Checkmate

How to differentiate

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:37:00-0400

One of the things I learned from Geoffrey Moore’s seminar is the notion of unique differentiation. He said a true “position” isn’t the one you’d like your company to have, but rather the position it actually occupies within a system you didn’t create.

In other words, positioning and differentiation isn’t an exercise in myopic navel gazing. It’s got to be externally driven and take into account the strengths and weaknesses of your real competition while also focusing on customer value. Understand what’s out there – and what’s needed - to set your organization apart.

To differentiate, go outside-in, and bottom-up:

Identify real people – Start by finding your organization’s real customers/consumers. Don’t focus on big picture targets (e.g. “this Fortune 500 company”), but rather specific individuals who may buy – and have bought –your products/services.
Talk to them – Differentiation isn’t about “making up” your company’s difference, it’s finding what objectively sets it apart. Understand what people want and why. If a customer, uncover what their experiences have been. Use social media to query larger samples. Online discussions and chat rooms are an effective way to gather opinions. Capture enough perspective so you can make accurate interpretations.
Understand customer value – Value is the difference between the benefits consumers realize minus the cost to buy, use and maintain your product or service. Differentiation is successful when the value perceived exceeds the cost of usage. For example, if someone buys a more expensive product with more features, but it takes longer to install and use it, then this competitive “uniqueness” may not be valued highly enough, thus eroding differentiation (and credibility).
Analyze your competition –Read blogs, troll social nets, and read articles and industry analyst reports to determine which particular companies “own” various strengths and leadership attributes within your market category. Also analyze competitive Web sites to capture their strategic messaging, leadership claims and customer testimonial insight. If other companies claim superiority in an area you believe your company has greater uniqueness, then you’ll need to work harder to create stickiness.
Evaluate core competencies – With external insight in hand, shift inward and identify core competencies. Most reliable? Easiest to use? Superior service? Higher quality? Remember, to successfully differentiate, a core competency has to be competitively unique but also be perceived by consumers as valued uniqueness. Matrix your core competencies into the external insight you acquired.
Isolate “the one thing” – As you zero-in on a core differentiating competency, force your company to articulate this in a “one thing” manner. Stand for one distinctive thing and people will remember.
Don’t forget longevity – Short-term differentiation isn’t ideal. Anticipate and discuss things like price erosion, imitation and competitive leaps. While you can’t plan against disruptive technologies, you can proactively assess what currently exists and try to factor-in competitive incrementalism in differentiation claims.

Fine-tune – If necessary, fine-tune your “one thing” differentiation to make it more appealing. For example, if your solution is more expensive, can you find ways to reduce costs in areas that are unimportant to the buyer? This will improve profitability while reducing the likelihood of competitors gaining ground from a price position.

Proof points – Claiming leadership and differentiation – by yourself for yourself - doesn’t cut it. You have to supplement this internal view with third-party perspective, viewed by the marketplace as credible and true. Consumers, customers and prospects are the best way to differentiate. So are objective (non-paid) direct comparisons. Get credible sources to step up to the plate and validate your differentiation. Also remember to identify any and all proof points that will credibly back-up your differentiation claims.
Be bold – To differentiate, you can’t be a wallflower – you have to stand out. Express differentiation in a colorful way so people notice and remember it.

Communicate – Once you’ve built your differentiation, work hard to integrate this messaging platform across all communication vehicles. Your Web site. SEO. Advertising. Web-news. Presentations. Great messaging is pervasive and consistent.

Experience is everything – What you say has to be consistent with what you do. If a company claims “best service” but a customer is frustrated dealing with one of their people, then brand position erodes in the mind (and heart) of that consumer. Walk the walk at every touch point.

A tribute to discovery on Father's Day

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:18:00-0400

I always liked the adage “All you leave behind are memories” because it's true north.

My Dad, Donald Joseph Beaupre, was a case in point. While he died 17 years ago at the still-too-early age of 67, he left me with glowing embers of curiosity and discovery.

Don Beaupre was substance, not flash. He had a winning smile, was always kind and a great listener. He never preached but instead taught by example.

His father died when he was 10 years old, so he had a busy role helping his shoe mill-working Mom and three siblings. The Great Depression was tough but it nurtured a creative imagination.

He took the Navy oath in 1943 and became a Commanders Mechanic and occasional gunner. The USS Essex aircraft carrier was his home in Southern Japanese waters during WWII.

A prized possession of mine is his handwritten “short daily diary.” Here’s an excerpt from March 20, 1945:

“Today we were at G.Q. most all day and had battle rations. The Japs know they crippled the Franklin bad and are out for the kill today. They were dropping flares all last night trying to keep track. We shot down about 25 Bettys in all today. Brother, if a guy says he is not scared out here, he can honestly be called a damn liar.”

Here’s another one from April 17:

“Shot down three bogeys today. I almost got shot too. The 20 mm slug missed me by about two feet. If that thing had hit me, I guess I wouldn’t be writing this now. If I ever get back to the States, I’ll be the best boy in the world. There is always something to be thankful for."

After the war, he married Rita (my Mom) and sold door-to-door for Fuller Brush. That must have been a tough gig. Then, with two little kids on his watch, he decided to pursue his passion and attended/graduated from photography school in New York City. He caught the entrepreneurial bug and opened a portrait studio on New Hampshire's Seacoast.

My Dad exposed me to many things; photography was one of them. I first discovered what light could do to paper in his darkroom, a mysterious, magical place. A naked red bulb was the only light source; it cast an eerie glow; the enlarger loomed above. Chemical jugs lined the plywood counter where mixing buckets, a paper cutter and one of those white plastic "minute timers" kept watch.

My job was to gently bathe photo paper in a tray filled with developing solution. Hanging on with wooden tongs, I’d watch a black and white image s-l-o-w-l-y appear from a sheet of paper that was blank seconds ago. Then we'd hang it on a clothesline rope to dry.

Don J. Beaupre was a nuanced man, interested in many other things.

Boxing was a prime time event on TV in my early years; he loved it and wanted his son to know how to defend himself. I gave him a bloody nose at three years old after landing a right hook with the gold boxing gloves he had bought me.

Dad loved the outdoors, so he'd take my sister Fran and I exploring the seashore –not sitting on a blanket – but discovering marine life hidden before our eyes. He devoured the books of environmentalist watch guard Rachel Carson.

He loved music, especially jazz. He'd take half hour cat naps lying flat on his back on the living room rug, digging John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck.

Dad was a big history buff. We visited forts, the Nation’s capital, drove to the Midwest and the South visiting historical landmarks. No seatbelts in the backseat, no air conditioning.

We climbed a mountain together, caught fish and drove to Boston to watch movies on the extra-wide "Cinerama" screen. He built ice skating rinks in the back yard, a play log cabin and took us to Red Sox Games.

He taught me how to whistle; snow ski at age five; how to swim at six; and was the patron saint of patience helping me understand the confounding world of math. He introduced me to Dale Carnegie and Kenneth Roberts.

Today, I'm an entrepreneurial, photographing, seashore-loving, music digging, history buff who skis, enjoys movies, likes to see new places and whistles. Who still struggles with math.

Thanks Dad, for who you were and what you gave me.

Happy Father’s Day.

New Prius ad raises the branding bar

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:17:00-0400

I’m blown away by the new Prius ads.

David Kiley said this ad from Toyota may have been inspired by Honda’s earlier diesel engine “Hate Something” spot (compare the two yourself), but from my eyes, it’s the freshest creative in a decade.

But it’s not just creative for creative’s sake. Lots of agencies are living the creed “make it entertaining, engaging and disruptive” so consumers take notice and buy.

The new Prius spot is much more.

They’ve taken a car that was already the # 1 best selling hybrid in the world – the undisputed mainstream brand – and made it a vehicle of the people, for the people, by the people. Literally.

Using 200 extras, they created a layered - but somehow unified - sea of 1 million people parts. Everything (except the Prius, road and sky) was constructed from human beings who become “landscape texture.” Grass. Water. Trees. Clouds. Stones. Leaves. Sun. Flowers. Butterflies. The Bellamy Brothers’ # 1 hit from 1976 - “Let Your Love Flow” – is the audio glue.

The piece de resistance (besides the people, colors and music) is the movement. As the Prius drives by, clouds shift, grass sways, butterflies fly, flowers open, water flows, the sun glows.

It’s a visual trip, blending nature, technology and the human race.

Hopefully for Toyota, the new campaign will move more than grass. The Prius has been struggling in the U.S. of late (mirroring the rest of the auto industry). U.S. sales of the Prius were down from 15,011 in May 2008 to 10,091 for the same month this year. Year to date, U.S. Prius sales are 42,753 compared to 79,675 in 2008 – 45 per cent less than last year.

I feel better every time I see this ad. I actually want to see this ad.

I can’t remember the last time this happened.

More cowbell ... or how internal PR pros can build trust

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:27:00-0400

Waiting for busy execs to magically understand internal communications/PR efforts is a buried, active landmine. Sooner or later, it will explode. A failure to communicate with executives (the good, bad and ugly) and set expectations on an ongoing basis damages PR programs - and the people in it - sometimes irreparably. Impatient executives who aren’t adequately kept informed will inevitably draw their own conclusions and decide it's time for change.

“Like the cobbler’s kids who go shoeless, more often than not PR folks are so busy we often forget to take time to do some equally crucial internal promotional work with our key constituents to keep them all informed,” said John Ricciardone, a PR veteran who has been providing top executives with clear, consistent communications for almost 20 years.

“Proactively ‘sell’ your PR program, its progress and successes on an ongoing basis to all your internal stakeholders. These not only include the usual suspects such as “C” level executives, business unit heads, product marketing, but also the field sales organization,” Ricciardone said.

Here are a dozen tips on how to keep your PR program at the forefront of your organization:

Be intuitive – the best place to begin? First, figure out what type of communication works best within your company. If busy executives won’t read your e-mail then this isn’t the way to go. Second, determine who needs to be kept in the loop; think cross-functionally within your organization when working up this list.
Meet regularly – get together in person with all your key internal PR stakeholders - either individually or as a group - at least once a quarter. Review the progress and compare against the PR plan. If a standalone meeting doesn’t work, see if you can make yourself a regular attendee at an already scheduled management meeting that runs consistently.
Don't whine – executives are used to dealing with problems, but are impatient with unfocused complaints. If you've got an issue, tell them, discuss it and make sure you offer specific recommendations on how to fix it.
Anticipate – don't wait for execs to ask you questions ... proactively think through their hot buttons without them having to ask you. This mindset gradually brings you into their inner circle.
More cowbell – Consistently demonstrate how PR is moving the ball downfield in the areas of attitude transformation, social media, SEO, lead gen, online community building, traditional editorial coverage, visibility traction vs. key competitors and growth of positive “buzz.” Lay down a consistent beat.
Manage expectations – know what you're talking about, be straightforward, and tell them what they need to know, even if it's a difficult conversation. This breeds trust over time.
Fill black holes – create a pattern of regular PR-related communication with all your key PR stakeholders. Tell them what's going on, ideally even before it occurs. And once something happens, don't forget the recap.
Consistent updates – provide two types of consistent updates: (A) specific PR activities (i.e. 'the latest word on our Tech Crunch interview opportunity') and (B) the PR program as a whole (i.e. "here's the progress we made last month").
Make new friends – Don't just 'hang out' with marketing, communications and PR... get out there and meet consistently with operations, engineering, manufacturing, HR, sales & service. Seek their perspective, brainstorm new ideas and tell them what's going on. Don't become insulated.
Be visible – public relations is viewed as the “face of the company.” Be where you need to be, even if you don’t feel like it or don’t have the time. To build widespread internal trust and support, you have to be perceived as someone who cares about the company, not just PR.
Share the credit – if someone has played an instrumental role behind the scenes, publicly acknowledge them and their contributions. Not only is this the right thing to do, but the resulting goodwill will pay huge dividends down the road.
Chill out – remember that while public relations is your world, it's not everyone else's. Be patient and understanding. An issue for you may not be an issue in the grand scheme of another person's world. Keep your perspective, and remember to pick your battles carefully lest you lose the war.

Heed the advice of Ricciardone, “Don’t take it for granted that everyone you work with knows and understands the PR process. A few years ago, for example, I had an initial phone conversation with a blogger and was asked immediately afterwards by our anxious sales VP if that particular person was going to post a story about us soon. Instead of responding yes or no, I asked him – in a non-confrontational and non-defensive tone – whether he and his team always closed a deal after making only one sales call to a prospect. He said, no, that would be a very unrealistic expectation to which I replied, ‘same for me.’ He looked at me for a moment, nodded his head, smiled broadly, and said he understood,” Ricciardone concluded.

Social cause & sustainability lessons from Stonyfield Farms' Hirshberg

Thu, 28 May 2009 09:34:00-0400

Affable and inspiring Gary Hirshberg, chairman, president and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms was the featured speaker at Saturday’s University of New Hampshire graduation. The company makes the number-one selling brand of organic yogurt and is the number-three overall yogurt brand in the US according to Fortune magazine. Through its Profits for the Planet program, Stonyfield gives 10% of profits to environmental causes.

Here are memorable takeaways from his talk:

“We allowed ourselves to believe in a sort of modern day mythology about the infinite resilience of our finance system, and to allow greedy, short-term thinking to get the upper hand. In a nutshell, we borrowed money we didn’t have, to buy stuff we didn’t need.”
“We are seeing signs of failure in every single aspect of our relationship to the planet … if we stopped all fossil fuel burning this afternoon, the Earth’s fever would continue to mount for 40 more years before it began to break.”
“How far an item travels, is actually a very minute percentage of the footprint of an apple, yogurt or bottle of beer. The far larger footprint is in how the product is grown, that is the type of agriculture accounts for more like 50-60% of the carbon footprint. In other words, buying organic from a long distance may be far more carbon-friendly than buying non-organic locally. The point is, we need to be sure our brains are as engaged as our hearts when making big decisions.”
“I have learned that, whatever you choose to do, there is no point in producing the same quality as anyone else. In fact, that is likely a strategy for failure, for you are almost certain to be out-competed by someone who is better capitalized.”
“At a societal scale, those of you who question conventional thinking will be in the best positions to seize the next wave of jobs and economic opportunities. Consider for instance, that with the amount of sunlight that strikes the US each day, we would need only 10 million acres of land – or only 0.4% of the area of the United States – to supply all of our nation’s electricity using solar photovoltaics.
When you consider that the US Government pays to idle approximately 30 million acres of farmland per year, you can see how confused our priorities have become.”
“Success will be when you finish eating the yogurt, you will eat the cup.”
“Solar isn’t just for Arizona anymore, either; right now in New Hampshire there are homes powered completely off the grid – built at competitive costs. For less than half the normal garage roof space, you can power your house with no fuel, no pollution, and no ice storm outages. Soon it’ll be down to one-quarter of that garage roof. And we haven’t even talked about solar hot water, which is even cheaper than solar cells, or wind power, which is cheaper too. Best yet, these power sources are built, installed, and maintained locally, right here in America, unlike the billion dollars per day we 'export' out-of-country for oil, for example.”
“Renewable technology isn’t just a energy issue, it’s a global competition. We don’t have a natural monopoly on sunlight or wind, and the Danes, Germans, and increasingly, the Chinese 'get it.' They aim to be the energy technology vendors to the world, and—having paid more attention to it than we have—they’re as good or better than we are.”
“Questioning conventional authority is a powerful way to succeed in business and in life. A couple of guys from UPS once asked ‘why not try to avoid left-hand turns,’ with their 95,000 big brown trucks.”
“What we discovered from doing good is a new business formula that is now being mimicked by the largest companies on earth…. when you make a better, higher quality product, you leap all the way to loyalty without having to spend as much on advertising…. When you make it better, you get loyalty. And with loyalty comes the most powerful purchase incentive in commerce—word of mouth.”
“I can assure you that there will be more jobs in renewable energy, energy efficiency, preventative health care, organic/non-toxic agriculture, textiles and cleansers (I have yet to meet the consumer who prefers to eat the yogurt with more pesticides or synthetic hormones than in the traditional fields.).”
“The whole notion of service is very attractive to smart employers. From a practical perspective, those of you who volunteer and give your time and energy to work on positive change are exactly who we CEO’s want to hire.”
“Don’t forget that as consumers, we wield enormous power to choose the polluting, consumptive and failed ways of the past or the renewable and sustainable ways of the future too. When we purchase anything, we are voting for the kind of communities, society and planet we want. And I have learned that corporations spend billions of dollars to tally those votes.”
“We stand at the edge of the next wave, the sustainability revolution in which we use green chemistry which leaves behind no toxic residue, cradle to cradle technology which generates no waste, renewable energy with no carbon footprint, industrial ecology with waste from one process being the food for another, will be the norm.
“Personally, I feel there is no greater societal priority than to embrace the conversion to renewable energy and organic food production with all of the climate, ecological and health benefits. When people tell me that organics is not proven, I respond that it is the chemicals that are not proven, but the early results are poor as we face an epidemic of cancers and preventable disease. The same is true of our energy policy, which has been driven by generations who have grown up in the oil and coal business and believe that mining the earth’s crust is the only way to fuel our needs.”

Positioning, elevator, mission and vision statements

Fri, 22 May 2009 08:46:00-0400

They’ve been around a long time, are still in demand but the differences are often confusing. (I’m not talking about toothpaste.) Here’s what you need to know to make your own statement.

Positioning statements

A positioning statement explains what a company is, does, and most important, how it’s different from competitors. It’s externally focused.

My favorite positioning statement template is from Geoffrey Moore. It goes like this:
For (target customers)
Who (have the following problem)
Our product is a (describe the product or solution)
That provides (cite the breakthrough capability)
Unlike (reference competition),
Our product/solution (describe the key point of competitive differentiation)

The template may look simple, but crafting a positioning statement is challenging: (1) the statement must place a company within context of the external marketplace framework it already occupies; (2) competition must be the reference point; (3) the statement has to be brief; and (4) every part must be realistic and defensible.

If a company has a well-crafted positioning statement, it’s a good sign because it means it was able to reach consensus about how to talk about itself in a non-myopic way.

The toughest part of the template is the last sentence because you have to identify how the company is competitively differentiated. Here’s an example from Moore when SGI was at its peak:

For movie producers and others
Who depend heavily on post-production special effects,
Silicon Graphics provides computer workstations
That integrate digital fantasies with actual film footage.
Unlike any other vendor of computer workstations,
SGI has made a no-compromise commitment to meeting film makers' post-production needs.

Mission statements

Mission statements are aspirational, intending to unify employees around a common set of goals and objectives. It’s a corporation’s mantra, its raison d’etre, describing the overall purpose of an organization. While it’s primarily internally focused, it frequently appears externally.

Mission statements don’t address the issue of competitive differentiation which is the heart and soul of a positioning statement. A mission statement includes a company’s value system.

Mission statement examples:
Timberland: Our mission is to equip people to make a difference in their world. We do this by creating outstanding products and by trying to make a difference in the communities where we live and work.

Starbucks: To inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Elevator statements

An elevator statement is externally-focused and the shortest possible explanation of “what a company does.” The term refers to a person’s ability to tell a stranger - in an elevator between a few floors - what their company does with brevity and catchiness. A classic elevator statement would take one minute to say. Positioning statements can be used to develop brief elevator statements.

Elevator statement example: Our company sells software that designs better products. For example, Toyota uses our software to design cars that are more energy efficient. Boeing uses our software to design airplanes including things like more comfortable passenger seating areas. Trek designs awesome bicycles with our software.

Vision statements

Unlike a positioning statement, a vision statement is externally focused and defines where the organization is headed. It defines the desired future.

Toyota: Continuing in the 21st century, we aim for stable long-term growth, while striving for harmony with people, society and the environment.

Cisco: To change the way the world works, lives, plays and learns.

Here's a forward-looking vision statement from WalMart circa (1990): Become a $125 billion company by the year 2000.

10 branding lessons from In-N-Out Burger

Fri, 15 May 2009 15:48:00-0400

I’m not a junk food junkie by any stretch, but when I’m in California, I often give in to In-N-Out Burger. I can’t help myself. There’s so much about this chain I admire.

Focus - As a branding nut, I’m always slack-jawed at the visible menu: three types of burgers, french fries, fountain drinks and milkshakes. That’s it. (They have a “secret menu,” but you have to visit their web site to know about it). Most people buy off the menu, savoring sandwiches like the famous “Double-Double.” Less has proven more: best guesstimates reveal $200+ million in annual revenues across 180 locations.
Differentiate – Burgers are commodities, competitors are everywhere. But In-N-Out Burger made itself special. They understand that competitors are actually prospects and consumers are looking for more than just a good hamburger.
Happy employees – Realizing they’re not a burger business, but a service business, In-N-Out hires people who are "naturally friendly" (as one manager put it) and can share positive vibes with customers. The chain is one of the only fast food operations paying more than state and federally-mandated minimum wage guidelines (they pay over $10 per hour). Free meals and shakes are given to employees and everyone is treated right. No wonder smiles run rampant.
Do good – In-N-Out Burger helps make the world a better place in each community and via their Foundation which is focused on helping abused and neglected children.
Clear mission – They wrote their mission statement 60 years ago; it still guides them today: “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.” We can all learn a lesson when authoring our own.
Independent view – They’ve never franchised and have been privately held since being founded in 1948. In-N-Out isn’t afraid to express the personal values of its owners: discreet bible verses are printed on drink cups and wrappers. Despite being a fast food, they’re still considered cool: when pursuing a new restaurant in San Fran’s Fisherman’s Wharf, community leaders approved them over corporate giants because they were viewed as a local, family owned business.
Subtle not overt – The chain hasn’t spent much on advertising over the years, preferring, instead, to build its brand via authentic word-of-mouth. This bottom-up approach has built a global community of converts: many people who visit California mention In-N-Out as a memorable take-away experience.
Loyalty – In-N-Out gets how consumer loyalty is built through steadily repeated positive individual experiences. Despite its low-end category, the chain is steadily rated as one of the top restaurants.
Cult-like popularity – The company motto is “Quality you can taste.” Sure, they’re serving up burgers, fries and shakes, basic stuff, but it tastes healthier than the usual fare. Even Fast Food Nation commended it for its natural, fresh, local ingredients.
Connection – All this adds up to a personal brand experience built on adjectives (cool, great, caring) not nouns (burgers, restaurants, revenues). It’s emotional branding at its best.

Are magazines artificially inflating circulations?

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:53:00-0400

I keep receiving free copies of magazines I don’t pay for, and never requested.

It started with ESPN magazine, then Entertainment Weekly. I figured they were just trial balloons; read us for a little while, then subscribe.

Six months passed; I was still receiving them. One year passed; still coming. Never an invoice, just periodic requests to subscribe to ESPN. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly never communicated at all; just free magazines in a steady drumbeat.

Over the past eight months, I’ve started receiving two more free magazines, SPIN and Men’s Journal. Neither one has hit me up for money or communicated in any way.

Putting the four magazines in context with my prior history, I subscribed to Entertainment Weekly and Men’s Journal years ago. I’ve never subscribed to SPIN or ESPN (but I’ve subscribed to Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone for decades).

Curious, I surveyed Facebook friends and learned I’m not the only one experiencing this. Judy said, “We’re getting a bunch; now I know why.” Stephen gets Newsweek and Food & Wine. Jen receives Architectural Digest. Steve gets Outside for free. Michelle said she’s getting three unrequested titles, including a Hispanic magazine (which isn’t her ethnic profile).

This magazine publisher behavior is telling me a few things:

The economy is smacking the magazine industry in the face. Consumers are opting-out of many subscriptions, tightening their belts.
Some publishers are desperate.
Magazines can’t uphold advertising rates (and generate the revenues they need to make) if their circulation numbers aren’t where they need (claim) to be.
Advertisers are paying to reach a measurable audience; if the magazine can’t deliver this audience, then ad rates have to decrease and/or the advertiser decides not to spend money with that media property.
With diminishing circulations, some publishers are sending out free copies of formerly paid-only magazines. They’re not sending out “trial” issues; they’re adding people to their paid subscriber rosters. In my case, two of the four issues I now receive free I paid for years ago; and two are closely related to magazines I still get.

AdWeek’s 2009 “hot” magazines story was interesting in this context. Wouldn’t you assume magazines that made the top 10 would be “up” in ad revenue, ad pages and circulation? Not the case.

Only three of the top 10 titles were up in all three categories (The Economist, Elle and Women’s Health). The remaining seven magazines were all down in ad revenue and ad pages (kind of curious for the top 10 “hot” magazine titles; imagine what state other magazines are in).

But here’s the interesting rub: four of the seven were up in circulation, (otherwise known as paid subscribers or paid issues). For example, Vogue (#8) saw its ad revenue decrease 5.6% and ad pages decrease 9.7%, yet its circulation was up 1.5%.

What do you think?

Is there a dirty little secret thing going on? Or is everything on the up and up in the magazine industry? Enlighten me please.

How Marc Gunther found a sustainable voice

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:21:00-0400

Marc Gunther is one of the most respected thinkers, writers and speakers on business, the environment and corporate social responsibility.

Last year, Ethisphere ranked him # 39 out of 100 “influentials” in business ethics, ahead of Jim Koch, T. Boone Pickens, James Goodnight and Paul Newman. It’s a well-earned reputation.

In a wide-brush conversation, I asked him about his early influences, career highlights and how he became enamored with business ethics and sustainability.

Gunther grew up in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. “I was a child of the Sixties. My parents weren’t that politically involved, but our Rabbi was part of the civil rights movement; he had marched with Martin Luther King. That inspired me.

“I was an idealist, growing up during one of the most interesting times in history with JFK, Martin Luther King, RFK. Incredible social progress was being made, from the civil rights movement to the women’s movement. Vietnam and Watergate were happening. This had a big impact on me.”

Gunther graduated from Yale in 1973 with an English degree, but couldn’t find a job in journalism. His first gig was with a clean air activist group funded by Ralph Nader. “I inspected boilers in New York City, making sure pollution controls were being met, working with City enforcement groups. It was literally a dirty job.”

Then he cracked journalism.

Over the next two decades, he climbed the newspaper ladder, starting with the Paterson (N.J.) News, then The Hartford Courant, The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press and Washington Bureau of Knight Ridder. He covered many topics, but wrote most often about TV, media, politics and business. Gunther also interpreted the Internet in the nineties, writing stories like "What is cyberspace?" and "What is e-mail?”

When Fortune magazine hired him in 1996, he wrote even more about business. “I was beginning to wonder what had happened to my idealistic values. I had gotten off track.”

Around the time Gunther turned 50, he wrote a cover story for Fortune called “God and Business.”

“I interviewed people at the intersection of religion and corporate America. People like Jim Collins of "Built to Last" talked about business and values. I spoke with a Notre Dame priest who also taught MBAs. These people got me thinking about business in a fresh way. They were treating people well and believed business can – and should be - a force for good, for positive social change.”

The story became a turning point for him professionally and personally.

“Until then, I had a cliché view of business. The tension that existed between business and values got me thinking in a fresh way. Suddenly, I was no longer interested in writing about media companies, the entertainment industry, American Idol.”

Gunther began writing with “a sense of purpose.”

He wrote a cover story about the greening of Walmart and one about Jeff Immelt’s efforts to reshape the values of General Electric. “Those were two very interesting reputational turnarounds.”

He wrote a cover piece about Hank Paulson, as well as spirituality in the workplace. He authored stories about the business of carbon finance, the rise of corporate social responsibility, the zero-waste movement, genetically-modified rice, environmental activism, corporate governance, AIDS and gay rights in corporate America.

Last December, Gunther (and about 100 others) was let go by Fortune. He calls this experience “a hugely valuable event,” because it connected him with even greater numbers of interesting people and opportunities. Gunther likens it to an economic model called creative disruption “where things are destroyed and then new things spring up.”

The social media revolution is serving him well. His popular blog is proliferating. Gunther is on Facebook, YouTube and he’s started Tweeting (@MarcGunther).

His blog is being syndicated by two of the most influential online environmental voices, GreenBiz.com and The Energy Collective.

Proving "creative disruption" brings good karma to good people, Gunther not only still writes for Fortune, he authored the current cover story “Warren Buffett takes charge” about the Chinese company BYD.

Gunther smiles and in his self-effacing style says, "This could be a first - a laid off reporter writing a cover story for the publication that let him go, four months after it happened."

Python or phlebotomist? WeFollow captures bizarre Twitter categories

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:35:00-0400

2008 was a breakthrough year for Twitter. It grew 752%, ending the year with 4.43 million unique visitors, up from 500,000 at the start of ’08. This year Twitter is growing at a 1,382% clip and has over seven million unique visitors.

As Twitter explodes around us, have you ever wondered which categories of tagging are most popular?

WeFollow.com figures this out, bucketing the most popular Twitter hash tags (#) that people assign themselves. WeFollow can’t tell you how many people have adopted specific tags (as those numbers are constantly in flux), but it can provide some indication of their popularity based on the cumulative number of followers. For example, the # 2 most popular tag is #socialmedia. # 4 is #blogger and #5 is #music.

The WeFollow top 100 tag list is actually pretty straightforward, including things like #news, #politics, #travel, #marketing, #business, #women, #education, #sports, #biking, #art and #photography.

Dig beyond the WeFollow Hot 100 Tag list, however, and some bizarre insights reveal themselves, including:

There are only 132,679 followers of people who’ve embraced the #sex tag. That’s surprising to me, especially when I found out 457,404 are followers of #zombie. I guess more people have a hunger for human brains than flesh.
#love is such an omnipresent theme; yet its 108,788 followers fall far short of the 370,126 people who follow #taco tagged people. Ethnic foods are big.
56,355 followers of people align with #dopeness, proving how utterly un-hip I am. (What's it mean?)
Awesome evidently remains a word-du-jour with the over 185,000 following #awesome and/or #awesomestuff. That’s so awesome.
There are 92,409 followers of #porn” taggers. Meanwhile #phlebotomist racks-up 424,851. Who knew drawing blood was more popular?
#cloudcomputing - one of the current hot tech markets – has 55,319 followers. This may not sound like many, but it is, especially compared with the mere 3,405 who follow people tagged with #drinking. This got me thinking … are more people interested in buying computing resources as an online service than imbibing a glass of pinot noir?
#badass yields a disappointing 9,207; meanwhile #python delivers 42,639 people who intentionally choose to follow people affiliated with that noun. I searched and searched, but couldn’t find #badasspython anywhere on Twitter.

And so it goes.

As Twitter explodes as a social media platform, we’ll continue to gain real time insight into personal branding, with all its idiosyncrasies.

As for me, I’m putting all my money on #hollywood. It’s currently at 55,910 tags, but I have a gut feel it’s going to climb the Twitter charts. After all, #celebrity is # 1 with 13+ million following people this tag.

No Tweet Harvard Chris

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:58:00-0400

Wouldn’t you figure a 2008 Harvard grad would be all over Twitter?

That’s not the case with Chris, an outgoing, articulate acquaintance I met on my way to the Left Coast.

Harvard Chris was a popular figure on campus, involved in many activities. He entered the workforce last year after earning dual undergrad degrees in Economics and Government. He was recruited by a large international hedge fund. “That’s unusual,” he said with a slight smile. “They usually don’t hire undergrads.”

Harvard Chris is single, has a girlfriend and lives in the Boston area. His career is taking off at a most interesting economic moment-in-time. I asked what he did for the hedge fund and learned he “researches the investment vision” of his boss.

This research is taking him all over the world. The day we met, he was flying to L.A. before heading out to Sydney where he would work in his company’s office for six weeks. Then it was onto London for a six week stint. Then another six weeks at the San Diego office. Then back home, to a hopefully patient girlfriend still in tow.

But Harvard Chris – 22 years old – isn’t into Twitter. That really surprised me, particularly because he’s a social media aficionado.

He was a MySpacer back in high school and then jumped on the Facebook bandwagon in college. Harvard Chris has over 2,000 Facebook friends and uses it regularly. He loves YouTube. Since joining the workforce, he’s become a fan of Linked-In. “It’s the most popular business-centered social network. It’s worth my time.”

So what about Twitter? After discussing the peculiarities of this current social media darling, Harvard Chris said he doesn’t feel the need to tell people what he’s doing all the time. “I don’t need it,” explaining that he isn’t personally enriched by Twitter’s real-time in-the-moment communications.

So instead of telling followers that he’s eating a Boar’s Head turkey sandwich which cost him $10 on an American flight heading to Los Angeles (all within the 140 character limit), Harvard Chris is concentrating on racking up frequent flyer miles.

Go figure.

Customer service lessons from Peter the Chef

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:53:00-0400

There are 83,249 titles about customer service on Amazon.com. It’s been analyzed, systemized, amplified and quantified.

But at its core, great customer service is pretty simple.

Case in point, Peter the Chef.

Peter’s the head chef at a boutique hotel on the Left Coast. He has the pragmatic, easygoing style of a native Philadelphian.

A bunch of us hung out at his place of employ a few days ago, getting ready for a big meeting; brainstorming, fretting, rehearsing.

Through it all, Peter was omnipresent, but never hovered. He’s a keen observer and great listener, tuning in naturally to conversations around him. While we expected him to (hopefully) prepare sumptuous meals, we didn’t expect him to:

Visit us after the food was served to describe what he had created with genuine pride (in his low-key style)
Improvise with a white tablecloth on a wall so we’d have a “screen” to rehearse our PowerPoint after the meal
Help us get a vehicle big enough to seat nine for the big meeting
Maneuver to get us a projector and real screen
Give us four waves of complimentary hors d’ouevres the next day when we got back, again with personal descriptions

We never asked Peter to do any of these things, he just made it happen. That’s the essence of great customer service, isn’t it? Being consistently surprised. And delighted by the unexpected.

Some might say, “Why’s a head chef worrying about stuff like that? That’s not his job. You wouldn’t see that at a five star hotel!” Well, that’s exactly my point. I’ve stayed in many Four Seasons and Ritz Carltons and can’t remember when I was unexpectedly delighted.

Peter the Chef cared about making us happy. He cared about the experience we had. He wanted us to come back again.

Thanks to great customer service, we will.

Now's the time for great ideas

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:48:00-0400

As bleak as the economy is, I’m hearing one thing that makes me smile:

“There is no better time for new ideas.”

Yes, the great thing about this poor economy is that there’s so little room to fall. What was a foolish gamble yesterday is a potentially game-saving effort today. So from a creative perspective, I can work with this. Although I dislike economic pain, I love new ideas (maybe to a fault).

So naturally I was intrigued when I heard two men from Microsoft – Don Richardson, director, global innovation and PLM (product lifecycle management) industry strategy, and Simon Floyd, worldwide PLM industry technology strategist – detail their vision for innovation management. Some of their points:

Great ideas aren’t enough. They’ve got to be commercialized. “Great inventors die poor. Great innovators make money.” The laser, for example, was viewed as a solution without a problem until innovators applied it to surgery, manufacturing, and optical storage (DVDs).

The Eureka moment is too short. It’s almost human nature to shoot down an idea the instant it’s proposed. This may end up being the right move, but it’s a poor replacement for a systematic assessment of new ideas. Although you’d look ridiculous striding into conference room wearing a helmet slathered in duct tape, you’d look like a genius if you refined it into a sleek ski helmet with audio embedded.

Products need processes and/or services to go with them. The iPod, for example, would be nothing without the iTunes service. Netflix needs movies and mail. A car needs roads. Great new communications strategies need media, traditional or otherwise.

Ideas have lifecycles that need to be managed. Invest all you want in R&D, but don’t expect a return if you can’t cultivate the best ideas. Here’s the cultivation process: strategize → brainstorm → capture → formulate → evaluate → define → select → deliver.

Software can drive all of this. Naturally, Microsoft demoed software to do this and (setting aside the merits of the particular software), the concept was cool. It’s a social computing environment.

Anyone can propose an idea in the community. It gets its own Web page that you can flesh out with images, sketches and descriptions like a Facebook profile. Colleagues can scan the entire inventory of proposed ideas by title, click through and drill down on the ones that interest them, and rate them like books or movies. There are executive tools for evaluating highly rated ideas, as well as charts, graphs and reports.

I love the concept: encourage new ideas, let them breathe, and consider their potential before their pitfalls. Ensure there’s a process for innovation and everyone knows it. And yes, when the time is right, do what’s required in any cultivation process: the weeding.

Teri McMinn, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the magic of social media

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:17:00-0400

In L.A., no one’s who they appear to be. Teri McMinn is a case in point.

I met her Monday; she was at the front desk; managing the hotel. Nice lady, outgoing, professional. Early fifties, with fascinating experiences looming behind still-vital eyes.

We got to talking – one of those easy conversations without starts and stops. Turns out Teri was in the 1974 horror film classic, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” directed by Tobe Hooper. She was 21 years old when the movie came out.

In the movie, she’s Pam, a teenager who travels to a cemetery (along with her boyfriend and some friends) to investigate reports of grave vandalism. She ends up on a meat hook.

Teri’s proud of the independent movie, laughing as she recalls her “classic butt shot.” She reminded me the film is included in the Modern Art Film Archives and considered one of the greatest horror films of all time. Director Ridley Scott said “Alien” was inspired by Chainsaw. The film is among Time Magazine’s top 25 horror films of all time. Its documentary style paved the way for films like “Blair Witch Project.”

While Teri’s Hollywood star faded a bit over the past three decades, the horror genre, as she put it, “grew big.” She kept an intentionally low profile for a long time and then decided to stick her toe into social networking.

She started on Myspace, then added Facebook. Teri built a profile and a following – calling herself Original Chainsaw Gal – re-invigorating a dormant fan base that had lost track of Pam. People started to come out of the ether, found her, and connected with her and each other. Next thing you know, the horror movie convention circuit came calling. Teri made some guest appearances, signing autographs at $20 a whack to nervous fans eagerly lining up to meet the former leg and foot model.

Terri comments on the transformational aspects of social networking: “The fans are everywhere! They come out of the woodwork and show a lot of love and respect. I am enjoying the ride and don’t expect a lot. I’ve developed a few hundred fans internationally since doing ‘Spacebook’ these past 10 months. It took awhile to learn the tech stuff! I now have the possibility to finally make some money after many years of being asked to do free interviews and appearances. I/we, the cast, may appear with the people involved with the making of it, and the other three remakes, later this year for the 35th anniversary.”

That’s the mind-blowing magic behind the social media revolution, the network effect.

Unknowns can build loyal followings. Invisibles can carve personal brands and become vital. The famous can become more famous. And yes, even a multi-decade-long recluse – like Teri - can be instantly re-invigorated.

Six branding lessons from Stand Up To Cancer

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:07:00-0400

When I spent time with Rusty Robertson and Sue Schwartz of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) a few days ago, the expression “live the brand” came to life.

You’d be hard-pressed to find two people, anywhere on the planet, more energetic, committed and passionate. They’re inspiring, entertaining and driven - cyclonic forces of nature.

If you’re not familiar with SU2C, it’s the organization that launched itself publicly on September 5, 2008 in a one hour star-studded TV show simultaneously broadcast – commercial free - on CBS, ABC and NBC. The program aired in over 170 countries and featured lots of big-name celebrities, including Sidney Poitier, Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, Jennifer Aniston, Patrick Swayze, Jack Black, Sheryl Crow and Beyonce. Network news anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams, reported on stage about cutting-edge cancer research.

Rusty is one of the top marketers in the U.S. She’s also an impassioned advocate, having founded the Margaret Thatcher Foundation and Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure®, the global leader of the breast cancer movement. Rusty lost her mother to lung cancer.

Sue has an innovative marketing background with leading companies like Revlon. Like Rusty, she’s worked hard to make the world a better place. She helped create the Noreen Fraser Foundation and experienced the pain of cancer having lost her mother to multiple myeloma.

Sue, Rusty and seven other women form the leadership team behind SU2C. The organization has raised more than $100 million to date for cancer research. And it’s just getting off the blocks; SU2C turns one year old in May.

“Nearly everyone’s been touched by cancer,” Rusty said. "One out of every two men and one out of every three women will face this disease in their lifetime. Cancer claims one person every minute of every day in the United States alone. Every year, it takes the lives of more than half a million Americans and seven million people worldwide. The moment is now.”

How has a 501(c)(3) been able to have so much positive impact in such a short period of time? Crisp differentiation.

While there are many phenomenal cancer-fighting organizations, SU2C isn’t competing with any of them. “We’ve all had enough with divisiveness – just give – no matter which cause. Just give,” Rusty said.

The purposeful efforts of Stand Up To Cancer can teach lessons to every organization attempting to build community, raise money, gain public support and differentiate itself:

Move fast. Rusty & Sue repeatedly drop words like “accelerate treatment,” “rapid funding” and “without bureaucratic delays.” SU2C isn’t a black hole funding effort; the projects it funds will have measurable impact within three to five years.
Be pragmatic. SU2C isn’t raising money to help fight cancer in a general pot, it’s focusing on a few “Dream Team” projects. They started with 237 project ideas, then narrowed the list to the top 25, then to 16, then 8 then 4.
Take risks. Unlike other organizations which fund institutional entities, Stand Up To Cancer is funding biomedical researchers directly who will address critical cancer research areas. Monies will be used to support innovative cancer research projects often deemed “too risky” by conventional funding sources.
Build a movement. SU2C is engaging Americans – and increasingly the global community – at all income levels and walks of life to join together to end cancer. “This is a movement,” Rusty said, “together we become a force unmistakable.”
Leverage the entertainment community. Arguably, no movement or organization has tapped so many famous people in one fell swoop. SU2C is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. More than 100 celebrities were involved in the Sept. 5 event.
Build powerful partnerships. SU2C has leveraged media companies to join the fight against cancer. Its partners include Facebook, AOL, Condé Nast Media Group, Hearst Corporation, The New York Times company, Time Inc. and WebMD among many others.