Double Checking Blind Spots

I wish I was surprised that I’m not hearing more about this in marketing/consumer strategy circles, but I’m not.  Most topics given microphones in business, are focused on the popular (i.e. hot-button) issues, not those that are emerging.

I remember reading this information earlier this year on the changing data of immigration and I was surprised to find the first article I’ve seen about it on my news feed. Not looking into any magic ball that I have, but putting on my possibilities hat I began thinking of what this means and how this could change the landscape of business.  (Business geek I is, tank you very much!) As I’m having this brainstorm of one, I wondered about how many people have been exposed to this info.  From a pop media perspective, I could be missing something, but I haven’t seen it yet. Not to mention the fact that I found this in the CS Monitor!!  Who woulda thunk it? (Thank goodness for content curation sites)

Then it hit me....this could be something that is unraveling in many companies’ blind spots and no one is going to be prepared until popular media outlets puts it in the limelight.  *le sigh*

Why is it that we bank on being able to capture space after someone has already created it vs. being the first one there? Being competitive means being one step ahead and/or doing it better than anyone else in your space.  (Usually the prior is a lot cheaper than the latter) The CS Monitor article points out that Asian-Americans are more educated have higher incomes among many other fascinating attributes.  This could be called a lot of different things in business jargon, but in my own personal lingo I say, opportunity is knocking. (Like in the old Denis Leary of the 90‘s commerical way) As the fastest-growing minority group, you’d think that some brands would be lacing up their running shoes to join the race. 

Of course, if I had my druthers, multicultural marketing strategy would be integrated as much as everything else and not seen as a revenue channel.  Deep in my core I know as more multi-racial people stand up and say I’m not one, but I am all, it will eventually get there. Until then, we marketers have to check our blind spots.  Take what you know and more importantly take the time to learn what you don’t know, and question possibilities before you move in one direction. 

The problem with being ‘liked’

I will admit to feeding my own addictions. 

I love advertising, marketing, business strategy, organizational behavior and most things covered by the HBR, WSJ and FastCo.  To the extent I can talk about it over happy hour with a glass a wine in hand like it’s as commonplace a topic as the weather. 

Albeit, I know and happen to have people in my life that may discuss some faucets, but they don’t explore or theoreticize like I do. It’s usually to say that commercial sucked, or that company sucks. 

In one of my more recent conversations with a friend who allows me to pander, we discussed how during this media hubbub of facebook, they were seeing more ads on the site.  After a few moments, I realized I’ve seen more of the pages I ‘liked’ on my news feed too. My S.O. even reminded me that a few days ago I had threatened to unlike those pages so I can get back to the important stuff like spying on my high-school frenemies.

Has facebook changed their news feed algorithm to feed their IPO needs? I mean, they hardly are willing to admit they have one and note fanatically that everything shows up at random. (My inner old southern lady gives that a big uh-huh with an eyebrow raise.) 

I don’t mean to digress on the inner-web workings of Zuckerman’s Famous Social Media Platform. (Cool points if you -get- that reference) But really my intention is to give a few brands a moment of clarity. Especially the brands I’ve ‘liked’.

Isn’t the challenging, yet terrific, thing about social media the ability to find your people and give them a place to love you openly and unfettered? You know, like when you meet someone in person the first time and you swear you were BFF’s in a former life. 

One of my *many* favorite Seth Godin books is about Tribes.  The idea that it’s about your brand and your people. Other folks on the perimeter are cool too, but it’s not about them, since they kinda get it, but not really.  I remember working with someone who had the same obsessive love for Franklin Covey & The Container Store. She’s one of my peeps, always, regardless of when we chat as long as she's still in love.

In social media, likes are a success metric.  I love metrics like a fat kid loves cake, but this idea of having a certain number of ‘likes’ alone is not doing your tribe or brand justice. Brands should really be looking to engage and build ambassadorship.  Like the popular cheerleader/homecoming queen in high school found out 20 years later, being liked once isn’t enough to keep you happy throughout the rest of your life.

The good, the bad and the ugly of stereotypes

For those of you unearthly creatures, this may not apply; but for us everyday dirt-walking folk; we judge. We judge often and usually judge quickly. Don’t balk just yet. If it sounds better, I will use the words perceive and process. Each day we perceive and process the world around us to help us navigate better.

But for the sake of calling a spade a spade, for letting go of MBA-speak and using real words, just because it’s my blog and I can be who I wanna. Let’s just call it stereotyping.  

A lot of people dart their eyes quickly from side-to-side when they hear the word stereotype and that’s primarily due to bad actions which may unfortunately follow. Yet, the act on it’s own is a part of us understanding our surroundings and how everything fits together. We’ve done it since we were children.  (Take a moment to wipe brows and collectively exhale)

Although, you're not off the hook yet, we marketers can carry those stereotypes into our brands.

Brands should be living-breathing entities, hereto, they’ll stereotype, simply put. My customers are this age, live here, have this many children and participate in these activities. It’s part of their act of perceiving and processing how they fit in a very cluttered space.  

The ugly is; stereotyping can be damaging when done wrong. VERY DAMAGING. An example of this is Acura which a blog buddy wrote about after they requested a certain shade of brown talent and were found out.  Maybe they were making a foray into multicultural marketing for the first time, but they missed the mark entirely and I would venture, unnecessarily by assuming they would turn off other cultures by not using someone who had the same skin color vs. focusing on the overall brand feeling that should go beyond one criteria of the established look.

On the other hand, when it’s done right, it’s amazing.  An example of a car company that focuses on the good brand feeling? Nissan. They’ve had and will continue to have challenges with multicultural audiences, but lately I’ve seen the focus on the life of their customers and I’ll admit I’m floored by the feel of it all. I think the commercial above would appeal to all moms regardless of race, but it also shows cultural inclusion and dimensionality of the brand.

Challenging stereotypes is tough. It’s so much easier for what we know is right to be right, then we can move on to the next thing.  Yet, when living and breathing entities are building relationships there should be a constant understanding that both parties will ebb and flow throughout time.  The best way to be aware of those ebbs and flows are to tune in and actively listen.  Now go get your Clint Eastwood/Blondie on!

Taking off the blinders -or- going beyond The Oprah Show brand complex.

A friend who knows I want to get into ethnography research sent me an article based on a conversation we had. It turns out, it’s from Martin Lindstrom. A guy who may have a little bit of controversy surrounding him, but nonetheless, is excellent at what he does.  He talks about an honest interview he had with a consumer that stayed with him throughout the course of his career.  All he did was show up unannounced and met the real person. Not the person she had probably intended on him meeting.

I am a staunch believer that an effective interviewer works beyond building a rapport and tries to find reality. The you that wears a robe, wakes up with tart breath and thinks things you’ll never share out loud.  They’ll try to get to know the customer on all possible levels to impart the psychological matchmaking of your attitude with their brand.

My hunch is this lack of this customer/brand dimensionality is why the OWN network is hemorrhaging. Have you seen the Oprah show? It’s a lot!  (And I say that as someone whose clouds always have silver linings and realize that I’ll always be working to be a better person.) Swallowing that medicine for an hour is uplifting and aspirational. Experiencing that 24/7 is suffocating, preachy and damn near impossible to navigate. 

Don’t get me wrong, her brand is amazing.  Although I’m not a staunch follower, the woman has built a persona/celebrity brand that will educate marketers and image consultants for decades. The “rub” is branding should be about the feeling you get when engaging with the product, not the product itself. Engaging with Oprah for a couple of hours, or with a magazine I can set down, feels good. More than that, I can’t stop questioning who I am, what I do and if it’s good enough.

Do you know enough about your customers to see who they are in their robes as well as who they are dressed up? If not, I hope they only engage with your brand when on guard. If not, your brand integrity could be on the line.

Ad Hoc Activism

I’ve been noodling on an idea of a trend lately, but have been searching for the “right” words to describe it.  It may be a bit controversial, but what truly disruptive thoughts aren’t. So here it goes. I’m currently calling it Ad Hoc Activism. This is the activity that surrounds cause related movements such as: The Occupy Movement, Treyvon Martin, 2011 Japan Tsunami, 2011 Egypt National Police Day Protest and many others.

I don’t want to use this space to talk about the causes themselves, but response to the causes. (Personally, being a big-mouth myself, I love when people stand for what they believe and even moreso when positive actions happen from a collective outpouring.)

Yet, where are the brands at in this activism? I know when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there is a large risk at aligning the brands with certain movements and many prefer the easier to digest events semi-related to their brand just to play it safe. Cliches are true for a reason, and as they say; with great risk, comes great rewards.  

I prefer to think in terms of risk management vs. risk minimization when treading outside the box.

Give yourself time to ask, although the movement may be temporary, is the core idea a part of the brand’s dimensionality? Will it help me connect with my consumers in a new way? Will it provide sustaining “street cred” so you won’t resemble pompous media personalities and reality television celebrities? If yes, roll up your sleeves and walk next to your customers. Be a girl scout and have a contingency plan ready to go just in case.

Ad hoc activism might seem like a fleeting opportunity, but when done in concordance with a brand management plan, it can only increase loyalty. I bet the first soft drink most people tasted after the Berlin Wall crashed down had a huge impact on their global sales. (hint)

All last week I wondered what would have happened if FUBU designed and manufactured a sweatshirt specifically for the Treyvon Martin marches, or if the Ameriprise partnered with the Occupy movement to educate people on accumulating wealth and how it is traditionally handed down over generations. If REI taught urban camping workshops? What if Coca-Cola air lifted bottles of Dasani to Japan and re-designed the bottle to raise awareness?

Somewhat related is this article on Uprisings from Fast Company by Scott Goodson. He wrote a book that I’ll have the pleasure of adding to my super long list.

“To the Pain” a duel between Conformity and Innovation

I know that I completely aged myself with this title, but I’m coming to grips with my age and let’s just be serious for a moment. Princess Bride is one of THE best movies ever.

Yet, I felt this moment of pop culture treasure is a perfect example of what’s happening as innovation and the knowledge economy continues to grow. Conformity as a way of life that will lose each appendage and each limb, the sense of sight and smell to only be left with the ability to hear the shrieks of babes who cry out in fear and millennials plea, “Dear God, what is that?!?”

I could be feeling a little ostentatious as I finished reading a great book last night, called the “Art of Non-Conformity” by Chris Guillebeau, (a must read for those who prefer to live life by defining your own happiness) but I prefer to believe it’s the truth.  The days of everything being the a ‘certain way’ are as the young kids say it. PLAYED. (first disclaimer: played is urban terminology of what young kids said when I was one, it could be retired and grazing in a hip-hop field by now)

While there are a few strong brands who are fighting tooth and nail to keep their business models intact and hope that technology gives them enough time to beta test everything, there are the leading brands who are counting on things changing and they are allowing their customers to drive while they’re in the passenger seat picking out tunes.  

One of my favorite examples is Nintendo.  The brand saw sales decline as Microsoft launched XBOX in 2001 and uncovered an opportunity to be different than other video game consoles and make thing simpler for the non-gamer.  (second disclaimer, I’m not an XBOX fan)  In 2006, the company launched the Wii hardware console and intuitive two button handheld controller. By 2007, sales of the console had more than quadrupled! To seal the deal, the company re-introduced the “retro” versions of many of their 80’s game (software) to give us Gen Xers something to do once the kiddos went to sleep.

This is an example where innovation and insight has to be more than words, we’ll need people (researchers, product managers, engineers, scientists) to ask, why do we have to keep doing this this way? 

Conformity is such a gamble when it comes to marketing, because in most instances your customers are only going to be okay with status quo as long as nothing else disrupts the category. Which we know is only a matter of time. So the real question is, who’s going to draw their sword first. You or your competitors?

It’s 2pm. Do you know where your creativity is?

The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed Jonah Lehrer on creativity. Jonah is one of my ‘rock gods’ (i.e. people who rock my brain) and if you haven’t read ‘How we Decide’, I’d definitely recommended it for some fun learning/reading. 

He’s written a book on creativity that comes out next week (Feel free to get me an early birthday present) and the article covers some of the myths of creativity and proven tactics to become further connected with yours.  If you’ve studied creativity as a practice, this will most likely not be new to you. Get out of the office space and into space of where you’re inspired, ideas usually come through brief moments of insights and so on.  If you’ve considered yourself creative, some of it will be validating. The difficulty of creating on a deadline, daydreaming helps and chaotic thinking is part of the process.

While I love talking about creativity, I become frustrated when it’s referred to in a simplistic Holy Grail manner.  It’s one of those words like innovative. On a general level we 'get it’, but to completely understand and integrate with the idea of how to do to it relative to the end goal, we need to be more specific. 

For example, I consider myself creative.  That doesn’t mean I will paint like Salvador Dali or cook like Eric Ripert anytime soon. Most of my creativity lies in the thinking, analyzing and feeling realm. I like to work through problems and come up with solutions.  It’s fun, I get excited when I do it and ideas randomly pop through my mind at all times of the day. It goes beyond 8-5:30, it goes beyond what's been delegated to me, it’s a part of me.  Will my creative endeavors ever be in the Guggenheim? Probably not. I’m cool with it.

Too many people get hung up on the word creative and assume it’s synonymous with artistic. My grandmother was creative as I’ve seen her orchestrate many yummy, family meals on a nonexistent budget with just a few ingredients. I had an ex-coworker get excited at the challenge of combining several data inputs from various sources into a manageable pivot table for me to use. That’s impressive and creative.  

Just like leadership, everyone has creativity embedded within their make-up. But, like any characteristic, it is expressed in different ways.  So although it’s helpful to use public/popular examples as reference, use yourself as the primary point of context.