Tom Asacker

Shakespeare on life

"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."

Take a break and enjoy something trivial: Animator vs. Animation.

Hilaire Belloc on the marketplace

"We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment."

What's the difference between wandering and traveling?  Traveling implies intention; consciously setting a course of events.  In contrast, wandering is an aimless, casual affair.  Today's marketplace is overflowing with wandering consumers looking for distractions; e.g. opulent, self-gifting ice cream parlors, identity-enhancing coffee houses, and treasure hunter friendly, discount bazaars.  Most of the rest of the marketplace is made up of folks wandering on auto pilot, moving from one non-decision to the next on the unchanging path of comfort that we call life.

If you're trying to appeal to the wanderer, you had better be located squarely on their path of least resistance (real or virtual), and pray to the marketplace Gods that no one distracting sets up business along side of you.  Or better yet, make sure that you are that very shiny distraction, glistening from the precisely cut facets of a remarkably enticing business model. 

So, what's left?  Get on their map!  Become a destination brand for which people are willing to go out of their way to fulfill their deepest desires, solve their most pressing problems, or transfer, by proxy, their most private and anxious decisions.

Pamela Anderson on expectations

"It is great to be a blonde. With low expectations it's very easy to surprise people."

Seth wrote a noteworthy post about expectations yesterday.  Here's the lead in:

"So, people are upset because of the non-ending of the Sopranos. People are always upset when a TV show ends with a big finale, because it never meets the hype, never meets the expectations. If HBO had been quiet about it, hadn't done the full page ads and the radio shows and the newspaper articles, it would have been fine. Expanded expectations led to big disappointment. The paradox: if expectations hadn't been raised, fewer viewers would have tuned in."

If you've read any of my writing, you know that I'm obsessed with trying to understand marketplace behavior: why  people choose, and recommend, one brand over another, be it a brand of car, restaurant, apartment complex, or even cable TV series.  And as I've stated before, a brand choice is driven simply by someone's expectation of receiving emotional "value" in the marketplace.

So did Sopranos' fans receive the expected value? Based on what I've read and heard, I believe Seth is right: Sopranos fans' brand expectations were not met with Sunday evenings ambiguous finale. But there is no paradox here. Customer antisappointment?  Fuggetaboutit! The goals going in to the finale were eyeballs and art.  Nothing more. Capeesh?! 

Think about it. Assuming that a person decides to trade his or her time and money for a particular expectation of value (a.k.a brand), the experience should validate and reinforce that decision and, thus, the consumer's subsequent behavior. But there is no subsequent desired behavior of HBO's Sopranos customers, other than syndicated reruns or selling a few more Barone Sanitation caps. And any way, who, precisely, would angry fans turn away from in the future? HBO? Director David Chase? James Gandolfini?

If you're not interested in repeat business or referrals, then you can fuggetabout meeting expectations. Instead, gather a crowd and make a statement; make art.  But if recommendations from customers and repeat business is critical to your survival and growth, then by all means raise your customers' expectations of your business category, and then do what ever needs to be done to make their experience a satisfying and memorable one.  If you don't, you'll be sitting at an ice cream parlor watching past customers pass before your eyes.