The "Result Junkies"

Last month in the United States was the start of the Holiday Season.  Thanksgiving starts off a fast and furious couple of months full of food, family, holiday parties and travel.  If you’re like my wife and I, then you are not originally from this great state of Texas, and it means that you get to travel back to your family and native lands.  Oh the joys!

The holidays always mean something different for each person and each family. Just as is does for all of our wonderful clients with whom we would not be able to be here today without.  So as we wind down this year I want to take a moment and thank all of our past and current clients. Without you we do not exist and we are not able to explore our minds and stretch the limitations of our abilities.

We want to wish a happy holidays to all of our troops both near and abroad. Not only do you sacrifice your lives on a daily basis for us to be able to write blogs like this, you spend these holidays far from home and your loved ones.  For that we wish you all of the men and women of the armed forces, the very best holiday season, safe travels and God speed.

January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was the god of doorways, beginnings, endings, and time.  He is often depicted as having two heads, one looking forward into the future and the other looking back into the past.  It is appropriate that we take this time to reflect on the past and look toward the future.  As re reflect, we are most thankful that all of our “Result Junkies” – you – have chosen to seize the opportunities and through hard work, we have had the chance to prosper and grow and know each other in our journey.  Thank you to ALL of you for the hard work over the past year and for your loyalty and support.  Thanks to your families who understood when you went to work early, worked late and traveled away from home which added to their load. These past couple of years have not been easy ones in business or in the World – but you have contributed to improvement in both our prosperity as a company and others who have benefited from our ability to share that.

Looking to the future and what 2012 has in store for us is what makes coming to the lab everyday worthwhile.

We sincerely hope all of our friends, families, colleagues and patrons have a wonderful and safe holiday season.

The Invention of Lying and Liar Liar toy with the idea of being incapable of telling a lie. What if this concept was applied to the world of marketing? What would advertisements and promotions look like?

Easy Choices

If companies were incapable of lying about their products, consumers may have an easier time with choosing a product or service. Think about it, you’re shopping for a used car and you’re torn between two selections. If the salesman was incapable of lying, he would tell you that the radiator has a crack in it, and it’s been in a flood.
Consumers spend hours shopping around and comparing products and services, but if a company is incapable of lying then those countless hours could become mere minutes.

Trust

If you can’t lie, then there is no need to be skeptical. Consumers tend to be critical by nature, but if you remove lying from the equation, then there is no need to be.

Ethics

One of the best examples for questionable ethical behavior and lying are the cigarette manufacturers. They knew for years that cigarettes were harmful and dangerous, but they continued to market them in an innocent light. If you remove lying from the equation, companies would be incapable of hiding the truth from the public. A lie-free world would create a sense of transparency. In turn, more companies may engage in ethical behavior. Those that don’t would probably lose business quickly.

Business As Usual?

So you can’t lie, big deal. Well, sometimes we need to. If you take away the ability to lie, you take away a buffer. In a lie-free world, trade secrets could be compromised, and confidentiality could cease to exist. Do you think products like Krispy Kream would exist if people knew how unhealthy they were from day one? Let’s revisit cigarettes. If consumers knew about the health risks that were associated with them from the time they were created, would anyone purchase them? Some companies need to lie to survive.

Walk The Walk

How many times have you purchased a product or a service, only to be disappointed with it later? Was it because of false promises and pretenses? If it was, a lie-free world could eliminate this issue.
People can expect so much from a company due to its marketing, but if it was completely honest, customers would know what to expect and nothing more. Puffery, which is responsible for a large portion of exaggerated expectations, would probably stop being used since it is a form of a white lie.

What’s the benefit of realistic expectations? Higher customer satisfaction. Since the customer no longer expects the product or service to deliver false promises, they can evaluate it in realistic terms and base their satisfaction off reality.

Also, customers no longer have to take a gamble when they try something new. They’ll know what sort of outcome to expect.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly…

You’ll be able to tell these businesses apart and determine if they are a good company or a bad company. If a business can’t lie, they can’t spin the facts in their favor, or if they do, they will have to tell you.

Shifting Tactics

The focus for marketing may shift from big sales to repeat business in a lie-free world. Businesses won’t be able to dazzle their customers with lies and empty promises. Instead, they’ll be forced to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of their product and figure out a way to market it to be appealing to their customers.

Over the top commercials may shift to a more dialogue oriented style where the product is described for what it is, and nothing more.

Also, the fine print and disclaimers associated with a product may change. I have a feeling that the fine print of a product would be less confusing if people were incapable of lying. Rebates and warranties would be easier to understand. Marketing promotions would be a lot more clear-cut as well.

Do not adjust your computer, iPhone, Ipad or Tablet? screens…this is seriously what they released to the world! But alas, the many Gap enthusiasts, my wife included, quickly made a mockery of the company’s feeble and epic failed attempt to “refresh” their now iconic mark.

If you know me then you know I am going to squeeze the conspiracy out of this story, if for nothing other than making us all think.

Many of us are more than likely going to be inclined to cough this up as a foolish corporate mistake. But is it really? Gap has been a company known to be in financial turmoil. Dwindling stocks stemming from less than impressive year-end financial reports were the perfect contributing ingredients to an impending disaster. Just last year alone the company lost an estimate 2.3% when comparing their previous years revenue, which was also down from the previous year.  If you ask me, this massive sales deficit was not only a side effect of the fledgling economy, but spoke to the fact of the company’s diminshing brand presence. It was a matter of time until a “More Panic” meeting was called.

People always say to themselves, “I wish I was a fly on the wall in that meeting”. Well folks, I spoke to a fly, who spoke to a fly, who heard it on the grapevine, who claims she heard it from Cathy, about what went on…and here is how he thinks it went down”…

“Hear ye, hear ye”… well maybe not, but I have always wanted to start a meeting off like that.

“So what do we do?”…asks the guy sitting at the end of the table, donned in his red and blue neck-tie, white Armani dress-shirt (the irony kills me), Armani reading glasses and $1500 boots (we assume the rest of his outfit is pretty standard…except for his watch which can buy both you and I a brand new house…or feed a hundred starving families, whichever one makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside).

“We shake things up!”…says the marketing director.

“We change our prices and our line”

“Tried that before!”…says Armani suite…

“Well…hmmmm…ok how about we change our brand?”

“I don’t think that is a good idea, people are comfortable with our brand…it will cost us too much money and frankly I am going on vacation at the end of the month and don’t need the headache. Any other ideas?”..says Armani suit

The intern raises her hand, me..me…me

“Anybody else?”

“me…me..me!”

“Fine, Lindsay what do you think?”

“Why don’t we just pretend to change our brand. I will create a logo with my mediocre at best Photoshop skills, and then we can release it at midnight tonight. That way we can generate some press and hope to not lose our shirts…get it?”

“I don’t know”… say the now overpaid marketing director…”that is a silly idea!”

“What do we have to lose? Sales and credibility?… we have already lost those by releasing those stupid looking skinny jeans”…says Armani suit

“Lindsay, you are a genius. Do it!”

We flash forward through panic, disgust, laughter, ridicule and back-tracking, only to find Gap at the fore-front of every news media, trying to explain away what happened with their “failed attempt to release their new logo”.

While we all point and laugh at what a gigantic failure that it was, I must sit back and ask myself…

WAS IT?…WAS IT REALLY?

True or False: I need to be on every platform.

Ok look, if you’re going to use social media marketing you should probably invest your time in a Twitter account and a Facebook account.  A majority of your customers and clients probably have an account as well, and you need to be where they are. Do you really need to have a Foursquare account, Digg account and an RSS feed? No! Don’t waste your time and energy on social media marketing accounts that are going to hardly be viewed or utilized. Keep it simple.

True or False: Social media is a fad.

Considering that Facebook users are multiplying like rabid rabbits, I would say this is false. Even Twitter seems to be hanging in there. Having said that, joining the social media world really isn’t bandwagon jumping or fad-following. It seems that social media accounts are becoming a necessary accessory for businesses.

True or False: You can brand without being online.

Sure, you can brand without having an online presence, but why would you want to? It’s like trying to bake a cake without all of the ingredients! It’s just not right! The internet is your friend, and if you use it properly it can be one of your best allies when it comes to branding yourself. Think back to the Old Spice commercials you saw on TV. Now I want you to go to Youtube and search for that same Old Spice Guy. Seriously, go do it…NOW! You probably discovered his question and answer segment where he actually answers questions from his Youtube viewers. The Old Spice Guy is an extension of the Old Spice brand because he is a persona, and he has expanded his persona to the online world. What’s the end result? Your brand is remembered and thought of in the real world.

True or False: I need a huge marketing campaign to create a brand.

False. Branding yourself can be as simple as creating a catchy slogan and/or pairing it with a great graphic. It doesn’t take television advertisements and print to get your brand out there. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing these days. Especially now that Twitter exists. Think about it, a customer has a positive experience with your business and they tweet about it. That tweet is seen by their friends. People tend to gravitate towards products that have personal testimonials attached to them because they trust their friends and family. You see where this is going don’t you? Before long, you could gain twenty customers because of one tweet.

Also, a brand doesn’t have to be a logo or a slogan. It can be a lifestyle or a piece of culture. Take Apple for example. Apple has created a culture around its company. Apple followers line up again and again for the latest and greatest product from them because they want to buy into their brand so they can be a part of the Apple culture. Think back to the I-pod commercials. They were hardly ground breaking; most of them featured shadowed people dancing around a colorful room. I wouldn’t exactly refer to that as a call to action.

Apple is successful because it markets an extension of itself.

True or False: If I make it, they will buy it.

You might have the perfect product, but if you don’t have the proper buzz around it your product could just sit on the shelf and collect dust. The same goes for services. You need to generate an interest in your product. Give out samples, show demos, promote on social media sites or even try more traditional marketing methods. You have to get the word out.

True or False: Spending more money on advertising means more results.

If you don’t build your brand, then no amount of advertising can help you. Advertising is trying to provoke a person to make a purchase. It’s persuasive material, and it’s biased. Sure, advertising is useful, but only after your product has proved itself credible. Why do you think businesses are eager to get their products featured on Oprah? She offers credibility because she tests her products before giving them her personal endorsement. Also, Oprah isn’t an infomercial or an advertisement.

True or False: You need a logo to brand yourself.

Zipbloc, Marlboro and Puffs are just a few examples of companies that don’t have notable logos. They’re recognized by their label and font only. Don’t believe the hype. A logo is not the end all, be all of branding. You can have a successful marketing campaign and brand yourself without a flashy image. This is great news for the budget conscious business person.

True or False: I don’t need to revisit branding after I’ve executed it.

The world changes, your customers interests change, and wants and needs shift over time. Why wouldn’t you revisit branding? It’s your job to connect with customers, and your brand is the best way to do so. However, if your brand is old and dated, customers won’t be able to connect and relate to you. You have to keep refreshing your persona and image.

True or False: My company is huge, so our branding strategy has worked.

Large companies are not immune to branding failures. In fact, if a branding campaign does not go over well, a larger company has more to lose. If you are a part of a small business, your clientele list is significantly shorter than a multi-million dollar corporation. What does this mean? If you experiment with branding, and it isn’t a successful campaign, you have less to lose because your brand only reaches a limited audience. A large company with national recognition could ruin its reputation and credibility in the eyes of millions of customers if their branding campaign goes belly-up.

Have you ever noticed that people tend to act differently when they are online? It seems that we’ve forgotten how to act, so  Momma Manners is here to deliver a much needed lesson.

Mind Your Manners
Do you have an online business or an online presence? If the answer is yes, then you need to be extra careful about your online persona. Your social media accounts and websites reflect your character. Wouldn’t it suck if you lost business because of some drunken Tweet you decided to post,  because you posted a disgruntled Facebook comment after dealing with an antagonizing co-worker? If you don’t think your clients are researching you, then you’re senile. Here is a challenge for you, search your name or your company’s name and see what the search results yield. Be sure to use more than one search engine.

I Deleted Everything!
The first thing you should remember is that nothing is truly deleted from the internet. You can remove a snarky comment on someone’s blog, but your unkind words are still floating out there in cyberspace.

How Should I Conduct Myself?
Carry yourself online the same way that you would in person. Don’t post or write anything that you wouldn’t want on the first page of a newspaper.

Spelling—Try to avoid abbreviations or poor spelling on your social media accounts and website. We know that social media accounts are more casual than an office e-mail, but it is better to be overly formal then to be unprofessional. Your websites and pages are a reflection of your organization, and of your own character. Don’t tarnish your presence.

Watch Your Temper

One of your clients may have made you mad, or maybe a fellow employee really ticked you off, but don’t air your dirty laundry online. It’s just embarrassing and immature. Employees are losing their jobs over social media postings, and you don’t want to lose clients over something you wrote. Think before you type!

Keep It Separated—Make a professional and a personal social media account. It sounds like common sense, but some people haven’t figured out that it isn’t a wise decision to merge the two. If you have a Facebook, you should have a personal account attached to your personal email, and you should have a professional account connected to your professional email. There is nothing wrong with friending your customers and clients, but you don’t want them associating on the same page as your crazy cousin.

Censor Yourself

If you don’t have anything nice to say ,don’t say it at all. It’s an oldie, but definitely a goodie. Yes, you can post statements under an annonymous screen name, but if someone finds out who you are, you’re screwed. Just don’t do it!

Friending

Don’t friend your boss on your personal Facebook account! That’s what LinkedIn is for.

Responding—If you’re going to have a fanpage or some other form of social media, you need to engage your followers. If they posted to you, take the time to respond to them.

Keep It Clean—You and your friends may have a cool nickname for each other, but don’t make it a screen name. Also, keep your clothes on! We know you worked hard for that Adonis figure, but if a client were to come across a half-naked picture of you, I’m sure they won’t be impressed.

I Can See You!

Yes, there are privacy settings, but the world is a small place. There are ways to work around privacy settings on social media pages and websites, so keep that in mind when you are writing your content and posting images.

Music—If your website has music make sure that it isn’t offensive. Sounds like a no-brainer, but we all know what happens when we assume.

Language and Tone—Don’t use profanity! Also, if you’re trying to portray a certain attitude through your website (like sarcasm), you may want to reconsider. Your written content may come across as funny to you, but it may come across as offensive to another. Language and tone should be a special consideration if you’re conducting business internationally. Remember that context of your message can be received differently; depending on who is reading your website or posts.

Ultimately, if you wouldn’t want your grandma to read it or see it, then maybe you should reconsider what you’re about to publish.

Now it’s 2010, and social media is embedded in the daily functions of our lives. Businesses check their media feeds while they have their first cup of coffee. News stories are now being broken on Twitter before a reporter can reach the scene. People are meeting in person through social media connections (Tweetups and Facebook events). Let’s not forget that people are also constantly connected to the internet through their cellphones, computer or laptop.
If social media is still just a silly trend in your mind, you’re probably behind the curve. My marketing professor told me, “In the business world, only the fastest survive.” He’s absolutely right. If you can’t stay current, then you’ll become obsolete.

Swim Fast or Die

If these people were blogs, you'd want to be THAT guy.

Blogging. This phenomenon is for sure here to stay and we have advanced past the time of calling blogs just a trend. They are now essential tools in building brand awareness. Blogs provide opportunities to speak directly to audiences engaged in the brand already. Speaking to audiences in their own terms is one of the best ways to explain what your brand is all about.

So what’s the point of blogging?

Visiting a website can tell you lots about a brand. But not everything. And not a lot of the things you really want to know. If you want to KNOW the brand, the voices behind it and the issues that are important to it, a blog is where it’s at. You might find the beginning threads of what you want to know on an official website but digging deeper into a brand requires reading more.

Do us a favor: Just Keep it Simple

If you are blogging for your brand, you don’t want people to have to dig TOO deep. (Or else they probably won’t do any digging at all and move on to the next brand, next blog and not remember yours). It is important to also find ways to keep your old blogs memorable too. Remember that unbelievably awesome blog you wrote a month ago? Well there are a lot of ways to keep that work relevant and entice readers to check it out again. It also has to be easy to read. Establishing your blog and engaging people in what you have to say isn’t always easy though. If it was easy, then brand awareness would be simple and we would all know EVERYTHNG about ALL the brands we use and want.

Write TO your audience, not AT them…

In order for people to follow your blog, they have to have that basic interest in what you’re talking about. You have to know your audience too. Who is actually reading this stuff? Well, you have to know in order to write to them. Some of the best bloggers out there will tell you that branding is all about how you speak to your readers. Having a conversation with your reader is the best way to keep them engaged but also to keep YOU memorable. There are a lot of great articles out there, to help us figure out how to talk to potential clients.

Blogging allows you to literally write your own definition of what your brand represents. By showing people what you are interested in and what’s important to you, you build a personal relationship with them. Successful branding is not easy. This we know. But what we also know is how to create that brand dialogue and it starts with building a relationship.

Where are you?… what are you doing?… twitter made it popular, and if that didn’t make our current online sociali-sphere (made that up) a stalker’s heaven, location-based social networking just up the ante.

Almost every smart phone out today has some sort of Geo location capability. Whether it’s through an integrated GPS (real GPS) or estimating your location based on your nearest cell tower (Fake GPS), “They” know where you are at all times. Clever business guys took advantage of this fact, threw in a map and created the phenomenon of location-based social networking. It is estimated that by 2013, three of the major location-based social networking players will account for over 3.3 billion dollars in revenue! That’s a lot of cheddar. The fascinating thing is that analysts are speculating that this is just the beginning.

Imagine a world where businesses are fully tuned in to the where-a-bouts and geographic buying patterns of its consumers. Where brands can track and influence people in places where it was only possible to assume they would be. Have you seen “Minority Report”? No? good time to go watch it… Yes, that’s where I think it’s going. Companies will take the cookie cutter messages they threw up (I don’t mean vomit even though it’s close), on a billboard and make it feel more personal to you. I have been seeing more and more digital billboards on my daily commutes. Just imagine… you’re going down the street, you look up, and the billboard in front of you says, “Hey [insert name here], wanna party like it’s 1999?…Prince tickets on sale now”. Click, buy, done… I just bought Prince tickets. Join me.

Location-based social networking means more than just informing stalkers of your where-a-bouts, or a new tool that wives and girlfriends can add to their “check up” repertoire. For businesses it will create a whole new dimension of selling, less wasted money on making an ass out of you and…well, themselves.

Want to check out a good list of location-based social networks? Click Here. corner6Labs doesn’t actually officially endorse any of them…although Travis, our VP of Sales, seems to be a 4-Square junkie. Word of advice…don’t try to steal his “Mayor-ship” he is very possessive of them and rather competitive.

Happy Stalking!

BTW, are you going to the June 18th “Nothing But Net” event put on by the Magnus Media Group? We are! Send us a quick note on twitter to let us know you will be there. We will even say hi and buy you a big Junkie drink!

Companies are benefiting from their Apps in big ways. Here are some important Do’s and Don’ts when deciding to launch an iPhone App…

1. Don’t launch an App for the sake of launching an App.

You want to keep up with your competitors right? Well with the popularity of iPhone Apps at an all time high, some companies are launching Apps with no clear direction. You might say to yourself…”Our competitors have an App so we must have an App… Right now!”  Nope, you would be wrong.  Sure, you definitely want to consider having one but that doesn’t mean you should produce Apps with zero relevancy to your target audience or business in general. Take your time and make it better than your competitor’s.

2. Do think it through.

Don’t jump on the bandwagon just yet. Consider your options and consider your potential users. Ask yourself what kind of App will ….

a) help my target audience.

b) make my business more accessible to my target audience.

c) successfully integrate my business in a beneficial way into my target audiences’ lives.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask your target audience what they think.

It’s not a bad idea to ask your users directly what they want. Pitch an App idea to your current clients and ask them if this is something they would like or find beneficial to their lives. Ask them what they would find useful in an App or what they would find entertaining. After all, they are the ones using it.

4.  Do make it fun!

Phones do so much more than just make calls these days. They do basically anything. They make our lives easier, more practical and bring us more news and entertainment at the touch of a screen. The App should be this way too. A very popular App right now called foursquare is changing the way companies interact with their clients.  With this App, users can “check in” at a particular place, whether that be their favorite pizza place, Starbucks or grocery store and earn rewards and statuses. It’s fun, useful, practical and easy to integrate into daily use.

Making a mobile App work for you is important. It’s highly individualized for every business but can be highly effective when utilized to its fullest potential!