Walt Disney's mantra was, "I don't make movies to make money. I make money to make movies." What about you? Why do you make money?
Think really hard and long about that simple question. If you've been putting off being passionate about your work in order to make a lot of money, now may be the time for you to make a change. Why? Because it appears to me that the business of making money simply to make more money may be quickly coming to an end.
I don't write and speak to make money. I make money so that I can continue to edutain people about how best to connect their products, services, causes and ideas with their chosen audiences. And the day my intellectual curiosity and passion pulls me in a different direction is the day that I stop doing what I do.
I wrote "edutain," because I know perfectly well that most people who've heard me speak over the past ten years have not changed their behavior. I've watched. :) And that's why if you're trying to get people to change their behavior, you should not emulate the presentation styles of people like me, Godin and Peters. We don't present to gain consensus. We present to inspire the crowd, and hopefully transform the thinking of the handful of inquisitive and receptive listeners.
If you're interested in creating communication that does drive group consensus and specific action, I suggest you read my friend Andrew Abela's new book, Advanced Presentations by Design. It shows you "how to adapt your presentation to different audience personality preferences, what role your data should play and how much of it you need, how to turn your data into a story, and how to design persuasive yet comprehensible visual layouts."
And once you've finished it, simply follow his sage advice and this advice from the great English photographer Cecil Beaton, and you will compel your audience to act:
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."
Things are pretty tough out there, and getting tougher with each passing day. Recently, while commiserating with a salesperson over a cold one, I was asked how best to approach this challenging environment. Considering that he's an "experienced" sales professional, I naturally assumed that he was skilled in Selling 1.0. Therefore, he never once heard me state the obvious: Be passionate; listen twice as much as you talk; tell an emotionally compelling story; be on-time; keep your word; lighten up; etc. That would be like telling a discount retailer to have competitive prices.
I also didn't ramble on about Selling 2.0: Establish trust and build a relationship and a reputation as a "consultant." You know, create a personal brand; build relationships up and down the org chart; do your homework; become a great presenter; underpromise and overdeliver; etc. That would be like telling a product designer that aesthetics and ease of use are important to users.
Instead, I tried to articulate the principles of Selling 3.0: Analyze your customers' situations (look at the issues beyond their expertise); truly empathize with them; and collaborate (with anyone and everyone) to tailor a solution to help them learn, connect, grow, achieve and move forward (what ever that happens to mean to them at the time).
Are you feeling the increased pressure of this highly competitive economy? You will. And when it hits you, here is an effective way for you to handle the inevitable stress: Care more and worry less. Care about how you can help clients save time; save money; deepen their relationships; grow their businesses. Demonstrate that you care about them!
A few years back, my brother Brian told me a story about one of his toughest prospects. Brian would show up like clockwork for every appointment, with a customized solution to this prospect’s particular business situation. Each meeting was pleasant, and Brian would follow up with a thank you note, a phone call, additional information, everything that an educated sales professional is trained to do. But all to no avail.
Then on one visit, Brian walked in to find the owner behind the register waiting on a long line of customers. Brian also noticed a huge stack of inventory on the floor waiting to be unpacked and placed on the store shelves. So Brian did what most great business people do: he empathized . . . he cared. He rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a box cutter and proceeded to stock all of his prospect's product. I'm pretty sure you know what the outcome was: this prospect became one of my brother's best and biggest customers.
Over the past 30 years in business, I've witnessed the effects of these seemingly small acts of caring and compassion on both relationships and results. So as paradoxical as this may sound, when you feel the pressure to improve results, the best thing to do is to slow down and get your focus off of your numbers. The happiest people are not those who make happiness their main goal, and the most successful business people are not the ones focused on their business success.
B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.
Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore recently wrote Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), which recognizes that in a world of increasingly paid-for experiences, people no longer accept the fake from the phony, but want the real from the genuine. This book provides a way of thinking about authenticity in business plus a set of tools and techniques for rendering authenticity in any company. It follows the best-selling The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage (Harvard Business School Press, 1999), which demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way.
Here's Joe's response to my question (see September 3rd's post for the question):
Most companies realize today that traditional advertising is -- well, certainly not dead nor going away, but not as effective as it used to be, with no hopes of ever becoming so with the fragmentation of media, the rise of DVRs, the inundation of people (aka "targets"), and on and on. But most do not yet know what will replace it, and thus are floundering.
There is a clear answer, however: placemaking experiences. In today's Experience Economy, the experience IS the marketing. The best way of generating demand for any offering is with an experience so engaging that customers can't help but pay attention -- and then pay up as a result by buying that offering.
Moreover, such experience places help companies circumvent what is really THE primary problem with advertising today: it's a phoniness-generating machine. The disconnect between what a company promises in its advertising and what people actually encounter with its offerings causes those offerings, and the company, to be perceived as phony. But when people encounter those offerings directly, in a place (real or virtual) in which the company can create an engaging experience, there can be no disconnect between what the company says its offerings are and what people experience, for they become one and the same thing.
There are numerous exemplars of this principle today, from Apple Stores to ING Direct Cafes, but let me cite the company that inspired this entire line of thought, that created the premier retail experience in the world (and winner of our first Experience Stager of the Year, or EXPY, award in 1999): American Girl (now a unit of Mattel). The American Girl Places -- first in Chicago, now New York and LA, with Boutique & Bistro's opened in Dallas, Atlanta. Boston, and at the Mall of America -- are wonderful doll emporiums with experiences so engaging that the company actually charges admission for them. In a "store"! No, not really a store, but placemaking experiences.
This month's article is a very short piece that highlights the underlying philosophy of my new book. Read A Little More Actionwhen if you get a minute. And please let me know your thoughts.
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By now you've probably heard about, read about, or experienced Microsoft's new ad starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. If you missed it, here's the first one:
And here's the second in the series (the full-length, Internet version):
The campaign is designed to "engage consumers and spark a new conversation about
Windows," according to Microsoft SVP Bill Veghte. Not that there's
anything wrong with that, as an advertising goal. But I sincerely doubt that that's Microsoft's strategic intent.
Any way, you've gotta love the expert brand commentary flying all over the Internet and in what's left of the mainstream media. There's almost as much irrelevant Monday morning quarterbacking as there is about the Patriots sans Tom Brady, except that most sports commentators have a fairly good grasp of how teams win at the game of football. Most brandinistas haven't a clue about how customers make marketplace decisions. Here's a sampling:
"The initial reaction might be on the fence or leaning negative but the ad did its job. Most companies would have to spend a billion dollars on advertising to get this kind of attention." - Brand consultant Dean Crutchfield, quoted in the WSJ, September 8, 2008.
Attention? Attention to what? More than 1 billion people use PCs that run on the Windows platform. I'm pretty sure that Microsoft has our attention.
"Think of these ads as an icebreaker to reintroduce Microsoft to
viewers in a consumer context. [As] the campaign moves into its next
phase, we'll go much deeper in telling the Windows story and
celebrating what it can do for consumers at work, at play and
on-the-go." - Microsoft SVP Bill Veghte, quoted in Marketing Vox, September 5, 2008.
We're going to celebrate Windows? Puh-lease. In fact, to focus, in any comparative or superlative manner, on Microsoft's products in future ads would be a strategic blunder. Just ask GM and Ford how their mass media, product and company-focused brand storytelling has been working for them.
"It gives a sense of yesterday, not today - or tomorrow, which is
especially important with a technology company. It's like celebrating
the typewriter." - Branding expert Irma Zandl, quoted in USA Today,
September 8, 2008, on the use of Seinfeld as a celebrity endorser.
Huh? Microsoft is in no way promoting a new technology (they tried that and it didn't work). To the contrary, they're trying to stop people from leaving a familiar one.
"It's certainly possible to change a brand's positioning. But it's a big, big job to change how people think about such a well-known brand." - Tim Calkins, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, quoted in the Financial Times, September 8, 2008.
Yes, it is a big job. Especially if the brand is in a high-interest/high-expectation category, or is one that customers display to others and/or frequently interact with. But it can certainly be done. Just ask the folks at Toyota, HP, Motorola, IBM, and other well-known brands who have reinvented themselves with new and valuable products, services, and business models.
It can also be done if the brand is in a low-interest/low-expectation category, is hidden from others, or is infrequently brought to mind. Just ask Aflac, Geicko, Burger King, and scores of politicians, who've used advertising to infuse their parity brands with personality and changed how - and how often - people think about them.
Look, inanimate, low experience brands, like budget burgers, beauty products, and beer, can successfully employ the strings of advertising to make their brands dance in the minds of customers. But, so can great experiential brands, like Harley and Apple, who use advertising as identity music to customers self-reinforcing eyes and ears. For a recent example, here's the text of a full-page USA Today Harley-Davidson ad (displayed above a close up photograph of a H-D motorcycle gas tank):
America, please don't buy a Harley because it gets 50 MPG. MPG describes riding like biology describes sex. History has shaped this tank, not the whims of foreign oil. American workers pour their soul into it. Let's chase sunsets whether gas is 6 bucks or 6 red cents. Let's ride to parties like rock stars. Let's fill the tank that gives back more than we put it. So screw it, let's ride.
USA. Harley. Attitude, baby. Right on! Microsoft, however, seems to fit somewhere in between inanimate and experiential on the brand engagement curve. Their products have become fairly low expectation (please . . . just don't crash this freakin' time), but are also highly experiential (tap, tap, tap). So then, is it smart to raise a less than stellar, semi-conscious, habitual experience, like the one we have with Windows, to our conscious attention? Is it worth $350 million to make the puppet sing and dance and make us smile?
First, for all of you who simply "don't get" the ad (me included), please realize that there's nothing "to get." Bill and Jerry are not trying to sell you a computer or software. In fact, they're not trying to inform or persuade you to do anything. And that's the whole point of the campaign!
If the ads do their job, you won'tdo anything. You'll continue to tap, tap, tap until your computer comes to a crashing blue screen. And then you'll quickly discount Apple's Mac as an option because . . . "Hell, Windows does what I need it to do. I understand how to use it, all my software is Windows-based, my peripherals all work with Windows, and . . . geez . . I kinda like Bill and Jerry. They're regular, unpretentious guys with a warped sense of humor . . . like . . . umm . . . me."
Do you see? If Microsoft can prevent just 10 percent of their installed base from seriously considering a Mac (that's around 100 million people, btw) because those people have identified with Bill, Jerry, the middle class family, the strange humor, et al, then it was a wise investment. It gives Microsoft a little breathing room.
Advertising is like a nutritional supplement. It can temporarily aid a malnourished brand, and it can also enhance a fit brand that knows how to use it. What it can't do is turn a skinny wimp into a body builder. That takes dedication and a lot of heavy lifting in the areas of innovation, employee engagement and the customer experience. Microsoft's new ads are nothing more than a dose of vitamin D. They've been in the dark regarding customers' feeling about their brand for a very long time.
Erich Joachimsthaler is the Founder of Vivaldi Partners, a strategy and marketing innovation firm with headquarters in New York City and offices in Los Angeles, Munich, Duesseldorf, London, Zurich, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Buenos Aires. Erich founded Vivaldi Partners at the end of 1999. Today, the firm focuses on developing breakthrough innovation, growth and marketing strategies for its clients by leveraging its expertise in brands, new products, and deep consumer or customer insights drawing on its strong operating experiences in several key industries and categories.
Dr. Joachimsthaler is an internationally recognized authority on strategy, marketing and branding, being quoted regularly in the USA Today, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, Advertising Age, Absatzwirtschaft, Brandweek, Business Week, Marketing Week, US News & World Report, Forbes and a host of trade publications. He has been featured at CNBC PowerLunch, CNBC Europe and Forbes TV.com. He is also a regular speaker at industry conferences and company meetings in both Europe and the U.S. Erich holds degrees in economics, statistics and business administration from both German and U.S. universities, having received a Master of Science degree in quantitative methods and marketing and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Kansas. Subsequently, he completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Harvard Business School in 1988. He is the author of Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Find and Execute Your Company's Next Big Growth Strategy and coauthor of
Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution.
Here's Erich's response to my question (see September 3rd's post for the question):
I believe the one shift that executives in companies must make is to really understand that results in terms of profitable growth are not obtained by solving problems, but by exploiting opportunities.
I believe that there is a general belief that if we solve this brand portfolio problem or that positioning issue, create a more powerful design or create a powerful employee engagement program, or emotionalize the brand, we can compete effectively, as you say, in a hypercompetitive marketplace. This is a romantic dream and illusion.
What organization holds up? It is hard to say. I can only point out a few at a particular point in time or time span. Success usually has a limited time span here. That's the nature of "organizations."
Linde AG in Europe had a good run, Porsche had one, of course Apple in the US, Zara in Spain, Ikea from Sweden, Schlumberger is now on a 5-year run, Logitech, Beiersdorf (Nivea) in health and beauty.
A friend and colleague of mine was taught by his father that these were the ten most important words in the English language: “If it is to be, it is up to me.” He had this saying pinned to the wall of his office and he used it to inspire every activity in his personal and professional life.
It’s a profoundly simple statement that gets to the core of effective marketing, rainmaking, and personal brand-building. A brand is only as strong as its caretaker, its champion, its public persona – and that’s you.
A great brand knows itself. So if you indeed want to turn yourself into a great brand – you first have to understand exactly who you are. And then make sure everyone else knows who you are as well. Keep in mind, however, that this doesn’t happen overnight. It requires commitment and a lot of hard work. Simply talking about who you are doesn’t build your brand or inspire confidence and trust. It’s demonstrating who you are that makes the difference.
A lot of it comes down to something as simple as attitude. Think about this, for example. Suppose New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, stepped into a huddle where no one knew him. How long would it take for his new teammates to trust him? To believe he was a winner? Probably before he even threw his first pass. Why? Because his behavior and his presence would inspire confidence. That’s part of Brady’s personal brand. And his confidence-inspiring persona doesn’t end with first impressions. The more you work with Brady and the better you get to know him, the more confident you feel about his character and abilities. Randy Moss, the Patriots’ outstanding wide receiver, observed that, in practice, Brady “works like a quarterback who’s still trying to make the team.” That work ethic and commitment to excellence creates a charismatic package of integrity and leadership that is hard to beat or ignore.
The good news is that there’s a little bit of Tom Brady in all of us. You can inspire similar levels of confidence and loyalty by leveraging your natural talents and never letting up. There’s an old saying that one’s altitude is determined by a combination of attitude and aptitude. The critical kernel of insight is that we have to operate on all cylinders to realize our full potential. We all know geniuses who have bounced from one career to another, failing miserably at each. Similarly, there are countless “natural-born salesmen” whose overreliance on charm and talking-the-talk has gotten them nowhere. People are complex organisms. We’re multifaceted and we have to employ all those facets to achieve rainmaker-level greatness.
On a similar note, Wayne Gretzky, who was the National Hockey League version of Tom Brady, once noted that, “I missed 100% of the shots I didn’t take.” Rainmakers make things happen. That’s an essential part of their job description. Waiting around for someone else to score – or to close the deal, make a decision, take a risk, or whatever—does not inspire confidence. Leaders, by definition, have to lead. They have to make decisions—including tough decisions and unpopular decisions. They can’t procrastinate, abdicate, or second-guess. They can’t worry about making mistakes, because mistakes will indeed be made. Just as Gretzky missed far more shots than he made, rainmakers are not infallible—nor should they pretend to be. Humility is a prerequisite of greatness. Tom Brady never talks about his poise under pressure or the accuracy of his throws; instead, he praises his offensive line for protecting him and his receivers for running great routes and making great catches. Confident humility is an essential character trait of rainmakers. It can’t be faked or learned from a book. It has to be lived each and every day. That’s what Wayne Gretzky and Tom Brady do. And that’s what elite rainmakers do.
As CEO of branding firm TURKEL, Bruce Turkel leverages his over 25 years of advertising and branding experience to help make his clients' brands more valuable. The simple philosophies he has built over his long and successful career are captured in his latest book, Building Brand Value: Seven Simple Steps to Profitable Communications.
He has worked with great companies including Nike, Discovery Channel, HBO, and the Miami and Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureaus, and has spoken at DMAI, MIT and Harvard, been heard on NPR and CNN and featured in Fast Company and Communications Arts Magazines. He has published three books on advertising and marketing.
Why has he done all this? Bruce says it's simple: "I don't play harmonica that well."
Here's Bruce's response to my question (see September 3rd's post for the question):
Can you remember the last time you went on a bad date? The person you were with spent most of their time talking about themselves, didn't they?
Like that bad date, most companies use their marketing outreach time and materials to talk about themselves instead of spending their precious resources telling their purchasers how their lives will be enhanced when they do business with the company. The most important shift companies can do is to switch their thinking from being product- or service-centric to being customer- and solution-centric.
This simple but profound shift will change not only the way the company presents itself but the response that they'll receive from their audiences.
I'll be sharing the stage with Ed Zander, former CEO and Chairman of the Board of Motorola, at this Wednesday's Third Annual Business Leadership Forum in Lowell, MA. A few weeks ago, I did a radio interview to discuss the concepts I'd be sharing with the audience. If you're interested, here's the link to the podcast.
Remember the passion and excitement of high school pep rallies and homecoming games? Remember how you believed – in your heart of hearts – that your school was truly second to none? Your passion served two purposes: it helped motivate the athletic team to deliver its best performance, and it made you feel like part of something much larger. As every successful rainmaker will attest, it’s a lot easier to sell a product that you believe in than one that simply puts dollars in your pocket. Passion sells. Enthusiasm serves to enthuse. And passionate enthusiasm is the most engaging and persuasive force known to the rainmaking universe.
It boils down to the difference between knowing your business and loving your business—a difference that will be readily apparent to your clients, colleagues, and staff members. While I’ve heard that the climactic aspects of love can sometimes be faked, truly passionate love must be authentic or it will ring sadly hollow. The first order of rainmaker marketing, then, is to choose a field, product, or specialty that truly interests, fascinates and energizes you. Most often that will mean a field, product, or specialty that you believe contributes to the greater good. If you truly believe you are adding value through your work, you will make the life-altering transformation from being a worker to an evangelist. You view your work as a mission, you believe your words because you live them yourself everyday, and you feel sad when clients choose a competitive offering because they won’t experience the benefits that only you can deliver. If it all sounds cult-like, that’s because it is. Many of the greatest corporate successes of the past and present have enjoyed cult-like loyalty among employees and customers. In the past, that list included firms like IBM, Disney, and Merck. Today, the list includes Apple, Starbucks, FedEx, and Target. The common element among these diverse corporate entities translates to an evangelist-like belief that they were doing the right thing for the right reasons. Sure they were making gobs of money, but that was the byproduct of what they viewed as their core mission.
Going back to the high school pep rally analogy, think about the basis of your excitement and passion. While you might have had a favorite player or a particularly hated rival, your dedication to the team had much more to do with a feeling of vicarious belonging and the belief that you too were contributing to a victory. You truly believed that the harder you cheered the harder the athletes would play and the more likely victory would become. And there’s a lot of truth to that. Home field advantage is a widely accepted and verifiable aspect of college-level and professional sports. In fact, Las Vegas oddsmakers typically add an extra two or three points to the home team when setting the point spread in football games. That also explains why sports fans live and die with their beloved teams. They see themselves as being on the field with their heroes, blocking, tackling and talking trash. When their team wins, they relish the victory; and when the team falls to defeat, they feel beaten as well. The most effective salespeople, marketers, and rainmakers experience similar feelings of euphoria and anguish as their professional efforts succeed or fail.
Rainmaking is built upon a strong foundation of interpersonal relationships based on mutual trust and mutual interests.
B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is co-founder of 
Erich Joachimsthaler is the Founder of 
As CEO of branding firm 