Tom Asacker

CEO plans to make brand fly

Yesterday's Money section of USA TODAY featured an interview with Boston Market CEO Lane Cardwell.  What I found interesting was that his first response to USA TODAY's marketing reporter Bruce Horovitz's questions could have been ANY CEOs answer today:

Q: Boston Market sounds about as contemporary as Bob's Big Boy. Can you fix that?

A: You're probably right about our image. We have to fix the way people view us.

Q: How?

A: We can carry forward the vision that founder Scott Beck had when he changed the name from Boston Chicken to Boston Market

Q: What's Boston Market's biggest problem?

A: People forget about us.

Q: What's the best way to get people to think of Boston Market?

A: You have to come up with big ideas to let people know you're out there.

Q: Any signs of the recession easing?

A: No. Following the Fourth of July, the whole industry reset downward. … It's not going to get better until people quit reading about people losing jobs.

Q: Any supersecret new products on tap?

A: We need to make sure that we do a better job on the products that we already have.

Social media, branding and value

My recent interview with Trey Pennington at BlogTalkRadio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/connecting/2009/09/22/Social-Media-Professor

What is genius?

"To know and not to do is not to know." - Ancient Chinese saying

How do you know when you're in the presence of genius? You witness a passionate, wide-eyed maniac doing or saying something that looks or sounds a little strange.  I've been in the presence of genius.  It's impossible to miss.  Dictionary.com describes genius this way (note: I've selected the one definition, out of nine, that best suits my rant):

gen·ius [jeen-yuhs] : a person who strongly influences for good or ill the character, conduct, or destiny of a person, place, or thing.

In my mind a genius is someone who "does," not someone who simply thinks.  He or she is someone who risks, and not someone who critiques.

A genius is a grade school teacher who stretches the sensibilities and patience of the "system" and inspires her children to greatness. 

She's a middle manager who visualizes a radically new process and makes it come to life for the benefit of her customers and her risk averse organization.

A genius is a marketer who says, "Screw the Superbowl ad! Let's take that $2 million and hire one hundered passionate brand advocates to try some new, cool stuff." Do the math.  

He's a leader who says, "What corporate doesn't know won't hurt them," and moves forward with a skunk works project that ends up changing the direction, and future, of the company.

Geniuses are misfits. Like a pair of tight fitting pants, they make people uncomfortable.  Embrace them. Cherish them. For it is discomfort that inspires change and insight.  Insight seldom leads to change. Just ask the overweight, middle aged person who has just experienced a heart attack.

As Oscar Wilde has pointed out, "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."  And a genius who does not take action in the face of said danger, despite his or her I.Q., is really not worthy of being called a genius.  

Stay passionate geniuses!  Don't let the masses pull you down.  They need you now more than ever, and more than you'll ever know.

The Year the Media Died

The best nine minutes I've spent in a long time.  Enjoy!

Note: To my many talented agency and media friends: Be grateful for those good old days, have a good laugh, and let's get everyone moving quickly into the 21st century!  We'll need you creative and passionate people more than ever to help kindle a light of excitement in this new monochrome world of clicks and stats.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Loyalty

Next week I'll be speaking to a large group of business owners about customer loyalty. So naturally, customer loyalty is on my mind (hey ... perhaps I should write a song about it?).  :-)

Instead of the song, I've decided to republish an updated version of a popular article on the subject.  I hope you enjoy it.

Read "Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Loyalty" when you get a chance. Here's the link (PDF):

http://tinyurl.com/lfoava

If you do like it, please pass it along. Just right click the link directly above, click "Copy Link Location," and then right click and paste it into your email, blog post or Tweet.  If you don't like it, just keep it to yourself.  Thanks in advance. :)

Are you happy?

By Alex Koplin, Blog.H34

A fill in the blank mission statement

Here you go.  This should help save a lot of time, expense and confusion.  Simply complete the following mission statement with what general classification of service, cause, solution, etc. you provide:

Mission: Our aim is to provide happiness, well-being and joy through...

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of purpose, mission and otherwise waste of time “statements.” They’re supposed to energize and excite people? Puh-lease. Here’s how to energize and excite your people, customers, community, bankers, et al: Get creative and get GROWING!

That’s right. Stop ruminating and start getting everyone in your organization involved in adding value to people's lives, which will grow your brand, your customer base, your revenues and your profits. Get out and visit customers. Find out how you can provide happiness, well-being and joy. Change your products, services, and business model to better reflect their needs and desires.

And once you've started growing, use that growth to grow your people's wages and benefits and opportunities; both work and non-work related. Then get out in your community and help grow a cause, feed a family, educate a child.  And keep doing it, over and over and over, with integrity of purpose and imaginative vision!

Is this as simple as writing a mission statement? Of course not. But it is your one and only way forward.

Capturing, and keeping, attention in an increasingly noisy world

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something."  -- Plato

That may have been true 2,400 years ago, but it may not be so true today.  In fact, in our always on, desperately seeking stimulation media environment, you have to say something -- and something meaningful and arresting, or at least communicated in an engaging way -- to keep the hungry masses satiated.  Else, they'll go somewhere else.

Sometimes it takes smart people a long time to catch on to this new reality (many never do).  Sure, they understand that Ali became "The Greatest," Elvis "The King," Gandhi "The Mahatma" et al. through a combination of endowment, passion, and hard work.  But they also know, intellectually, that manufactured spectacle played a supremely important role in their progress; spectacle, by the way, that at times both engaged and enraged the masses.

President Barack Obama may be starting to finally see this light.  Yes, his plain, simple and to the point speeches project confidence and convey a sense of control.  But are they "interesting" enough to engage and mobilize people?  Here's what he had to say last night on CBS News/60 Minutes:

"The truth of the matter is that there has been, I think, a coarsening of our political dialogue. I will also say that in the era of 24-hour cable news cycles, that the loudest, shrillest voices get the most attention. And so one of the things that I’m trying to figure out is: How can we make sure that civility is interesting?" (emphasis mine)

"Loud and shrill" are certainly engaging to many people.  But, there are just as many people who are attracted to "thoughtful and inclusive."  However, they're still human beings.  They still want it delivered in a captivating way, and in a way which is simple to understand, easy to share with others, and that makes them feel good about themselves and their beliefs.

The same lesson applies to the super-smart executives running organizations with -- which they obviously believe -- distinctively superior products, services, causes, etc.  Yes your people and your constituents are very smart, but they are also human beings.  You can not expect to bore them with "the  facts" and have them be engaged and motivated.  It's simply not the way they're hard-wired.

Note: This is not a political post, so please don't comment in that light. Thanks.

Social media is today's fence

When I was a boy, my friends and I would frequently congregate at "the fence;" a non-branded, influence-free location beneath one of the few working street lamps in our distinctly blue-collar neighborhood.  If you wanted to get to know us, you met us there, exchanged pleasantries, and then quietly planted your butt off to one end of it.

Over time, you could accumulate enough information about what interested us to offer up your own interesting and relevant information, with no fear of rejection or ridicule.  However, if you had a tendency to ramble, repeat yourself, or repeat others, we'd eventually let you know about it and then tune you out.  

Sure, we all tried to wiggle our way to the center and influence each other, just like we do today.  And, just like now, the astute of the bunch caught on pretty quickly to the maneuverings of the others.  But we never let on that we knew.  That wouldn't have been cool.  Instead, we simply raised our eyebrows and shook our heads, usually behind the offender's back.

When we were kids, raised eyebrows and smirks used to happen in proximity to the other, albeit stealthily.  Today, we keep those sentiments to ourselves.  Sure, sometimes we share our feelings via direct messaging or email to another virtual fence sitter. But not typically.

Social media is today's fence.  Please don't delude yourself.  Just because we haven't called you out, which we'd do on the real-world fence if the offender started to proselytize or became a little too full of himself, that doesn't mean that we're all nodding in virtual agreement with everything that you say and do.

Advertising, media, marketing, oh my.

Here's a link to an interview I did with media industry thought leader Mark Ramsey over at his Hear 2.0 blog.  I just listened to it and what struck me is that at times I sounded like a complete madman (and I'm not referring to Mad Men).  :)

By the way, if you prefer to consume your content with your eyes, rather than your ears, Mark did an awesome job transcribing our conversation. He made my words coherent.