Thinking outside of the box is easier when you were never in the box in the first place

Posted on June 3, 2013 by markkolier

think-outside-the-boxWe’ve been interviewing a number of very smart and qualified young candidates for summer internships.   One thing that has struck me is that when we have met with foreign students (as well as American students) the foreign students have shown a proclivity to solve problems in a creative way quite different than their American counterparts.

This is not to say the American students are not creative marketing problem solvers.   However I do have a theory that because the foreign students are – well foreign, they never got into the proverbial ‘box’ in which people are always referring to stepping outside in order to be more creative.    The varying degrees of different life experiences of a non-American can and should lead to different solutions than an American counterpart.

I had thought that foreign students may not have the U.S. market understanding and consequently that undermined their ability to contribute.   My recent experiences have caused me to rethink that perception.   In fact NOT having similar experiences to those of Americans makes a foreign student (or non-student for that matter), able to contribute in some very different ways, more so before they assimilate into American culture.  Different is good – sometimes great.

The short history of the American people has featured the assimilation of people from many different countries.   I truly believe the culture of American diversity is a primary contributor to the success the U.S. has enjoyed over the past 200+ years.   Whether it is thinking differently (or remember “THINK DIFFERENT”) or thinking outside the box, diversity of thought and opinion offers the widest solution pool.

If you really want to think outside the box, do everything you can to not go into the box in the first place.   I know I am now thinking differently about how to build a good marketing team using the advantage of teaming with people from very different backgrounds and cultures.

Do you feel differently?

Posted in Best business practices, Brand Advertising, Innovation, Listening | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Longevity from Young Living – once you start it could you stop?

Posted on May 31, 2013 by markkolier

LongevityIf you’re like us, in your pantry you have a bunch of containers of vitamins, aspirin and assorted bottles of supplements.   Since it’s my job to lay out the morning dosages I sleepily open the various bottles and dole them out.  Yes I know – old school.   One product that my wife takes every day is from a company called Young Living – and it’s called Longevity.    The long living kind of longevity BTW in case you are wondering and you shouldn’t be.

Every day when I put out my wife’s few pills I mention that it appears (since she is still here) as if the stuff is still working.   And that got me thinking.  If you take Longevity for a day, a week, a month or longer how could you ever stop?   Wouldn’t it be something you HAVE to take every day for the rest of your life?

The description of the product is both clever and amusing:

Longevity™ softgels are a potent, proprietary blend of fat-soluble antioxidants. Longevity blend should be taken daily to strengthen the body’s systems to prevent the damaging effects of aging, diet, and the environment.* Enriched with the pure essential oils thyme, orange, and now frankincense, Longevity protects DHA levels, a nutrient that supports brain function and cardiovascular health, promotes healthy cell regeneration, and supports liver and immune function.* Longevity also contains clove oil, nature’s strongest antioxidant, for ultra-antioxidant support.

I refuse to take the product.  Mostly because I think it’s nothing more than something that is neither bad nor good for me.  Also because there’s absolutely no way to measure the efficacy of such a product.  (Actually there is one way and I’ll get to that later).   Being a big proponent of measuring the success or lack thereof (something we marketers do every single day if not more often), I truly have a problem with products that purport immeasurable benefits.

Relatedly, after I hurt my knee some years ago I decided (after reading up on things) to take Glucosamine Chondroitin.    It was not an inexpensive product and I took it daily (the manufacturer actually recommended taking it twice daily).  My knee felt pretty good but my surgeon’s advice was interesting if not telling.    He said that he personally did not think it did all that much but there was no harm in my taking it.  The idea being that if I thought it made me feel better, then it was working, even if in a placebo sense.   I stopped taking it after a few years.  My knee feels the same – fine.

If you are at all interested in what’s in Longevity it can be found at this link: http://www.youngliving.com/natural-health-supplements/Longevity-30#.  On the label you’ll see that the inclusion of Frankincense (used in perfumes and aromatherapy) is highlighted.    Since there are a number of people that believe in aromatherapy (don’t count me among them) I guess it’s playing to that crowd.  I do not understand how ingesting something having to do with aromatherapy makes any sense.

My main question is – why ever begin taking this stuff unless you plan to take it every day for the rest of your life?    By the time you know for sure that it no longer is effective it’s too late.

Posted in Advertising, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

The U.S. won’t be celebrating 100 years of Personal Income Taxes

Posted on May 28, 2013 by markkolier

Income taxes 1913Our agency is now working with one of the U.S. major tax preparation companies so I’ve been reading up on the category in general.    I knew that personal income taxes began sometime in the early 20th century but you (as I was), might be interested or even surprised to learn is that exactly one hundred years ago this October, the United States under President Woodrow Wilson introduced Personal Income Tax in the U.S…   I never liked the name Woodrow very much and now I like it even less.   But the history of income taxes is – to me – interesting.    

 From About.com; ‘At first, income taxes were considered a temporary tax to help raise money for war. The first time an income tax was enacted was in 1799 in Great Britain to help the British pay for troops and supplies to defeat the French forces led by Napoleon.

In the War of 1812, the U.S. first considered enacting an income tax, but the war ended before the tax was officially created. Yet, during the American Civil War, the first U.S. income tax was created, but this one was meant only as a temporary measure to help pay for the war. It was repealed in 1872.

By the 1890s, the U.S. government was hoping to find a way to more evenly distribute the federal tax burden and thus looked at creating a permanent income tax.’

In 1894 Congress enacted a flat rate Federal income tax, which was ruled unconstitutional the following year by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was a direct tax not apportioned according to the population of each state.  Until the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1913, the federal government was forced to collect taxes based on state population.   Once the 16th Amendment was passed, the U.S. government passed its first, permanent income tax law in October 1913.

According to the CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter, as of 2013, it now takes 73,954 regular 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheets of paper to explain the complexity of the U.S. federal tax code

Believe it or not, that represents an improvement from the trend that has existed since the end of World War 2, where the tool we developed to project the number of pages needed to explain the U.S. income tax code had anticipated that 77,030 pages would be needed in 2013.

Nobody enjoys paying taxes.   But like it or not, most people are aware of why governments levy taxes.  So now are we going to help market a service that is at best a necessary evil?  It’s sort of like trying to get people to go to the dentist.   I think it’s also interesting that both we and the client discuss the impact of social media as it relates to listening to what customers are saying since there are likely only to be negative comments.    Simplification of the U.S. tax code seems to be a popular meme but also seems like it will never happen.   You can guess the reasons for that (hint:  think whose jobs are at stake)

I’m not ready to wish the tax man a happy 100th are you?

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AMC’s Mad Men – much more than a soap opera

Posted on May 23, 2013 by markkolier

Mad-men-title-cardI tend to put any ongoing serial in the category of being a quasi-soap opera.  Consequently as my family will tell you I have little use or patience for soap operas.  I have had friends refer to Mad Men as just another soap opera.  So why am I (and many of my fellow advertising professionals) so enamored of AMC’s Mad Men?   Answer:  Because Mad Men is much more than a soap opera.  I had to test my hypothesis and did a little research on the history of soap operas.

The soap opera has its origins as a distinctly American phenomenon (we Americans should not take too much pride in this I daresay).  Back in the1950’s, in fact each and every weekday, millions of people from all over the world tuned in to their favorite soap to follow the trials and tribulations of their favorite characters.  There are still soap operas today but as a genre they are being phased out of network television and recently have been moving to the web.

Soap operas have been on television since 1952, with the debut of what was a radio show “Guiding Light”. This is the longest running continuous soap on TV. The term “soap opera” is deceiving, for it is not about soap, nor is it an opera! It is called this because soap companies were big sponsors of the radio shows back in the 1930s, when soaps like Guiding Light were being aired. The opera part comes from the fact that operas tell a story, just as the soaps do.

What makes a soap opera unique is that the story never ends, that is why soaps like GL can be on the air (either radio or TV) for more than 50 years!  In fact long running soap operas like All My Children will live on seemingly forever now that they been able to detach themselves from ad-supported network and cable television.

So how is Mad Men different?    First, the backdrop of depicting the advertising culture of the 1960’s is for us advertising folk VERY interesting.   Second, the use of a backdrop in the form of the historical events that made up the 1960’s which impact the lives of the characters are also extremely interesting.  Soap operas rarely deal with historical aspects and the only culture ever depicted seems to be backstabbing and snobbery.  This goes for both daytime and nighttime soap operas by the way.   Third, the story DOES have an end – purportedly next season.    I say purportedly since shows that are set to end frequently live on for additional seasons as long as the creators, advertisers and actors are all aligned and making money.

What do you think – is Mad Men a soap opera or something more?  Or something else?

Posted in Advertising, Television advertising | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

To become a better listener try not saying anything

Posted on May 20, 2013 by markkolier

shut_up_009I’ve always thought of myself as being a pretty good listener.   People that have been in sales-oriented careers like me know it’s obvious that being a good listener is a crucial skill.   Despite that, I know that I could be even better and the same could be said for most people.   I’ve been trying a new approach for me which I believe is really helping my listening skills.   I’ll let you in on a little secret – it’s only four words.   Shut the **** up.

Crude yes, but yet also equally effective.   I keep in mind that when someone is telling me something I should resist all temptation to wait for them to take a breath and then say what I was thinking.  We’ve all heard that before.   It doesn’t mean I don’t show them non-verbal signs that I am listening and understanding what they are saying.  I will nod, or shake my head, but just letting them continue without simply saying something in response to fill empty space (the perceived empty conversation space is always much longer than the actual empty conversation space BTW).

What is resulting is that in shutting up I am hearing more and by saying less when I do say something it (hopefully) has more impact and is more relevant since I’ve taken the time to really consider what I am hearing.  Before you dismiss this as being obvious ask yourself when was the last time you actually stopped yourself from replying automatically and just didn’t say anything?   If the answer is you can’t remember then you should think long and hard about whether or not you are being as good a listener as you think you are.

If I accomplish only one major goal this year, it would fine with me to achieve truly being a better listener.  That would be something that would benefit me and everybody I come into contact with for the rest of my life.

Shut the **** up.   Are you able to do that?   Try it out and you might find you learn much more and are thought of as being wiser than you really are.

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, Listening | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

A Disturbing Trend

Posted on May 18, 2013 by markkolier

A Disturbing Trend.

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Free Conference call – one of the best deals around for its users

Posted on May 16, 2013 by markkolier

FreeConferenceCall_logoThe web is rife with companies that have what seem to be unfathomable business models.   We are regular users of www.freeconferencecall.com and every time I use it I think what a good service it is and of course you cannot beat the price.

I finally was curious enough to look up what is the revenue model and as I suspected (or likely had read someplace) the model is based on fees charged for line transmissions.   Of course those fees are not visible (or easily visible) to users.   I use the term “users” since people that use Free Conference Call don’t pay money so consequently they are not and cannot be customers.

It’s one thing to have a business model that claims it has future plans to monetize its users or players (think of the way Facebook started, Zynga and even Twitter), it’s quite another to have a model that does not plan to ask its users to fork over any hard cash.

So I checked around and one of the more concise descriptions on how Free Conference Call makes money came from Aaron Parekci’s blog from March 2012 – http://aaronparecki.com/articles/2012/03/25/1/how-does-freeconferencecall-make-money .  Despite my now having a better overall understanding of the platform and how per www.feefighters.com Freeconferencecall.com does ~20 million calls per month and (per feefighters.com) it did ‘$23 million in revenues in 2010. So it’s a win-win-win right? Freeconferencecall wins, the conference callers win, the rural phone companies win, etc… Everyone, that is, except for the large phone companies. They are paying a ton of money to the small companies. AT&T estimated in 2007 that they were paying an additional $250 million to connect these calls.’   Basically the user pays nothing and the phone companies pick up the tab.  Yes this is odd to say the least.

My normal thought process includes the phrase ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’.    Something about FreeConferenceCall.com just does not make sense (or cents) to me.   But for the time being I am happy to not pay, to have our own number, and to have clients accept the platform without any issues.

How about you?  Do you pay for a conference call service or are you a FreeConferenceCall.com user or fan?

Posted in Best business practices, Communication | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Taking pride in every aspect of your job will always make you a success

Posted on May 13, 2013 by markkolier

AwningLast week as I arrived home in the NYC suburbs after a long day I received a different kind of gift in the form of an abject business lesson.   We have a small yard and when we bought the house one of the things that really attracted us to the property was a canvas awning attached to the house that covered the small brick patio.   In mid-April we called the company – Fitzgerald Awning that puts it up and takes it down each year knowing that it seems to take them awhile to get out to their customers once the weather turns nice.    In fact we had called more than once.

I had never met the people that do the work and knew very little about the company.   In the past, one day I would come home and the awning would either be up or down depending on the season.  It looked pretty complicated and I was not convinced it was a job I could do myself and the cost to put it up and take it down was not prohibitive.   By happenstance the company came to my house at 7PM on a weekday when I was actually home.   I was able to meet and talk to the people doing the work who turned out to be brothers who co-own this family business and their employee all of whom do the actual work.

Last fall during Hurricane Sandy the awning was still up (they had not yet come to take it down although we had called but as everyone knew the hurricane was coming we figured that they were overwhelmed) and we rode out the storm watching and wondering if the awning would act like a sail and be ripped off the house.  It not only survived the hurricane, but it seemed to not be affected by the storm at all.  I actually sat outside under it a few times during the storm because it was exhilarating (and not too smart I’ll admit) to sit outside under shelter during a hurricane.

So I asked the owners how they attract customers and Greg mentioned that it was all word-of-mouth and that they had more customers than they could handle.   The reason was that the two brothers and the other employee put up and took down every awning that they made.  Their father came up with the idea on how to make and install the awnings and their attention to their customers was all they cared about.  They even acknowledged that we had called several times and apologized profusely for having made us wait.

I asked about expansion and Greg said they had no interest as the work had to be done by the family.  Think of it, a business that had all the customers it can handle, a somewhat unique product and product approach, and no desire to expand.  It was less than 30 minutes from the time they arrived until the time they left.  It impressed me that for two months they could be spending 10-12 hours a day putting up and taking down awnings.  Sounds boring to me but these guys seemed more than content and just interested in doing a great job for their customers.

Our awning is almost fifteen years old and Greg (or maybe it was his brother George?) suggested that we may need a new one (they will make one for us – custom of course) next year but they would come back and patch up the few holes that were made by tree limbs falling during the hurricane.  No extra charge.   Do you think we will look elsewhere for a new unit?  Not a chance.  We would not want to work with anyone else but Fitzgerald Awning.  (Don’t go looking for a website – why would they need one?)

I’ve started and run several businesses in my career and have always striven to do the best job I can for both my clients and my team.    Yet I was reminded of what is most important when doing business of any kind.  First, take pride in every aspect of your work.   This way if you are not a financial success (as there is no guarantee), you will still be a success in the eyes of people that truly understand what’s important.  And I guarantee you’ll be a happier person that way as well.

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Will you miss getting behind the wheel of an automobile?

Posted on May 9, 2013 by markkolier

Driverless carsSelfDrivingCar.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-largeI’ve made the observation that China is an entire country learning to drive at the same time.  This is in contrast to people like me who had their learner’s permit at age 16 and their driver’s license shortly thereafter.     As a recent report suggests younger Americans are eschewing driver’s licenses at a greater rate than at any time during the past 30 years. 

Last week I drove more than 700 miles each way to South Carolina from Connecticut and aside from some traffic on the return trip I enjoyed the ride and being behind the wheel.    Google’s self-driving cars will ultimately have my experience be a rarity or even make it extinct.   Will the adoption of driverless cars happen by a majority of Americans in the next twenty years?

Is this hard for you to believe?   Think about it.  Driverless cars are eminently safer than human driven vehicles.    On Wednesday Tesla Motors Elon Musk detailed his plans for driverless vehicles.  While Mr. Musk prefers to use the term ‘autopilot’, the result is the same.   You sit in the car and plug in a destination and off you go.    In a world of only self-driving vehicles there would be no more speeding, almost no more accidents (after all even self-driven cars will experience unforeseen things like weather and road conditions that cannot always be forecast), less traffic (I can’t see a day with NO traffic) and no more fun operating a car on the open road.   Car insurance rates should also drop dramatically shouldn’t they?

I thought about all these things during my 24 hours of driving last week.   How it makes total sense to have auto-piloted vehicles.    You plug in your destination, you get a schedule based on traffic forecast, get in the passenger or back seat and you know exactly when you will arrive at your destination – efficient, predictable, and safe.  And also, boring.  Just like airline, bus, and train travel.

I admit there are many other benefits such as elderly people having the freedom to come and go in their auto-piloted vehicles even after they have lost their ability to operate a motor vehicle.  Come to think of it, by the time there’s widespread adoption of driverless automobiles I should be pretty close to having that as my only option.   I’ll be happy and sad at the same time.

Driverless cars will make distracted driving a thing of the past.   And quite possibly thirty or more years from now it will cost you more to operate your vehicle (if that is allowed at all) should you so desire.  Somehow sitting in the passenger seat of a convertible driven by Google just doesn’t have the same thrill and enjoyment as driving yourself.

What do you think?    Will you miss getting behind the wheel?

Posted in Innovation, Technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Opening a business with a bad plan will always result in failure

Posted on May 6, 2013 by markkolier

Peter DillonsThe restaurant business is a difficult one in the best of times.  I know this from having several friends in the business – some of whom are successful, others that have been somewhat less than successful.    I am consistently amazed when I see new restaurants open in either the strangest of locations, or in a location that has had a string of failed restaurants.

I work in New York City on East 36th Street between Madison and Fifth avenues.   When we moved in this past December there were two Irish pubs nearly across the street from one another as well as another well-known NYC watering hole (Gingerman).     In addition to those establishments there are four other restaurants plus a Pret-A -Manger on the corner.    For this reason we were all surprised (not unhappily), when yet another brand new Irish pub called Peter Dillon’s opened this past winter.

It is true that the three existing local pubs on our little block get crowded around Happy Hour.   So perhaps the owners of Dillon’s felt they had an answer to their perception of an unmet demand.    Inside the bar is a dark and attractive interior with a dozen tables and a nice long bar.   The feel inside is a bit cold; lacking the inviting warmth of what I find makes Irish pubs worth patronizing.

I walk past Dillon’s frequently during the lunch hour and I never see anyone in there.   My reason for walking past is that Dillon’s is strictly a bar, it does not serve lunch or dinner while all the other establishments do.   In fact not only do the other places serve lunch and dinner, but two of them, (Slattery’s and Galway) serve a $10 lunch special – a limited but good lunch menu and a beer (or non-alcoholic beverage if that’s your preference).   People stream into both Slattery’s and Galway while Dillon’s sits there unoccupied.

What were the owners of Dillon’s thinking when they thought to open a brand new (the renovation had to be expensive) third Irish pub within 300 feet of the competition?    Then to top it off, why be a ‘pure’ bar instead of a bar-restaurant?   I realize that serving food is a big deal compared to serving drinks only, but the Dillon’s business plan should have had a competitive analysis of the local marketplace.  And now that people have gotten into the habit of not going into Dillon’s, a turnaround to popularity will be more difficult than an initial opening.

I’ve only been into Dillon’s once for a drink after work.  There were a few people there but not very many and as I noted I marvel every time I walk by at lunch and the place is completely empty.   I don’t expect it to last through the summer if it takes that long.   For whatever reason it just makes me sad to watch while it unfolds in slow-motion.

Opening a business with a bad plan will always result in failure.   The work done upfront makes all the difference and there are no shortcuts.   At least that’s the way I see it.

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