Real and Virtual Human Behavior

Enchanting Your Boss, Guy Kawasaki-Style

2011-05-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

John Greathouse, a LinkedIn colleague in the Southern California Venture Capital Group recently posted an article he'd written on infoChatchke.com, "A Serial Entrepreneur's Take On Guy Kawasaki's 'Enchantment'". I commented, and he suggested that I blog on this topic:

I personally apparently developed a number of the behaviors on Guy's list through the course of my career and have expressed them through time as:

Part of my job is to make folks up my chain of command look good and tell them so right at the get-go
When they say jump I say, "How high?" (but also, "Will there still be ground there when I land?")
Become known for underpromising/overdelivering ("Star Trek" Scottie-style)
E-mail regular/weekly short bullet progress reports of accomplishments, successes or wins for them to pepper their reports
Form a relationship with them based on personal understanding and admiration
Ask for mentoring and accept offers/invites/door opening efforts, both in-company and elsewhere
Prevent shocks and surprises: Give them heads-up about what the path requires near-term, and any minefields, and show you understand that part of your job is to protect their position as well (see first bullet above).

I'd also add two more:

Support: Call for mutuality of agreement, especially if your responsibility involves a certain amount of risk, exposure or blazing new territory. Specifically ask for/create an expectation early on, as a verbal contract of sorts at the start of a job or project, if you agree to go forth waving your butt out on the flagpole, that if you get into a tight spot their face will be the first thing you see when you look down, right there to support you if needed. A solid relationship based on respect and trust in abilities should be able to handle this and find ready assent. It creates a foundation which has worked for me repeatedly.

Your Personal Brand: Be bold. Be brash. If you're out there operating cross-functionally, globally, company-wide, with customers and partners: If folks compliment you, say/write something brief like, "Like our work? Tell our management." (And give them a way to do so. They will.) This is all about your personal brand, making your successes known, encouraging testimonials which come from others.

You as team player strategically marketing You the Brand, as knowledgeable about/sensitive to what concerns others in your organization, as someone who's actively willing to take risks, stretch your own capabilities and deliver.

Voting: Social Contribution or Act for Reward?

2011-02-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

As real-world shoppers vote with their feet, Web visitors vote with views, click-throughs and purchases.

Market research has never been more automated or in a position to glean valuable insights quickly and from so many, while products and services can be concept-tested before general release with minimum investment of funds, people power and time.

Testing a new product can be as simple as posting it without a price and requesting that customers and regular visitors vote with their views, effectively, as a social contribution.

If not priced, they're voting on visual/aesthetic appeal and overall brand attractiveness.

Vote outcomes can surprise, delight and shock e-commerce vendors depending on whether they're consistent with regularly tracked pageviews or, once requested in an urgent or time-limited fashion, if they take a complete left turn in terms of results or based on which of their viewer personas participate.
Using analytics to track viewer source becomes beyond critical.

Target market purchasers in one geography may beg out completely from just voting, for whatever reason, and viewers-as-product-gift-recipients in that geography who are not new product targets may also beg out.
Whereas regular viewers in a region elsewhere on the planet, who don't necessarily buy -- perhaps due to shipping costs, exchange rates or other barriers -- may step forward unexpectedly and influence an entire vote's outcome.

Publicly reporting product test voting results as they come in, as with political elections, also serves to sway the bell curve and incites voter turnout as viewing guests jump on the bandwagon to give Voice to their opinions.

In one 24-hour period, voters in one country or region may be joined by others in their country or region, just because they know others "like them" are participating.

Creating time-limited urgency inspires viewers with the activist gene who'd be the 20% of "doers" at most anything anyway.

Offering a "What's in it for you" reward "thank you" acknowledges that, on the Web, voting for products isn't a privilege, but a requested need -- with the ultimate outcome customer-focused as it enhances viewer purchase options.
The reward should focus on increased participation and not price-based brand value degradation.

Spreading product concept voting capability across social networks, each connected directly or tangentially to its topic, brings in the necessary variety of voices as a check-and-balance to assumptions about which audiences to target at launch.

One network's viewing voters may work in fields related to the product; another network's viewing voters may be critiquing, peer-level product designers -- each have their unique perspectives which can track together or diverge wildly.

It's a beautiful thing to find that a wide variety of viewing customers/guests vote consistently across social networks. This is solid, verified market research corroboration verifying correctness of direction and attractiveness of any new product or service concept.

Real PR Opps Impact Virtual Customer Behavior

2010-12-31T13:42:00.000-08:00

Early November 2010. It's 5P California time. The phone rings at Thinker Clothing(tm). Archana Ram, editor of Style Hunter in "Entertainment Weekly" magazine, is calling from her Manhattan office -- still at work at 8P EST. She's warm, polite and enthusiastic.

"We'd like to feature one of your Ts that 'Sheldon' wore on 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Atmospheric CO2'(c), and we need it in our office by 10A tomorrow for a photo shoot. Can you do it?"

Such an unexpected put-it-into-gear opportunity gets a native New Yorker's blood rushing, and we know the only answer is "Of course we can!" It's a wonderful thing to have your local crew of UPS and FedEx guys at the ready, the ones who do cartwheels to help make things happen.

I ask Archana when the issue will "drop", i.e. when it will hit newsstands, and I assume that means the publication date. She says 5 November 2010, and promises us tearsheets, .pdf files, any visuals they create. We publish this date on our website, then scour San Diego stores for copies, to no avail. A call to Archana reveals she's gone on holiday, so we wait. She informs me upon her return that our coverage is on page 26 of the 12 November 2010 issue, sends us a stack and I realize I've been walking right by it in stores the whole time -- it's the "Harry Potter" "The End is Near" cover issue with Daniel Radcliffe. A look inside reveals further that we're the lead feature sharing a page with Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair" video jumpsuit. Doesn't get much better.

We correct the date on our site and, within hours, the orders start coming, and coming, and coming. We have our best holiday season by far, perhaps?, hopefully?, as a microcosm sign of a recovering (or at least settled out?) economy. We're completely surprised to see that the vast majority of orders for holiday 2010 are from North American and Australasian customers, and a large percentage of new customers ordering quantities -- whereas our holiday 2009 business was 50% global and much more European. (Perhaps due to the financial crisis?)

With orders have come the customer calls and comments: "We just found you!" "I just saw your T in the magazine!" "I just discovered you -- sorry it's late!"

See Thinker Clothing(tm)'s press page for the full size tearsheet.

So now we've experienced the Hollywood/celebrities connection, the TV show costuming placement connection and the national press connection. So ....

It was Christmas and customers/colleagues had long encouraged us to send a package of Ts to the Obama family, supporters of Science, Tech, Engineering and Math ("STEM") education. So this year we did. Keep your eyes open to see if Thinker Clothing(tm) appears on the First Family, and please let us know by e-mailing a link or press reference; we'd be happy to gift you a favorite T.

What a difference one kind act of market excitement at the holidays can have on real and virtual customer behavior.

Happy New Year.

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

e-Customers and Holiday Rush: Symbiosis is Essential

2010-12-15T19:20:00.000-08:00

As Thinker Clothing(tm) continues its best holiday season to date, the true meaning of "valued customers" is paramount daily in order to make it happen for everybody involved.

From early November the planners order. They're hunting, ensuring the exact items are available. They take more risks with new products and know they have enough time to return, to exchange sizes, and they still have time to chat so they pick up the phone.

Making that personal, human, empathetic connection, one customer at a time, is the gold. Discovering one customer favors a Downeast Maine antiques haunt you used to know, or that an Oklahoma customer is part of a brainy group to which you'd hoped to market. Perhaps that a Bay Area customer lives in a once-favorite hamlet, or that a Canadian metropolis was a favorite for tech business travel.

Listening as customers comment on your brand, your products, how they feel about them and their family's first/gut reactions. Hearing the excitement of "I just found your site and made it a favorite!" Nodding quietly as they wax on about the value and needs of education, the substance of your design topics, and offer to be quoted. Hearing their understanding and enthusiastic support while discussing the challenges of inventory planning and distribution during an unexpectedly good season. Gifts, all of them.

Experiencing the "roll with it" attitudes of folks who recognize that business is trying to make 'em happy, trying to meet their needs and get their gifts into the hands of those they love. Appreciating their willingness to wait for a size, to hang on until a favorite color has arrived, to reselect.

Thanking, appropriately, customers for that understanding, team attitude or patience -- with coupons for future purchases, offers to cover reshipping, all investments in the power of the relationship established and to come. And delighting at the reactions to a simple, "We're out to make you happy" with often-heard, "Yes, I'm happy and yes I'll be returning to buy more."

The last-days, last-minute, 12th hour shoppers who need it now, need it soon, need it by-when, need that miracle, need the extra care of wrapping multiples and identifying which goes to whom, need a shipping guarantee and to not feel fleeced in the rates they pay, need options if their favs are already sold out or won't arrive in time, need more for less to stretch their precious currency/credit. Need relief.

At the holidays, businesses and customers are in it together. Expressed appreciation, understanding and a simple desire to earn loyalty and satisfy go a long, long way.

Ultimately it's showing respect, value and manners, once again.

Happy holidays to you and yours, and best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous new year.

Lisa C. Clark, MBA
Founder/CEO
Textiles for Thinkers, LLC
d/b/a Thinker Clothing(tm)
Knowledge as Your Style(tm)

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

Customer Site Visits: 3 Seconds to Grab or Bounce

2010-10-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

By the time you've read this phrase, a new customer has either visited a site and been intrigued, read more or clicked through OR they've been visually, psychologically or emotionally jarred and have already bounced out.

When clicking a search result, a customer is either very certain that the site name, overview description and/or keywords they sought are there and they have high probability of a match, or they're not quite certain and out of curiosity or desperation they're taking a look at anything that might bring them closer to their desired result. So net is that by the time a site shows up on their screen they already have a likelihood of delight and satisfaction, or anxiety.

One click and they're viewing the homepage or content page.

What happens? Pupils dilate or contract, facial microexpressions react, body posture moves toward or away from the screen, hands stay relaxed or palms get clammy. Compassion/interest or anxiety/flight reaction.

They're reacting to:

Overall Color Scheme

Whether, to them, it connects in any fashion to the brand/product/service category appropriate to color theory responses elicited from hues, shades, tints and tones:

White: Pure, cold, clean, virtuous, goodness, simple, angelic, winter
Brown: Plain, predictable, safe, grounded/earthy, reliable/dependable, dull
Pink: Feminine, flirtatious, sexual
Black: Morbid, powerful, timeless, elegant, formal, evil, mystery, death, edginess
Orange: Hot, fast, fun, energetic, health, friendly
Purple: Feminine, rare, royal, romance, luxury
Yellow: Cheerful, happy, warm, cowardice, hope, mourning, courage
Blue: Peaceful, authoritative, powerful, responsible, fresh, strong, reliable, calm
Red: Danger/war, passion, power/importance, luck
Green: Nature, growth, health, beginnings, envy, naivete, wealth
Grey: Moody, conservative, mourning, formal, corporate, sophisticated
Beige/Tan: Cool, warm, conservative, piety, background
Cream/Ivory: Sophisticated, quiet, history, calm, elegant

Balance and Proportion

The harmony of whether elements above the line appear parts of a unified whole:

Percentage of real estate taken up by images v. "white space" v. text
Physical location of blocks of each creating shapes (lines, rectilinear boxes/blocks, curved circles/stars/oblongs)
Assimilating the familiarity of a newspaper or newsletter with typical masthead/brand ID area, or the newness of being without it

Font(s)

Size appropriate to primary, secondary, tertiary importance of message tiers
Logical/emotional connection to product/service
Color(s) appropriate to backgrounds, unifying information across the page
Few enough to differentiate, not so many as to fragment
Styles consistent with virtual environment standards v. innovative to wildly contrast and create the unexpected

Image(s)

Connect directly to the brand/product/service
Connect directly to tagline, topics, headlines, messages
Convey use (utility)/enjoyment (lifestyle) of the brand/product/service
Convey their own emotional reaction to the brand/product/service
Reflect their own demo/psychographic persona (do they see themselves there?)
Reflect their self-interpreted need for/use and enjoyment of the brand/product/service

Video(s)

Proportional size to images and message blocks
Jarring/in-your-face brightness, busy/frantic speed, flashing imagery or music/sound effects selection/volume
Overwhelming impact relative to brand/product/service

Three seconds is all it takes for a prospect or loyal customer to take in a complete picture of a brand's attitude, its current offerings and customer/market satisfaction with those offerings.

A customer arrives at the site and asks:

"Do I want/need to be here? Right here?"

"Do they have what I want/need?"

"Can I trust that they can/do/will solve my problem?"

A "Yes" or "No" response is just a neuro-cranial impulse away from that finger clicking the "Esc" or back arrow "<" button.

Once they do, will they revisit? Depends on the picture that's been painted, the story that's been told and how it's been perceived/received. Is there a second chance to make a first impression?

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

Analytics from the SMB E-commerce Trenches

2010-10-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

The SEO Plunge: Outsourcing $ v. In-House Headache

[1-800 incoming call, third one that week] "We've noticed that your website could benefit from SEO. Give us 30 minutes to discuss how ... [Version 1: "with just a budget of $5K/month"] [Version 2: "you really should be spending $50K/month"] [Version 3: pick-a-$-amount] ... we can do it all for you."

"Give us a keyword list. [SMB owner provides three-page list based on active homepage.] No, those keywords aren't right. Go back and rework the list". ("Well, what would be right besides words which describe and market what I'm actually selling?" Several hours of work later, without feedback ...) "Well, let us know when you're ready to move forward and apply a budget ...." This type of encounter -- notice the SEO cold-caller hasn't actually invested any time or effort -- can occur multiple times a month based on how many calls an SMB owner/manager receives.

SMB owners, whether start-up solopreneurs or traditional brick-and-mortar managers becoming e-commerce vendors, are trying to set up all the pieces to provide a product or service. Invariably, no matter which hosting platform they select, they'll have to learn, or at least become familiar with, html or whatever customizing coding is currently in vogue -- a fact that many don't realize will be required and requires substantial additional ramp-up time.

Customizing a pre-packaged website template doesn't put a site on the virtual map. Another surprise is learning that an actively running site doesn't guarantee that any customer will actually automatically find it on the Web. SMB owners learn, without a hosting service necessarily informing them of this, that they have to apply for, receive and embed code from Google, Yahoo and other search engines to "see" each page their site. If a hosting service back-end is presented visually/as info blocks and uses drag-and-drop, learning curve is minimal. If, OTOH, the back-end is coded, an owner/manager has to learn the language of SEO, find the code required, cut and paste it into what they think/hope is the correct line before the correct </command>, click "Apply" and hope for the best.

Getting set up with analytics is relatively simple using Google, whose dashboard is, for the most part, intuitive, except for exceptions like .... (Then again, if an SMB owner has never laid eyes on a Web dashboard before, they might not even know they're supposed to have/use one.) Using it most effectively to optimize marketing ROI is another matter.

SEO Necessity: New Language, New Club

An e-commerce manager must learn SEO vocabulary to survive marketing effectively on the Web. Whether they self-monitor/manage or outsource they have to speak the language of their environment and/or their service provider. Step 1: Define Your Terms.

A first look at a Google Analytics report can feel like a crash course in statistics, when it's simply the quantitative side of basic market research; e.g. what, exactly, is "Bounce Rate"? (a likely first e-commerce vendor question).

Analytics Use: SMB Customer Experience Issue

It's great to know how a site is used/visited, which viewers are new v. repeats, where interested viewers/paying customers are located on the map, what product/service content they're viewing and the path they took to get there (and leave), and what technology they use to be assured that they can view everything comfortably and quickly. BUT many SMB owners/managers still need the basics covered in order to be able to understand, let alone use, the tool, as current language still assumes a great deal and seems to be code spoken internally among Those Who Know SEO, e.g.:

What's the difference between a "Pageview" and a "Visit"?
What is an "Absolute Unique Visitor" and how is that different from a "Visitor" or "Unique Visits"?
Does a "Length of Visit" cover all "Pageviews"?
What are my options in "Custom Variables" if I don't know how to get started and there's no "Help", "What is This?" or "How to Use This" link provided?
And what do I do if, in the list of main keywords reported, the highest number is in the "(not set)" category and I have no clue as to what to do with that or how the information helps me?
Does "Direct Traffic" mean that someone found my site by clicking directly on it or by searching for my site or brand name?
When I look at my site's profile, what does "Exclude URL Query Parameters?" mean, and how do I know what to put in that box?

And "Why?" questions abound:

If my e-commerce host has already helped me embed Google search html into my site and checkout pages, how come those pages don't appear for me in analytics? and why am I not told "Go Here If You Want to Add/View XYZ Pages"?
When I created a Google Analytics account, why was I not first directed to a "Profile" page so I could enter that my business was, in fact, an e-commerce site, and gain full use of the revenue tracking tools there, instead of discovering this page more than a year later?

Before SMB non-Webmasters and non-SEO experts can use their powerful market research/datamining analytics tools well, they have to understand what they're for, how they're constructed and how to interpret what's presented. Speaking for the USA, if "Small Business Drives the U.S. Economy" (U.S. Small Business Administration) representing 99+% of all businesses, especially in the current economy even the search engine giants might still benefit from redesigning their analytics environments toward being more general businessperson friendly -- and not assume that SMBs are employing SEO expertise to manage this capability.

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

Web Ad Grammar Reveals Company Attitude Toward Quality?

2010-10-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone makes spelling and grammar errors. Marketing is supposed to have final eyes and ears on deliverables as they go out the door and, hopefully, catch them. Some are minor/third line text ads, and some are glaring single message image ads. I've had days surfing the Web where there were so many I had to start keeping a running tab. Are there analytics to track Web spelling and grammar errors?

No format is immune: Web image block/banner ads, print, radio. The Web provides vast opportunities for expression in a grammatical free-for-all not usually seen in traditional journalism, as Everyman becomes a publisher. Examples abound.

Here are just a couple from a random search of ads over the past 48 hours:

Today's Featured Story Link on Yahoo! News

"Withdrawl from Iraq"

>> More from The Daily Beast

(I checked it out to see if there was a U.S. Deep South angle. Nope, though the concept of withdrawal from Iraq is certainly attractive.)

Ads.com's Banner Ads Section

Facebook Advertising

Reach The Exact Audience You

Want With Relevant Targeted Ads.

(They'll reach the Initial Caps On Every Single Word For Emphasis market. Yes, I've been a Facebook advertiser. Didn't work for my brand.)

Trulia.com Real Estate Search

Resource Center

View your 2010 Credit Score instantly.

Closing Save on closing costs

("Credit Score" as a document name? "Closing"/"closing": Pick one. Trulia is a good RE site, but no, I don't want to get dinged for viewing my credit score.)

Yahoo! News

Why Most Shampoos Are a Waste of Money

("Are"? Is this like the recent 'Why You Don't Really Need to Use Laundry Detergent?' headline stories?)

Linked Text Ad

Travel to Iran

Tours to Iran, Iran Travel information, Iran visa,

Iran maps & Hotels

PersiaTours.com

(Random capitalizations. The closest I've visited was central Turkey, where spelling and punctuation are optional, and quite creative, village by village.)

Linked Text Ad

Pottery Barn

Save Up to 50% on Select Items In-Stores and Online

("In-Stores" seems a Webification. Traditional "in Stores" works just fine. PB Teens fan.)

Sponsored Link on Yahoo! News

Spot FX Market Twists

Learn to Anticipate Market Twists

and Turns with this FREE guide.

("this" is a little word, but it still gets initial caps, and what about "guide"? Most folks who are e-commerce vendors can tell you about market twists, as they have to monitor them daily.)

Image Ad That Appeared on My Blog Today

Earn an internet marketing certificate.
8-week online programs starting every month.
University of San Francisco
(Wasn't it established a while ago that it's the "Internet"? And weren't we taught that numbers less than 10 are spelled out? [Granted, character limits likely drove the "8" choice.] USF is a good school.)

Errors and/or inconsistencies divert reader/viewer attention from the content of the message and the call-to-action. They make prospective customers worry about whether perceived sloppiness in advertising is also a reflection of a company/brand culture and behavior.

Sharp marketing is in sweating the details of colorway, font, individual word choice and proper use of grammar, among the other things of positioning, proportion etc., regardless which lettered generation might be the target market. Hip or not, Web-savvy or not, old school or 21st century, folks can still tell whether or not a message author is ... educated in their language.

I Have Two Requests

Double check. Triple check as ads are shipped off to a cloud, server or repository. Then view the work the way the public does, sitting in their shoes and with their perceptions, and correct it if needed.
Pick one consistent style and stick with it.

Sharp and polished always shows, and can go a long way to communicating that an organization is comprised of professionals who know what they're doing and the impression they make.

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

Start-Up Team Behavior: Known by the Company They Keep

2010-10-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

A new venture starts from a glimmer, an idea, discovering a market void, fulfilling a consumer-expressed need or solving their problem ... in a profitable fashion.

There's no guarantee that the initial "idea person" will have the skills to implement, let alone take to market, his/her incubation. What may begin as a singular activity may quickly prove to require a core team or a substantial organization.

Team Selection Process is Critical

A product/service becomes a brand as soon as it can be described, as it reflects the beliefs and values of those who created it. Everything associated with that brand creates public perception, whether the "public" is friends and family ("f&f"), investors, alpha customers/users/partners or early-adopter customers (Web or traditional). This period is a prime example of when there isn't a second chance to make a first impression.

Core founding team members may include:

Design/development/engineering
Marketing/sales/business development
Supply chain/manufacturing
Finance

Service provider partners may include:

A CFO-for-hire and/or a bookkeeper (this role is fluid and may/may not be a founder)
Legal (for formation/corporate/IP protection and defense)
Advisory and formal board members

Are the selected members generally like-minded in their approaches and outlooks? Can they come together to create a workable company culture from Day 1 that they're proud to express?

Picking once and picking correctly may be essential at the point of "going public" with a venture's existence, though circumstances change and earliest members may flow in, through and out of a project as it solidifies.

Evaluating Team Members and Partners

Depending on funding, a founding team may come together based on whomever is available, whomever can work for free/equity for a while (if required), whomever is local, whomever has the expertise regardless of situation or location.

The product innovation/invention or service itself should inform team-building direction per its requirements.

At formation, a team has a prime opportunity to pick and choose, to define itself, to put stakes in the ground as a public statement of its level of polish, expertise, experience. If a venture will require private equity funding (angels or VCs unrelated to the founders), initial first impression hurdles will include getting to a comfort level with a basic conversation after "Hello".

As humans connect more quickly and solidly having the advantage of introductions, the same applies to start-up teams: One of the first questions a prospective partner, advisor or investor will ask themselves after, "Do I know anything about this market? Am I interested in this market?" is: "Who else already likes this?" acting as a "Come on in, the water's fine!" invitation.

Partners want to work with start-up teams which are good fit to their investment/professional objectives, market situation, self image and with whom they can have common and ready intellectual (if not social) understanding.

Reducing Anxiety by Checking Off Partners' Mental Lists

When a start-up team approaches partners, it's critical that they show their pre-work. Those partners are operating from mental checklists.

They want to be able to check off items of concern in their first exposures to the team
They want to be able to add financial and/or operational value if they're going to be involved
They want to not waste their, or the team's, time and effort.

Are team members able to answer checklist questions, like the following, before they're asked -- so as to reduce/eliminate partner anxieties and the "Do I know you?" and "Why should I want to talk with/invest in you?" questions lingering in their prospective partners' minds:

Is this the optimal, correct team to be pursuing this venture?

Have they searched sufficiently to put the right team together before meeting me?

Do they have the educational backgrounds, expertise and experience to be doing this?

Presented on one page, does this team look impressive?

Are they "teachable"? (flexible enough to be guided/corrected/advised)
Do they know themselves well enough as individuals?

Will they put the needs of the venture before their own personal needs?
Are they comfortable with a start-up level of risk and responsibility requirements?
Can they focus? Innovate? Are they nimble? Lean?

What are the dynamics of how well they work together as a team unit?

Do they respect/admire/support/defend/teach each other? Solve problems together?

Have they answered all the foundation marketing questions?
Do they have a business model that's supportable, scalable, integrated, profitable?
Have they sized their market opportunity bottoms-up and with proof? and can they name prospective customers who've committed to testing/buying their product/service near-term?
Do they have a roadmap, a timeline, a series of offerings showing additive value -- and the details of the ways they'll get there?
Will they protect my money and make it grow to the return I require?

Start-up teams are known by the company they keep. Surrounding themselves with like-minded, best-of-breed partners, whose brands quickly open doors and provide votes of confidence, is one of the best ways to accomplish this and is a very important step on a venture's road to success.

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

Start-Ups: Early Visionary Morphs into COO

2010-10-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

Folks who pursue start-ups, enjoy birthing things, like to design/develop-and-toss-over-the-wall -- consumer or tech-focused -- are a unique breed. They need do-everything flexibility, pit bull-style tenacity, and strategic big picture + laser focused/mission-critical detail breadth.

Been Through It Before? Process Consistencies Begin to Gel

There's no business without a product/service, so that focus comes first, before a slick PowerPoint, even an executive summary or business plan
The bottoms-up business model has to scale, fit current integrated marketing standards, and be attractive to outside investors (if they'll be necessary)
A team has to be able to name/prove its customers and partners, verify acceptability of price points and feature set roadmap
"We are ... (already doing xyz and already achieving revenue -- no matter how small)" is an entirely different presentation than "We're going to ..." or "We intend to ..." Required: Substance, punch, evidence.

Understanding and operating on the basis of these foundation elements needs to be second nature. Which is why team selection is so critical past expertise of skillset, portfolio or seniority, with careful, iterative discussion to unearth accurate areas of executive or managerial accomplishment and overall familiarity/comfort with thriving in the Do-Everything Zone of Start-Up Land.

Many Hats -- Whatever It Takes

As Co-Founder/CMO of a virtual worlds venture who wrote the original creative brief to hand-off to the 3D and engineering execution teams, I found myself voted President filing the entity, writing the plans and presentations, securing counsel and courting prospective investors -- effectively performing the functions of a COO.
As advisor to a men's Chinese fashion brand favored by Warren Buffett and planning U.S. market entry, I found myself strategizing a reseller coverage model and specifying what was needed in financials.
As Founder/CEO of my e-commerce fashion brand highlighting Science, Tech, Engineering and Math ("STEM"), I packaged product with a crew and delivered retail boutique launch POS fixtures.
As CMO of a mobile advertising SaaS venture I found myself walking the inventor through batteries of investor questions and the pitch process in one city, concurrently while I was pitching the venture at tech tradeshow booths in another state -- after writing the Private Placement Memorandum.
As VP of Marketing for a gourmet retailer I negotiated for A-list technical advisory board members, brought in a five-star Certified Executive Chef and spearheaded both real estate and design of retail site selection.

Worth It?

Start-ups are about learning, sweating, anticipating, building, gathering, inspiring, understanding, correcting, responding, innovating, risking.

Definitely not for the faint of heart, they require growing a backbone and nerves of steel, balancing a long view with near-term needs and comfortable with the flow which is part and parcel of in working with a team, product/service and market in perpetual flux.

Yahoo! Merchant Back-of-House Observations

2010-10-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

This morning, KPBS in San Diego did a story on Carol Bartz's tenure as Yahoo CEO and the company's current competitive challenges.

I've been a Yahoo! Small Business Merchant for several years and, during that time, have noted and communicated to Yahoo! tech support, and to Ms. Bartz directly, a number of service design suggestions to the company's benefit. (Plug here: Their tech team, in my experience with hardware and Web, has been the most consistently high level professional of any I've encountered to date.)

Suggestions to Yahoo! for Its Merchant Back-of-House

The Merchant Starter dashboard is a full page of text-only/text-heavy, and could use a full icon-based redesign
Starting with "define your terms", a dictionary/primer explaining terms would be important to non-tech-savvy SMB merchants
The "Design Wizard" seems to require reloading of product each time a new design is tried on for size -- the ability to preview a new design without committing would be optimal
A first-time SMB Web merchant will have no clue what "Store Tag Hub" means
"Manual Transactions" needs to offer a printable/shippable invoice; currently it seems that a merchant has to manually create/e-mail one to customers
"Orders" search capability needs to go back at least several years, not just the prior 50 date matches
"Order Range" summaries should include in-state sales tax charged to assist with monthly reporting requirements (not just sales subtotals)
"Statistics" should include a cluster map (or at least sorted lists) showing geographic locations of customer bill-to and ship-to addresses to assist with targeted advertising
Sales summaries list quantities purchased by high-level product SKU, and they're needed by merchants per individual sex/size/color SKU breakout for forecasting/ordering
"Order Settings" processes could be more SMB owner-friendly (when they're not Webmasters)
Parts of the site set-up process where new Yahoo! Merchants will really need tech support assist with walk-throughs, should be called out up-front
Merchants may be very interested, early on, in adding links to their sites; the "Create Links" process could be made more intuitive showing exactly where on the site the links will appear, or even if they will appear as live links
Adding to "Mailing Lists" is straight-forward; viewing those created is a visual challenge
"Statistics at a Glance" showing pageviews should present them also geographically clustered; SMBs gain huge value in shipping planning/offerings by knowing where their global customers are located and the pain their experience from high shipping costs for lower per-unit $ value sales
The "Affiliate Program" can inform in its title (no click-through needed) that the vendor is Commission Junction and that there are baseline revenue level requirements; a solution for start-up SMBs who have a lot of pre-sales traffic should also be offered as a lower level revenue alternative.

Yahoo! Brand Impact and Why This Matters

In the three years I've been a Yahoo! Merchant, I've never seen redesign changes to its back-of-house design (which could be applied to any level of its Merchant offerings), though features have been added. I've provided design feedback to at least three tech support representatives, and have been told that they'd "forward along" my recommendations. No one has ever contacted me back to follow-up.

As an e-commerce merchant and marketer I'd hope for a two-way, mutual relationship with my Web hosting provider. Lack of response from Yahoo! to these recommendations from a merchant with global visibility and selling products to customers on three continents, gives a certain kind of impression of their brand's values and/or its challenges and priorities.

Millions of SMBs are still coming online, still discovering the value of the Web to enhance their traditional businesses. And in today's economy where renewed vigor towards entrepreneurship is providing a sometimes-saving outlet for economic survival, Yahoo! has vast opportunity to make renewed brand impact.

Impact on One Yahoo! Merchant

I launched e-commerce site www.ThinkerClothing.com first with another "top 3" Web hosting provider shortly after they'd been bought out and dealt with a team which seemed to be putting its fingers in the dykes and quite ... distracted relative to the attention I needed anticipating a time-constrained launch. Found the design/launch/(never occurred) banking connection experience, which took months, to be ... cumbersome -- and they actually missed my advertised launch date by over a month, though took my up-front design money. I switched to Yahoo! for their simplicity, designed the site, loaded products, and was live (and processing orders) within 24 hours. Couldn't have been happier, or more relieved.

Generally satisfied to recommend Yahoo! as a merchant solutions provider, I've appreciated that things work as/when they're supposed to and consistently, and look forward to Yahoo! implementing any recommendations provided to date ... for their benefit and the benefit of their merchant customers.

Selective PR Messages Impact Brands: Starbucks

2010-09-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Starbucks has been making online waves with its recent "some blended drinks" price hike announcements.

Most articles tout rising supplier prices, focus on which higher-end drinks will be affected, and delve into competitor positioning.

As a Starbucks daily decaf mocha loyalist (so far), I recently asked my regular North County San Diego area Starbucks crew when the price hikes would hit their store (expecting it to be imminent).

To my surprise, they informed me that the price hikes wouldn't be applied everywhere, and that stores in their area will not be affected. This was the kind of "don't worry folks" information I'd have thought they'd be touting right at checkout.

I searched "Starbucks price increase September 2010", and noticed that none of the first six articles appearing, including those from Fox Business, Boston.com et al., mentioned the fact that the price hikes, the second in a year, would only apply to certain markets. (This is relevant since ad/article insertions seek to snag the top 1-3 or 1-5 search results positioning, and messaging in these leads may set market tone.)

This is a very important PR message to Starbucks daily customers, some of whom actually factor in, and make allowances for, their daily enjoyments in budgeting. While press article headlines focus on "price increases", "price hikes" and "some drinks", non-emotional enough, none have seemed to allay customer fears that those increases won't necessarily apply to them.

Such careful wording up front might help Starbucks stem the tide of those jumping ship -- claiming that their favorite brand has finally gone beyond price elasticity -- and buy their brand some more time.

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.

Human Behavior Drives Retail Floorplans

2010-09-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

This week a member of LinkedIn's In-Store Marketing Institute special interest group published a link to a fascinating article by George Wishart in DDI Magazine about in-store Monopoly(R) games, and I responded with this comment:

Staples' Use of Their Retail Real Estate

Several weeks ago I noticed Staples' revamped floorplan in a San Diego area store -- they'd given laptops the lion's share of their open front/center area, and I had to walk through all that to get to the "staples" -- at the back of the store and across the side walls. It was ... annoying, and showed me how they'd gotten away from brand connection and likely that somebody had made a strategic decision based on ... margins? (Note that this supermarket strategy of putting the milk, eggs and butter at the back works when someone shops for a full list and walks the aisles [and yes, these folks are annoyed too because they know exactly why it's been arranged that way] -- not for busy business folks who need a quick in-and-out purchase experience.)

Then I went to check out and, as I just about exited the store, there was a cardboard stand with a poster of their program for customers to buy/donate school supplies to area students, dropping them in the bin provided. This was positioned *facing in* to the store, and *facing customers who were either about to, or who had already, checked out*. So if a customer wanted to support the timely cause and donate, s/he had to trek back through the store to choose something new or replace the thing they'd just bought and donated, stand online again at check-out etc. A serious time waster.

When "I'm Not in Charge" Becomes a Hindrance

I'd originally seen this set-up at a Sorrento Valley Staples (San Diego's North County "Silicon Valley South"), and had commented on it to one of the front managers, recommending that the display needed to be moved, at least to face incoming customers. All he said was, "I'm not in charge of it. We talked to management about it, but they want it there." He didn't suggest I speak with anyone and left it at that. I was seriously under-impressed, since their unfortunate choice was virtually part of Retail Marketing 101.

Retail real estate is much like home renovation-to-stage-and-flip, or like any other aspect of hospitality-as-customer-experience (which folks like Disney have down to a fine art): A customer-focused strategy pays attention to how traffic flows through every *inch*, how it's used, presented and perceived as having a specific purpose, and how people feel interacting with the brand through their entire visit.

To anyone with Staples who might read this post, I have high regard for your store and brand, and have been a regular business customer for some years.

Moral of the Story

Being responsive to an Any Customer (me) valid suggestion, by moving and repositioning their stand all of ten feet (or less), could have resulted in dramatically different results for that program, and benefits for those students in need. Following an edict from corporate, or even a regional office, if it's not working, sometimes requires enabling front-line employees with louder Voice to correct, for the greater good of both the brand and customer loyalty.

Human Behavior at Fall DEMO: Impact on Marketing

2010-09-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last week's fall DEMO Conference in Santa Clara, a start-up pitchfest to which my start-up had been invited to present and which I attended as a "golden ticket" winning individual, provided terrific opportunities to observe stress-driven human behavior in action, and its impact on perceptions and outcomes -- in category clusters covering enterprise IT, mobile and consumer/social media.

Presenters arrived early, looking for coffee and preoccupied with memorizing unfaltering, timed :90 or six-minutes scripts, coordinating with tech teams to ensure, really ensure, that video/screenshot demos went off without a hitch (ah, best laid plans ...), and finalizing their values-rich stories at provided countertop+backdrop stations in the Pavilion area.

Brand in All Touchpoints

Audience experiences of presentations spanned the gamut:

On-point features, innovation, monetizing trajectory comments exuding comfortable confidence and camera-ready enthusiasm, but needing some marketing zing showing site pages a bit washed out and busy to read without the benefit of 3D graphics
Fully ready, on-point features, innovations, revenue streams and partners established, combined with slick, visually-driven and next-gen demos
Personal story-as-testimonial which extolled male listeners to make wives happy or else, with an offering included along the way
Personal backgrounder focus while demoing physical green energy producing products -- but not including showing how they actually worked
A mobile social streams module brand name that didn't connect to its logo font and could be mistakenly taken, in conversation, for a famous Valley chip technology
An Alpha (:90) pitch that highlighted market need, and left only :15 to mention the offering
An unfortunate, and expensive, first-sentence brain freeze, then recovery-attempting short intro comments
Juggling during benefits statements, for audience viewing entertainment
Tossed cue card summaries of a transportation-focused social media offering
Concluding with a group cheer-style audience echo response
An education/parent-focused mobile monitoring offering that highlighted stopping the madness of non-involvement
Some brands directly referenced their offerings/values, others gave no clues

The Team IS the Brand

Some teams on stage:

Flanked by big screens, CEOs/management and their crews appeared in suits, jackets and collarless, Ts or rolled-up shirtsleeves, and jeans with high-heeled boots
Gesticulated in comfort, some with effort
Stood ramrod "in the headlights", focusing on the guy in the projection room
Paced, others strolled with "old hat" ease
Stumbled when Internet connections were repeatedly lost ... others finessed without skipping a beat, ready with Plan B screens
Held conversations, others spoke solo with quiet tech support
Met the audience with introductions, others dove into their offerings
Spoke their tagline, others gave a description

Some teams on the Pavilion show floor:

Coordinated and dressed in their brands, others hosted without that aspect of finish
Welcomed with introductions, others jumped anonymously right into their spiels
Presented united fronts, others were easy to share their lingering internal disagreements (or, decisions still needing to be made)
Tagged everyone as spokespersons, others separated out engineering duties stepped back from pitching

Next?

Which ones will make it? Which will secure that investment round, get acquired, shoot for an IPO?

Time, and markets, will tell.

All in all, a fantastic event in which I'd be happy to participate again as attendee, presenter, prospective investor.

Marketing is ALL About Human Behavior

2010-08-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

The 30-Second Marketing MBA

To those without a particular affinity for, background in or exposure to the mechanics of marketing, I've found that there's a quick description that seems to universally get the point across:

Sharing the "5 Ps" (no, not four): Product, Price Place, Promotion -- and Personal Selling
Answering in detail the "question words": Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? How Much? How Often? as the skeletal structure for strategy and tactics.

Start with the Real Foundation

When folks get lost in the minutiae of these details, a great exercise is to pull the discussion back up and out to the 30K' level, the big/global picture, and talk first about brand as the first connection to company's product or service and the driver of everything it does. All decisions, messages, presentations, exposures, involvements of any customer or stakeholder with a company, are through its brand as first, most critical impression conveying:

Who We Are
What We Believe In
What Your Consistent Experience with Us Will Be
How You Will Feel Interacting with Everything About Us

We are ALL "The Customer", and Occam's Razor

I also remind non-marketers, whether they are engineers, visual designers, in operations, that EVERY PERSON INVOLVED IN A COMPANY IS POTENTIALLY "THE CUSTOMER". My own first-hand experience has borne this out over and over again, when listening, as a fly-on-the-wall in engineering/product design meetings, to participants communicating, unknowingly, Occam's Razor, which says that, all things considered, "the simplest explanation usually tends to be the right one":

Expressing their own frustrations and/or needs at features/usability -- and stating taglines
Expressing the way they'd use a feature/service -- and stating value proposition
Expressing their sum total experience of a product service -- and stating a brand name
Suggesting a new feature/capability -- and coming up with its product/feature name

... all the while usually having no clue they've done so as it's embedded in their ongoing conversation amongst themselves. As that fly-on-the-wall a marketer has the sweet opportunity to view otherwise private moments and detect reactions to what they're discussing/designing/developing, and comfort levels, in body language, facial expressions, voice tones.

These folks are communicating their first contact with the concept, and expressing their first, most instinctive, gut-level joys, delights, "Wow!" factors and disappointments, anxieties, warning flag concerns. Such reactions have profound validity and, if ignored, are usually proven right down the road if decisions are revisited. The lesson learned is to pay attention to the guts of those most predisposed to love/support/be enthusiastic about an offering ....

Every person in a company is an adult who shops/makes choices, was a kid/teen/student, may be/have been a parent, has been an employee, a leader, a follower. This is internal gold, and is a marketer's first-line market research iterative feedback loop resource. Involving/requiring this feedback from the very first stages of product/service design can make all the difference in time-to-market and market acceptance.

At these moments a marketer is engaging in the human behavior of investigation, of mining the human psyche and condition, as an archeologist of information, qualitative and quantitative.

(c) 2010 Lisa C. Clark
All Rights Reserved.