Posts from the Einstein-esque Category

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Brand Your Frame of Mind

March 23rd, 2007 by Chief Nut

Commenting on Google’s approach to their initial biz dev, Seth asks “Was Google Right?” … and then tells us:

… they made counter-intuitive decisions. No ads, for example. No
clutter. No popups, no tricky interpretations of privacy policies.
Instead, every decision was, “If this is going to be the one and only
choice, the best search engine in the world, what should we do?” The
feeling was, if they built that, the money would take care of itself.
And the investors who bought in were in on the game from the start.

Did they get lucky? You bet. Did it seem arrogant? Sure. But my
point is that if they hadn’t made those decisions, they would have
certainly failed.

A la “The Law of Attraction”, is there any other way to think that will lead to wild success? Nope.

In your mind, are you positioning your company to be the best of the best without ANY competition? OR, are you getting mired in your competitor’s latest tactic, or figuring out how you can incrementally improve your product to boost sales a bit? If you plan on succeeding a little bit, that’s exactly what you’ll do. If you plan on succeeding wildly … ditto.

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It’s Not Just About Pretty Pictures

January 9th, 2007 by Chief Nut

Spending time immersed in the world of brand and creative design, one tends to get picky when it comes to visual presentation. If you’re in any business and have found yourself creating a PowerPoint slide with 10 (or more) bullets, all text, in 12 point font you need to check out these resources more than anyone else:

Understand that a large, double-digit percent of the population learns visually. They not only want to experience your presentation visually, they need to see it that way. That, and sometimes, the data is simply better presented in a visual format.

Next time, break out the Crayolas and take your presentations up a notch.

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I Get Around … How ‘Bout You?

January 9th, 2007 by Chief Nut

Dyan, owner of the Cozy Inn Lakeview House and Cottages in beautiful Weirs Beach, NH commented on my last post …

I first started reading your blog for the tips etc. I still do but now, I love to check out all the interesting web sites you visit…just when do you have the time and where do you find them all!

INDEED, this is worthy of its own post. My process of finding stuff to write about is several fold and has evolved over the course of blogging for a couple of years. I didn’t seek out guidance from other bloggers … it just happened. Here’s my process (just about every morning);

  • Read core group of other bloggers in my industry (e.g. Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Peters, Laura Reis, Robert Scoble, Michael Port, John Moore, and a couple of dozen others). Since I only read the newest stuff and most of these people don’t post every day, it only takes 10 minutes, or so, per day to keep up.
  • Read what’s new on Digg.
  • Read Google News (I have a couple of specific keywords that are searched for; branding, marketing, advertising, etc.)
  • Once every couple of weeks I’ll need a mental break and will find myself at a computer NOT wanting to read, research or do any “heavy lifting.” In this case I’ll use the StumbleUpon plugin to firefox to go surf some randomly selected websites in key topic areas or using specific keywords (e.g. marketing). This is a FABULOUS way to find new and interesting stuff. It’s usually not bleeding edge or super fresh, but it’s almost always interesting.
  • The most frequent source of blogging material is just having a strong opinion about stuff.

I’d be very interested in hearing from other people how they get inspired for new blog content. Any takers?

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Enough Already

January 9th, 2007 by Chief Nut

In Seth Godin’s recent post called Legions of the Clueless, one disappointed reader claims that Seth doesn’t “say anything new, that it’s obvious, that everyone already gets this stuff.” WOW! How amazingly UN-informed this reader is.

About a year ago, someone on our team made the remark that 90% or more of the businesses we encounter “don’t get it”. I thought this was a bit extreme, so I mentally started tracking the number of businesses owners we encountered (not just those seeking our services, but included all networking and research encounters as well. EVERYone!). Surprisingly (or not so), the number turns out to be true! The VAST majority of businesses don’t understand the basic marketing and branding concepts that will take them to new heights. The same concepts that Seth has been espousing for years!

I know I’ll keep reading Seth’s stuff. The real question is how to get the uninitiated 90% to do the same.

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The Psychology of “Click”

January 3rd, 2007 by Chief Nut

Do you think page layout (not the actual words or images) affects where a person may, or may not, click? Think again! Take this quick test and try to psych out the results … you’ll be amazed. My personal observations:

  • People construct “form” in their minds when it isn’t actually presented to them. Make note of the number of people who click on corners, edges, middles, ends …€” and the connections between these points.
  • LOTS of people think alike … even when told to think differently
  • People prefer “top” rather than “bottom”
  • People prefer “middles” and “edges” rather than “center-ish fringe”
  • Words definitely have meaning and impact

I think there are “conventions” that can be taken from this and would LOVE to see a more formal study of this kind of psychology (a la the eye tracking studies conducted by Marketing Sherpa).

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Ask About Our Tips!

December 21st, 2006 by Chief Nut

I was having a wonderful brainstorming session at lunch today with “Content Lover” and “Word Wiz” Allen Voivod. We were engaged in a pleasant conversation with Laura, the Head Barista at the local coffee shop and, when asked, she recited to us (quite proudly, I must say) the cafe’s tip policy;

  • One third goes to the employees … who split it equitably based on number of hours worked.
  • One third goes to a fund that pays for employee enhancement … like college courses, seminars, etc.
  • The final third goes to social and charitable causes.

The tips were being collected in an unadorned, completely UN-remarkable brown coffee mug. We politely asked her why she doesn’t post something about this wonderful, well thought out, charitable policy. She said “it would take too long to explain it”. Allen, in his ever-creative way, suggested that a small sign on the cup could read “Ask About Our Tips”. BRILLIANT!

Thinking about the topic of “brevity”, I tried to recall for Allen a fabulous response from Mark Twain to a newspaper editor about why a short article would be more costly than a long article. I couldn’t find it, but I did find this other gem:

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
…€”Mark Twain

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Jonesin’ For More Info?

November 13th, 2006 by Chief Nut

I had dinner this evening with a business associate and the discussion of blogging came up. A question was posed “how often should you post to your blog?” One good story is a post by Rob Clark at TheElusiveFish.com. After a site redesign, his blog posting increased from once a week to about every other day. The result? With this change came a 100% increase in traffic! ZOW! However, after a posting lull later, an expected (but less dramatic) drop off in traffic was observed… 10%-20% per week.

The bottom line: As long as you have high quality, high value, thought provoking information to share with the world, your readers will keep coming back for more. Valuable information is like a drug. Cut people off and they’ll go elsewhere to get their fix.

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CONTROL FREAK!!

November 8th, 2006 by Chief Nut

The book Hot Button Marketing by Barry Feig, lists the number one hot button as the need to control one’s life.

What if I wanted to make my hair blue? … zip, aqua locks! Or, What if I wanted to take off 50 pounds in an instant? … poof, Oprah in a microsecond! Maybe, today, I’d like to be a nine foot tall Amazonian Princess with a nose ring and body tattoos …. OK, toooo far! How is this all possible? Check out any of the Role Playing Games (RPGs) your kids are playing online. Some examples: World of Warcraft, Runescape, Guildwars, Virtual magic Kingdom, Ragnarok Online, Second Life, etc.

Isn’t it obvious what’s going on here? Players can control EVERY aspect of their virtual life, even if they have very little control over their “real” life. Mr. Feig is right on with his Control Hot Button assessment … especially with the youth demographic.

Take the opportunity to give your customers more control in the buying process to see what impact it has on your bottom line.

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Autoresponder Madness

November 5th, 2006 by Chief Nut

I get why companies use autoresponders (press #1 for sales … press #2 for accounting … etc.). They can make communication and call routing more efficient, and can reduce the labor required (read “reduced payroll”) to manage incoming calls.

But what about those insanely complex, multi-tiered, non-intuitive systems that make you feel like you’ve been thrown into autresponder purgatory?! How do you explain the huge amount of time and energy it takes to keep the “Get Human 500” database current? Yes, people are willing to endure a simple and intuitive autoresponder system, BUT if you’ve made it to the Get Human list, you’ve clearly missed the boat and your brand is taking a huge broadside hit!

People will do just about anything to not be annoyed and to ask a real live person a real live question … hoping to get a real live answer. I know I’m kinda funny that way!

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Guess The Logo

November 4th, 2006 by Chief Nut

Try it … it’s MUCH harder than you think. Guess the logo.

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