Here’s an example: you’re reading a blog, any blog. You know the blogosphere exists. Believe it or not, you’re among 10% of all people who surf the net.
This hit home when I was giving a talk at Eli Lilly. Before the talk, I mentioned a blog to a senior person who was prepping me. Here was somebody with authority, experience and, I would imagine, some online chops. Not only hadn’t she been to a blog, she’d never heard of one.
Listening to NPR today, I heard a bunch of talking heads ranting about Google. In particular, they were repeating the canard that Google’s gmail product somehow invades our privacy. It must, they asserted loudly, because the ads are contextual, which means your mail is getting read.
News flash! It’s getting read by a computer.
News flash! Computers are already reading your mail! Spam filters, for example.
News flash! If someone wants to read your mail, it’s pretty easy to do.
Yet the canard persists. I’m sure Google was amazed at how vociferous the irrational attacks on privacy invasion were.
That’s my point. Being smart doesn’t matter. Having a blog or doing something technical is irrelevant if you’re invisible or seen as a threat by everyone else.
May 5, 2004
if you have to explain that you’re being ironic?
Turns out that a few stuffy people aren’t getting the joke about the packaging and stuff in Seth Godin :: Free Prize Inside
No, I’m not proposing that everything look like a cereal box with a little man and with bright colors. In fact, I’m doing exactly the opposite.
It was actually painful to explain this, but hey, the customer comes first.
The book tour continues today with: Decent Marketing: On the Edge with Seth Godin
All the fun of a book tour with none of the travel.
How cool is that?
Marketers are pretty visual people. We realize that consumers get their cues primarily from visual stimuli.
Except they don’t.
We all are driven primarily by the interpersonal and the interpersonal is frequently verbal.
How do they answer the phone at your office?
Just flew to Florida with JetBlue (I LOVE JetBlue) and I was reminded of this in a very busy terminal. JetBlue does everything right… and then, boom, they yell at you.
They yell at you on the PA system, and they do it with either panic or aggression. They are flustered, overworked, distraught and totally stressed out when they use the PA.
There’s no way in the world the brand wizards at JetBlue would let each employee design their own graphics. So why do so many employees get to yell at me?
Why not have soothing background music and Bette Midler or Clint Eastwood doing a little tag? Why not have professionally pre-recorded announcements for 85% of the stuff they do?
How do they answer the phone at your office?
May 4, 2004
John Moore (or as he likes it johnmoore) and Paul Willliams have terrific credentials and for some reason, seem to like my new book. Check out today’s stop on the blogging tour: Brand Autopsy Lots of free reading here, worth your time.
This has been a ton of fun, and these two guys are wicked smart… so, when’s their book coming out???
My online book tour starts today.
First stop: A Penny For…. I field some creampuff questions from Todd.
Thanks, Todd, for setting it up. More as it develops all week.
May 3, 2004
To find BlogRunner: Business.
This is a neat blog indeed. Full disclosure: I will now be stealing ideas from them with abandon.
Readers know that I posted the free ebook BULLMARKET 2004 yesterday. What you might not know is that through the magic of missing neurons and inherent sloppiness, I left out two blogs by mistake. Yikes!
Brand Autopsy
Adrants: Advertising and Media News With Commentary, Gossip and Opinion by Steve Hall
Worth a visit.
May 1, 2004
