Vantage PointStrategic marketing concepts and business observations. Small business start-up experiences. Wednesday, November 12, 2003Amazon using celebs for the holidaysI'm trying to say something nice here. They are acting as though this is a novel idea, using celebrities to bring an audience and sell products. Excuse me? Didn't George Foreman sell something???! No, he wasn't FREE but I would guess that he'd be compelled to promote his grill on Amazon if they asked. It's really the definition of FREE - nothing in life is free, the consumer pays in the end. Bet you can think of other celebs that sell product, can't you? .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 10:10 AM| Sunday, November 09, 200395 THESES from www.cluetrain.comMarkets are conversations. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new way. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market changes people fundamentally. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone. What's happening to markets is also happening among employees. A metaphysical construct called "The Company" is the only thing standing between the two. Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new networked conversations. To their intended online audiences, companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman. In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of business—the sound of mission statements and brochures—will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the 18th century French court. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone. Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves. Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity. Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance. Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor. Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view. Companies attempting to "position" themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about. Bombastic boasts—"We are positioned to become the preeminent provider of XYZ"—do not constitute a position. Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships. Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets. By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay. Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on inside the company. Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds." Brand loyalty is the corporate version of going steady, but the breakup is inevitable—and coming fast. Because they are networked, smart markets are able to renegotiate relationships with blinding speed. Networked markets can change suppliers overnight. Networked knowledge workers can change employers over lunch. Your own "downsizing initiatives" taught us to ask the question: "Loyalty? What's that?" Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language. Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It can't be "picked up" at some tony conference. To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities. But first, they must belong to a community. Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end. If their cultures end before the community begins, they will have no market. Human communities are based on discourse—on human speech about human concerns. The community of discourse is the market. Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will die. Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than against their own market and workforce. As with networked markets, people are also talking to each other directly inside the company—and not just about rules and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines. Such conversations are taking place today on corporate intranets. But only when the conditions are right. Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR policies and other corporate information that workers are doing their best to ignore. Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate conversation. A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the word. Its effect is more radical than the agenda of any union. While this scares companies witless, they also depend heavily on open intranets to generate and share critical knowledge. They need to resist the urge to "improve" or control these networked conversations. When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and legalistic rules, the type of conversation they encourage sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked marketplace. Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high. Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia. Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies. There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market. In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete notions of command and control. As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets. These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are speaking the same language. They recognize each other's voices. Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable to happen sooner. If willingness to get out of the way is taken as a measure of IQ, then very few companies have yet wised up. However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online perceive companies as little more than quaint legal fictions that are actively preventing these conversations from intersecting. This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies. Sadly, the part of the company a networked market wants to talk to is usually hidden behind a smokescreen of hucksterism, of language that rings false—and often is. Markets do not want to talk to flacks and hucksters. They want to participate in the conversations going on behind the corporate firewall. De-cloaking, getting personal: We are those markets. We want to talk to you. We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance. We're also the workers who make your companies go. We want to talk to customers directly in our own voices, not in platitudes written into a script. As markets, as workers, both of us are sick to death of getting our information by remote control. Why do we need faceless annual reports and third-hand market research studies to introduce us to each other? As markets, as workers, we wonder why you're not listening. You seem to be speaking a different language. The inflated self-important jargon you sling around—in the press, at your conferences—what's that got to do with us? Maybe you're impressing your investors. Maybe you're impressing Wall Street. You're not impressing us. If you don't impress us, your investors are going to take a bath. Don't they understand this? If they did, they wouldn't let you talk that way. Your tired notions of "the market" make our eyes glaze over. We don't recognize ourselves in your projections—perhaps because we know we're already elsewhere. We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are creating it. You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel! We are immune to advertising. Just forget it. If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change. We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute? You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh, sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe. You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention. We want you to drop your trip, come out of your neurotic self-involvement, join the party. Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's not the only thing on your mind. Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of one-dimensional and boring? What else can we talk about? Your product broke. Why? We'd like to ask the guy who made it. Your corporate strategy makes no sense. We'd like to have a chat with your CEO. What do you mean she's not in? We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take one reporter from The Wall Street Journal. We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they come out and play? When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd be among the people we'd turn to. When we're not busy being your "target market," many of us are your people. We'd rather be talking to friends online than watching the clock. That would get your name around better than your entire million dollar web site. But you tell us speaking to the market is Marketing's job. We'd like it if you got what's going on here. That'd be real nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we're holding our breath. We have better things to do than worry about whether you'll change in time to get our business. Business is only a part of our lives. It seems to be all of yours. Think about it: who needs whom? We have real power and we know it. If you don't quite see the light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive, more interesting, more fun to play with. Even at its worst, our newfound conversation is more interesting than most trade shows, more entertaining than any TV sitcom, and certainly more true-to-life than the corporate web sites we've been seeing. Our allegiance is to ourselves—our friends, our new allies and acquaintances, even our sparring partners. Companies that have no part in this world, also have no future. Companies are spending billions of dollars on Y2K. Why can't they hear this market timebomb ticking? The stakes are even higher. We're both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but they're really just an annoyance. We know they're coming down. We're going to work from both sides to take them down. To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down. We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting. .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 10:37 AM| Monday, November 03, 2003I noticed an editorial in the newspaper discussing the inevitable downfall of the telephone industry. Not only has long distance service fallen apart in recent years, but soon the local service side of the business is going to cave in to internet telephony according to the editorial. I can't find the editorial to "Blog It" but here is a link to different article that I found. Lightreading.comThe company putting fear into the telcos is Skype. The same people who built the peer-to-peer music sharing site, Kazaa, are developing a peer-to-peer free telephony business. Guess I'll have to get some headphones and check out my mic. But then, I'm not too sure my wireless network can handle it. But with time . . . (the only thing constant is CHANGE) .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 4:43 PM| Wednesday, October 01, 2003I'm back from vacation and catching up on my reading. Thought you might be interested in this article!Can Three Words In Webster's Dictionary Be The Key To Customer Loyalty? .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 2:34 PM| Friday, September 05, 2003Well, the boat has been lifted, lifted, lifted. The plants are tucked away and the patio furniture stowed safely awaiting TS Henri's arrival. The rain started about 30 minutes ago - up until then we only had sprinkles. Henri is sitting 85 miles west of St. Petersburg and moving at approximately 8 miles per hour. They keep saying the storm will move north, northeast but so far it has dead headed due east, straight for us.I tried to get doppler and satellite information from the local TV stations websites. What a poor performance that was. On one station I asked for rainfall prediction and got a scanty page with local tide information. Their other pages loaded in layers and never arrived at a decent viewing point. The other station doesn't have server capacity to manage the traffic evidently. I tried two loads and finally gave up. Such a loss of credibility they just earned. Too bad. Maybe its deliberate? Do they want us to turn off the computer and tune in the TV???? .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 10:10 AM| Wednesday, September 03, 2003Here's the definition for ASP! Application Service Provider - Webopedia.com.: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 4:36 PM| Busy day today. I was on Ryze.com, a business networking website, and I saw someone's reference to Mind mapping. I didn't know what she was talking about so I did a Google or two and found this site that explains the concept quickly and easily. Any Europeans out there that can give me their testimonial about mind mapping? Love to hear about your experiences. Mindmapping Explanation at Innovation Network .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 4:34 PM| Today I found an ASP (Application Service Provider) that provides Balanced Scorecard strategic planning software. I have always loved the concept of ASPs for small to medium-sized business because it's like having your own IT department at the tip of your keyboard. I think I'll delve further into this site and see how flexible it is and learn how data is added, etc. Visit their website if you're interested! Balanced Scorecard Software and Corporate Performance Management Software .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 2:34 PM| Friday, August 29, 2003VISION - Martin Luther King, Jr. eloquant speech, I Have A Dream, is an excellent example of setting a vision and communicating that vision in a plain, easily understood speech. If only all organizations and companies could define their mission as clearly as Dr. King.Everybody who listened to that oration knew they needed to address the issues back in their hometowns. They couldn't just move to a different city to achieve freedom and they had to "forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline". In that simple statement Dr. King voiced his expectations for performance and handed people, of all colors, their responsibility and the tools for achieving The Dream. .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 4:33 PM| Wednesday, August 27, 2003Here is a good link for information on Balanced Scorecard management. Balanced Scorecard Org..: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 5:47 PM| Saturday, August 23, 2003Have you watched Queer Eye for the Straight Guy yet? Salon.com has published an article about the new TV show. This will be fun to watch to Fab 5 - will they stay together or go separate ways when the show loses its luster? All I know is that I want the designer to come do my house! The transformations are amazing!Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Dire straights .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 3:20 PM| Friday, August 22, 2003I love Fast Company! Have I said that before? I found them about 3 years ago while visiting a bookstore. The mission of that day was to find ideas for reinventing a company I was working with. I bought 50 pounds of magazines and Fast Companywas one that stuck and won my paid subscription.They have recently launched a blog site that is so respectable. It's similar to what I want for this site. It's navigatable (?is that a word?) and loaded with great blogs. I wonder how spontaneous the blogs really are, but that's another issue. Readers can add comments and can receive the blog through RSS if they want. The site is powered by MoveableType, a provider that has attracted my attention recently. I think a publisher MUST have give their readers another dimension such as a blog to enhance the loyalty 'bond'. Afterall, the publisher wants loyalty from its customers - don't the customers deserve loyalty from the publisher too? Take a look! Fast Company Now .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 9:36 AM| Thursday, August 21, 2003Here's an article from The Washington Post that is a good read for aspiring strategists and marketers. Kenneth Cole has promoted his fashion business alongside social issues and politics. Nevermind that he married into the Cuomo/Kennedy clan, he clearly has his own agenda and vision. I've seen other businesses lean on charities to advance their own good and seemingly lack a true commitment. Not Kenneth Cole. He has been consistent with his messages and threaded them throughout his organization. He has made his messages part of his core marketing scheme. Take a quick read of this refreshing story. Walking the Walk (washingtonpost.com).: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 11:55 AM| Friday, August 15, 2003Strategic Marketing is my passion. Having spent the last 5 years managing a direct marketing company that produced infomercials, I've seen a lot of product (good and bad) and the influence of television in product branding.I have a heavy background in accounting and finance so I'm inclined to look at numbers - a lot! I believe it is important to test different advertising campaigns and media outlets to see where performance can be maximized. I strongly believe in multi-media marketing and having a solid foundation at the backend of the business to support the operations and the customer. It drives me nuts to run into inefficient and wasteful situations. I love to find ways to make things better. I love to read Fast Company and Wired - we have similar passions. .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 11:02 AM| Thursday, August 14, 2003You think you can't grow a business in this economy? Well, think again. Why don't you take a walk into a craft store that has a scrapbooking section. New products abound! And see all the glossy magazines that advertise the niche products and provide dazzling ideas. Then look at the pricing. Somebody is making money out there!Point is, you must be crafty and creative too. Nothing is constant - everything changes. If you suspect your company isn't keeping up with the times, take a break. Go out and see what other companies or industries are doing. Look for the forest - not the trees. Distance yourself and shake off the day-to-day routines. Try to imagine what your customer will be wanting in another five to ten years, then look at twenty. What will add value to your customer's life/environment? How can things be better? How can your company be a part of that? Look at today's products and services. Were they around five years ago? Ten? Analyze the changes you see. Think about why there has been change. Technology? Lifestyles? Education? What is the current trend? Start writing down ideas. Talk to everyone you can to get different perspectives. Gather your team up and start debating points. Thrash it out and come up with a plan, a strategy. Dissect it and determine what resources your plan will need. What are the realistic outcomes? Be conservative. Look for worst-case scenarios. Gather the troops again and refine your ideas. Embellish your ideas. Throw them around, again and again. Validate them. Then get ready - call in the financial analysts, start building your business plan. Think through your whole strategy. Market your business from the core, the heart, the soul. Now is the time to pay attention to details and starting looking at the trees. .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 3:47 PM| Wednesday, August 13, 2003°° Dominey Design °° This site really kicks! Todd Dominey would be the web designer of my choice. I learned about him from a book I was reading - Designing with Web Standards, by Jeffrey Zeldman. I learned alot by reading the book. I wish that I could sit down and create and code, but I can't. But I do understand bandwidth and the message of the book which calls for tight, efficient coding to have cleaner, faster sites that can talk to computers, phones, Palm Pilots, and other such devices. XML is the magic word. Remember it!(someday our TVs will be pulling down lots, and lots of content from the internet - get ready!) .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 3:12 PM| Thursday, July 17, 2003To Home Shopping Network:Today's St. Petersburg Times has an article about a woman who won an Olympic Gold medal in 1988 in sailing. She lives on Davis Island and is working towards competing next year in Greece. She believes her biggest hurdle is money - she needs $16k for a boat - and is looking for a sponsor. She may be perfect for HSN! A local person, age 46, has worked as computer programmer and medical transcriber, is divorced, mother of 11 year-old girl, scout troop leader, physically fit, etc. Go for it! You could reap tons of free publicity on this one. You can probably find her through Mary Jo Melone, the reporter, mjlelone@sptimes.com, 813 226 3402, or the Davis Island Yacht Club. If you are interested, you should act quickly. At least interview her and make certain she is suitable. St. Pete Times Article .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 3:00 PM| Tuesday, May 20, 2003To China Coast:You have worked hard and reached a profitable point in your business and now it's time to assess the situation and develop a five year plan. I will assume that you want to maximize profits and build a business that you can later sell to provide retirement income. Your success to-date has been from selling your merchandise at local antique and crafts shows. Secondarily you have built a following of antique dealers and home designers who purchase at wholesale. Your website has pulled in favorable comments but is only providing supplemental income and has been difficult to keep maintained with fresh merchandise. You have indicated that you prefer to primarily be a retailer so my comments will be based on that premise. Your merchandise is largely Chinese "country" antiques - good quality and priced reasonably. Keeping that focus is important as you build your brand and expand your customer base. (to be continued . . .) .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 3:15 PM| Friday, May 16, 2003To The St. Petersburg Times:You are such an impressive newspaper to be coming from this community. It gives me hope that Pinellas County isn't a total write-off. In particular the SPT has written many investigative articles that are thorough and well done. To mind come - Reverend Lyons as well as Lisa McPherson and the Scientologists. I also appreciate the affiliation with the New York Times so that I can read the columns by Thomas Friedman and others during this war-torn time. One area extremely inadequate is the Business Section. I remember being shocked when I first moved here that they didn't even have an elementary listing of the foreign exchange rates. I realize that the local business community is relatively small but there are some subscribers that ache for national and global business information. More amazing to me was the marketing decision to invest a wealth of money into The St Pete Times Forum, the Tampa event center. If it had been my decision, first I would have pumped up the business section, then I would get visibility on television before paying millions for the Forum naming rights. Possibly you were competing with the Tampa Tribune - I don't know. But you NEED TO BE ON TV! The Tribune is - because it has common ownership with one of the local stations (grandfathered to bypass media regulations). The SPT should parlay on its investigative expertise and work up an affiliation with Channel 10 who also has a good, respected investigative reporter, Mike Deeson. You could sponsor his reports and get the first right to publish the story in their paper the following morning. Your motto is "Tell the Truth". That would be so powerful to market on television. Why are you missing the boat? Sincerely, Vantage Point .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 12:05 PM| Courage International - a charitable organization providing nurishment and education for children ages 3-12. Why don't educators work more with the buddy system where children with acquired skills teach them to younger ones? Is it a matter of protecting the learning child's self-esteem? .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 12:02 PM| [3/30/2003 12:47:29 PM | Carol Gamel] To whomever has the gift shop and refreshment concession at Ft. DeSoto Park - The opportunity to generate more money abounds! Some investment is required but remember the old adage, "It takes money to make money." Frankly, the place needs help . . . For starters: 1. Change your hours to be: From Sunrise to Sunset. 2. Start the day, everyday with a recording of Reville. 3. End each day at Sunset with a recording of Taps. Entertain the thought of having a live horn blower for the weekends, or at least for holidays. 4. In the mornings offer goooood coffee, cappuchino, lattes, or such along with fruits, juice, and rolls. Turn on the classical music and offer newspapers and magazines. 5. During the day, crank up the tempo of the music to make it livelier and livelier. By late afternoon, it should be salsa or merengue, something fun. 6. Ask the park for more outside concrete umbrella tables for the uncovered patio area. 7. Make room in the gift shop for nice tables and chairs where people can sit in air conditioning or protected from the rain. 8. Find some historical memoribilia for souveniers. Play up the Spanish American War action! Be creative here. 9. Have good food, refreshing drinks, and reasonable prices. 10. Your "team" should be friendly, clean, consistently dressed. Can you come up with a Spanish American War "costume", or at least a hat that would be different? Something you could also sell as a souvenier? There's no rocket science in these thoughts. It just pains me to see a wasted opportunity. Sincerely, Vantage Point .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 12:00 PM| To Home Shopping Network: HSN needs to turn themselves around and catch up with the imitators that left them in the dust. A simple, inexpensive way to start moving in a better direction is to embrace a new tagline that is pertinent to their audience as well as their team of employees. HSN - WHERE SHOPPING IS FUN & EASY. A simple yet powerful statement with profound impact. It goes back to the roots of the business where show hosts used to honk horns when items sold out and customers testimonials were novel on TV. They were having fun! Now when you tune in a shopping channel, it can be same ol', same ol'. How boring! Imagine having fun new products and the exciting on-air buzz that can be created. Imagine shooting the show in front of an audience or touring the country going from city to city bringing people INTO the programming. Imaging the back-end systems finding ways to make it easier for the customer, not harder and more frustrating. Imagine the customer service opportunities when everybody has a better attitude. You can go on and on and on building the enthusiasm back into the business by allowing the employees to find ways to make shopping FUN & EASY. Sincerely, Vantage Point .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 11:59 AM| Sunday, March 23, 2003To Reliant Interactive Media:At one point in time I threatened to write a TV sitcom about a business in the infomercial industry. Life at HSN Direct had been whacky yet facsinating and I believe that an entertaining show can be developed reminiscent of Mary Tyler Moore, Sandford & Son, and other great comedies. The more I think about it, the more I feel that Kevin Harrington and Reliant Interactive Media should produce a reality TV program following their day-to-day business dealings. The ratings would go sky high! Everybody wants to get rich quick and they would get hooked watching the Harringtons dance through the product hunt, negotiations, and the infomercial production and launch. It will drive some people NUTS to watch the product development cycle and others in the audience will be clamoring to bring their products in to Reliant. I can envision the lovely Irish Mary bustling about everyday in fast motion brewing the coffee and polishing up the front reception area. I can hear her answering the phone and being soooooo polite and professional. Then I see her hanging up and muttering "Jesus, Mary and Joseph" under her breath and shaking her head. Madhi and Bruce will undoubtedly offer entertainment as will Bill and some of the others that I don't know. But the stars will be the very likable Harrington brothers. .: posted by Carol Gamel - Carol@GoldenStarFruit.com 10:01 AM| |
 
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