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Rare Bird Blog

Daring Greatly: Rare Bird at 10 Years

Monday, July 28, 2008

In a few days, we'll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of starting Rare Bird. I woke up this morning with the words of Teddy Roosevelt on my mind, which I first encountered years ago in "The Norman Shield," the pledge training manual of Sigma Chi.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

President Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

I'm not certain if "daring greatly" is entirely fitting, but I believe that we have experienced the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and we are spending ourselves in a worthy cause. It's been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next ten!

Labels: business consulting, writing

The World is Flat (and Free)

Friday, July 25, 2008

My latest "Change This!" update included a notice that the publishers of "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman are offering the audio version of the book for free. Why? Well, two reasons.

1. They want you on their mailing list. But a free audio version of this recent classic is probably worth a few emails.
2. They're trying to generate buzz about Friedman's new book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution And How It Can Renew America"

Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, said the purpose of this audio giveaway is to "celebrate Friedman's enormous influence on our lives and times. And in preparation for the release of his new book, a green manifesto and a continuation in many ways of his thinking in 'The World is Flat', we want to enable anyone who hasn't already read 'The World is Flat' to catch up with Friedman's argument and vision for the future."

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, we're trying to sell a lot of books." (He didn't actually say that last part, but you have to know he was thinking it.)

Still, it's a nice offer. So, from now until August 4, you can join their mailing list to get access to three "easy-to-download" sections (Why not just one, I wonder?) and, as an added bonus, shortly thereafter you'll be able to download a pre-release audio excerpt of the new book.

Labels: books, free, giveaway, thomas friedman, world is flat

"I'm going to lunch. We're going to win this."

Monday, July 7, 2008

There has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the business community in recent years about the quality of the work force. I've read articles and seen reports detailing the habits of the "millennials," the generation that is exiting college and entering the workforce. Their lack of preparation has been blamed on all sorts of things, from helicopter parents to participating in sports where everyone gets a trophy for just showing up, but I've begin wondering about another possible cause.

There's a radio spot running now for JA Titan, an online business simulator that is part of Junior Achievement. The tool is designed to give students a feel for the fast-paced, constantly changing world of business. The spot is to recruit volunteers to help run the simulations.

The first part of the spot sets the stage of a fictitious company dealing with some of the hazards of business:

Voice 1: "I called this emergency staff meeting together because we need to kick this company into high gear."
Voice 2: "I thought our performance index was high?"
Voice 1: "It is, yes, but the competition is still way ahead in the market."
Voice 2: "Well, what can we do about it?"
Voice 3: "If we sink more money into marketing, these hollow generators will sell like crazy."
Voice 4: "But we can't keep up in production! It may be the year 2030 but our technology is not that sophisticated."
Voice 5: "If we put more money into R&D we could solve our production problems."
SFX: Echo-y Star Trek communicator sound
Voice on Communicator: "The board wants to know what you're going to do here. The news reports say we're slipping... Well?"
Voice of Boss: "Wendy, take another $20,000 this quarter for promotions. T.J., you get nine grand to find a way to make more of these. Warren, tell your line to get ready to triple production. Send out a press release. I'm going to lunch. We're going to win this."

"I'm going to lunch?!!?" There are so many things wrong with the first 35 seconds of this that I can't even begin to dissect it. For the sake of my own sanity, I'm working on convincing myself that the writer intentionally wrote this to be so hackneyed that business people would hear it and be moved to volunteer in order to provide an accurate, realistic view of life in the business world. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

[More about JA Titan]
[More about Millennials]

Labels: advertising, radio

iPhone (Non-)Success Dubbed "Conspiracy"

Saturday, June 28, 2008

The best way to read this article quoting Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is out loud, with more than a little whine in your voice. Apparently, he's a little miffed that Apple created an outstanding product and that about 6 million people decided to buy. The design of the iPhone caused all manufacturers to stand up and take notice, and Apple orchestrated an unprecedented revenue sharing model that really caused a stir, but it still falls short of Seidenberg's notion of success.

When asked by the Financial Times about Apple's chances of reaching the masses with the next generation iPhone, which features a 3G network for faster Internet access, Seidenberg responded, "There goes the conspiracy again. You're declaring them a winner before they've earned it on the field." Uh... it sounded more like a question than a declaration, but okay.

According to CNET's Tom Krazit, "Seidenberg's main contention seems to be that the iPhone isn't a success because it has such a small share of the overall mobile phone market, which is sort of like arguing that GM is more successful than Ferrari because they sell more cars." This would, of course, mean that the iPod is a success and the iMac isn't. Brilliant. (Wait till Seth Godin hears that the only measure of success is selling a whole lot of something cheap.)

So, on the one hand, Seidenberg is peeved that the media is declaring the iPhone a success while implying that it hasn't been successful at all. Let's do a little exercise. Put yourself in his shoes, sit down at the boardroom table, and let's devise a strategy to address and compete with the media-declared "success" of the iPhone. What would you do?

Verizon, for their part, has adopted a novel strategy. "Steve Jobs eventually will get old...I like our chances," Seidenberg said.

[Read the CNET article]
[Read the Financial Times article]

Put Transactional Email to Work

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Speaking in Washington last week, I encouraged the attendees to use the power of transactional emails as a viable means to improve their customer relationships. I noted that these messages tend to break through the clutter and are generally perceived as helpful tools for customers to remain current with the latest information regarding their orders.

To illustrate the point, I suggested that retailers send emails at the following times (as examples):

• Order Confirmation


• Shipping Confirmation


• Customer Service Messages (e.g., "By now, you should have rec'd your order..."


• Requesting Feedback (e.g., "Please come back and write a review about your experience..."


• Re-Order Reminders


• RE-Engagement Efforts

Today I saw this chart from MarketingSherpa that speaks to this very issue. Customers pay attention to these messages, so they can be a valuable tool, but it's important that they are heavy on the information and light on offers.

Labels: email marketing, permission marketing, strategy

SIPA Members Sowing Award-Winning Seeds

Monday, June 9, 2008

I'm back in the office today after being out last week for the SIPA Conference in Washington, DC. I was asked by conference chairman Ed Coburn of Harvard Medical School to come and address the group on "Using the web to drive renewable revenue." I was told by a regular attendee that these members usually vote with their feet: "If they don't think you have anything worthwhile to say, they'll get up and walk out after 10 minutes." Yikes. I'm glad he told me that after I was finished and no one had left...

So there I was, sitting at lunch and talking with David Lee of Tufts University and a Paul Wollaston of Lancaster House, and we happened to be talking about the conference, most notably the willingness of the attendees to discuss – in detail – their successes and failures. I remarked that it was impressive and refreshing to see this sort of open dialogue, especially when some of these members might be sharing this information with direct competitors. "It's truly remarkable," said Wollaston, "and one of the unique things about this association and its' membership. About the only thing they won't share are details for upcoming product launches."

All of which reminded me of a story about a farmer and his strategy for sowing award-winning seeds.

More on the conference as time (and all of these spinning plates) allows.

The Power (Danger?) of Social Networks

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

For me, this paragraph in an AdWeek article about Coca-Cola's efforts with social networks and "Marketing 2.0" says it all:

"The Diet Coke-Mentos experience was only one of several missteps Coke made in its forays into the world of social media. Months earlier, its Coke Zero blog was discovered to be a fake (generated not by consumers, but in-house), while the remake of Coke.com into a YouTube-like site for consumer-generated content (dubbed The Coke Show), launched in July 2006, initially provoked brickbats from outsiders and failed to generate much in the way of submissions or traffic. Even Sprite Sips, Coke's first application on Facebook (the brand was a "landmark partner" on the social net's Social Ads platform) fell flat. Currently, it has just 12 daily active users -- and they're not afraid to voice their opinions. On the comment board, one user described Sips as 'crap to the power of suck.'"

Yes, you read that correctly. One of the world's largest and best-known brands is floundering around, tossing money in every which way, trying to figure out how to communicate with specific target markets. Which, as anyone can tell you, is both a powerful and dangerous affair... After all, no one wants to have their work summed up to be "crap to the power of suck."

Many people (including those in Coke's marketing department, no doubt) are giving themselves credit for trying. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat," says Coke's Senior Vice President of Marketing. (Or Theodore Roosevelt; I keep getting those guys confused.)

The truth, however, is probably much simpler: Give the people what they want. If you find yourself trying to figure out how to communicate with a particular target market or "get more engagement with the 20-somethings," I submit you may be thinking about things from the wrong perspective. You shouldn't be in the business of finding a market for your product. Instead, try creating a product the market wants. Toward the end of this article, there's a great (if not obvious) remark from John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media. Battelle says, "One of the principles crucial to this space is adding value to the conversation. It means oftentimes underwriting content or creating a service people actually want."

Imagine... creating something people actually want.

[Read the AdWeek article]