Firstly, I need to apologize up front that I don’t remember where I got this idea from.  It is not my idea, I have used variations of this exercise in my consulting practice,  but I wanted to pass it along.  One of the problems I have when listening to a host of podcast products  is that at times I am not in a good position to stop and take notes.  This idea I found on either Phil McKinney’s “Killer Innovation” or on a “Venture Voice” interview, but that is a guess at best.

We all need tools to help us think of new ways to solve old problems.  We have a lens that we use to evaluate data as it comes in.  Every so often we find a new lens which helps us provide a breakthrough in performance or understanding.  In this case I wanted to share with you a new way of looking at things with a hope that it produces exceptional results.

Always / Never Brainstorming

This is an excellent team exercise.  I would expect at least two large hanging paper sheets and a pile of sticky notes and some felt tip markers would work nicely.  Here are the steps:

1. Define the topic or focal point.  Try to be specific.  I prefer these questions NOT be open-ended if possible to make sure you are focused as possible. Here are some example:
   1. “What are the first impressions of our company/organization/church?”
   2. “What’s the last thing people remember about ?????”
   3. “What do people expect when they ????”
   4. “What happens when a person doesn’t ????”
2. Have the team brainstorm things that ALWAYS happen (Time limit 10 minutes or until the ideas dry up)
3. Now, have the team identify things that NEVER happen for this topic (Same time limit, and keep the answers relevant)
4. Take a break – you just spent 20 minutes hurting your brains! (5 minutes)
5. Nominal Grouping next – spend 5 to 10 minutes  moving the stickies together that are talking about the same thing (duplicate stickies if the idea is relevant to two groupings)
6. Focus on the Never – now ask the team to come up with ideas that would make the never become a reality and be considered exceptional. (20 minutes)

Innovation Bonus Exercise

Now I did get this great idea from a Phil McKinney podcast as I was driving back from a State Cup soccer tournament.  This is the first time I heard this exercise described this way and should provide you some great ideas and insights.

Our brains are programmed to stop thinking once we think we found the right answer and often we leave ideas in our head and never share them because of this reason.  You as the leader or facilitator need to force your team past this creative barrier.    Here is the bonus exercise:

1. Have all your nominally grouped ideas placed on a grid.
2. Each idea group should run across the top of the grid
3. Each idea group should run down the left side creating a matrix.
4. In each matrix box, FORCE the team to come up with a new idea.
5. Use this Hybrid list of ideas for innovative ways to move forward.

The ALWAYS List

This list represents the performance bar that all expect from any organization in the specific category examined.  This list becomes the managers performance list.  The manager will use this list to help identify talents and skills needed by the staff to accomplish these objectives.    Mentoring, training, feedback and possibly team reconfiguration (fire/hire) might be needed to help the team reach the Always Base Level, if they are not already there.  It is imperative that the manager get his team to this level and make sure they stay there.

The NEVER List

The Never list (and Innovation Hybrid List) is used by leadership to determine what the group will take on next.  An assessment needs to be performed first.  Do we have the right talents?  Do the correct skills exist at the right level to take on the new item?  What do we gain by taking on the new item as it relates to our competitors?  How long can we have an advantage before the competitors catch up to us?  And let’s not forget, how much will this cost us?

Marketing Warfare Correlations

Now before I get emails asking me how this relates to Marketing Warfare let me break this down quickly.  This exercise will work for three of the four areas of the strategic squares.   I’ll try and break this down by market position:

Market Leader – you are using this exercise to create a Defensive Marketing Plan.  The goal is to create a moving target for the competitors in your space.   The ultimate object of these  repetitive successes would be to discourage your competitors from attempting direct attacks on your position.

Market Non-Leaders – since you are not using this exercise to attack the leaders weakness within their strength, this exercise should be used in creating a flanking attack and would work best if you focused on an area in which the leader is currently not focusing on.

Local or Regional Leaders – this exercise will produce great ideas for guerrilla marketing warfare plans.    Many of these ideas will place you in a strong competitive advantage to the national companies that cannot respond to the dominance you hold in your local or regional spaces.

Please let me know what you think of this post.  I hope it helps you and your organization.  Your feedback is most welcome!

Good Luck and Good Hunting!

Recently, I reorganized and reprioritized my podcast library and listening preferences.  It’s been about a year and some of the material wasn’t doing it for me any more. I won’t get into the reasons or the methods right now.  Just know, I started poking around iTunes, my podcast subscription tool of choice. and began sampling several different podcasts.

There is a lot of free podcast  content out there and most of it is worth the price you pay for.  But occasionally, you can run across some work that is truly valuable and insightful.  I wanted to share just such a find.

Venture Voice

This is taken from their about page at Venture Voice:

What does it take to start a successful business? We’re working the phone to find the answers by calling on entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and their friends and foes. This podcast (or, for the uninitiated, Internet radio show on demand) features our conversations. Listen to the voices of those living the entrepreneurial life. The excitement, trepidation and ambition heard in their tones gives us a feel for what they’re going through.

We’re interested in people in all types of industries — those who’ve already made it big and those who will soon. We want to hear about failures as well as successes. Start-ups have effects on personal lives in addition to professional lives; we explore both. If you would like to suggest someone to be interviewed, or have feedback for the show, please contact us.

Host and Executive Producer: Gregory Galant

Associate Producer: Eddie LeBreton

Founding Designer: Aaron Quint

My Time is Valuable …..

So why do I think spending time listening to 1 hour interview so worthy that I would want to pass it along to you.  Just in a short time I have gained valuable insights that I believe will help even the most modest of achievers among us.

Here are some of the insights I’ve gain:

• All these people in the success stories we hear about are people just like us!
• All had mentors that helped them in the process of moving forward
• All failed … some more often then others … but all did.
• Some were visionary, Some were leaders, Some were lucky …. all tried and refused to give up.
• Some had great answers to difficult questions.
• Some seemed clueless and you end up wondering how they made it so far.

Generally speaking that if you want to become better at something then the time you spend must complement this.  After all:

• If you want to become thin … don’t do what fat people do.
• If you want to become rich … don’t do what poor people do.
• If you want to become better … don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.

Here’s a Sample of Titles:

I wanted to share with you some of the episodes that I recently listened to.  Now keep in mind, I don’t agree with every point of view these people claim to be important.  Rather I listen to their thought process and try and understand how did they end up making the right choice and what created sustainable success.

• VV Show #56 – Joel Spolsky of Fog Creek Software
• VV Show #55 – Graham Hill of TreeHugger
• VV Show #54 – Tim Westergren of PandoraVV Show #53 – David Cohen of TechStars
• VV Show #52 – Sam Wyly of Maverick Capital, Green Mountain Energy, Michaels Stores and Sterling Software
• VV Show #48 – Frank Addante of The Rubicon Project
• VV Show #46 – Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp

Conclusion

I’d be interested in knowing what your thoughts are of some of the interviews.  Please drop by again and leave a comment. If there are other podcasts that you think are also valuable then please leave a comment here as well.

Good Hunting,

A picture is worth more than you can imagine.  Our brains make connections based on many stimuli, not just our ability to absorb text and react to call-to-actions.  We are helping one of our client return to this principle by finding images from past events and incorporate them into their web site and print materials.  The goal is to have this become a natural occurring event in their day-to-day activities.  One of our biggest challenges is to get them back into the habit of taking lots of shots throughout the day, regardless if the shots are not perfect.  It’s not like you are buying film for them to use!

No Excuses

With great quality low cost digital cameras so plentiful, there are very few excuses not to have your staff carry a digital camera with them at all times.    It is a habit that they need to learn.  Just think of the possibility if you had the following library of images available when producing update to your web pages, or print material.

• smiling client faces
• staff having a great time
• work in progress
• celebrations of completed projects
• any form of excellence

Make It Worth It …. to start

Contests are something we always recomend.  In this case, we recomend having a “best picture” contest that everyone can take part in.    Monthly, three images would be selected to represent every employee entry.  If one of their images is selected they receive a comp day to be taken the next month.

And before those sole proprietors chime and say anything, just think of yourself as the judge, jury, and executioner.  After you start taking your photos, you are simply left with asking the question, which day do I want to take off next month for winning this contest!

Start Today

So the first step is getting everyone a camera and some memory sticks.  Create a process in which they can turn in the photos and receive new memory sticks.  Create a process to catalog the images, maybe use something like Flickr or some on-line tool.    Start building you library of images that can be used in the future for campaigns or materials.

It will pay for itself in the long run!

Good Hunting,

Well we survived another year.  I hope that 2009 will be better then the last for all that read this post.  I hope that you will take to heart some of these thoughts:

• You become better when you become focused!
• Improve your brand, after all, it is the only thing you truly have!
• Be authentic, faking it takes way to much energy and destroys momentum!
• Think Global, Execute Local!

Some Quotes

Here are some quotes from my favorite General – Karl von Clausewitz taken from “Marketing Warfare” by Al Reis and Jack Trout:

“Some statesman and generals try to avoid the decisive battle.  History has destroyed this illusion.”

“The statesman who, seeing war inevitable, hesitates to strike first is guilty of a crime against his country”

“Pursuit is a second act of the victory, in many cases more important then the first.”

“Many assume that half efforts can be effective.  A small jump is easier then a large one, but no one wishing to cross a wide ditch would cross half of it first.”

“Out of a thousand men who are remarkable, some for mind, others for boldness or strength of will, perhaps not one will combine in himself all those qualities which are required to raise a man above mediocrity in the career of a general.”

Final Thought

So let me leave you with this thought for 2009, taken from the book “Basic Economics” by Thomas Sowell.

“No economic system can depend on the continuing wisdom of its current leaders.” p72

Dare I add to this, it holds equally true to ourselves, our family, our vocations or businesses!

Happy New Year!

Good Hunting.

I have come to the conclusion that Twitter has a major design flaw and it is making it difficult for me to continue to grow my network of followers.  Not that my number of followers are very large,  this is more of a philosophical debate raging inside of me to justify my limited time I have on this planet and the effort it takes to accomplish something in said limited time.  I, like others, am a complex human being.  I have many faces or areas in my life which are in different stages of maturity.  I don’t just share on a singular topic.  I expose myself in many ways, to the horror of some, yes!

For Twitter to continue to become the social force that it is destined to be, it must move beyond this singular voice that it has granted us.

Before I Forget

What kind of a Twit would I be if I didn’t take this opportunity to invite you to follow me on Twitter.  Sometimes the most obvious mistake for Twits is not to simply ask people to follow them.  Thanks!

My Many Masks! (or Filters?)

So, what are the chances that my Twitter followers are just like me.  That they enjoy everything I do, or for that matter, are at the same maturity level in those similar areas of our lives.  Here are some of the areas I Tweet about, randomly mind you, and often based on what other’s Tweet about also.

Religion - As a Christian, it shapes my thought process and value system immensely.  I enjoy studying and talking with people of other faiths, but it is unlikely that this interaction with change my core belief system.

Family - I love talking about my family.  My wife and boys are the greatest gift and treasure  I have and love sharing them with others.

Marketing - My passion, my hobby, my mistress.  Yes, I tend to focus my vocation on internet marketing, but I still love the field.  I happen to follow the principles of Marketing Warfare which at times places me at odds with other marketers in how we approach solutions to problems, but that is also part of the fun!

Soccer (true Football) – I absorb all that I can about the game.  My hands on experience is at the youth level, mostly because of my four boys.  I train, coach, ref at the U15 level or below and volunteer with different clubs and organizations in the area.  If there is a match on the TV, I’m watching it over all else.

Chess - I consider myself a novice.  Yes, I can put my boys is a good chess smackdown (sometimes) every now and then but put me in a room with a person rated over 1500 and I look like a fool who’s never seen a board before!

SUDOKU - I loves all things Sudoku.  I’m even thinking about learning Japanese so I can solve puzzles faster!

And the list goes on and on ……

Now imagine trying to find a set of people on this planet who have the same interests.  Ok, now I have a following of 5.  Now what?  What are my odds of getting to six, without investing heavily into cloning?

Twitter is Tone Deaf!

Now images your Tweets had Tones!  Let’s say that each of the areas I’ve described above had a Tone.  This would allow people to follow not only the person, but the areas of their life they had an affinity with.  Thus, when I  Tweet, I would associated a Tone to the Tweet so that you would only hear the items you wanted to and not the other things I find so interesting (and bore the hell out of you!).

Or ….

Twitter was simply meant as tool to tell others “Hey I’m going out to lunch, will be back in 30 minutes” and there is some developer  somewhere laughing his ass off for what Twitter is being used for today!

Good Hunting,

See Also

Business Twitter Idea

What is Social Media

I just wanted to stop and post a special Merry Christmas to you all. I hope this year was good for you and your families. The ROI Hunters wish you all the best in the coming year!

We handed out our traditional Christmas gifts to the contracted cleaning crew today. Nothing special, just some home made cookies my wife worked on for several days. One of the ladies, now a regular we have come to know and appreciate, made some funny statement like “Great, that’s all I need is some more pounds!” We all laughed.  She explained she walked by a mirror in her house the other day and her reflection shocked her. My response - “Ban all mirrors! That would solve the problem!”

The Real Problem – Not Enough Mirrors.

In truth, we don’t have enough mirrors in our lives. In business, we become so focused on the next deal, the next deadline, the next pay period, the next ….. OK you pick. We lose sight of our reflection in the mirror.  We don’t even bother to look most times.

Mind you, everyone else still sees us. Our employees. Our family. Our friends. Our Vendors. Our clients.  They don’t see us as a reflection in the mirror.  They have the luxury of simply watching us in our daily struggle to focus on the next thing.

Difficult Solution – Put up more Mirrors!

The strategy is simple, create an accountability network.  The tactic is difficult to implement.  There is a reason why peer accountability groups work.  Left to ourselves, we are our own worst enemies.  Finding a peer to trust is hard enough, finding someone you look up to is very bold.

Customer Service Mirror – find someone, maybe a trusted client, and review your company’s performance.  What’s working, what’s not.  What are they seeing your competitors doing.  What do they wish you would do

Leadership Mirror – are you creating bold audacious goals for you and your teams?  Who is reviewing them with you before you make your presentations.    Who is raising the bar, making you think of options outside your comfort zone?  Who laughs at you when you come up with a real stinker but you think it the next revolutionary idea?

Management Mirror – who is helping you improve you systems, processes, and staff?  Who’s helping you develop a performance model that fits your team’s talents and abilities?

For the sake of this post leadership and management are defined this way.  If a ladder was leaning against a wall, management would be focused on the most efficient and productive use of that ladder where it stands, leadership would be responsible for making sure it’s leaning on the right wall.

Social Media Mirror – it’s not just the people around you any more folks.  As Matt Hames states in his Web 2.0 posts, now it’s also your digital presence that is being looked at.  What you do on the internet, but also equally important, what is said about you on the internet becomes the new dimension to the mirror’s reflection.  Do you have someone helping you with your global perception?

Conclusion

Wow, all this from a bunch of home made cookies for Christmas.  I hope this post has a longer lasting quality then my wife’s baked goods.

I hope in the future when you walk by one of the mirrors in your life you are not shocked by what you see.  And I hope, for your sake, that it’s not too late to correct what you see.

Good Hunting,

One of the blogs I read (yes it’s actually in my Google Reader) all the time is Collateral Damage. I may not agree with every one of Con’s point of views, but I love his sarcasm and writing skills. And I love how he finds all these great examples, because sometime I’m just too lazy to do it myself!

Collateral Damage: Top 10 Marketing Blunders of 2008

How can you go wrong reading Con’s stuff?  He is a member of the Fraternal Order of The Penguins of Irony!  (I wonder if they are similar to the Knight that say NEE!)

Enjoy!

Brand Managers have a new world to live in. No longer can they sit back and decide such things as when, to whom, where, and what information they will deliver to the world. They must now worry about how quickly they may need to respond if something goes terribly bad. Social media has reduced the feedback cycle time to seconds, not weeks or months. Reaction time is so short that any misstep will cause brand value to plummet faster then the price the rare spiders at an arachnophobia convention.

Blog Social Media Buzz

I ran across a marketing blog post (Motrin Babywearing Ad/PR Debacle) and it referenced Motrin ad and baby carriers. I was curious. Normally I would not go hunting down this type of discussion but for some reason this caught my eye. I viewed the YouTube ad and posted a comment on the blog.

TweetDeck Global Search

Continuing my curiosity, I used my TweetDeck (Twitter Interface) to set up some global searches for hashtags and phrases I thought relevant, and wow, did I get flooded with feedback. I specifically searched “#motrin OR #babycarrier OR #motrinmoms” for the hashtags. I also searched for “motrin OR babycarrier OR motrinmoms” thinking I would also capture all the people not using hashtags.

Firestorm an Understatement

My TweetDeck makes a sound each time it updates the deck, in this case my two searches. Those two columns of information have not stopped updating all day. There are some very angry moms out there and they are using Twitter to express their rage. There are also a bunch of folks that are very apathetic to this ad that can’t seem to understand why everyone is so upset.

Either way, there is a brand manager out there that is eating Motrin like candy right now …. wishing this firestorm would pass.

Good Hunting,

Post Post Update

Since I originoally put out this post there have been some interesting videos that have surfaced that I thought would be of interest.

Motrin Ad Parody: The entire Motrin Mom (motrinmom) episode could have been avoided if this ad would have been released because the negative and positive responses would have done nothing but improve the brand standing ….. and make a bunch of people laugh themselves wet.

Mad Motrin Mom Tweet Video: Here is a 9 minute YouTube video showing some of the responses posted by #motrinmoms moms on Twitter!

Outraged Baby-Wearing Mama: First of all, if this is outrage, then I don’t want people showing up and my house because I’m afraid how they’d label me! This is actually one of the best responses I saw given the firestorm on Twtiter.

Noise To Signal Cartoon

Found this great cartoon about the brand manager’s bad day!

We know the Holidays are just around the corner when Direct Marketing magazines start their year end tradition of telling the retailers how to improve their sites for the up-coming on-line shopping season. (Forget the fact that Christmas displays are going up, retailers need the magazines to tell them) I recently read a great article by Ken Burke in Target Marketing. He provides a great example (knowing or unknowingly I don’t know) of how the Direct Marketing crowds look at web sites versus how Internet Marketing Specialists look at web sites.

All kidding aside for the moment, this is a critical question or concern for many starting out in the ecommerce realm. It seems that every year we are asked by smaller companies venturing into on-line shopping what do do to capitalize on the opportunity. In the past we wrote about this in Favorable News in On-Line Spending and Be Proactive – React Now!

Five Best Practices for the Holidays

All of Mr Burke’s recommendations are dead on. I think he writes a compelling reason for each and provides language that matches his audience. Below are the five key points of his article. You can read the entire article at TargetMarketingMag.com

1. Improve Internal Site Search Performances
2. Improve Product Page Conversion
3. Reduce “One-and-Outs”
4. For the Holidays, Give Shipping and Delivery Center Stage
5. Promote Worry-Free Shopping

As I stated above, Mr Burke has sound advice. I like the Target Marketing magazine. It’s one of the few magazines I refuse to let me wife throw away before I get a chance to read it. (The USPS has a special truck just for magazine deliveries to my home office …. just kidding)

Think TAX Day (US April 15)

Now let’s assume I’m your tax accountant. Every small business in the US files quarterly, and the really lucky ones get to file monthly! (Sarcasm intended) Two months before our nation’s citizens begin to spend billions of dollars on tax services for that fateful day, I send you an email stating it’s time to start thinking about your taxes. I layout a well thought out plan of attack on what you need to do in the next two months to capitalize on the tax credits and new filling regulations for the April 15th deadline. So how long would I be your tax accountant?

Enhanced Advice

OK, let’s say we were to follow Mr. Burke’s advice ALL YEAR LONG! (Which is what I’m recommending you do!) Your organization could focus it attention on the true benefit of all your hard work ….. increase reach. With the knowledge you have a very well designed web site and a web site with great conversion potential, this is the time of year you should be kicking up the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. You would be finding email newsletters and purchasing ad space. Increase your spending in tower and banner ads. These items would increase the holiday profits for more.

Oh, and for those of you who find yourself in November and are beginning to ask these questions, do the best you can for this holiday season but really start thinking about 2009.

Good Hunting!