Normally I stay away from stories about politics and business. It’s just not my thing to delve into speculation about collusion and conspiracy. So when I  had picked up John Perkins book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, it was under my impression that I’d delve into some wild ride on corporate espionage, theft, bribery, and the like. What I left though with was a unique historical perspective of American modern imperialism and subjugation through international finance and economic development.

John explains his history of becoming an economic hit man - officially he was an economic adviser - working for a private firm in the 70s, that saw him travel to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries where he made inflated economic growth predictions and drew up loan proposals to international development banks, upon approval whereby American engineering and construction firms would receive contracts. However, the underlying strategy was to get these countries so far into debt that when they defaulted, concessions were given such as natural resource mining/drilling rights.

What I ended up with was an expanded and critical view of how international development can maliciously be favored toward one country’s political and business interests. There is no conspiracy, it’s a systemic problem at a macroeconomic, social, and environmental scale (triple bottom line). In reading the book, one can see parallels in understanding how and why China for example, is now operating in a very similar fashion in Africa.

Sustainability operates on a macro scale as well, which for most of us is quite difficult to comprehend since we work in the limited business and geographic spheres we do. The difference that we can make is continuing to live lighter, consume less, volunteer, and spread the word to others on the benefits of doing so. I’m an optimist that people and business can be positive change agents abiding by principles of equity and justice.

If you’re interested in a two part video interview with John (in lieu of reading the book), see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTbdnNgqfs8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29GhXsx7-Rs

“Every Company is Running for Office. To Win, Give the Voters What They Want”

The second of Alan’s principles deals with customers’ desires and expectations. While marketers could expand on this topic in a plethora of ways, Alan breaks desires down to three things tied to American culture followed by the question every business leader should ask:

1. Practicality and the desire for things that simply get the job done - “Does it Work?”
2. Adaptability and the capacity for continuous improvement - “Can we Make it Work Better?”
3. Love for innovative ideas and solutions that improve lives - “Is it New and Better?”

What I like about these three things is their very objective focus. By addressing one, we have to ask many more questions to achieve an answer. Sometimes the answer is intuitive, and other times it isn’t. What does a competitive analysis, customer service, or design/engineering have to say? What do managers and executives think, but haven’t publicly expressed?

There’s two areas I’d like to highlight: Quality and Audience.

Quality - How well do the primary/secondary products and services perform against established goals and competitive benchmarks? Is there a reason for the surplus or deficiency? Is there a bottleneck or trampoline that’s influencing performance, as perceived by the customer?

Audience - Are we targeting the right people? Does our product/service fit their expectations for quality, price, service, or other attributes? Have our communication touch points been well designed to convey that quality? Have we taken sufficient steps to measure customer satisfaction and what quality aspects can be improved? Have lead users or customers been involved in the product development process, whether from ideation or usability testing?

When we conduct a qualitative acid test like this perhaps through brief questionnaires to various stakeholders and customer segments, combined with some competitive analysis, the answers to the three questions will become clear.

But remember to keep asking

Note - This review is based on my reading of Alan Webber’s “Rules of Thumb” which I received as a gift from the publisher. Visit the Facebook Fan Page for more insights.

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I bought his book “A Fine Line” a couple weeks ago and am dying to dig through it in the coming weeks. Here’s some info from the official website:

A Fine Line offers a step-by-step overview of the innovation process — from targeting goals to shepherding new products and services to the marketplace — in order to reveal how to arrive at an authentic human design that connects strongly with consumers. With a unique perspective, rich stories, and a global mindset, Esslinger explores business solutions that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to an enduring global economy.

Hartmut Esslinger is the founder of frog design, inc., a leading global innovation firm, and one of the most respected designers and business consultants in the world. Esslinger sparked a design revolution when he founded frog design in his native Germany around the guiding principle “form follows emotion.” His work has defined the modern consumer aesthetic with such revolutionary products as the Apple Macintosh computer, Sony’s Trinitron television, Lufthansa’s brand and fleet image, Disney’s Cruise Lines and Consumer Electronics, and Louis Vuitton’s brand aesthetic. His designs are in the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum in New York. He is also Founding Professor of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany and Professor for Convergent Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.

About 7 weeks ago, I received a review copy of “Rules of Thumb” by Alan Webber as a gift from their agent. Instead of making a comprehensive book review, I thought I’d break down the 52 rules on life and business into various posts, using a bit of Alan’s writing and personal perspective as I read through it. That way it’s helpful to us all

“When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Relax”

Alan recounts being an associate editor for the Harvard Business Review in the early 80s, and describes a live interview opportunity he’d received with then German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt. Now this gent was apparently known to be a bit “better-than-thou” with people asking questions, so Alan had good reason to feel a bit nervous. Before Helmut walked in, he wrote a couple key reference phrases at the top of his pad, along the lines of

“Relax! Smile! This is a blessing, a treat, and an honor. It’s not a punishment to be endured.”

That’s the key. When we’re in situations where there’s great opportunity, we all can tense up, and perhaps think of all the things that can go wrong. If we dwell on them, a little whirlwind or slight breezes of negative thinking can hinder the best in us from coming out, reaching out, and giving our best - unconsciously, naturally. I liken such scenarios to black-or-white thinking: a dangerous pool to be wading in even if we’re looking on the extreme bright side of things, because overconfidence may hinder us from great interpersonal interaction, while also inflating expectations and potentially setting ourselves up for a big letdown, which may result in lame emotional reasoning. I think you get the point.

Alan further expands on this by mentioning W. Edward Deming’s 8th point in total quality management:

“Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.”,

but stresses that the starting place lies within US. In addition to the aforementioned reasons, having a relaxed composure and confident attitude ensures that we’ll have a good time - no matter what the outcome is. After all, things may not go favorably, predictably, or easily for a variety of reasons. Given that, isn’t it then worthwhile to ensure you at least made the best of it and smile?

“Don’t let fear undermine your chance to do that one thing you’ve wanted to do…Take a second and smile. Enjoy the trip.”

What makes people buy? The question’s been so oft asked and answered by multitudes of marketers, designers, and behavioral scientists over decades that I’m quite sure we can skip the standard textbook answers from these three camps. In the last 4 years though, I’ve gotten a fairly good idea of factors at play in the retail store environment. This coming from sales and marketing experience for a few consumer product manufacturers, and having read some amazing books from Paco Underhill (“Why We Buy”), Kate Newlin (“Shopportunity”), and Pamela Danziger (“Shopping”).

So Martin Lindstrom is a gentleman who kindly sent me his book to review last Fall, which I voraciously read over the soonest weekend. Buyology is a book that’s probably best described from this Publisher’s Weekly description on Amazon:

“Through extensive and expensive research, Lindstrom provides an adequate primer on what neuroscience studies can tell society—particularly marketers—about how selling (and more important, buying) works. Whether considering the roles of sex, religion, product placement or contradictions in consumer habits between what they say and what they do, Lindstrom explores how brain-scan studies reveal an avalanche of information about what works and what doesn’t.”

From the various chapters, here are their summaries and my thoughts:

Study Details

2,180 volunteers from U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. Sought answers to these kinds of questions: Does product placement work? To what degree do brand logos still have power? How is subliminal advertising taking place? Does religion influence purchasing behavior? How do disclaimers and warnings affect purchasing? Does sex in advertising work? The book is on neuroscience and brands.

Product Placement

We have no memory of brands that don’t play an integral part in the storyline/plot of a program. Those which are tied along well will be much more memorable, and will weaken our ability to remember other brands. The question of efficacy comes down to asking whether the placement makes sense within the narrative and if it’s relevant to the context?

Mirror Neurons

Wikipedia explanation or mine: perceptive nerve cells which create internal reactions by releasing dopamine/other chemicals. The Brodmann area 10 of the brain is supposed to be the ‘cool’ identification region.

Subliminal Ads

Logo-free images work best, by associated image emotions acting on reward & craving centers of the brain.

Rituals, Shared Beliefs, and Stories

This relates to common daily/monthly/seasonal activities, personal and shared beliefs (whether true or not), and stories as the means they’re solidified in our minds. Affiliating a brand to one of these is common and can be very sticky. However, trying to extend brand affiliation to other contexts or rituals can become futile. Our memory acts an intuition guide on which scenarios have natural, open, or questionably brand fit. Collection activities are powerful rituals. Martin goes on to humorously talk about his frantic Lego collection as a kid, building a Legoland in his backyard and getting many visits after placing a newspaper ad, whereupon some Lego employees came and while they enjoyed his creations, advised he’d have to change his name - which he did and later on worked for the company.

Religion

Among all faiths there are many common attributes. Most successful brands have elements of religions. These include:

1. Sense of belonging/community
2. Clear mission, unambiguous vision
3. Desire to overcome and exert power over enemies/identifiable “Other”
4. Sensory appeal
5. Storytelling
6. Evangelism
7. Symbols
8. Mystery

Logos are unimportant for emotional branding for devotional products/services. Lovemarks are just indicators to the user experience.

Somatic Markers

Indicators for positive/negative sensory experiences that typically draw associations between two incompatible scenarios. Based on past experiences of reward & punishment, conditioning to events. Fear and insecurity can be strong drivers for mental associations. These markers act as intuition, strong impressions, and cognitive shortcuts for activities to be done. They’re created over time and every day.

Senses

Eyes are much less potent than they’re acclaimed them to be. The reason is that attention nowadays is hard to get and hold. Logos don’t matter in sensory perception. See & smell combinations can work well though, for positive and negative emotional reactions. Touch is important in some user impression-forming and purchase consideration scenarios, for example electronics and textiles. Sometimes unique colors can be spellbound to particular brands when strategically employed in their graphic, industrial, and environmental design. Sound/image combinations can also form strong impressions. Ultimately, sensory experiences can either form an immediate positive/negative regard (in new encounters), or create anchors for future encounters, where the previous emotional responses will be fired off automatically in response to sensory stimuli.

Sex

Sure it can be powerful in grabbing momentary attention, however in advertisement testing there is very poor/no brand recollection. Secondly, there’s even worse brand recall if the ads surround sexual-themed programming. The general idea is that its inclusion is distracting altogether, and can hinder desired action the brand wants the user to take. Controversy on the other hand sells better than sex, as the brand attention is more influential rather than the suggestive/explicit content itself.

Using extreme beauty (models) and celebrities in brand affiliation can be ineffective for recall, as people will momentarily admire the individual much more than notice a brand. What we are attracted to is people in ads who look like us or could reasonably be us - through appearance, activities, lifestyle, etc.

Sex, in general, has the effect on mirror neurons of evoking desire and affinity (“They’re cute” - “I’d like to look as sexy as them”). For this reason, sexuality in advertisements will be around for a long time, as their function is wish fulfillment. If saturated exposure characterizes the user experience, more effective forms of deploying sexuality will involve being sneakier, subtler, and under the direct conscious radar.

Summary

So traditional market research can only go so far. Neuroscience has and will continue to add advanced understanding of why people behave the way they do, as sometimes we may not even know ourselves

Once again, Mr. Farber has applied his classic business novel/parable style to his latest book: “Greater Than Yourself”.

It’s filled with characters who although are laid-back, friendly, and humble, they’re also beaming with confidence and an in-the-moment lifestyle based on values, giving, and interpersonal development. Again Steve here has inserted himself as the apprentice who although smart, is a bit wary and joking at first, yet becomes ever more intrigued and committed to the GTY applied philosophy. Combined with a good foreword, real third-party stories of GTY, and a summary process framework, the book makes for an excellent read.

The diagram you see above is my own illustrated summary of the Greater Than Yourself process. Within each of the steps are particular instructions for which you’d really need to read the book to understand and gain valuable insight. Also see the Greater Than Yourself website which has videos and other free resources (with email signup). If you haven’t read Steve’s “The Radical Leap”, do check out some earlier posts of mine for quick goodies:

• On Fear and Leadership
• The LEAP
• LEAP: Vision, Love, and Energy

Following some years in the social media space, I have read many great books on the subject of “the end of business as usual”, online communications, marketing, sociology, and have learned quite a great deal. But one book kept on popping up here and there as the so-called “Bible” of this movement: The Cluetrain Manifesto

Sitting on my shelf now for over 6 months, I finally picked it up a few weeks ago and must say that I haven’t been so thoroughly entertained by a sociology/business book in a LONG time. The entire 95 theses and the rest of the chapters can be found online as well, in case you’re interested.

So the Cluetrain is already 10 years old at this point, and reminds me in many ways of the coming impact Natural Capitalism and The Ecology of Commerce would have on the sustainability movement. Big changes were afoot and still are. A better future was possible and happening right now - Markets are Conversations

While the term Conversations has been used and thrown so often with sometimes vague and happy connotations, and other times with a deep analysis of the underlying societal changes underway, the verb Converse and its nominalized form Conversation, do best summarize the impact of the networked world’s effect on interpersonal communications.

Interpersonal. The brand, the company, the nonprofit — - all are mental constructs for what we’d like to associate with a personality or bag of experiences. Yet, we know they’re made of people, and in the words of Dale Carnegie and countless others including Jeffrey Gitomer, people like to interact with other people. One can be a fan of a brand/org, but to get the best interaction - one needs to connect with another person. Hence the just claim by my pal Alan Wolk that, “Your brand is not my friend”. So if you’re an org of any sort, don’t approach us  and attempt to entice favorable appeal by employing semi-conversational language just so you can increase your friend/follower numbers. That’s just another version of advertising. Use the human voice in your communications, sure. But if we’re going to have some kind of relationship, we’re going to come to you on our own accord.

Is there much more to say other than Be Approachable and Be Personal? Not really, except in Locke and Weinberger’s own 12-step program for internet business success: Relax, Have a sense of humor, Find your voice and use it, Tell the truth, Don’t panic, Enjoy yourself, Be brave, Be curious, Play more, Dream always, Listen up, and Rap on.

Additional Resources:

• Citizen Marketers and Creating Customer Evangelists, by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba
• Personality Not Included, by Rohit Bhargava
• Groundswell, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
• Secrets of Social Media Marketing, by Paul Gillin
• Valeria Maltoni (see also her discussion of the Cluetrain)
• Seth Godin
• Word of Mouth Marketing, by Andy Sernovitz

So early last year I read John Grant’s seminal “The Green Marketing Manifesto”, which presented a systematic model for good/green business. John had a 3x3 table to portray this model; I drew it up as a pie chart instead to show the realm of influence and depth of ‘greenness’.

The realms of influence represent a hierarchy of where marketing activities are applied. These include:

A) Public: Companies, Markets, Political and Cultural Values

B) Social: Identity, Group Affiliation, Meaning, and Branding

C) Personal: Products and Practical Benefits

Going from the outer to inner circles, we have progressive degrees of green contribution with an associated marketing objective:

A) Green: Set New Standards - Communicate

B) Greener: Share Responsibility - Collaborate

C) Greenest: Support Innovation - Culture Reshaped

The idea is that as we go from light to dark green, we’re moving from having only commercial objectives to an increasing amount of environmental and social objectives. It’s going from basic compliance to proactive action to systemic innovation & transformation.

While any given project will have an influence upon multiple realms of influence, in addition to multiple activities with varying degrees of contribution, this model does help us to think about where and how far marketing objectives can have an impact.

If you pick up the book, John goes through each pie-quadrant and examines two possible approaches for each objective, using case studies. Before I discuss these in future posts, I’d like to know your thoughts on this model so far. Please share!

Having listened to the The World is Flat over MANY hours on my bike two years ago, I anticipated an intellectual boat ride guided by captain Thomas Friedman in his book: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America.

The points of the book worth mentioning are as follows:

• Foreign oil dependence supports petro-dictatorships and thus the suppression of democracy, particularly when prices are high.
• The rise of the middle class in developing nations will dramatically increase world energy demands. The continued combustion of non-renewable resources like coal and oil for electricity and transportation is very bad for air quality and its contribution to global warming.
• Deforestation is responsible for 20-25% of total carbon emissions. This is more than the combined emissions of all the world’s cars, trucks, trains and planes.
• America needs a Manhattan project for clean energy. The ability of our country to industrially transform itself during World War II is testament to our potential.
• Cap-and-Trade mechanisms are helpful, but carbon taxes and floor prices on imported oil will provide funding for R&D and capital investment.
• We as individual citizens and even SMBs cannot affect global climate change. Period. No matter how good we feel driving/flying less, biking/walking more, buying carbon offsets or RECs (renewable energy credits). The problem is systemic, macroeconomic, and political.
• The business model of electricity in America is severely flawed.
• There is no green revolution currently taking place, only small-scale projects and improvements. Revolution implies suffering, overthrow, and radical change. What we’re experiencing is a Party invoked by marketing and mass media, where being ‘green’ is easy and fun. Flowers bloom, butterflies flutter about, and everybody is a winner. Water bottles and recycled PET shopping bags for everyone.

While I enjoyed Friedman’s multiple rounds of investigative and expository journalism bound together in chapters to form a book, I must say that the book dragged on and on. This book would have been a pleasant voyage for me, had Tom decided to cut the book in half by limiting personal reflections, cutting out unnecessary details to support arguments, and moving ALL normative statements into one concise chapter at the very end. 150 pages would have done the trick.

Recommendation

If you pick up the book, prepare to skim.

The collaborative marketing book I participated in last year is now back for Round 2, this time with 237 authors on board; proceeds again go to the childrens charity Variety.

To make things a bit more interesting, this time the authors had been asked to write a single page on one of the following topics:

• Manifestos
• Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation
• Moving from Conversation to Action?
• The Accidental Marketer
• A New Brand of Creative
• My Marketing Tragedy
• Business Model Evolution
• Life in the Conversation Lane

My pick was “The Accidental Marketer”, and had written about a trio of ladies in Santa Monica, CA who were successfully running a small business making vegetable/fruit gardens for homeowners. While two of them were specially educated in this field, the third came from a writing background and was new to running a business. In my article, I document this group’s story and how she ended up doing a pretty swell job, having fallen into it and all

The Age of Conversation 2 is available as a downloadable e-book ($12.50, with $10 to charity), hardcover ($29.95, with $6.04 to charity), and paperback ($19.95, with $8.02 to charity).

Here’s the list of contributing authors to this great book (which you should pick up Today!):

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G. Kofi Annan, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw and James G. Lindberg, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem