Influential Marketing Blog

How To Be A Better Entrepreneur, Friend, Parent, Marketer & Human

NOTE FROM ROHIT: Likeonomics is now AVAILABLE - if you read my previous post and decided to wait to buy it because I asked you to, thank you!!

Please purchase your copy of Likeonomics RIGHT NOW!

About four months ago I was sitting at home during an unseasonably warm evening in late January. It was the night of the State of the Union address, and was feeling that unshakeable mixture of happiness and sadness that happens usually on the last day of an amazing vacation. That day I had just delivered the final manuscript for Likeonomics, but as I read the news online that afternoon I found a story that was still bothering me hours later. 

The media was reporting on comments from politicians delivered in something called a "prebuttal." A prebuttal (as opposed to a rebuttal) is based on the idea that you can talk about all the ways that you disagree with someone before they have even said a word. Welcome to politics in 2012. In fact, welcome to the world itself. 

I have written before about how we are in the midst of a very real believability crisis and to find our ways out of it and build a more trustworthy world will take a new philosophy.  Along the path to writing Likeonomics, I researched (and wrote about) many interesting nuggets from history, such as the moment when Microsoft almost bought Pixar to the moment almost exactly thirty years ago when two guys with a crazy idea started The Weather Channel. From the story of Nelson Mandela in South Africa to the surprising tourism policies of the Bhutanese government, the process of writing the book also took me to some unexpected places.  Ultimately, what I learned was about far more than marketing or even business.

Likeonomics is really a book about how any of us might become better people. How likeability might be the real secret to trust AND success ... and most of all how BEING more human could help any of us be better in every part of our lives.  

This week is launch week for Likeonomics. A chance for me to FINALLY share everything about the book with you. A chance for me to tell you NOT to wait anymore and to go out and buy the book and buy as many copies as you can! 

So every day this week I'll be sharing a different story and exclusive excerpt from the book here. Each day will be from one of the chapters featuring a different principle of Likeonomics:

• Monday - This Post!
• Tuesday - Truth
• Wednesday - Relevance
• Thursday - Unselfishness
• Friday - Simplicity
• Saturday - Timing

My goal is simple. The more I can share about the idea of Likeonomics and offer some value back to you and your daily life, the more likely you are to see what the book is about and perhaps decide to pick up a copy. 

To give you a head start, here is a password free, no-email-required, completely FREE download of the Prologue from Likeonomics, starting with the interwoven stories of a Lard Salesman, an NFL Agent and a YouTube Star: www.likeonomics.com/excerpt  

If your interest is peaked, or even if you are just up for doing something to support me and my efforts this week because you may have found some value in my blog over the years, PLEASE consider buying a copy of Likeonomics RIGHT NOW.  

Not only do I hope it will help you become a better entrepreneur, friend, parent, marketer and human ... but I look forward to sharing some real stories and lessons from the book with you throughout this week to show you exactly how!

 

 

 

How Case Studies Can Set You Up To Fail

My life would be a lot easier if I loved case studies. After all, they are all around me. In our agency, we produce case studies for our most successful work. Clients share case studies of previous work or industry standards with us all the time. In the educational world case studies are plentiful, and the majority of "practical" marketing and business courses are built entirely on using them to teach principles. So why don't I love them like so many of my peers do?

It's not that I don't believe you can learn a lot by studying other industries and other campaigns. But when it is packaged into a typical "case study" format, there are a few common problems that arise:

1. People are often not good at self diagnosing what worked well and what didn't, and case studies are often not written by the same people who executed a strategy either - which results in second hand information.
2. Case studies mostly focus on the positive or successful, but often we learn most from failures. Have you ever seen or written a "case study" on something that failed?  We need to see more case studies of what didn't work so we can learn from failure as well as success.
3. They are often written in a siloed way - looking only at individual channels (such as social or advertising or PR) and missing the broader point of integration and how it contributed heavily to their success in the first place.
4. The core behavioural insight is often missing in reports and case studies (ie - WHY did people respond to a particular message or approach as opposed to simply noting that they DID respond)
5. Results are often be presented in terms of numbers and volume does not necessarily proove effectiveness when it comes to actual impact achieved
6. Real first hand expertise is often missing because case studies may not be written by the person or people with the most direct knowledge of why something worked or didn't.

So are traditional case studies useless? Not at all, but I think there are much better opportunities for learning in a different way. The most powerful way to learn in many ways is still a face to face experience with a person - and when you couple that with real engaging experts who are actually DOING great things, then you have the type of experience that can really offer the most valuable learning. 

That's why I'm thrilled to announce two events coming up that I've agreed to participate in as a speaker coming up very soon.  Both offer amazing opportunities to go beyond the case study and learn something real and actionable from experts who are actually doing real and amazing work:

WOM Crash Course (Austin - May 10, 2012)

The one thing I know for sure is that Andy Sernovitz knows how to put on a great word of mouth learning event. He and his team remain unromanced by the allure of just focusing on social media ... which means this event is one of those unique moments when you will learn how to ACTUALLY create great word of mouth by using social media along with lots of other tools. From his unique format of having only real practioners present to his unique lunchtime sessions where six authors all show up to simply have conversations (no powerpoints allowed!), attendees always rave about this event. If you want to join us in the great city of Austin, just leave a comment on this post for a 25% off registration discount code - and the first 2 readers to comment will receive 50% off registration!

Corporate Social Media Summit (New York - June 13-14, 2012)

The fact that I have worked with the Useful Social Media events team for the past 3 years and agreed to speak or moderate sessions at multiple events for them is evidence of one thing: this team knows how to put on a great learning event. What sets the Corporate Social Media Summit apart is their laser focus on social media for big brands. If you work at a large organization trying to plan for using social media at an enterprise level, this event is for you. The speakers are all from big brands (just look at the agenda!) and the conference stays far away from any fluff or vendor pitches. In the past, the hallway conversations from attendees learning from one another have been just as powerful. To get a 10% discount on registration, use the code "OGILVY10"

Whether I was participating in both or not - I highly recommend trying to make it to one or both of these events. Hope to see you there!*

*There is also chance that all attendees of one or both events will get free copies of my new book Likeonomics!

How Whiskey Inspired The Making Of Likeonomics

The "fourth best island in the world" (according to National Geographic) isn't warm and rarely sunny. Yet the Isle of Skye is a celebrated part of Scotland and a popular tourist destination. If you ever happen to find yourself traveling there, one of the most popular places on the island is a unique distillery that produces some of the world's finest whiskey: the Talisker Whiskey Distillery. 

Though it has been more than a decade since I first visited there, I can still remember the tour that I took. A few months ago heading through the duty free store at an airport, the memory of that experience inspired me to purchase a bottle to take home. I do love a good drink ... but when I drink from a bottle of Talisker, it is still a different experience. And it doesn't have anything to do with how it tastes, or how it is aged, or what kind of barrels they use.  In part, I love the whiskey because I've been to where it was made.  

The reason it matters is a powerful one, and it explains a lot more than my love of one brand of scotch. There is a reason that Zappo's has a standing offer to pick up any of their customers from their hotel in Las Vegas and bring them out to their headquarters for a tour. It is the same reason that Intel has a museum on their main campus in Palo Alto. The more personal connections you have to something, the more likely you are buy or recommend it to someone else. Personal experience matters.  

This, in a nutshell, is the strategy behind a pretty unique virtual web chat that I am going to be hosting on April 19th called the "Making of Likeonomics." I partnered with a company called Shindig to use a brand new virtual chat platform to create an introduction to my new book that goes beyond your usual webinar.  

Using a two way video session (where you can see me and interact directly from your browser without any downloads or signups required), I will take participants through my process for actually researching and writing Likeonomics. Here are just a few of the things you'll learn:

• Why you should write a book (and why you shouldn't!)
• How to come up with a big idea for a book
• Who really came up with the title Likeonomics (hint: it wasn't me!)
• What it takes to sell a book to a big publisher (and why you should or shouldn't)
• Do's and don'ts of research
• Mapping your story flow and chapter outline
• How to produce quality writing (it's different from writing a blog post!)
• Pitfalls of book writing and what I struggled most with
• Working with an editor (and picking a good one!)
• How to build a content based marketing strategy
• And anything else you'd like to know about writing, marketing and publishing a book ...

Whether you have ever aspired to write a book yourself, you are already a published author, or you just want to hear the real and whole truth about the ups and downs of being an author and writing a book ... this event is my chance to take you behind the scenes and answer all of your questions. I want to build a personal connection by giving you an unfiltered and VERY personal look at Likeonomics, directly from my home office where I worked to write it.

As a bonus EVERY REGISTERED PARTICIPANT WILL GET AN EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT OF THE BOOK (whether you manage to make it to the LIVE virtual conversation or not). In case this event looks interesting, I would love for you to register here (the event is completely FREE):

Registration Link: http://makingoflikeonomics.eventbrite.com

There may even be a guest appearance of some Talisker Whiskey. So now you really don't have a reason not to join me! :-)

 

The Upside of Being Ordinary And Obvious

How much time do you spend trying to be ordinary or obvious? Probably not a lot. In fact, most marketing people actively avoid talking about the ordinary or obvious qualities of their business. Instead we spend days in creative brainstorms trying to create new messages find that brilliant unique thing that no one else has. We want to use new and sexy social media tools and find a winning creative idea that will get everyone's attention. And we forget the ordinary and obvious stuff.  

But what if the most unique thing about your business was also the most ordinary? Here are a few reasons why the ordinary and obvious side of your business may actually be your biggest asset:

1. Customers have ordinary and obvious requirements. It is easy to think that having an endless list of new product features will appeal to people. The problem is, it is confusing. I recently went shopping to replace a light bulb in my ceiling. The one I bought was the one that said the size most clearly on the box.  
2. The ordinary and obvious are the most important. The number one reason I book any flight has nothing to do with comfort of the seats of what type of food they might offer. I look for a direct flight. Whichever airline I can fly directly to my destination with is the one I choose. Exactly how many airline ads have you seen in the last six months that ever focus entirely on the fact that you can fly directly from point A to point B? I can recall only one - Singapore Airlines promoting their direct NY - Singapore flight.
3. The ordinary and obvious may have its passionate fans. Anyone still using a Blackberry today (and I am one of them) does so just for one reason. It's not the collection of apps (which suck) or for the stunning quality of the screen resolution. No, most are just so familiar with the keyboard that they can't imagine doing work and typing emails on a touch screen. Again, how many Blackberry ads have you seen promoting the quality of the experience of using their keyboard versus slow and inconsistent touch screens? Exactly zero.

I love a good creative idea as much as the next marketing person. The point of the post, though, is that sometimes the most stunningly creative thing you can do is choose to focus on the most obvious and ordinary part of your business. You might be surprised at how effective it can be. 

 

FinnAir, Republic Day & Why Celebration Is The Best Marketing Strategy

A few weeks ago it was my birthday. The day before on a Saturday morning, my two boys came leaping into our room very excited to wake me up. It wasn't so much about my birthday, unfortunately, as it was about getting ready to do their favourite thing on a Saturday morning: going to IHOP for pancakes. And when there is a birthday involved, it is an even bigger deal. Your birthday is a celebration there. They bring over at least 6 of the wait staff to sing their own version of the birthday song to you. You get ice cream for breakfast (what kid wouldn't love that?).

People love celebrations - and they love to be at the center of attention. Birthdays are easy. Probably any restaurant would do something special for your birthday. But what about the moments that people forget to celebrate? 3 days ago was the first day of the Chinese New Year. It is the Year of the Dragon. What did your business do to celebrate? Unless you happen to be Chinese, probably nothing. 

Life and culture gives us plenty of moments to celebrate, but often we let them pass without doing anything. If we could, however, it would be an unexpected delight. Today FinnAir offered a perfect example of that - as they filmed and posted a video on YouTube of their cabin staff performing a surprise Bollywood dance on a flight from Helskinki to India in celebration of India's Republic Day:



South Asians and anyone with a passion for India (or marketing) have been sharing this on Facebook and talking about it all day today. It is going what you might call "micro-viral." In other words, it is going viral among the exact small target community that a marketing team should care most about - people highly likely to travel to Southeast Asia. The timing is perfect too, as one of the things that many South Asian families start to think about at the beginning of the year is planning their travel for the rest of the year. And flights to India get booked far in advance.

So this surprise dance has a potentially beautiful marketing payoff - to get people who are considering travel to India later in the year to consider using FinnAir to get there. As of now the video only has a few thousand views. Perhaps it will never get a million or more. But by offering an unexpected celebration, they have positioned their brand as one that offers a connection to India (literally and figuratively). My guess is that it is already paying off.

2012 Edition: 15 Marketing and Business Trends That Matter

Let me tell you a little secret.  I look forward to putting together an annual trend report the same way that some people look forward to having Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. I realize that may sound a bit strange, but ever since I did my first trend recap last year I was hooked.  This year, the process of collecting the trends took all year.  I have a folder on my desk labelled "Trends 2012" and throughout the year I would rip out articles from magazines or printout webpages to save. Last November I started actually writing my trend presentation and finally released it on Slideshare yesterday. 

 

A few things surprised me about the trends this year. Here are a few of the most unexpected things:

1. Only 2 out of 15 trends are based on innovative technology (Trends #10 and #13). Given the prominence of technology in our lives and more and more digital tools, I expected that more of the trends for 2012 would be based entirely on technology innovation. That ended up not being the case as most of the trends focused more on either behaviours or the use of sites and technology that already exist and don't really require much innovation in order to keep growing.
2. Creativity and design are more important than ever. While it would have been too obvious to point this out as a trend on its own, many of the trends that were included in the presentation were highly dependent on encouraging more creativity and delivering great design. Measuring Life, for example, has taken off in part thanks to great product and interface designs. Pointillist Filmmaking or Social Artivism are clearly based on creativity and design. Even Retail Theater, Tagging Reality and Charitable Engagement are all trends that require creative thinking and  strong ability to use design to engage people.
3. People actively seek opportunities to participate, collaborate or experience something. Doing something together came up as a big motivator for many of the trends this year, as Social Loneliness led people to look for more opportunities to have great experiences or be part of something worthwhile. Pointillist Filmmaking, Civic Engagement 2.0 and Retail Theater are all examples where people are seeking the chance to participate in something. Charitable Engagement ChangeSourcing and Co-Curation are other trends where people offer their time and passions to collaborate together on something.

Let me know what you think about these trends with a comment here or on Facebook, or feel free to send me an email at influentialmarketing@gmail.com.  Next week I'll be starting my trend folder to gather stories for 2013 ...

If you would like to get a downloadable version of this presentation, you can find it on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/rohitmarketingauthor.

What Steve Jobs Really Gave Us

A few weeks ago I was asked an interesting question about what inspires me.  As I thought about my answer, I realized that for me it isn't a person but rather an action that I find most inspirational.  The people around the world who have an idea and decide to do something about it deserve to be celebrated. Entrepreneurship itself is the thing that I find most inspirational. 

Last night as I was watching all the media coverage honoring Steve Jobs and his life, it got me thinking that perhaps his biggest impact on the world wasn't just the products that he helped create, but rather in showing the world just how much people can achieve when they are inspired. Inspiration itself can be like that - a lightning rod that takes an army of smart people and helps them create something real. To me, his power to inspire came down to three things:

1. Passion - By all reports of the people who worked with him, he lived and breathed the products that his company would work on. He would call engineers in the middle of the night, stress over a font or color choice and sometimes micromanage those small details. Still because of that passion and desire to be involved in the day to day work - not only could he make the products better, but he knew the products so well that when it came time to introduce them on stage to the world he wouldn't need to rely on bullet points prepared for him by product specialists. 
2. Purpose - With every new product release, you got the sense that Apple was focused on changing the world in some new way. The ecosystem that each of the products allowed, from new operating systems to iTunes to the billion dollar market for Apps were all poised to make a big impact on how each of us experiences the world. This was the higher purpose behind Apple, and you could see it through the products they released. 
3. Simplicity - When asked by biographers about what made Apple so powerful, one thing Steve Jobs always pointed to was the fact that Apple had always been a company which made less than 10 products. This extreme focus on simplicity carried through in his conversations with employees and how he would present products to the public. Simplicity can inspire because you strip away everything that is unimportant. What you are left with is a big idea which can move people. 

No doubt there will be countless books, articles and stories written about Steve Jobs and his impact over the coming years. For me, the biggest lesson I learned from watching and reading about Steve Jobs is the power of inspiration and how it can lead people to change the world. 

More posts about Apple on this blog:

• Steve Jobs And The 4 Counterintuitive Business Strategies Of Apple
• The Real Secret Of Apple's Success

Facebook, Cauliflower And How Liking Anything Just Became Important Again

I actively hate cauliflower. In marketing terms, you could call me a brand dectractor ... as I am generally pretty vocal about my dislike of the sweat-sock-smelling-mush-flavored vegetable. Hate is often extreme like that, and most of us believe passionately in what we dislike. What we "like" on the other hand, has been getting devalued for some time. Five years ago, I might have described my likes with a similar passion. Now I might click a "like" button just to download a free PDF, or get a coupon for a free drink. Facebook made the "Like" button a price of admission, and in doing so, they started the trend towards devaluing the idea of liking anything.

Last week at the f8 Developers Conference, they announced a fix that will not only change how you use Facebook - it will also change the way that we generally perceive the value of liking something as well. As Mark Zuckerberg described in his keynote, "you don't have to LIKE a book - you can just READ a book. You don't have to LIKE a movie, you can just WATCH a movie."  Over the coming weeks, Facebook will launch a standard set of buttons for "watching, reading and listening" - as well as using their Open Graph to let developers create buttons of their own (follow link for source of the mock graphic list of potential Facebook buttons at right). As the AllThingsD blog from the Wall Street Journal notes, this will likely lead to an "oversharing explosion" as people can get over the barrier of not wanting to broadcast an implied endorsement for something that they may just be consuming but not really "liking." 

More importantly, I think this will help us all return to the importance that we have assigned for centuries to the idea of actually liking something. Now I don't have to like something as a cost of entry, so I'm free to only declare my like for those things that I truly feel that way about. Likeability always mattered - but with Facebook's latest update it can finally return to the importance it once had.

By rethinking the Like button, Facebook has finally made liking anything as important as it used to be. 

Author's Note: I had a special connection to this topic as I'm working on a book with a working title of Likeonomics. It is not a book about Facebook, it is about the value and importance of likeability to marketing, communications and personal success. Though I am not finished writing it yet, you can bet this story and Facebook's mixed history with the "Like" button will be an important story in the book ...

Toyota Venza Reminds Us Of The Dangers Of Evangelism

If there is one universal truth that almost no one in the world of technology or social media has figured out, it might be this: everyone hates evangelists. No matter what they are "evangelizing" - the world view anyone who claims this title for themselves usually has is that the product, service or idea that they have to share with the world is one that everyone should adopt. Evangelists don't see the world as it is - they see it as a place that would be better if only more people agreed with them.

That kind of one-sided thinking is dangerous, whether for joining Facebook, adopting a religion, buying an iPad or anything else. I found an unlikely reminder of this several days ago through a brilliant ad for the Toyota Venza which pits an active middle aged couple against their teenage social media obsessed daughter. As they go out into the world and enjoy their lives, their daughter laments about how "anti-social" they are and calls their 19 friends on Facebook "so sad." Check it out:



How many times might any "social media enthuasiast" find ourselves in exactly that same position? In the ad, the daughter (played perfectly by Allyn Rachel - @allynrachel on Twitter) is an evangelist for a technology that her parents are managing to do just fine without. For me, the ad stood out as a rare reminder that there is a hidden cost to our growing culture of evangelists. As marketers work to build "brand ambassadors" and ordinary customers find pleasure (and sometimes revenue) in becoming the unofficial voices for brands - there will be a coming backlash against those who are overly evangelical.

So instead of so much dueling evangelism, what if each of us just focused on ourselves instead of "converting" others to our point of view?   In an ideal world, people should always feel free to share their passion about the things they love ... as long as we all don't have to agree on what those things are.

What The Royal Wedding Can Teach You About Insignificance

If you believe most global media, in less than 24 hours we will all witness one of the landmark historical moments of the past century: the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. The importance of this wedding goes far beyond engaging those with an extended case of royal fever, though. Photographers are angling for the perfect career-making shot. Fashion designers are enjoying the spotlight as they get interviewed about the glamour of the event. Everyone, it seems, wants their own piece of the global hysteria around the wedding.

Over at the Harvard Business Review website, writer Rosabeth Moss Kanter made a convincing argument for the business value of the wedding and "Why CEOs Should Watch The Royal Wedding." One interesting effect of this attention on so many levels is that it has demonstrated a value in the little things which so often go unnoticed. For a brief moment, while the Royal Wedding captures the attention of the world ... the insignificant will take center stage. Who designed Prince Wiliam's cufflinks? What will the royal horses be fed? How long is the red carpet?

Each of these alone are completely trivial questions but in the context of a frenzy of excitement, they add dimension to an event that everyone can be part of. You may not camp out for days outside Westminster Abbey to secure a good vantage point for the wedding, but you can surely enjoy a bit of the trivia and perhaps even share it with your social network.

The Royal Wedding is reminding us that insignificance can be a form of social currency. When you know the secret of Prince William's cufflinks (whatever it may be), you are likely to share it wth others. And this effect is not just confined to the Royal Wedding either. The thing about insignificance and trivialities is that we often cannot help sharing them with others.

The brands who do a good job of sharing these types of stories (from the meaningful to the insignificant) are the ones who can more effectively arm their most passionate customers and believers with intesting ideas and content to share.

In other words, insignificance matters.