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While it may be easy to attract the attention of a growing cross section of consumers with your social or environmental brand messaging – if you know the right language, not all consumers are so easy. Drawing from his book “Igniting Inspiration: A Persuasion Manual for Visionaries”, John Marshall Roberts outlines core principles of transformational communication, as illustrated through the groundbreaking marketing and messaging for President Obama’s historic presidential run. He illustrates how the audience can shift their thinking and apply this same framework to create breakthrough results for their own social and environmentally conscious business ventures through strategic, authentic values-based marketing and communications.

Crazy, energetic speaker with great ideas. His latest presentation from Sustainable Brands 10 (which I hope to show sometime this Fall), dives further into what I think of as radical emotional intelligence for communication design, for good

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Interview with John Grant, author of the Green Marketing Manifesto and partner in Abundancy Partners, on his new book: Co-Opportunity - Join up for a Sustainable, Resilient, and Prosperous World. John speaks about a new way of life that is emerging, allowing individuals to enjoy new opportunities for entrepreneurship, resource sharing, friendships, and more. Aligned with the human spirit’s desire to both be independent and be part of a community. Learn more about Co-Opportunity at: http://www.coopp.net/

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Recent history has seen the rise of innovation as a key mandate for driving top-line growth in business across multiple sectors. But as organizations have devoted increasing resources and attention to innovation, a critical issue has been ignored in the process. How can you create new value if your company doesn’t have a gut sense for what people outside its walls actually value? The challenge facing business today isn’t a lack of innovation, it’s lack of empathy. Listen to Dev Patnaik, CEO of Jump Associates and author of “Wired to Care”, for a look inside leading companies like IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Harley Davidson, Nike, and Delta Airlines to see how empathy can drive change and growth. He dives deep into the human brain to find the biological sources of empathy and their critical role in decision-making, learning, and judgment.

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I attended this presentation by Elizabeth Grossman, regarding her story in writing the book Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry. It’s a fantastic story that’s kind of scary on one side, but enlightening and inspirational on the other. When we consider chemicals that were engineered in the last 100 years, the primary focus was on performance, but little (if any) thought was given toward persistent toxicity throughout lifecycles and their biological impacts.

While I could go on, let Elizabeth walk you through the journey she took and learnings along the way. Enjoyez!

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