This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

A few months back I was approached by Leslie Scott’s publicist about setting up an interview with Leslie regarding her book About Jenga. At the time I had no idea who Leslie Scott was or why I would be interested in a book about that I assumed to be a history book for a board game.

But, luckily for Leslie, her publicist had clearly done her homework and was on target with her pitch. I kept reading and found out that Leslie was the creator of the popular household game, Jenga, and her book is packed full of stories and lessons learned on her lifelong journey with the game. Leslie’s extraordinary experiences fit nicely with unique approach to content I try to provide here at The Fresh Peel.

Jenga is a game that has always intrigued me because of it’s simple complexity. It’s such a simple game to understand, but a complex game and somewhat stressful game to master. And Leslie’s story has taken many twists and turns, with many great lessons learned along the way. (Disclaimer: I received a free copy of About Jenga from the publisher.)

In this interview, I quiz Leslie on a variety of topics that she touches in the book, everything from her experience working at Intel to her intuitive understanding of the need to maintain the Jenga brand.

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Also, Leslie’s publicist sent me a signed holiday edition of Jenga that is signed by Leslie herself. I’ll be randomly giving this away to anyone that comments at the the end of this post. You have until Friday, November 20th to leave your comment for a chance to win!

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Q: Where did the idea for the game Jenga come from?

Leslie: Jenga was based on a game that my family devised in the mid-1970s using my then five-year-old brother’s wooden building blocks. We played this game within the family, and with friends, for several years before I decided to modify it, name it, manufacture it and take it to market in 1982.

Q: What triggered Jenga’s rise to its iconic status in the world of household games?

Leslie: This is a difficult question to answer in just one sentence as it begs further questions, such as what makes a good game in the first place, and even why do we play games at all? But in brief, I think Jenga satisfies all the basic requirements we have of a game. It demands skill, involves interaction with other players, provides suspense, and takes place within a finite period of time.

Q: In the book you stated that you were, “convinced that once buyers saw it, they would tumble over each other in their eagerness to put Jenga on the shelves in their shops.” That wasn’t exactly how things played out. What additional steps would you have taken in the beginning if you knew what you know now?

Leslie: I started a company with the sole purpose of taking Jenga to market. This meant that when I launched Jenga at the ’83 London Toy Fair, neither my company (Leslie Scott Associates) nor the product I was trying to sell had any name recognition in the business whatsoever. With hindsight I now know that it is exceedingly difficult for an unknown business to break into any market with an entirely novel product. At the time, I had naively assumed that the toy and gift business thrived on novelty. If I had been aware that this was not the case, I may have tried to license the game to an established company, one that had traction in the toy trade. But would they have been interested in this unknown game? Probably not.

Q: I was surprised to read that you worked for Intel for quite a long stint early on in your career. This was before Intel was the chip inside the world’s computers. How did this experience prepare you to become the creator of Jenga?

Leslie: Whether this was deliberate policy or not, in the early days, Intel fostered a culture of entrepreneurship within the company. By this I mean, employees were encouraged to take risks, and make their jobs their own. I discovered that I thrived in this environment. As Intel expanded and my job became (by comparison) a little more structured and lot more routine, I found I wanted to recreate the excitement of those early years, and did so by starting my own business; to put Jenga on the market.

Q: What lessons can we learn from games and gameplay that can be applied to the world of business?

Leslie: Games can provide an environment in which we can test ideas, or carry out thought experiments without risk of causing any real harm. There are lessons that one can learn from playing games that might be applied to the world of business, providing great care is taken never to fall into the trap of considering business as ‘ just a game.’ It is not. Business is real life, with real life consequences.

Q: How did you come up with the name Jenga? How important do you think the name has been to the games success?

Leslie: I wanted to give the game a name that would not mean anything, at least not in English, so that in due course, the definition of the word Jenga would be my game. I was born and raised in East Africa, speaking Swahili, from which I ‘borrowed’ the word Jenga. Jenga means ‘build!’ in Swahili. The fact that Jenga is now synonymous with the game (to the extent even that the word is frequently used as a metaphor for a certain type of instability), is certainly very important to the continuing success of the game.

Q: You have had some interesting experiences with trademarks and patents throughout the course of your career. What advice would you give to those interested in legally protecting their work?

Leslie: If you have invented a new device (for example, a new kind of randomizer); then patent it, if you can afford to do so. I filed a patent pending on Jenga, but could not afford to take it any further. If the word(s) you have chosen to name your product are not descriptive of the product; then trademark the name. And always copyright your rules.

Q: When it comes to branding Jenga, you said that there were, “two key moments in the history of the game, that were decisions as a result of an intuitive understanding of the art of branding.” Can you tell us about those two key moments?

Leslie: The first ‘key moment’ came when I refused to allow either Irwin Toy or Hasbro Corporation to drop Jenga as the name of the game. Both companies wished to acquire the rights to the game (Irwin for Canada, Hasbro for the rest of the world) at a time when I was up to my ears in debt from having published and marketed the game for three years entirely on my own. Both companies loved the game, but both ‘hated the name because it didn’t mean anything’. It was a potential deal breaker, but I stuck to my guns.

The second moment came when I begged Hasbro not to publish a range of ‘Jenga wooden puzzles and games’. I was certain that this would be entirely missing the point that Jenga was known as a very specific game.

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Thanks Leslie!

Now leave those comments.

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Think about all the brands you interacted with today. Nearly everything you have done so far today involved a brand, was enabled by a brand or was accompanied by a brand. These interactions are just one of many touchpoints with a specific brand.

Touchpoints, or touches for short, work in a way similar to that of how blood flows through our bodies. Your heart pumps blood through your body, providing it with the oxygen and nutrients it needs, but the heart alone isn’t solely responsible for enabling a steady, healthy heartbeat. Every vein, artery and vessel has an impact on your heartbeat. No matter how small a constricted vein may be, it has an impact on the flow of blood.

The same true for brand touches. There are probably some big touchpoints that your organization tends to focus on, like advertising and other outward facing communications. But while the focus is being put on these areas that tend to be seen as more important, the small touches are ignored and are chipping away at the heartbeat of your brand.

Because of the abundance of times that brands touch our lives in a given day, and the fact that we now have access to brands wherever and whenever we want to, every touchpoint has become a crucial interaction.

The Micro-Pulse is an idea that I introduced a few weeks ago at OpenBeta. On Wednesday at the InnoTech conference in Oklahoma City, I was given the opportunity to give a talk that expanded on the idea even further. I focused more on touches in social media with this presentation, since I was speaking to at a technology conference, but I plan on applying this concept to both the online and offline brand worlds.

I’ve posted the deck below. I welcome your comments and suggestions on this. It is an idea that I plan on developing further.

Feedreaders click here to view the presentation.

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What do you think?

Do you have an example of a time when a small touchpoint mattered to you?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

There is a lot great content on the web. (Understatement of the year.)

Everyday I wade through piles of RSS feeds, funneling blog posts and the long list of various industry and client-related keywords that I track into one spot. And everyday I come across some really cool stuff, stuff that I find valuable in some way. Whether it be an interesting case study, a informational slide deck, or an original and creative marketing approach, I take it in, store it, if I think I might want to reference it later and then share it if I think you will find it valuable.

If you are following me on Twitter (@freshpeel) you probably see some of this content, because I share a good portion of it there.

A few months back I started a posterous account to collect and share more of these chunks of content with you. I’ve found posterous to be the perfect place to record and share slide decks, infographics, videos and content that doesn’t need much, if any additional commentary. It’s become a new bucket for me share things of value.

If you haven’t already, please check it out. And I hope it will be a nice accompaniment to the content you find here at the Fresh Peel.

Subscribe to my posterous

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This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Jeff Brenman, of Apollo Ideas, adds his thoughts in a presentation about the future of work and they are a nice continuation to the future of work discussion.

Here are a few key points from Jeff’s deck.

The future of work is…

• Transparent – Your activities will be tracked, measured and tied to the bottom line.
• Flat – Location won’t matter.
• Competitive – No one is going to pay you for a degree. Performance matters.
• On Demand – There is no guarantee of a lifetime career.
• YOU.

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Also, check out why Cubes are Evil.

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Last week I was given the opportunity to participate in OpenBeta3, which is becoming quite the local Oklahoma City tech conference. In it’s third year running, OpenBeta delivered a great lineup stacked full of great speakers and content for anyone interested in startups and technology.

This year featured an awesome collection of technology demos, most notably a soon to be released iPhone app called Audio Footnote, which lets users record and attach audio notes to podcasts and audiobooks. The keynote featured Josh Williams, the CEO and founder of Alamofire, the creators of Gowalla and the Facebook app, Packrat.

The tradition after the keynote is a rapid fire series of Lightening Talks, which is a lot like the PechaKucha 20×20, where each speaker delivers a talk on a set of 20 slides in 5-minutes. My talk was a quick look at an idea that I’ve been brewing for a while. I call it Micro-Pulse: how small touches impact the heartbeat of your brand.

The idea is that in a world with an unlimited amount of brand touchpoints, some in a brands control and many not, and the fact that consumers can interact with a brand whenever and wherever they want to, every touch matters. I credit the birth of this idea to David Armano and his Micro-Interactions presentation.

In this very short form the idea is still not ripe, but I’ve posted the slides below. I welcome your thoughts.

View the slideshow: Micro-Pulse

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Do you have any personal examples of how small brand touches have made a big impact on you?

Have you seen this in action in social media?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

The FTC’s recent Guidelines on Endorsements and Testimonials has gained a lot of attention for such a dry, lengthy document at 81 pages long, emerging out of the fast, bite sized world we live in. The reason for this attention is well deserved because for the first time these guidelines will include blogs and other forms of digital publishing.

Rather than give you my own opinions on the document and how I interpret the them (as some have done), I’ve decided it would be much more beneficial to round up some more qualified explanations of the document, so that we can dispel the myths and opinions and find out exactly what this means for everyone working in the digital space (especially bloggers).

Legal Interpretations

The two posts I’ll point you toward, are a written by individuals with professional legal experience. The first is written by blogger, podcaster and former attorney, Whitney Hoffman. The second is by Thomas O’Toole, who is the managing editor of the Electronic Commerce Law Report for the Bureau of National Affairs, e-commerce and tech law blogger and attorney.

The New FTC Guidelines on Endorsements by Bloggers – by Whitney Hoffman.
Takeaways for Social Media Advertisers in the FTC’s New Endorsement Guides – by Thomas O’Toole

Update: WOMMA hosted a webinar last week to discuss the new FTC guidelines and their impact. The webinar was hosted by Paul Rand, WOMMA’s president and CEO of the Zocalo Group, along with WOMMA’s legal counsel Anthony DiResta from the Manatt Phelps & Phillips law firm. I’ve embedded a short summary slide deck of that presentation. (Thanks to Brand Autopsy for the tip)

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After reading these dissections of the FTC Guidelines, here are a few questions for you. I’d enjoy your thoughts.

Does this at all impact what your organization’s digital strategy?

If your organization hesitant to get involved in the online space, will these guidelines make it easier or harder for them to make the leap?

(Photo is a mashup of Flickr pics credited to jasoneppink and St_A_Sh.)

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

The internet provides us with an endless number of ways to test and perfect our marketing communications. Like mad scientists, we can experiment with our website using Google’s Website Optimizer, continuously tweaking it to better. Tim Ferris even talks about testing product names and price points using eBay listings and AdWord campaigns.

Something that I’ve been playing around with is using Twitter and the url shortening service, Bit.ly, to test the effectiveness of headlines. It’s a quick way to find out which phrasings work and which don’t.

Here how you can gain quick insights to perfect your headlines:

1. Pick a URL Shortener

First pick a url shortening service that will let you create two or more short urls for your link and that collects click data on your urls. I like Bit.ly because it is easy to use and it displays data in an clean format that takes no time to digest. (Plus it is the most common url shortening service.)

2. Select Your Content

Now find the content that you want to test headlines for. In this example, I picked an article on the Dachis Group’s Social Business Design.

3. Create Two Different Short URLs to the Content

Copy the url from the content page you want test headlines around. Create two different short urls linking to this page.

4. Pair Each Short URL with a Different Headline

Pair each of the short urls to a different headline that you want to test. (Using Bit.ly, this is when I rename the link titles so that I know which headline I used for each link.)

5. Tweet the Headlines Followed by the Paired Short URL

Tweet the first headline you want to test with the url to the content page. Then wait a few minutes and tweet the second headline and url.

6. Track the Results

Using your url shortening service, track the number of clicks on each headline. If you are using Bit.ly, the top number is how many clicks there have been and the bottom number is how many clicks there have been total, through Bit.ly, to the long url. That is why the bottom number for both links is the same, because they are both linking to the same page.

So from this we can see that “Social Business Design” is a much more effective headline hook than “Improving Value Exchange.”

7. Repeat to Find the Perfect Headline

This is where you start the process over. Go back to step 1 pairing up the most clicked headline from the first test with a new headline variation. As you do multiple tests make minor variations in the headlines in order to better understand the results. (e.g., instead of using the word “design” you might try using the word “blueprint.”) Do as many tests as you want, until you are satisfied with your headline. Depending on your timeline and what you are testing for will determine the length of time you want to spend testing.

I should point out that there are some limitations to this testing method:

• For this to be of any value, you need to have a history of participation and a following of enough size to accurately make a comparison.
• There is no way of knowing whether or not users clicked on both links.
• Participants on Twitter won’t always match up to the audience you are crafting a headline for.

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That’s it! A quick way to experiment and perfect your headlines.

Thoughts?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

The Post2Post bus has returned!

The Fresh Peel is pleased to welcome Jeremy Gutsche, founder of the wildly popular TrendHunter.com and author of Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change, which is the featured book for October’s stop on the Post2Post Virtual Book Tour.

Not only is Jeremy one of the founders at TrendHunter, but he is also a highly sought after speaker. He was one of Capital One’s youngest Business Directors and innovation leads. Prior to Capital One, Jeremy advised top-level strategy to Fortune 50 and government clients as a Management Consultant at the Monitor Group.

In this interview, I picked Jeremy’s brain on everything from finding innovation out of chaos to what his response is to opponents of trend spotting.

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Q: Is chaos a necessary ingredient for innovation?

Jeremy: It’s not required, but during periods of chaos, consumer needs change. This presents an opportunity for companies who are able to identify these needs.

Q: What are some things that history teaches us about chaos and crisis?


Jeremy: People get caught up in the downsides of the depression, but history teaches us that these times consistently provide us with new opportunities. In fact, some of the most iconic companies were founded during chaotic periods of economic downturns, including: Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, Amgen, Hyatt, HP, EA, and Fortune Magazine.

Fortune Magazine, for instance, was founded just four months AFTER the 1929 Wall Street crash. It was a dollar an issue (the price of a wool sweater), but it thrived. DURING the Great Depression, a subscriber base of 500,000 was grown, and the magazine made seven million dollars in modern day profit. The reason Fortune was successful was not because it was a luxury publication, but rather, because consumer needs had evolved. When people lost their jobs and saw the world changed by the decisions made by NYC based corporations, they wanted to know what was happening behind boardroom doors. Fortune was an answer; an answer to a new consumer need.

Q: You introduce a new wave of management theory which you call “The Exploiting Chaos Framework.” Give us a brief description of each of the four tactics and how they work in the framework.



Jeremy: Culture of Revolution – Culture is more important than strategy because it underlies your organization’s ability to adapt. During times of dramatic change, the importance of an aligned organization becomes even more important

Trend Hunting – Innovation and strategic advantage hinge on the ability to anticipate new trends and identify the next big thing. The book outlines our TrendHunter.com approach to filtering through chaos and identify clusters of opportunity to focus your innovation.

Adaptive Innovation – Engineers, designers, and scientists have invested billions of dollars to perfect human creativity. By applying the best of their proven practices to your own field, you can think big while acting small. You can rapidly identify and evaluate new opportunities.

Infectious Messaging – The Internet has created a world cluttered with chaos, but it has also created the world’s first viral platform for ideas. Well-packaged stories travel faster than ever before. Unfortunately, most marketers are stuck in a world dominated by traditional advertising and cliché. By cultivating infection, your ideas will resonate, helping you to leapfrog ahead of the competition.

Q: What’s different about the framework that you present from current and past management models? Why do organizations need a new model?




Jeremy: The EXPLOITING CHAOS framework teaches readers about reinventing SPECIFICALLY during times of chaos and change, whether in an area of growth and bubbling opportunity or periods of downturn.

Q: In the book, you say, “if you want to change the course of your organization’s future, you need to spark a revolution.” Where in the organization does this spark take place and who makes it happen?





Jeremy: The revolution is in the mindset of the entire organization. It becomes part of the culture. It takes place when the leaders of the company are able to articulate a mantra. An alignment towards a common mantra helps the company to evolve in the same direction.

Q: Your framework includes trend hunting, which is what you and your team does on a daily basis at TrendHunter.com. Is the trend hunting a part of the framework that an organization could outsource? Possibly to an company like TrendHunter.


Jeremy: We provide premium research and help facilitate workshops for companies… but ultimately, trend hunting involves looking for ideas that spark interest based on YOUR consumer’s needs… So truly breakthrough organization has to have origins within one’s own company. Accordingly, we like to help companies by providing them with a toolkit and trends in other industries that might be relevant for their own problems.

Q: What would your response be to someone that says, “you can’t spot trends because by the time you recognize a trend it’s already here, and thus no longer a trend?”



Jeremy: In the book (and our professional research), we use the term clusters… The theory being that you need to find groups of meaningful and inspiring ideas. If these ideas are relevant to your consumer’s needs, and they aren’t incredibly broad, then you’re going to have a good basis for creating remarkable products that solve a consumer need.

Q: What’s your biggest challenge as a professional trend hunter?


Jeremy: Balancing my time… I do about 5-10 speaking gigs a month, and all that travel keeps me away from the Trend Hunter team, who is diligently programming new functionality and hunting new trends as we do this interview…

Q: What do organizations tend to struggle with more? Trend Hunting (recognizing trends) or Adaptive Innovation (Finding ways to apply those trends)?


Jeremy: It’s so easy to get caught up with routine daily tasks and the status quo, that I think organizations struggle most with Culture. However… I won’t avoid your question that easily… I think organizations struggle with Trend Hunting because it is too easy to jump to the closest answer or to make the same decision that was made the day before…

Q: Everyone wants to be noticed. How can we make our messages better and more infectious?


Jeremy: At Trend Hunter, our Rule #1 is to RELENTLESSLY OBSESS ABOUT YOUR STORY! Careful word choice can have an astounding impact on the viral potential of your message. At Trend Hunter, we have the luxury of being able to test our word choice and see a measured view count for each test. For most products, the goal is immeasurable buzz and word of mouth. Here’s a sample of how I break it down in the book:

The framework we use at Trend Hunter includes three components: an article must be simple, direct, and supercharged.

Simple: As Jack Welch of GE put it, “Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster, and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making.” Similarly, author Seth Godin notes that simple messages “supercharge word of mouth.”

Direct: An outsider should understand your value proposition from your 7 words. Your value proposition is your advantage. It’s the unique attribute that explains why I should choose you.

Supercharged: Your seven words should pass the “I-have-to-tell-someone-test.” If they don’t, why will someone else care? You can’t expect your message to drive word-of-mouth exposure if you don’t give people a supercharged story.

In traditional marketing, there is an emphasis on cliché, clever wording, and invented words. At Trend Hunter, we pursue viral, and that means we place our emphasis is on simplicity.
Rule #1: RELENTLESSLY OBSESS ABOUT YOUR STORY

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Thanks Jeremy!

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Following my post on how finding the right segment of consumers goes much deeper than demographics and statistics, Brian Solis, compiled a list of revealing demographics for 11 of the major social networks.

The reason I’m mentioning this here is that Solis also had some important things to say about how reaching the right group of people takes more than a look at a data sheet.

“They are not demographics, they are not statistics, they are not avatars, nor are they waiting with baited breath for you to friend or market at them and their network friends. This data represents whole numbers and is not representative of the individuals that are looking for resources and guidance, and in turn, will help you participate as a community member.

So, how will you use this information to engage more effectively and genuinely?”

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Great question. How will you use this information to engage more effectively and genuinely?

Have you looked for pockets of consumers in smaller niche networks? What are you doing to connect these smaller groups?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Some people are up in arms over Google’s release of their Sidewiki plugin for browsers. Their concerns about Sidewiki are:

1. Creating yet another outlet for brands to monitor
2. Further fragmenting conversation
3. Overwhelming potential for spam

And that’s just to name a few.

I don’t deny that these are issues that Sidewiki will have to deal with, but I see this as just another inevitable phase in the evolution of the web and the world, with life continuing to become more and connected and more social. (Social business design anyone?)

Let’s look at Google’s explaination of Sidewiki:

“Sidewiki enables users who have installed Google Toolbar to contribute information alongside any page on the web, inside of a simple sidebar UI. This information, which can include text entries, links, and embedded videos, will be ranked by quality and community ratings. For instance, on a site about a specific beach town, a user could add a relevant YouTube video showing local attractions. Once users opt in to the feature, they’ll be able to view annotations contributed by other users within a browser sidebar, and can choose to hide the sidebar at any time. Google Sidewiki also won’t change the appearance of any web page – all Sidewiki entries will be displayed only in the sidebar.”

The game changer here is that Side Wiki gives users the ability a comment or add more information to any page on the web. It allows comments to go where no comments have gone before. While some may see this as Google unleashing a tool that can’t be controlled in place, I think we should be grateful that Google has started experimenting in this space before other, possibly less accountable, companies have a chance to gain significant ground.

Something else to note: Sidewiki requires that users have a Google account before they comment. This ensures the users identity. And with the introduction of Google profiles, identities can potentially be extended even further by giving the contributor a point of reference to everyone else. This doesn’t eliminate the potential for spam, but I would think lessens that potential.

Augmented Reality: Sidewiki for the World

If you’re having some trouble swallowing Google Sidewiki, then you’re in for a rough ride. This is just a glimpse of how the world will continue to become more connected and more social.

Now imagine that consumers are given the ability to comment on every aspect of your organization — everything — the bathrooms, the waiting area, the parking lot, and even the performance of employees. And the comments wouldn’t be on some obscure site, they would be right next to the item or desk of the person being discussed.

If the things happening with mobile augmented reality are any indication, this scenario isn’t far from being a reality. Just look at what Yelp has done with their iphone app. The app contains an augmented reality component that provides users with an overlaid view of how far away a business is, user reviews and ratings, all in real-time within walking distance of the company. It’s a good demonstration of how a brand’s ability to control and manage is further slipping away.

You can probably see how this could evolve into the situation that I described above, where every choice that a company makes becomes a whiteboard for comments that all can see.

What if my friends that work at the Dell office in Oklahoma City were able to leave comments on what floor has the best vending machine, or what people to avoid in the company. Better yet what if another one of my friends, who was laid off from Dell a few years ago, was able to comment in the same way? He might have some very revealing things to say.

Learn to Adapt

The point I’m trying to make here is that things are going to continue to change. Walls will be broken down. The internet is going to evolve in ways that will continue to make us feel like we are losing control of our brands.

We can’t fight it. Our only choice is to continue to adapt and stay connected to the ways that consumers are communicating, no matter where that may be, or how hard that is to swallow.

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

I’m a believer in the idea that the way we work – the freedoms or restraints we put on ourselves when we work – has a large impact on the results that we produce, or in some cases, the results that we fail to produce. This is a topic I’ve explored this topic before with The Future of Work: Interview Series.

As our world shifts in the way that information is shared and how we are connected to one another, the way organizations function internally and externally is being forced to adapt as well. Organizations that have been quick to embrace new methodologies are reaping the benefits. You don’t have to look any further than companies like Google or Best Buy to see that there are other ways to get things done than the typical 9 to 5 cube format.

Mollie Partesotti and Ben Alter are two communications strategists that are tackling the problems in how we work for their master’s thesis project at the VCU Brandcenter. The project is a video series called Cubes Are Evil. They explain:

“We as a society need to reconsider what contributes towards and takes away from productivity.”

So far they have done just that. There are two videos in the series so far, with more to come. Watch below.

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Mollie and Ben’s work on Cubes Are Evil has me contemplating bringing back the Future of Work Interviews for a second round.

If I did that who should I interview this time?

What aspects of work should we focus on?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

One of the favorite activities right now in social media (right there behind making fun of so-called social media experts) is spouting out large statistics and demographics revolving around the use of social media and the growth of social networks. You’ve probably seen these stats in the popular presentations, videos, or research findings that circulate the web faster than Steve Jobs rumors. From time to time I even fuel the fire myself.

Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with sharing these stats (assuming they are factually accurate). And many times the right statistic or fact about social activities can be a pivotal, eye-opening moment for some people.

The problem occurs when we take all of this information at face value and don’t dig any deeper. As I’ve argued before, demographics are only a small part of the equation. To take these broad forms of information and immediately act is not only irresponsible, but will more than likely be a waste of time.

Here’s a good example: Studies have shown that Facebook is growing fastest among the 35-54 age groups and a larger percentage of that group are women. Lets say you are the brand manager for a line of spa products that is targeted towards women over the age of 40. After seeing this statistic, your impulse might be to dive into adding a full-blown Facebook strategy to your marketing plan, but this would be a mistake. (Hint: If you ever use or hear someone else use the phrase “Facebook strategy” that’s a red flag)

Your first step should be to find where your ideal consumers hang out. Where are they active. All the above stat does is give you a hint. A pocket of women dieing to talk spa may exist on Facebook, but do your research before jumping in.

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What do you think?

Are companies looking before they jump?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Welcome to the world of socialnomics. Are you ready?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

When it comes building a strong brand that matters to consumers, differentiation is a key in separating your offerings from competitors. But what if you don’t have any competitors? Does brand differentiation matter then?

Last Friday, I received a phone call from a guy who had been referred to us by a client. He was an entrepreneur who had recently started a new business and was looking for someone that could consult him on building a solid brand right out of the gate. He told me a little bit about his company and then asked me to explain our process for working with clients.

I started by taking him through the steps we lead clients through, helping them discover, define and execute a brand strategy. Everything was great until I started explaining differentiation and how we would help him reveal what makes his brand unique and sets it apart from competitor brands. This is where things got interesting. He quickly told me that he doesn’t have any competitors and that we can just skip that part.

I wasn’t expecting this at all. He did have a point. Without any competition his brand is unique by default.

Unique Value

But this logic misses the point completely. Even if without direct competition, searching for the unique value that your brand offers is a healthy exercise. If you know what unique value you provide consumers, you can form a foundation to build your brand on. For example, CEO Tony Hsieh realized Zappos unique value for extraordinary customer service and made it a core component of what the company believes and how they make business decisions.

Stake Your Claim

In today’s crowded marketplace, a company without a single competitor is rare. How many brands can you think of right now that don’t have any competition? Probably not more than one. If you can even think of one. That leads me to another point: A brand with no competitors won’t stay that way for long if there is any money at all to be made in the industry. That’s why it is crucial for brands that are paving the way for a new industry or category to start carving out what differentiates their brand from the start. Stake your claim and become the leader in the category before competitors arrive and crash the party.

Marty Neumeier, in his book Zag calls this the “power law that governs brand leadership,” which he reduces to a simple formula:

In this equation being a first mover matters a lot, but popularity is equally important. And a brand has to find it’s unique value to consumers in order to be popular.

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So you tell me, does brand differentiation matter when you have no competitors?

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

For quite a few months now, the team at Hester Designs and I have been doing in-depth planning and strategy work with one of the largest non-profit organizations in the world. We were assigned with the task of helping the organization, which is over 150 years old, find relevance and new life with it’s supporters.

So for the last few months I’ve been in research mode, exploring the psychological forces behind what motivates people to join a cause and why they donate their time and money. To say it’s a complex subject is an understatement.

During my research I ran across a study that seemed so obvious on first read, but as I continue to think about it, has become intriguing and I think it has some great applications to social media strategies. It’s called the foot-in-the-door phenomenom, which is defined as,

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

The term actually originated from when door-to-door salesmen would ask small requests of homeowners in order to get inside the house ask for the sale. They found that it was harder for people to say no once they had said yes once.

A good example of the foot-in-the-door phenomenom in action is the little lapel pins that the American Cancer Society asks people to wear. In a study done on these pins found that when people were asked a day ahead to wear a lapel pin publicizing a drive in their area, they were twice as likely to donate to the cause.

So what does this have to do with social media?

Well, start thinking about ways that you can you create a foot-in-the-door in your social media strategy. Think of how you can lower the barriers to entry to experience your brand, creating easy ways for consumers to become involved in some way.

Facebook Fan Pages immediately come to mind. There’s no risk. It’s just one click. And if someone is even remotely interested in an organization or product they have nothing to lose. In turn this gives you an in with them to drip information to them, slowly easing them in the brand and ultimately leading them to a bigger yes.

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What other foot-in-the-door opportunities do you see for brands?

I welcome your comments!

(Photo via: Herodoto)

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

(Photo via: wannaoreo)

People have a Physiological Ability to Ignore your Marketing, but there is something you can do about it, try a little Guerrilla marketing.

The human brain has a coping mechanism that helps people filter out unwanted communication and if you are not careful, the brains of the people you want to reach with your marketing will automatically edit you out of your prospect’s minds before they even have a chance to think about responding to you.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) of the human brain manages the daily function of consciousness and filters out unwanted stimuli. This autonomic physiological ability is nature’s way of helping humans block out ambient noises and other distractions to aid in concentration.

It’s a handy part of the brain too, there are a lot of sensory events going on all around you all the time. Imagine how crazy it would drive you if you actually heard every noise around you, or noticed everything you saw.

The problem with this is your marketing message is mixed up in all the other noises that surround the people you want to reach and can easily get blocked by their automatic brain filters. Researchers say that people experience between 1,500-3,500 appeals for their attention every day. No wonder brains are filtering out marketing messages—there’s a mess of them!

How do you break through the natural attention filtering of your target audience?

Here are four Guerrilla marketing battle plans for breaking through and getting the attention of the customers you want to reach:

1. Be patient: It takes a prospect seeing your message nine times before they are ready to act on it. Before they see your message the first time, you probably showed it to them three times. Most marketers quit before their marketing has a chance to work. Keep plugging until you have showed them your message twenty-seven times and you’ll be cashing checks and not just writing them for advertising.
2. Stop changing messages so much: Just because you are bored with your marketing doesn’t mean your audience is. Chances are they haven’t even “seen” it yet. And if you have something that worked before, why on earth did you change it?
3. Narrow your target: The more narrow your audience, the smaller the target and easier it is to repeat your message multiple times. The smaller the target, the bigger the bulls-eye.
4. Stop talking about yourself: Most marketers send out “me marketing” marketing that says “Notice me” and “See how great my product is.” Most people are looking out for themselves, they think “What’s in it for me?” People don’t filter out things that meet their needs. They don’t filter out “You marketing.” Make sure your marketing speaks to your audience from their point of view, with their needs in mind.
   

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Chris Forbes is a certified Guerrilla Marketing coach specializing in nonprofit marketing. Now co-authoring “Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits” with Jay Conrad Levinson & Frank Adkins soon to be published by Entrepreneur Press. Follow Chris on Twitter – @cforbesoklahoma

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

What new tools are you experimenting with?

Social media is always changing, evolving, shifting and growing. It takes a high level of curiosity and dedication to keep up, but it’s this experimentation (the dirty work) that sets the thought leaders apart from everyone else.

In order to lead the way, we have to have some ideas about where we are going. And we can’t form these ideas without rearranging the parts we are currently using and throwing in some new parts to see what happens—experimentation.

People like Chris Brogan, Steve Rubel, Christopher S. Penn and Jeremiah Owyang became the thought leaders that they have risen to today because of their constant experimentation in the space which has allowed them to better analyze all that is happening around us and see a slightly clearer picture of what’s next. The same could be said of just about anyone from Mashable or ReadWriteWeb.

Want to take your level of insights to a whole new level?

Then start experimenting.

What are you experimenting with in social media?

Let us know in the comments below.

If you need some help finding tools to experiment with make Mashable or ReadWriteWeb a part of your daily exploration.

And if you’d like to try out a tool that’s just now hitting the social media runway, check out uVizz. (Disclosure: I’m currently an adviser to uVizz) The across social network video advertising app just launched in mid June and is now accepting campaigns. They are also giving you cash to get your experiment off the ground. The first 200 people to sign-up will receive a $250 in uVizz campaign funds. Click the button below to signup.

This is a content from: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Engage ORM has put together an entertaining analogy comparing the evolution of punk rock with the changes we are experiencing in social media.

[Feedreaders, click to view video]

It’s an interesting perspective, and one that I think could be easily compared with other historical movements in music. The rapid growth in hip-hop and rap went from an underground club movement to making mainstream headlines, almost overnight. Now, fans of indie rock bands seem to be experiencing a similar situation as the bands that were once unknown outside of their small group of friends, have started to seep into mainstream television shows like The OC and Grey’s Anatomy.

So what’s the problem with this transformation? As Engage’s video notes, the passion and participation that surrounded these music movements tended to get watered down in order to be sold to a wider audience.

Actually, I find it hard to criticize any musician or band that “sells out” to hit it big. I mean really, who wants to ride around in a stinky van for the rest of their lives when there is a massive tour bus within their reach? But when it comes to social media, watering down the passion that got us here won’t help us reach a wider audience. I’d argue it will only lose you the community you’ve worked hard to grow and lead to social media becoming just another media channel for consumers to ignore.

So what’s the answer?

Engage suggests listening and responding are the keys. I do believe that is a part of it, but there’s more to it than that. Assigning an intern a Google Alert and the login information to a list of social networks won’t cut it.

It’s about being providing value, engaging and empowering people, and most of all, being human.

Otherwise, what makes social media any different than any traditional form of media?

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(Video via: Greg Verdino)