Tom Asacker

Interesting Week 19 of 2009

1. How David Beats Goliath

The underdog, when facing a force 10 times mightier than itself, wins nearly one-third of the time, says author Malcolm Gladwell, citing a study of every lopsided war in the past two centuries. Gladwell explains how the David strategy worked for Lawrence of Arabia and a certain girls' basketball team in Silicon Valley. The New Yorker

2. Brand X Power

The economy boosts private labels' play for the hearts of consumers.  Stores.org

3. How to Decide in a Time of Confusion

In the most unpredictable business conditions most managers have seen, it’s harder than ever to plan for three months out — never mind a year. Despite the chaos, there are well-established tools that can be used to navigate a murky business environment.  BNET.com

4. Too Conscious to Decide?

Unconscious evaluation enhances complex decision making.   Kellogg Insight

5. Rebranding America

PAPER invited 15 of the best visual communicators to redefine America's image. Interesting, but totally irrelevant.  America is not a can of soup.  It's diversity, brotherhood, ideas, laws and liberty!  It's amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, fruited plains and oceans of possibility! Have fun with it any way.  :)   Papermag.com

Is survival at all costs the new mantra for media companies?

I bumped into a talented media personality today, who informed me that he was leaving our small market, and a company he loves, for greater potential in the Big Apple. I'm happy for him, but at the same time it's kind of sad.

Early this week, I received a disenchanted comment on my recent blog post about the game be the only thing that really matters in life.  I was curious and concerned, so I reached out to Mr. "Casual Observer" via email.  Here's what he had to say, which is very revealing and an important message for all:

I'm a lifer in media. Or at least I was until recently. I hope I live to play another day.

The main concern of today's publicly held media companies is servicing their debt while struggling to achieve unrealistic financial goals composed late last year that failed to take into account the current economic chaos. No one foresaw the kind of year-to-year advertising collapse we're experiencing now and the resulting media shakeout has been savage with no sign of fading away anytime soon. Very few managers feel comfortable taking bold risks in an uncertain era. Fear of the unknown scares everyone. Fear of losing your job just adds gasoline to the fire.

Rather than empowering their employees to serve and entertain their audience and communities through energetic and open-minded collaboration, local management focuses excessively on delivering the near impossible and ever changing financial results demanded by their corporate direct reports. From their perch in the hot seat, the only way they see out is hacking away at marketing and R&D while laying off the very people needed to provide the product necessary to attract the audience they desire. Those left standing find their salaries cut and their workloads increased. Creativity and vigor go by the wayside and survival at all costs becomes the new mantra.

Very sad.

Changing things on a whim

Okay, it wasn't really done on a whim.  But it was darn close.  Something or other about what I had been reading or experiencing relative to marketing, advertising, branding, et al. finally got to me, and I ended up cranking out a proposal to write a manifesto for ChangeThis.com.

Here's the link to the proposal:

http://www.changethis.com/proposals/1624

The day after I posted it, I tried to take it back.  But unlike Gmail's new "Undo Send" option, there was nothing I could do.  So then I started hoping that the folks at ChangeThis.com would reject it:  "We can't post this!  The guy's calling what most marketing consultants, brand advisors (like him), ad agencies, and media salespeople do for a living . . . 'spin.'"

Unfortunately, they didn't see it that way.  They accepted it.  So now I'm kinda hoping that no one will vote for it, so I won't have to sit down and actually write the thing.  And frankly, that all depends upon you.

If you don't click the link above and vote for it, and if you don't tweet it, retweet it, email it, and blog about it, I'm most likely going to be off of the hook.  However, if you do vote for it, then I'll be dragged into the tangled web that I impulsively began to weave.

Trust me on this:  I'm not trying to be ironic or use reverse psychology here (okay, maybe a little).  Vote for it and spread it around, and chances are very good that I'll write it.  Ignore it, and I'll go right back to the Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins with hardly a care.  :-)

Great brands: Storytellers or story enhancers?

Elevator pitches, 30-second spots, viral videos, strategic PR, the brand called "you."  Today’s commonly accepted view is that great brands are great at telling us their interesting stories.  That’s a misguided view. In reality, we use our interaction with brands—their sceneries, props, set decorations, scripts, and actors—to construct our own stories, ones that we want to tell about ourselves. And since we define ourselves both according to what we identify with and what we reject, and given the abundance of marketplace choice, we now choose interactions which we feel will produce the best story possible. And we reject the others.

When you're being interesting, you're really doing it to enhance their stories, not yours? For example, as one particular story goes, each morning in the 1950s, noted advertising man David Ogilvy would stroll through New York City’s Central Park on his way to his office. One beautiful April morning, he witnessed a man begging beside a sign that read, “I am blind.”  By evidence of the man’s near empty cup, he was not doing very well. So, Ogilvy removed a marker from his briefcase and changed the sign to read, “It is spring and I am blind.” After that small change, the money poured in.

Now, our simplistic, cause-and-effect way of viewing that story is that Ogilvy changed the message, thus making it more persuasive.  In fact, what Ogilvy did was much more subtle and powerful. Ogilvy changed the prop: he made it different, desirable, real, and interesting. And, by doing so, he influenced the scene and enhanced the story creation of every passerby. By strategically adding those three simple words — “It is spring” — he brought life to the scene, encouraged empathy in the actors, and helped them create a story about themselves: a story that made them feel good about themselves and their actions.

That is what strategically building a strong brand is all about today. Sure it’s about being different and creating desire and preference. But it’s also about evoking compassion, passion and pride. It’s a philosophy that both bonds people to your brand and one that gets you, and your people, up in the morning!  As the American author and critic Mary McCarthy made clear, “We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story."  Whose story have you enhanced lately?

The Man of Many Voices has gone quiet

Around 12 years ago, after I had finished presenting to one of the Big Pharma, the meeting planner asked if I'd like to stay for dinner. " We've hired a great entertainer," she teased.  "I'm sure you'll enjoy the show."  I'm a sucker for a good show, so I stayed.  And am I ever glad I did!  Because I got the chance to watch a star in the making.

That corporate entertainer's name was Danny Gans, and he was one of the nicest and most talented people I've ever had the privileged of meeting.  I sadly write "was," because we lost Danny Gans today at the age of 52.  Danny Gans, loving husband and parent, all around great guy, and Entertainer of the Year for 12 years in a row in Las Vegas, you will be missed.  As will those many voices in your head.

Interesting Week 18 of 2009

1. Microsoft: What could have been

Larry King's revealing, albeit contrived, conversation with Bill Gates.   MobileOpportunity 

2. In-N-Out Burger's Marketing Magic

How the restaurant chain manages its cult of popularity to encourage newbies and keep longtime customers coming back.   BusinessWeek

3. How to Fit Into Your Customers' Multi-Channel Lives

Kodak's George Eastman realized his customers liked taking pictures, but hated developing film, writes Peter Merholz, so Eastman created a professional developing service. This approach to innovation is enormously successful, Merholz argues.  If a company can figure out which parts of a process customers like to do and which parts they hate, that knowledge can lead to a new service and create a long-term customer relationship.  Harvard Business

4. Training the Brain to Choose Wisely

The human brain is wired with biases that often keep people from acting in their best interest. Now, some employers and insurers are testing ways to harness such psychological pitfalls to get people to make healthier choices.  Wall Street Journal 

5. Masked Superheroes Patrol Cincinnati Streets

Evildoers beware! A team of self-styled crime-fighters called the “Allegiance of Heroes” has taken to patrolling the mean streets of Cincinnati, righting wrongs and defending the defenseless.  Wired