Tom Asacker

Weekend reading

It’s mine, I tell you. Studies about the endowment effect in The Economist.

The 10 Commandments of Web Design in BusinessWeek.

Recent posts and comments on my friend Grant's blog.

Marktd - The new IF! from PSFK . . . and for free!

Or don't read a damn thing and go camping instead.  But you still won't be able to escape "marketing."  :)

Have a great weekend!

"Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business." - Dave Barry

P.S.  If you're at all interested in creating an endearing and enduring brand (and you  know that I am), you certainly don't want to miss this.  Hey . . . I may even be there.

Exchange creates change

In my most recent book I wrote, "One of the biggest challenges in today's marketplace is the ability to notice change, because we all like to mentally grasp for security and predictability.  We all resist changing the way we look at the world.  But we must, because every new marketplace exchange creates some kind of cultural change, which in turn creates more marketplace exchange."

Exchange creates change.  What change, precisely?  A change in expectations.  For example, in the most recent past when you wanted to check the time, you looked at your wrist watch.  Today, because of the ubiquity and portability of cell phones, you look there instead. In fact, according to AdAge.com, "The world's watch makers may be in trouble as teenagers increasingly look to their mobile phones -- rather than their wrists -- to tell time."

So what's next?  A touch screen interface, cell phone wrist watch? I have no idea.  But I'm sure that Steve Jobs has a guess or two.  So, here's something to be paranoid about: What's changing in the world of your customers?  And how are those changes going to change their expectations of you?  Because this I can assure you: Like it or not, change is coming.

People live, primarily, in their heads

A recent study has found that most people are as fixed in their habits and unadventurous as worker ants, staying close to home and following the same routes every day.  For six months, researchers from Northeastern University in Boston used personal cell phones signals to track the movement of 100,000 Europeans who had no idea they were being tracked (don't worry, the researchers never knew the identities of any of those studied).

The goal was to plot the average person's daily comings and goings.  Most people, the study found, rarely leave the vicinity of their home or office, remaining within a 20-mile radius almost all the time.  The subjects in the study visited the same places over and over, and could usually be found in the same spot at the same time.

Many insights can be gleaned from this "news," including the strategic importance of store location and the critical imperative of making sure that people always "feel good" about their routines.  But here's what struck me: It's clear from the study results that people live their lives primarily in their own heads. So when you're with people, when you see them or imagine them, try to feel the reality of their experience.  And that experience is not really about the world around them.  Rather, it's about the world within them.

Note: Never underestimate how much people dislike change. A Romanian village recently re-elected Mayor Neculai Ivascu even though he died shortly before the election. Ivascu had been mayor for nearly 20 years. “I know he died, but I don’t want change,” said one voter.

How to do viral video

Check out this cool viral video for Gatorade titled "Ball Girl" that was created by Chicago's Element 79 Partners.  Note: It aired this morning on ABC's Good Morning America.

"The crisis at General Motors is not of its making."

That's the first line in a recent Forbes.com article by Larry Flint.  He goes on to blame gas prices, the economy, and the auto industry slump in general.  "Much of the blame lies elsewhere," he writes. "but the auto giant is in peril." 

You've got to be kidding me.  GM, and only GM, has made the predictions, decisions, and contingency plans that have forced them to take desperate measures like this:

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp  initiated a series of steps on Monday from cutting production of trucks to offering aggressive incentives to combat the drop in demand for large vehicles amid record-high gas prices. The production cuts and increased incentives come as the largest U.S. automaker struggles with a deepening slump in U.S. auto sales amid a consumer exodus from pickup trucks and SUVs. "We really want to spark the market at the end of the month," GM's U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve said. "We want to close the quarter strong." GM also said it hired Citigroup to help review its Hummer brand that the automaker is looking to sell or revampm (emphasis mine).

Close the quarter strong?  Is he nuts? The GM bank account will shrink by another $3 billion this quarter (give or take a few hundred million). That's what a sales-driven, as opposed to a brand-driven, mentality gets you; especially during a market slow down.  Instead, try creating desirable products that people are willing to pay a premium for; e.g.Totyota's Prius is on backorder.

Bad example

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. - Franklin P. Adams

In my last article, I stated that political marketing and legal cases should not be used as examplars for marketing products and services.  For an elucidation of precisely why not, read these thoughts culled from a recent Newsweek.com interview with Harvard Business School professor John Quelch, author of "Greater Good:  How Good Marketing Makes for Better Democracy:"

NEWSWEEK: Why do we see more negative advertising in politics than in the business context?

John Quelch: There is no Election Day deadline in business—it carries on from one day to the next. Businesses worry about growing the size of the overall market to increase sales and shareholder value. For example, Coke and Pepsi both want to increase the amount of carbonated soft drinks that we consume. If Pepsi and Coke go after each other in advertising, they will turn off consumers and reduce demand for both of their brands. Both brands know that they have to live together side by side on supermarket shelves for the long run. For politicians it is different. They don't care about the size of the market [how many people actually vote]. All they care about is winning a plurality on Election Day. So there is a greater sense of urgency for the political candidate.

Is negative advertising a desperate technique or a smart one?

It can be both desperate and smart. It is often used in desperation. Since there is a winner-take-all deadline on Election Day, a candidate trailing in polls is often tempted to pull down the opponent rather than develop a positive case for himself, which usually takes a longer period of time. The objective is to raise doubts about the opponent in minds of the electors—desperate, but often effective against an attractive but relatively unknown candidate such as [Barack] Obama.

Don't you think it's risky to start treating a political candidate as a marketable product?

When you use words like marketing and branding in connection with politics, many people see a red flag and worry about manipulation and the dumbing down of the political process. In fact, marketing is about understanding the needs and aspirations of consumers or citizens, and developing products or policy propositions in response.

Who is the best-marketed political figure?

The politician who does not need to indulge in any marketing because his actions, deeds and words speak volumes. Nelson Mandela is one such person.

George Carlin (1937-2008) - Farewell to a clear-eyed comedian

"I've always been sort of anti-authoritarian and I really don't like arbitrary rules and regulations that are essentially designed to get people in the habit of conforming.'' - George Carlin.

We'll miss you George, and your uncanny ability to accentuate the obvious and make us laugh at ourselves.

Weekend reading

If you're interested, here are a few articles that caught my attention this week:

Inconspicuous Consumption by Virginia Postrel

Is Google Making us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr

Buying In by Rob Walker

Starbucks and the Power of Story by Tom Ehrenfeld

Succeeding at open-source innovation:  An interview with Mozilla's Mitchell Baker

Did any catch yours?

Have a great weekend!

Mark is right and right on!

"As I have often said, 'positioning' has never been about a 'line,' it has been about a 'position.' And a position is about standing for something. And if you stand for something that means you should be doing the right things to support that something.  Because that means you're real.  And a brand is as real as you and I are." - Mark Ramsey, Hear 2.0.

Mark gets it.  And then, alas, there is this, from a recent BusinessWeek online article:

"Positioning is the process of distinguishing yourself from competitors in specific ways in order to be the preferred provider for certain market segments. It's the act of designing your company's offer and image so it occupies a distinct and valued place in the targeted customer's mind. The main benefit of clear positioning is that it controls how the market perceives you and helps make your products and/or services more attractive." (emphasis mine).

Horse hockey!  Every time I read Al Ries, Jack Trout, or any of the other "positioning as persuasive image and communication" zealots, I roll my eyes and shake my head.  Here's how Ries and Trout defined positioning in their seminal book of the same name:

"The basic approach of positioning is not to create something new and different, but to manipulate what's already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist."

Have they changed that definition?  Not that I'm aware of.  If they have, someone please post an updated definition in the comments (and please cite your source), and I'll stand corrected. 

Look, branding as bull horning and brain washing used to work twenty-seven years ago when product and service options were a fraction of what they are today and people were still influenced by propositions like, "We try harder" and "Helps Build Strong Bodies Twelve Ways." People today are better informed, well connected and extremely skeptical of any type of marketing claim.  Which makes ours an era of action, not talk.  Experience, not words.

We’re living in a marketplace driven by creativity and innovation.  The concept of branding is a much more dynamic idea, where a brand's power lies in its ability to connect emotionally through a range of associations beyond taglines; associations that relate directly to the identity of the customer and the improvement the brand makes in his or her very busy life. We expect companies to prove the value of their brands with new, exciting and relevant products, services, experiences and business models. 

So Mark is right: If you stand for something that is different and valuable; something that will truly make a difference in people's lives, then prove it!  Stop trying to persuade people with clever advertising and image-building campaigns, and instead invest in making that difference. And please don't worry about people finding out about you.  Your ecstatic customers will help you with that.

New Article - Ball of Brand Confusion

This month's short article was inspired by recent conversations with some confused, but very passionate business people (you know who you are). You can read my latest thoughts about today's tired marketing mindset, which is creating a heck of a lot of brand confusion, in my new article: Ball of Brand Confusion. Please let me know your thoughts. 

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