Online/Offline Marketing

I am always amazed when store chains operate their website as a separate store, completely unrelated to the brick and mortar. Not utilizing your website as a means of marketing for your brick and mortar seems like a waste. This happened to me one time while attempting to purchase something at CompUSA. I spoke with the sales person about something I had read on their website about a product that they carried and he stopped me to make sure that I understood that the website was a completely separate entity and had nothing to do with the store. Different products, possibly even different prices. That changed things. It just doesn't make much sense to operate like that.

I recently walked into a Target and was interested in their marketing campaign for Back to School. The posters hanging from the ceiling read "Back to looking smart" or "Back to friends" or "Back to favorite subjects." It was an interesting campaign, seemingly trying to highlight everything positive about school, while not actually mentioning it. Interesting tactic. I wonder how it worked out for them. So, I thought I'd check out their site and see how they were marketing their Back to School campaign there. Much to my surprise, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was a link in the upper left that mentioned getting the necessities for your dorm room. At first I thought that there was nothing else. Then I found that they do have the campaign on the website, the fifth link down on the left, after all of the "New This Week" stuff and that link is in red, somewhat highlighting it. You click on that and you find a page that I would have expected on the home page. (Note: LinkChecker found over 500 links on Target's home page. I didn't see that many, but there are some AJAX menus that contain lots of links which I didn't personally count. Aside from those menus, there are easily over 100 links on the front page.) After some googling, I found a little game that Target had designed for kids to play with their Back to School products. I don't know how you'd get to it from the home page, but it's there. So, why would Target not highlight their in store marketing on their homepage?

Possible reasons:
1. They have found that a completely different demographic uses the website than those that enter the store. This is possible. Maybe the only people shopping at target.com are buying office supplies and don't have kids and so would not be interested in the Back to School sale. Maybe they've found that those shopping for Back to School items do not visit websites, but go straight to stores or that online marketing does not influence back to school purchases. Who knows. But that's one possible reason.

2. They have a separate online marketing department and the online marketing department has different goals and different benchmarks they are reaching for. This would mean that the marketing department for in-store comes up with the "Back to friends" campaign but it isn't a joint effort with the online department and so they try and get the online department to highlight it after the fact. The online department probably says, "We'll give you a link on the home page." The in store marketing department complains that this isn't enough and the online department says, "Fine, we'll highlight the link on the home page. We'll make it red. Are you happy?" This is because the online department has been working out with precise measurement where to place things and how to increase pageviews and get users to follow-through to other pages and eventually convert to sales. It isn't that the in-store department has bad ideas, they just weren't a part of the planning and so now they're expected to change things for someone else's campaign.

3. Kids are the real shoppers of back to school merchandise and big signs in the store make them excited. Parents really don't care about the advertising, they just want to get this over with and get their kids back in school. The kids don't care whether the advertising shows up on the website. (This could be the demographics issue).

These are all possible. I would lean towards number two. That's sad because it's avoidable and there could actually be some great work done if the two departments worked together.

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Your partner makes the difference

It is no surprise that MTV recently announced it would be closing it's online music store, URGE. Why was MTV's store not able to capture a significant portion of the online music market? Of all entities, surely you would think that MTV would. Is iTunes just too big and powerful? I don't think so. I think that MTV's URGE had it wrong from the beginning, as soon as they decided to partner with Microsoft in the endeavor.

MTV's logic- The majority of people run Windows and have Windows Media Player. If we partner with Microsoft and put a little link in Windows Media Player so that people can go directly from that program and buy music, we will be huge. Everyone will see it, everyone will click on it and go there.

Why this logic does not work- MTV forgot something incredibly important: Microsoft's reputation in music downloads. While it's true that just about everyone has Windows Media Player, if you have ever used Windows Media Player to rip a CD, then you know the reputation that I'm talking about. It took me one CD to decide that I would never use Windows Media Player for my music organization again. The restrictions that were put on my music were ridiculous. It was my music, from a CD that I had purchased, and yet I basically could not use it. Couldn't even play it in many cases. Now, after all of that, if I see a link to a store in Windows Media Player, there is no way that I am going to trust it and buy anything from it. My first thoughts are, "Yeah right, buy from this store so that I can pay all of this money and then not even be able to play it on my other computer, move it to my MP3 player, or move it to my laptop." I really hope that Microsoft has actually fixed some of those problems since the last time I ripped a CD. I hope this still isn't the problem. But anytime a company drastically goes against a customer's expectations, they have years ahead of them of fixing that reputation they have created.

MTV lost the online music store battle because they partnered with a bad reputation company. They looked at it from the perspective of marketers and not users. Fatal flaw. No surprise, someone is getting it right. And of all those someones that could get it right, I am actually surprised that it was Walmart.

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Sinking Industries

I had a conversation with a young guy the other day who is interested in getting into Music Production. He says that the one drawback is that it's a shrinking industry. Musicians are not caring as much anymore about the production of the music and are doing it on their own in garages with laptops. He then went on to talk about the problems facing the music industry as a whole. Not only does he not download music illegally, but he won't buy music as digital downloads at all because the album isn't just the music, but the cover art, the credits, and everything that goes with it is all part of the album. He laments the shrinking industry and realizes that it is getting more and more difficult to find stores that sell albums specifically, let alone vinyls. Right now he has to drive more than half an hour to get to the nearest place. So, naturally, my first question was "Why do you want to get into an industry that is shrinking with a very real end in sight?" I didn't ask that. I knew the reason. He loves it. He talks about the good old days when people were trying to break into their first album and all of that good stuff. He is actually a musician, planning on making an album out of someone's garage one day. So, the question that I really asked was, "Why do you think that people aren't demanding the high quality recording and other benefits of professional music production?" His response was that they were not as well educated on the subject as they should be. Some people might be bothered by the implied arrogance. I wasn't. That is a perfectly valid problem that an industry might face. Many industries have to educate their market. So, next question, "What are you going to do or what should these record labels do to fix this?" He didn't have an answer. That is the part that I do not understand. Everything was perfectly valid, even if I disagreed, until I realized that he was planning to get into an industry that he knew was sinking, without any idea of how he was going to secure things, how he was going to fix them. Why would anyone get into that situation without a plan? How can you possibly tie yourself to a sinking ship and just hope that the market winds start to blow the other direction? Everyone knows that technology is changing the way many industries work. If you are planning to enter one of those industries, be a part of the solution.

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Noonhat - Meet new people

A true community approach to broadening your social circle, meeting new people, networking, and not wasting time, Noonhat connects you with people in your geographic area so that you can meet for lunch and conversation. Meetings involve two or more people, so it isn't creepy one on one (I'd be okay with that, but I understand others not being). I thinkm that this is one of the greatest ideas to have come out recently. Ferrazzi would be proud.

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New Blog - Same Stuff

I have decided to move all content related to marketing and community to this blog rather than writing about those topics at the Peer Help Groups Blog. Mainly because at Peer Help Groups, we sometimes cover topics that people looking for marketing content would not be interested in and those Peer Help Group members looking for content on addiction recovery and LDS topics are probably not as interested in marketing. So, from now on, the content will be separated. I hope that this helps people find what they're looking for.

TV Proof Ad (7/20/07)

A toy maker in Canada produced an ad that was not able to be skipped by Tivo (source), "to the elation of anxious network-estranged advertisers...it may only be a matter of time before advertisers can ease comfortably back into ad-supported viewing models." Just to have our definitions correct, when Tivo speaks of Tivo-proof ads, what they mean is that advertisers should make their ads so good that the viewer does not want to skip the ad. Unless I'm misunderstanding, it appears that this Tivo-proof ad is actually embedded with a signal that does not allow it to be skipped. That is what advertisers are so excited over. The viewers that do not want to watch their ads, that want to fast forward through them, now are going to be forced to sit there and watch them. I don't know about you, but if I was an advertiser, I would not be elated. You have just completely separated yourself from your audience and ensured a negative experience while viewing your ad. Imagine thousands of viewers watching Tivo, skipping to where they want, seeing your ad come on and not being able to fast forward. While your ad is singing some jingle in the background, the viewers are sitting there thinking every negative thought they can conjure. And you're elated. It seems like someone is missing the point.

Positivity Effect – Age (7/18/07)

Apparently, as you get older, you are increasing able to recognize more positive emotions in other people. In fact, you start to only recognize the positive emotions and ignore the negative. The studies don't effectively show whether this is due to experience or an actual change in our brain, but either way, that's a change that I would not mind happening a little bit sooner. Luckily, it doesn't seem like someone that I have to wait until I'm older to start working on. I can probably make it happen now.

Greatest Enemies (7/17/07)

Liberals may not want to read, though I think they should. The greatest enemies within any organization come from within its own members. It is typically the disgruntled members that provide ammunition to those outside who are looking for things that are wrong. The same is true of our great nation. We have many disgruntled members more than willing to provide ammunition to those outside. Most countries call it treason. We call it free speech. And we will gladly send our young men and women to risk their lives to protect that right of the disgruntled members.

It would, however, be very unfortunate if the rest of the world based their view of America on the movies that make headlines.

Movies I don't understand why anyone would want to see:
No End in Sight
Sicko
Fahrenheit 911

When Fahrenheit 911 came out, I was in a very conservative place but surrounded by friends who thought that it was conservative because people weren't thinking for themselves and following their parents political views because, obviously, if anyone did think for themselves they wouldn't be conservative. They were usually surprised when I would tell them that I watched the majority of Fahrenheith 9/11 and laughed at the allegations. I would confront the logic, or lack thereof, used in most of the arguments and my friends would have nothing to say. Mainly because they had not thought about it either. That's how it typically goes. The ones that are claiming to be free-thinkers are the least likely to actually be thinking for themselves. I do try and see it from others' perspectives. I understand some of the problems people have with the Iraq war. I understand some of the problems people have with the Bush Administration. I don't agree with them, but I try and understand them. What I absolutely do not understand is someone's desire to become a bigger part of the problem rather than proactively think of solutions. I don't care what organization you're a part of, I don't understand complaining for the sake of complaining.

Marketing Twist – Give while drinking(7/17/07)

A small group of recent, private academy graduates is going to take a very simple product and hope to be successful on the unique marketing edge alone. They are going to sell bottled water in which a percentage of the proceeds is donated to a certain charity. The charities that receive the donations are different depending on the label that you purchase. The three labels that will be released soon are Give Life (malnourished children), Give Hope (breast cancer), and Give Love (environmental protection). The marketing tactic would seem to appeal to the targeted demographic. News Story

Other examples of products that were in essence no different than their competitors at the core except for specific marketing like this would include: ArcLight Cinemas in Los Angeles, El Capitan Theatre, possibly Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream (even though many purchase the ice cream for the unique taste and flavors, not for the social marketing), Home Depot (as compared to Lowe's or other home improvement warehouses, Home Depot sets itself apart as a socially engaged corporation), and any other business that takes a general experience and makes it different by targeting a specific group through marketing and experience. The core products in each of those businesses does not have to change, for example ArcLight and El Capitan show the same movies you can see at a regular theatre. Home Depot sells basically the same tools that you can buy elsewhere. Ben and Jerry's probably doesn't belong in that list, because you really can't get their ice cream flavors anywhere else, but you get the point. I no longer go to theatres that don't provide stadium seating. I thought those theatre were so nice when they first started popping up. Now, it's expected. People pay premium for an experience. Learn to give them an experience while using your product or receiving your service and they'll pay double. Teach them that they need that experience and nothing else will do.

*Update: Another product that came to my attention was Tom's Shoes.

Shameless 7/13/07

You may, or most likely not, notice a new little button on the side (or bottom if you're only reading one particular post). It's an Amazon Wish List button. There are a number of books that I want to buy, but I've already spent too much this year on books. So, I am shamelessly accepting donations. Feel compelled to get me a gift? Try out my wish list. Feel like you need to have a reason to get me a gift? My half birthday is on August 10, that's right, just 6 months till my real birthday. What better reason could you ask for.

Can't find the button? Here's the link.

Best foot forward? 7/13/07

Ever seen those packaged, pre-sliced apples at Costco? I think they're expensive, but I like them. I just thought it was interesting how this particular package described the apples' ability to remain cut without turning brown.

"Why Our Apples Maintain Their Great Taste and Natural Appearance"
[Brand name] apples are picked at the perfect time to capture all of their delicious taste and freshness. Finally our apples are bathed in a wholesome blend of vitamins and minerals to keep their delicious taste and natural color."

That's amazing! So, my apples turn brown when I cut them because I either picked them at the wrong time or didn't bathe them in vitamins and minerals. Now, there are rules in marketing about always putting your best foot forward. If you can find away to tell mostly the truth and still look good, then do it. The fact is, this bath of vitamins and minerals is really calcium ascorbate. Calcium ascorbate does contain Vitamin C (vitamins) and calcium (minerals), so technically, it is a bath of vitamins and minerals. Calcium ascorbate is produced by causing a reaction between the vitamin C and the calcium and removing the carbon dioxide (Wikipedia). Apparently there are no negative side effects, except for loss of firmness. The problem with always wanting to put your best foot forward is where to draw the line between embellished truth and lies. Technically, the apples are bathed in a blend of vitamins and minerals. Technically, the apples are soaked in a solution of Calcium Ascorbate. Both statements are true, one sounds a lot better. I'm not saying I agree with this particular use of this marketing law, but I do believe that this is a great example of this marketing law in use.

Sunk Costs and Storytelling 6/23/07

Went to the cheap movies last night. I left in awe and in question. I had heard that Spiderman 3 wasn't that great. But the people that take a not that great movie and make trailers for it do an amazing job. Plus it was the cheap theater. So, here are some questions:

1. In a day when amazing storytellers abound, how does a company or individual allow such a story to be told? I'm no expert, but I find it unusual that the producers took the director of Spiderman and Spiderman 2 and had he and his brother write the story for Spiderman 3. Just a little IMDB background, Sam may have done a descent directing job in the past, but his screenplay abilities are centered on Hercules and Xena princess warrior. I'm not trying to critique him, I'm just asking how does a story like that actually sound appealing to a group of seasoned producers? Do they not listen to stories anymore? Were they so emotionally involved or thinking that Spiderman 3 had to come to market no matter the story that they were willing to accept anything? I'd really be interested to know how that all took place

2. Here's an economics lesson. It doesn't matter how much you've invested in a certain decision or path. What you've spent on that decision is already spent. You can't get it back. It's called a 'sunk cost.' When you're deciding whether or not to move forward with the remainder of the decision you began, don't take those sunk costs into consideration. They're gone. Only take the further investment and return into consideration. For example, if you have been in a relationship for a long time and are not happy and now looking at the possibility of marriage, don't say, "I've been with him/her for so long. I feel like I need to keep moving forward with this and see how it goes." It doesn't matter how long you've been with that person. Will it be worth the continued investment? Same with business decisions. Yeah, you've already spent $300,000 developing this new facility. Then you find out that it's not going to have the return you thought it would. Do you continue with construction? It doesn't matter how much you've already spent. So now, no matter how much you've spent producing a movie, when you see the final product on your desk and it is Spiderman 3, don't say, "We've spent so much on this, we have to continue and release it." You've already spent the money. It's gone. Is it worth the embarrassment to release such a picture from here on out? That's the question.

3. How did my friend, who had already seen this movie and said that he didn't really like it, actually go with me a second time and allow me to spend 2.5 hours and $3 dollars on the film? How did he not physically restrain me from continuing? What kind of a friend does that to someone? How did all of my other friends that had seen it and said, "I didn't really like it," not describe just how horrible it was? How could they be content with allowing me to think that it was cheap theater acceptable, just not big theater acceptable? I know that misery loves company, but please, we're friends. Have some class.

Google Goes Green? 6/20/07

I am really surprised by Google's announcement that they will be a carbon neutral site by end of 07. They will do this by reducing energy consumption, investing in renewable energy sources, and purchasing carbon offsets. What surprises me is the third on the list. Carbon offsets have come under such heavy criticism in the blogosphere that I'm surprised someone like Google would still consider it a viable option for helping the environment. It isn't truly an offset because it does nothing to reduce the amount of carbon produced and many worry that it actually does more damage by creating more carbon and reducing the price of carbon emitting fuels through increased competition. On top of all that, it's been seen as a yuppie pay out of responsibility by those that really do care. I'm really, really surprised by this move.

Happy Smile Day 6/15/07

Apparently we have an day set aside, every year to remind ourselves that we should be smiling at others we come in contact with. That's right. Today is Smile Day. So, go out on a limb. Do what you can to make yourself more approachable and brighten the day of another. It makes everyone happier.

CNN/Youtube Debates 6/14/07

This summer and fall, CNN will host both democratic and republic debates based off of questions submitted by YouTube viewers. I think this is exciting. Without a doubt, some of the questions will be incredibly dumb. Also, without a doubt, we'll look back on this and think, "I can't believe we got excited about such interaction. If only we could have seen what was lying in the future." Check out YouTube Debates.

Storytellers 6/14/07

I have never considered myself a storyteller. I don't tell them well. I have trouble pulling people into the emotion of it all. Growing up, I wasn't even much of a story reader. Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as having said, "Do something everyday that scares you." I've often thought about that and tried to figure out what I could do that scares me. I'm not afraid of a lot of things. I can walk up to anyone and say anything. What else is there? I decided to write a story. That scares me. What if I can't get the concepts down right? What if I can't follow a storyline? What if it just gets boring? That really scares me. I have plenty of experience writing papers, talks, and articles on websites, mainly non-fiction, but to write a fictional story that will follow a plot and have a protagonist and everything else that I didn't pay attention to in English is something that I have no experience with. So, I started to write. I don't think I ever plan on publishing. I just want to write.  Maybe publishing will be the scary thing I do another day. But, something interested happened when I sat down to begin writing the story. I felt the storyline coming together and I could see the timeline in my mind and see where different events were going to be placed. I would figuratively pick up events and drop them into other areas and move things around. I saw it coming together. And that's when I realized, I've done this before. I am a storyteller. I like to tell stories with music. When I hear a piece of exceptionally moving music, I will listen to it over and over again until I can imagine the whole story that it's telling being played out in a video, on stage, or in any other format. I keep listening to it, memorizing when certain events take place. Sometimes I actually turn it into something, if I have the resources. For example, the videos I post on youtube are mostly stories that I feel certain music was attempting to tell. Most of the stories are still in my mind and will likely never result in anything because I don't have the resources to create the story it should be telling. That's the case with "That Next Place" from Meet Joe Black's soundtrack. I can tell you at any given moment what is occurring, but I don't think that I will ever be able to make it happen the way I see it. You might say that those are artistic things and writing a story is not that far from what I'm already doing. Well, I also enjoy telling stories with powerpoint. I hate reading through powerpoints that are loads of information with no emotional pull. I think powerpoints should tell a story and that's how I try and make them at work. Most of my powerpoints never get seen, but that's alright. I still enjoy making them. What I'm saying is, I think we are all storytellers. We have different ways that we tell stories, but it's almost anything we do that involves creativity. Cooks may see a story coming together while preparing a dish. Engineers may see it coming together while working on the design. I think that it's something we all experience or at least have a desire to experience, in many different formats. So, learn how you tell your stories and go out there and make the world a better place by doing so. It's when we're storytelling that I think we release our best work and do the most to enhance the environment around us.

True Community 6/06/07

Last week I caught the stomach flu. I don't normally get sick and this was bad. I haven't been sick like that in a long time. After the 9th visit to kneel by the toilet bowl within a short amount of time, I thought to myself, "I've got to tell whoissick.org about this. I didn't even know the stomach flu was going around."

Now, compare that with websites that are desperately trying to get interaction out of their users. How does one build a site, or rather a community of users that is involved to the point that when kneeling by a toilet bowl in pain, their thoughts turn to this website? Well, what good is my participation going to do? On whoissick, I might be able to alert some elderly man that there is a stomach flu going around and he might want to be drinking more orange juice until it passes. On some retail store, my comments might be aggregated to provide customer service feedback to investors or managers. The good feeling that I have from participating isn't the same.

Community and TV Ads 5/28/07

I don't think it's a secret that TV ads have lost their ability to reach into the lives of mainstream America and influence purchases. They just aren't that effective. Seth Godin says that marketing in which the person seeks the advertiser is the way that purchasing is now influenced. Disruptive marketing is now just an annoyance. Current TV is known for its user generated content. Most of the pods are submitted by users and even some of the ads. Having users create the ads is a way that firms are trying to tap into the new generation of consumers. I think it's a ploy that most viewers of Current TV aren't excited about. It's cool to make your own ads and it would be cool to get paid for it. But without a doubt, everyone knows that it's just companies trying to get us to notice their products without making it obvious that it's still disruptive marketing. Maybe if we participate in the creation we won't be annoyed by it. That still isn't permission marketing.



What Current TV could do is tap into the collective intelligence of the users to decide what gets shown on the channel and what doesn't. Every advertiser pays the same amount to be able to submit their ads. It goes through a voting and editing process much like occurs on Threadless.com. There are a few rounds in which the ad creator can edit the material according to the suggestions provided by the community. After all voting rounds are complete, the winning ads air on Current TV at no extra cost. Advertisers are simply paying for access to the creative community. The advertiser then has the right to use the ads that they create on any station that they wish, but to air on Current TV, they have to win. This, hopefully, means that good ads will air and the Current TV community (of Threadless community if Current TV does not have one of its own, which it doesn't seem to have) will have participated in the creation of the ads. It isn't a way to trick people into thinking that they are part of the creation process, it's a way to actually tap into their collective intelligence.

Narrowing Down – Simplicity Revisited 6/24/07

In the May 28th edition of The New Yorker, James Surowiecki (Wisdom of Crowds), discusses feature creep and individuals inability to judge what will make them happy in the future (Stumbling Upon Happiness? bought it but haven't read it yet, maybe Paradox of Choice?). In short, people buy whatever has the most features, but are then displeased when they realize that they don't know how to use it, get confused, or discover that they don't need all those features. A large percentage of returned merchandise is due to the user's inability to figure the thing out.

So, we want simplicity but we think we want as many features as possible. Just like a teenager thinks they want as many options open as possible and any restriction is something to be fought against. Just like me wanting to leave every decision undecided as long as possible because it gives me more options down the road. In essence, this desire to grab hold of everything leads to paralysis, an inability to act. If I have friends coming over to watch a movie, I have to pick out three choices ahead of time. I know that about my friends. Otherwise we will never decide on a movie and if we do, a large number will be unhappy with it. Narrowing down to the reasonable choices is sort of a preliminary decision making art that I think we've lost. We reserve decision making, any portion of it, for the last moment possible. Is it that we really are so bad at knowing what we want or is it that we just don't want to be responsible for any bad decision? We keep hoping that more information will come along that will make the decision easier. How does narrowing down our choices or lack of responsibility relate to our believing that we'll use more features than we really will? Well isn't the reason that we choose the one with the most features because we think it would be a bad decision to not choose more for the same or close to the same amount? Could part of it be that making a decision to buy less shows responsibility while making a decision to purchase the most options available shows none because no one can blame us for choosing the most options available. There is no personal responsibility in the decision to do so. We are not making a decision when we go with the gift card. We're not giving more options to the purchaser, what we're really doing is not taking responsibility (don't be offended, I buy gift cards). Every decision that we make based on the default "more is better" is simply of shift of responsibility from ourselves to society. It's not a decision that we own. It's a decision that the supposed collective intelligence of everyone else has determined to be the right one. We're not liable. Narrowing down creates decision ownership. Throwing out creates ownership. Limiting creates ownership. Problem is that it's ownership of something nobody seems to want to own.

Viral Marketing in Real Life 5/21/07

Okay, maybe I should amend part of what I just posted. I drew a hard and distinct line between proliferation tactics and real viral marketing. I was trying to emphasize a point. However, there are obviously some really good viral marketing ideas that ad agencies can come up with. Like this one from MSNBC called NewsBreaker Headlines. You can bet that the people in that audience are going to go home and create a word of mouth effect. And what a perfect time to introduce this because everyone complains about paying outrageous prices to go to a movie and then sit through commercials while you wait. SS+K, the ad agency, recognized a pain and filled it with something of value. People were paying to go to a movie and be entertained, so SS+K replaced the pain with entertainment. Genius. The line between proliferation tactics and real viral marketing is fuzzier than I thought. Perhaps the graph from our previous post should look something more like this:

If Google Ran My Life 4/25/07

Tim O'Reilly onced blogged on a conversation he had with a Google employee and called the post If Google Were a Restaurant. Basically, Google measures everything and so they would capture information about every plate that came back, that was picked up at the end of the meal, and learn what people ate, what they left. They'd probably learn what people ate in what order. This wouldn't increase the quality of the food, but it the efficiency with which it was dispensed. I've also read of a man named Seth Roberts who performs self-experimentation by trying new things in his life and recording a lot of data to measure the change that occurs. What he's learned is what he can eat and when, at what times watching TV makes him feel better and happier and when it makes him feel worse, and many other things about himself that most people would live with for 90 years and never discover. The point is, we all behave in patterns and never learn what those are. Google knows more about our viewing and searching habits than we do. They gather so much data on everything that I do online that there would be enough to analyze my personality. It would be interesting to connect that data with my journal entries and find out what kind of mood I was in that day. So, if "when performance is measured, performance improves [and] when performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates," (source) then maybe a part of our problem is that we aren't measuring our behavior enough. We don't know the effects that different stimuli have on us. We live with the same patterns day in and day out and should become acutely aware of them. Perhaps this is why journal writing is such a productive activity. If Google ran our lives, we would know and have data to tell us basically why we act a certain way in certain situations. Gathering data on yourself can help you learn more about yourself and your behavior patterns.



Here are some basic and easy ways to gather data on yourself that you might find useful.

1. Keep receipts so that you can track where your spending your money and why

2. Log when you go to sleep and when you wake up and the the activities that you perform the hour before going to sleep and the hour after waking up. Try mixing things up and see if it affects your mood/productivity throughout the day.

3. Keep a basic journal every day. If you don't have time to write a full journal entry of what you've learned and experienced that day, have a pocket calendar so you can at least write down the major activities of the day and then write a full journal entry once a week.

4. If you're trying to break a habit or addiction, write when tempted. Write what you're feeling and what you were doing when and before the temptation got strong. If you already slipped up, write what you were doing before. Try and see any patterns emerging in your actions that lead to increased temptation to fall back into the habit or addiction.

5. Try doing new things in your life and keep a log of what the apparent effects are. For example you could try going for a jog in the morning for a week and then document how you felt during that week. The next week, you could try exercising in the evening and see if the effects are different.



In order to be effective at this, you might consider going to an office supply store and picking up a pad of graph paper so that you can keep stats on your attempts at the same time. Try not to alter too much at one time because you won't be able to isolate the effects of one stimulus from another. For example, if you try and switch your exercising habits while changing your sleeping habits, you won't know which change produced what effect. So keep it simple with one change at a time. If you keep track for a few weeks, write back and let us know what patterns you've seen emerge. We'd love to gather some of these to help others that are looking to find similar patterns in their lives.

Disappointed with NBC 4/19/07

I, with many others, am disappointed in the lack of responsibility we've seen from NBC with the video that they released yesterday of Cho Seung-Hui. I completely understand focusing on the tragedy and the effects on those that are hurt by this, but I don't believe that any good can come from creating a star out of a psycho or giving any credit to his message. He took time out of his shooting to send the video to NBC because he wanted his message to get out. And it did. If we broadcast that message all over the news we are simply training others to get their message out the same way. If that is the only way to be heard, then what is stopping them? The tragedy and news are not what he wanted viewed, it's what's going on in the lives of people in Virginia and across the country. I plan to no longer watch NBC News and plan to send them a letter telling them why. I will also send a letter to the news station that I will continue to frequent and explain to them my position in hopes that they will not rebroadcast or emphasize the same content. It's one thing to talk about it on a blog, it's another to write letters.

Anyone else interested, corporate info for NBC is:
NBCUNI.COM FEEDBACK
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608

Roller Coaster Real Estate 4/19/07

An incredibly interesting visualization of the real estate market from 1890 to present. Watch the bottom right to see the decade/year pass by. It's a roller coaster as if you were riding the graph of the data.

Twitter, Dodgeball, and Social Networks

There are some core differences between twitter and dodgeball and they revolve around one's social network. When someone says social network, we think of myspace, facebook, and other sites that bring people together and help reconnect or establish new connections. Twitter can be worked into one of these social networks. It's a network that you can build up and then bring twitter in on later. Dodgeball, however, is based on a different kind of social network. It's based on the original social network. You know, the people you actually want to see in real life. The ones you hang out with on the weekends. Dodgeball is great for prebuilt close-knit networks. For example, if you could get a church group to sign up, they typically already have a network established. I wouldn't be surprised if dodgeball was popular in the gay community because that would be like signing up a giant, very socially active family. It's a prebuilt network that interacts in real life and can just be transferred to dodgeball. You see, the innate problem is that twitter can allow you to build your social network online first and them implement twitter into that existing network later. dodgeball doesn't let you do that. You can't build a network of just the friends that you hang out with in real life and exclude the others from your other online networks and then implement dodgeball after your network is built. You have to start with dodgeball. That means the first person in your network is going to sign up with absolutely zero friends. And then that friend is going to convince his/her other friends to join and then the social network gets transferred to dodgeball. It basically relies on word of mouth and the spreading can't go faster than the word can travel between people. Dodgeball requires network transfer, not network building.

If you're going to start with a highly active group and have it spread through word of mouth, then it's going to have to spread through an existing network. I just did a basic search on dodgeball for people with "d" in their first name that lived in Los Angeles. As you can see, it's most guys. If you're thinking that "d" is a guy's letter, then try any other letter. It's almost all guys. I would bet it's predominately homosexual. Simply because of the need for the network to already be established. The reason all of this matters is that the founders of dodgeball recently announced that they're leaving Google because their project wasn't getting the attention and funding that they'd hoped for. I'm sure Google purchased dodgeball and then realized that it wasn't growing like all of the other networks. It might still have been a good purchase simply because it connects the real life to new communication, which is what Google is trying to do with Local Search, GOOG-411, and SMS. I just don't see dodgeball going mainstream until it breaches other social networks or Google comes up with a way for the network to be built first without the need to add dodgeball until later.

Mindset/Setting Changing Expectations – Subway Stradivarius 4/11/07

img width='217' height='152' align='left' src='http://imgred.com/http://jorgensen.uconn.edu/media/images/JOSHUA-BELL_RGB.jpg'>There is a much reviewed article from the Washington Post on the world-class violinist Josh Bell who played his multi-million dollar violin in the subway station for change with a hidden cam capturing people's reactions. He made $32. Seven people stopped to listen. 27 gave money (obviously averaging pocket change), and 1,070 people walked by hardly noticing. 37Signals points out that the article mentions that every single child that passed by tried to stop and listen, but was always pulled away by a parent.

Possibly the most interesting thing pointed out is that this violinist typically receives $1000/minute while playing. People pay a lot of money for the opportunity to hear him play. Some of those people walking by might even have been willing to purchase a ticket to his performance at some point in their life. In the music hall, the might have been listening anxiously, soaking it in. But in the subway, their mind is on something else and the violin ranges from a possible annoyance to nice background music. But the focus doesn't change, except for 7 out of about 1,100. It's amazing how the setting and mindset can so drastically alter our reactions to a stimulus.

Let's say that you're trying to stop eating chocolate. You can walk into See's Candies with one mindset and have no problem walking past the free samples they are handing out to pick up a gift box for someone else. With another mindset, walking into the store at all is death to your goal. Your mindset completely changes the outcome even though the stimulus is the same. Sitting down at the computer or TV can either be highly productive or a complete waste of time, and the difference isn't what's on TV. You can always find something good and something that acts as a leech on creativity and motivation. It would have been interesting to find out why those seven stopped to listen. Did they do something different earlier that day that set them apart from everyone else? Do they have different personalities? Did they simply have an open schedule are were looking for something to do? I think it comes down to mindset. What a perfect opportunity to learn more about the why and how our focus can shift.

“About Us” 4/06/07

This year, Farmers and Merchants Bank is celebrating 100 years in California and existence. I have no personal experience with the bank except for sitting behind a busboard advertising this fact. The way it was advertised is "Banking California for 100 years." I was sitting behind the bus long enough to thing about the grammar of that sentence. When I think of banking as a verb, I think of myself as a customer doing the banking. Sure, we all know what a banker does, but I don't know if I were to speak to a banker, he or she would tell me that, for a living, they bank. Instead, the verb would most commonly be used in the sentence "I bank with..." and an institutional name insertion occurs. Princeton University at WordNet offers one definition as "do business with a bank or keep an account at a bank; "Where do you bank in this town?"' I don't think of myself has having been banked by Bank of America or Wells Fargo. I bank with them. They don't bank me or my state.



Maybe that took a long time to say, but what it comes down to is that the marketing focus is not on the customer. The busboard is saying, "Look at us." Apparently, it might be company wide culture, because the "About Us" section definitely tells "about them." Is there anything wrong with that? Not necessarily. 37Signals has an about us section that definitely focuses on themselves. But it's done in a different way. The entire "About Us" section reads:



"We’re a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based software products possible with the least number of features necessary. Our products do less than the competition — intentionally. We’ve been in business since 1999 and love what we do."



So, you can have an "About Us" section focusing on yourself and what you do, but have it still be done in a way that makes you want to join the group. As a contrast, take the time to read Pacific Premiere Bank's "About Us" section. It's only a paragraph also.



"Originally founded in 1983, Pacific Premier Bank is committed to the growth and vitality of the Southern California communities in which we do business. The Bank offers a wide range of business and consumer products and services through its retail branch network as well as it's highly interactive web site. At Pacific Premier Bank, you get exceptional service, with the personalized attention that can only come from a locally based dedicated community banker."



Even though the banner at F&M claims that the customer is the mainstay, which company do you think is actually more focused on the customer? Maybe it's only the "About Us" section and I'm extrapolating a little too much, or maybe it's company culture that has found it's way into the "About Us" section on each website. Based on personal experience with 37signals and Pacific Premiere, I would go with the latter. According to Kathy Sierra, this is "The New Way."



So, what's your company culture? Is it seeping through in unexpected places?

Secret Mind Power 4/06/07

I'm reading a page designed to sell a book that supposedly helps you to telepathically convey thoughts/emotions and attract others to you. Interestingly, if I buy the book before (wow) tomorrow, I get it for a better price. What are the chances that I would happen across a site that I typically would not visit on the last day of a sale? Well, with this site, apparently the chances are 100%. I just expected more than javascript from a site that claims to be able to control other's minds. A snippet from the code reads :var day = date.getDate(); var day=day+1.

So, I wonder if mind control or influence is really just confidence and marketing? Albeit lower quality marketing, but marketing tactics none the less.

Great Links 4/05/07

I thought that I would post some of the great links that I've come across just today. I'm pulling these from all of my saved links at del.icio.us/dansage/



1. Bubble Guru - This free service allows you to video yourself and post the video in a floating bubble on your website. This way you can give instructions to those visiting the site. The user can turn the bubble off or start it again at any time.



2. Who's Among Us - See real-time how many people are on your site. Even better, add the firefox extension and see real-time how many people are on your site without even visiting your site.



3. Popuri.us - Check all major page rankings for any individual site.



Also, in my blog reading today, I learned that you can use Jott to call a number, leave a message for yourself, and have that message automatically transcribed and forwarded to your email account and (if using gmail) stored under a certain label. I already had an account with Jott, but hadn't consider this possibility. I tried it out and it worked. Took about 20 minutes to be transcribed.

Mashup Definition 3/21/07

Seth Godin defines a mashup as a distinct way of spreading ideas, by meld and mixing existing content into something new. I like to specify that a mashup is value-adding. Taking a song and putting it to pictures and posting it on youtube is not necessarily a mashup unless is enhances the message spins-off a new message.

Online tools to promote books 3/20/07

Guy Kawasaki recently blogged about a book which has been increasing in rankings in part because of an online, interactive test that people can take to find out if they are the ones that the book is talking about (it deals with jerks in the workplace). Apparently anyone can take the test. Without a doubt, I believe that this would help increase sales of the book. So, why aren't the authors of "Now, Discover Your Strengths" doing that same thing? They have one of the best online tools that I've seen in a while that helps individuals identify the innate strengths that they have. You can only take the test if you buy a copy of their book first and get a keycode from inside. Even worse, if you buy the book used and the first person has already taken the test, you're out of luck. Their response: You should have bought it new. You can't buy a keycode. Not only is that some of the worst marketing that I've ever seen, but it seems incredibly arrogant. I understand that their is positioning and they may be trying to use the strengthsfinder tool as a tool to complement the book, but it would help spread the word and spread the ideas to offer it to everyone. I loved the book and wanted to do a summary of it for some classes and have the students take the profile. Apparently that can't happen without everyone in the class buying their own copy of the book. So you might think that this will help sell more copies, but instead, we're just not even going to mention the book or the strengthsfinder profile. Why mention something that the people can't access if you know they aren't going to go out and buy the book? So, lost sales versus position. It's a hard debate.

Call Me 3/19/07

You'll notice a button towards the bottom or bottom right of this page. It says "Call Me." If you click it, enter your name and phone number and click submit, then you're phone will ring and then mine will ring. We'll talk. Feel free to call me anytime. Don't be offended if I can't pick up for some reason, but leave a voicemail and I'll get back to you soon after that.

Redeemed – DSW 3/16/07

Companies make mistakes. Sometimes you receive service that is below your expectations, even at good/great companies. It happens sometimes. How you can really tell the quality of a company is how they respond to those situations. In a national news example, Jet Blue's recent bout with customer service was seen as some to be a disaster. But the aftermath showed the strength of the company and their commitment to customer service (CEO Apologizing - youtube). My own experiences with Jet Blue show the same. Of course things go wrong. But they try and fix them.

Apparently DSW is one of those kind of companies. I mentioned them a few days ago (no link provided on purpose, let's leave it in the past) for not having transferred a discount on the same ticket upon a return. Their response was a classy way of handling things. They let me know first what they're doing to retain me as a customer, mention that supervisors are being alerted (so I feel like this is going somewhere), point out that there is no standard in the industry but they will at least explore the option of inputting my suggestion.

The result: I look forward to returning to DSW.

That's how you should handle customers. Like Ryan (BJ Novak) says in The Office (US), it's ten times more expense to get a new customer than to retain an old one. We should expect little expenses in customer retention, but ultimately, those customers should make it worth it.

Sad Day 3/15/07

It's a sad day, with the announcement of the end of "The Show with Ze Frank." Sportsracers the world over spent the day thanking each other for the good times.

Sad, sad day.

Ralph’s Gets it Right 3/14/07

Contrast my experience that I posted yesterday with DSW Shoes with the one that I had last evening at Ralphs Supermarket. The customer in front of me in line brought in a gift card she had bought for her month for a certain chain of theatres. Turns out there aren't any theatres of that particular chain near her mom's house. The customer wanted to know if she could exchange the gift card for one from another theatre that Ralphs also carried. Doesn't seem that difficult. But the manager and clerk both expected trouble from the cash register on this one. They said that gift cards are difficult and there are certain rules that surround it. Sure enough, the register rejected the transaction. The customer was very polite and said not to worry about it. She would find a use for the gift card previously purchased. So, the Ralphs clerk pulled out her purse and handed the customer $25, the cost of the gift card, and bought it off of her. You should have seen the face of the customer. Do you think that she will be going to anywhere but Ralphs next time she needs groceries? I was completely impressed with the way the clerk handled that. I'm disappointed that I didn't get the clerk's name, but you can trust me that I'll be going back to Ralph's and when I do, I'll look for that clerk's name and when I do get it, I'll be letting management know, probably even a letter to corporate and how pleased I am with their employees. Actions like that need to be recognized.

Tip for UPSers 3/14/07

If you ship with UPS, here's a tip that might save you some money. It would have saved us over a hundred dollars on our last package. If you print your labels from the UPS website, you know that you are asked for the dimensions which are used to calculate the total costs. I didn't actually measure our box, which was fairly large and just made some guesses. I did this a few times while shopping for prices and the dimensions I finally input for the final charges were a few inches off from when I was shopping for prices (bad math skills). The result: a hundred dollar difference. I didn't realize this until our customer asked for more information on the shipment and I had to go back to the receipt. I called UPS to find out if they actually measure or weigh the package at any time because I thought that I had been a little too liberal in my measurements. The answer, sometimes they do, but they don't adjust down. If you estimate that the package weights 30lbs. but it really weights 15lbs, then you are paying the 30lbs charge. So, with UPS, guess low or actually measure it.

Sneaky Discount Stealers 3/13/07

DSW Shoewarehouses has a rewards program. After you spend a certain amount, you receive a coupon in the mail for a discount on your next purchase. We received a $10 off coupon in the mail, so I headed down to DSW. I am bad at buying shoes and there were three pairs between which I couldn't decide. I bought all three to take home where some females could offer an opinion. I showed them the shoes and they instantly knew which ones to take back. So I did, only to find out that by returning the shoes, I lose the discount. Even though I was keeping some of the total purchase, the discount could not be applied to just the part I was keeping. The employees blamed this on "it," meaning the cash register. "It" took the discount evenly spread between all three pairs. "It" won't apply a discount to other portions of the purchase. Maybe they were telling the truth and there was nothing in their power to fix it, in which case that is a poor corporate decision to not empower their employees. Those rewards dollars were dollars that I felt I had earned by my continued patronage. I followed all the guidelines for returns, I didn't wear the shoes and returned them promptly. The worst part about this is that DSW will actually miss out on future business as a result. I'm not saying that I'm boycotting, but there were many times that I would go to DSW simply to rack up points. Now that I know they are quite stingy and sneaky in the distribution of those rewards, I'll be less inclined to choose them a different store. It's amazing because I feel like that I was my money they took. Not their discount to apply however they'd like. Those were my points and my rewards. I will be sending a link of this to their corporate offices.

Dental Floss 2/27/07

I know that dental floss might seem like something that you wouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about, especially which brand to buy. But using it everyday, you kind of want to get it right. I've tried lots of flosses. The last brand I tried broke on me every time. Maybe I have sharper teeth than normal. The brand before that, Crest's Glide, was great, but too expensive, even at price per yard. But last night I tried, OralB Essentials and loved it. I don't know what's different about it (besides the price, it was only $0.97 for 55 yards) but it's somehow kind of rubbery and springy. No breakage whatsoever. Just thought you might want to try it out.

I'll include the customary 'they are not paying me to do this' but I doubt anyone reading this blog thinks anyone would ever pay me to review something of theirs with the maybe three devout readers I have.

Labor Unions vs the Nation 2/19/07

I was surprised to find the Cal State University system was in school today, President's Day. But then I thought, I'm working, so I guess it's not that big of a deal. But then I saw this on the Cal State Long Beach website:




Cesar Chavez day will be a holiday at the campus where there are no classes. I also want to point out that Cesar Chavez day is actually on a Saturday, but there are celebrating that Friday. Remind you that this is not a private university, this is a State of California funded university. Without getting into the politics of Cesar Chavez or discussing the merits of what he did, even if the entire country agreed with the outcomes of his efforts, does that mean that we replace the holiday celebrating our founding fathers? We're not even talking about one founding father. Remember how we combined all of them into one holiday? And now it's not even a holiday in exchange for a labor union leader? A leader celebrating rights that would not have existed except for the sacrifice of the founders? Is the State of California joking? Has anyone living in California written their congressman? Mine is Ed Royce and trust me, he's getting a letter, not an email. A handwritten letter.