The girl store for Nanhi Kali. By buying items online, one could directly help Indian girls get their life back ( www.the-girl-store.org ). The initiative in itself is controversial, linking so clearly a humanitarian issue to a business strategy. But it drove attention to a cause that many girls in India thought was already lost. Scott's agency also designed another mindopening movement, called "A girl story". "A Girl Story..."follows the path of a young Indian girl named Tarla who wants to go to school to better her life. Whether she succeeds, however, is completely up to you because Tarla's story progresses only by audience donations that unlock new chapters within the YouTube film series.A Girl Story has created a sustainable effort that people can belong to and share, as they become a part of an organization currently supporting 10 years of education for 58,000 young girls". Also disturbing but don't you feel the drive to go and check on Tarla? This is propaganda. And somehow, ..., yeah right,....philantropic.

Then, as the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident had hit and hurt Japan, another buddy, Quibe, who I have not heard of in years, sends me a Facebook note, directing me to http://tsunami.cfsl.net/ . This site is an open blog publishing illustrations from comics artists who want to support those in need in Japan. The sale of the works will go to Japanese NGOs. I was really proud that a young French artist who has zero connection with Japan except a wicked talent for drawing and an unhealthy attraction for Goldorak and Japanese superheroes - check his own blog to see what I really mean ( quibelog.blogspot.com ) - found in no time the drive to put his talents at the service of a great and far away cause.

This starts to sound like a Pepsi marketing operation. But there is a wavelength on which you can find Camilla, Scott and the teams at Strawberryfrog and Quibe ( and me ). What we can control is a meaningful aptitude to communicate. And I thank the masters of the soap industry ( and breakfast cereals, and airline, and yogurts, and Swiss timepieces, etc,..) who taught me so much about persuasion in the last 15 years. The pieces of the puzzle are now coming together!

Our talents, any talents, can always be used for a better cause but are we doing anything more than good old charity? I believe that we are acting, as much as we can. and giving in a currency that is normally used to deliver volumes and sales. Fundraising IS an irritating business to be in because one too often fights for the dollars in the pocket with misery and shock tactics. Finding a respectful way to do it is the new trend. And it does matter than more than 5 folks , without counting my family members, click on the links , watch the videos and the illustrations and feel moved and compelled enough to change something.

As far as I am concerned, I wanted to get a more insightful and personal view on what it means to be facing a humanitarian crisis before I put my pen to paper....: On May 15th, I will be somewhere in Malawi, helping communities get clean water. More will come on this very soon but this is one way to feel the real life before I come up with a truly groundbreaking strategy for Haiti.....

In the meantime, here is one idea you can jump on : go to Haitee.com, buy a Tshirt, take a cool picture of yourself and send it to me. I am sure Camilla will find a cool way to put all these pictures together and sell them for a decent profit for Haiti. This is trigger her Irish sense of purpose to get in action.

This was my second post. I am not a blog virgin anymore. Good night and good luck.

2011-03-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

I wake up and inform Alexandra, who had a girls night out with Ola yesterday and has not seen my FB annoucement because she never connects to FB, that I finally started that blog I have been talking about for...years. She informs me that the name I chose is not written in proper English. Granted its not . Thank you mon amour. But if I was writing in perfect English, how would the rest of you know I am so desperately French? This will be the written expression of my charming Gallic / Caribbean accent. Seen from afar IS the correct expression. You should know I knew. All in Touchaud, we are moving ahead.
Then, because I want to do things right, I read for the 10th times the first chapter of "Create your own blog" by Tris Hussey. And Tris tells me - in the first chapter!- to know what I want to blog about. I quote "If you want to write about knitting beanies for baby bunnies, more power to you. Just do it". I am by now at a standstill and it is already 830 am. Aristide wants to go to Kindy and Paloma needs to get dressed ( she is skipping school today to go to the beach).
Here is me, questionning whether I will be the King of knitting beanies for baby bunnies, the online VS Naipaul, the Emperator of the consumer connections theoretical discussions. And I don't even have the start of an answer. So I assume the only thing i can do is start and see. All in Touchaud, a small step for you, a big step for the blogging world !
Next come my editing choices. Editing for dummies they say. How come it takes me 120 minutes...do I need an art director to help me? If so, should I call a tradi or an online art director ? Or Martin Sorrell and he will figure it out for me? I choose green and black and the rest of it. Typos and all. All in Touchaud, keep pushing the coal wagon.
Adsense shows up. I need / want / am intrigued at the idea I could "monetize" the blog. But does it mean my followers will become targets and be bothered by ads they dont want to look at? My greed is certainly bigger than my moral sense of privacy today and I dive into the unknown world of Adsense. All in Touchaud, we have been at this blogging thing for 3 hours and not one word has yet been written.
Along the ride, I have faced what scares me everytime I hit the firefox button. The endless compulsive nature of my surfing habits and the sheer variety of available choices is just overwhelming. I cannot start reading the news online without clicking on the links for the background info, watch the videos whilst at the same time listening to ( at he moment NHK World ) radio....And do my job. By noon, my brain is fried and lunch is a desert crossed on an empty mind.
Which is exaclty when the new Adidas camapign hits the screens. All in !!!
Joe la Pompe informs me in no time that it is a rip off of an old Nike ad. On FB, Marco thinks its well shot and more but space is scarce on my blog. Franck believes its ok because it has a lot of French talent in it ( I think he wish he had shot it for Pepsi ). 5 other friends have an opinion. I want to answer all of them because I have something interesting to say about all of it. But I run out of time. A blog might be the best way to do it. I hope I will still have enough mental resources to write it the way I thought it. I should ask Kevin Roberts how he manages to pull so many interesting snippets in each of his messages. Does he write all of this by himself?

All in Touchaud, that is my first blog and I have already mentionned Kevin Roberts. They tell me its good to increase readership. By the way, the only thing I like in the Adidas film is the selling line. Give it your best shot Tiger, because its All in today.

My lovemarks are Guadeloupe, Casanis, L'Equipe and Alexandra Munro Touchaud from Wellington. In no specific order.
Good night and good luck. Does anyone know how I post this on Linkedin?