Truth in advertising can make for a lukewarm message

Posted on April 1, 2013 by markkolier

TruthInAdvertisingI’ve been watching a little (ok more than a little) bit of basketball recently with the NCAA and the NBA in high season.   Since sporting events are among the last events that I watch live on TV I have seen and seen again the same rotation of ads that are run by the broadcast and cable networks.    One ad that I’ve seen a great deal lately is an ad for the GMC Acadia SLE-1.     It’s an SUV if you are not aware.

All the spots have the same tag – you can watch one here.   The tag is ‘Now lease the 2013 GMC Acadia SLE for around $299 per month.’   The first time I heard that I did a double-take – AROUND $299 per month?   Since when has any product advertised itself as having a price in that fashion?     We’ve heard for years the ‘starting at $299 per month’ and people are conditioned to expect that starting point means the price only gets higher.

So what exactly does ‘around $299 per month’ mean?   More importantly, I am wondering why the change from ‘starting at’ to ‘around’?    Am I as a consumer meant to figure outonce I have added whatever options I choose, taxes, license and all the trimmings that the $299 will be $350/month?   $375/month?   And why now?  Did U.S. FCC regulators encourage GMC to be less misleading and promote an ‘around’ price?

Whatever the reasons are, what is left behind is an offer that is less compelling and less motivating as far as I am concerned.  At the very least, good product promotion and advertising should leave a positive brand impression and help move the prospect closer to purchasing.   I can’t say that on the basis of the GMC Acadia spots the brand has gained or lost in my view, but I am put off by the nebulous term of ‘around’ when it comes to pricing.    If this becomes a trend one of the next things you could see is an airline advertising a fare for around $200.    How would you evaluate buying a ticket in that instance?

What do you think?  Is there a difference in your mind using ‘starting at’ versus ‘around’ when it comes to advertising price offers?

Posted in Advertising, Brand Advertising | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Venture Capital attitudes are changing – for the better I hope

Posted on March 28, 2013 by markkolier

Silicon Dragon fullpanelcropped2Being a venture capitalist has always sounded like fun to me.   My perception is that most VC’s reach a station in life at which there is an ability to vet opportunities that come over the transom, as well as create opportunities to invest in things that are of interest to the VC.  I realize there are risks involved and that ‘success’ rates in the VC world are lower than most people might think.   In fact, a study conducted by a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School showed results that indicated that about 75 percent of all “venture-backed firms” in the country are unable to pay back their investors. The researchers reviewed information from over 2,000 businesses who received a minimum of $1 million in venture capital from 2004 through 2010.

Last week at the invitation of an associate Rebecca Fannin I attended an event hosted by her company Silicon Dragon at held at the New York City NASDAQ office in Times Square.  The event featured an ‘A’ list of VC’s including:

 

Jim Robinson, General Partner & Co-Founder, RRE Ventures

Brian Cohen, Chairman, New York Angels and lead investor in Pinterest

Ross Goldstein, Co-Founder & Managing Director, DFJ Gotham

Porter Bibb, Managing Partner, MediaTech Capital Partners

Kamran Ansari, Senior Associate, Greycroft Partners

Glenn Nash, Partner, Sidley Austin

It also featured Startup Innovators:

Dave Otten, Founder & CEO, LongTail Video

Alex Iskold, Founder & CEO, GetGlue

Content Publishers:

Jimmy Maymann, CEO, Huffington Post

Rich Karlgaard, Publisher, Forbes

Moderators:

Joe Mandese, Editor-in-Chief, MediaPost

Dorian Benkoil, Columnist, MediaShift & Founder, Teeming Media

Deborah Malone, Founder, The Internationalist

And the entire event was emceed by Rebecca Fannin, Founder/Editor, Silicon Dragon Ventures

The event was terrific and the time spent talking with attendees and speakers both before and after was extremely well spent.   In particular l enjoyed the VC’s attitudes and no-spin talk.   Brian Cohen and Jim Robinson (whom ironically I had first met the day before at another networking event) noted that VC’s need to grow-up and be more responsible and that was very refreshing.   And spot on.  The clear description of when entrepreneurs should seek Angel Capital as opposed to Venture Capital was particularly good to hear coming from the ‘horses’ mouths.   Expectations of success in acquiring VC and Angel investor capital needs to be made clear to wanting entrepreneurs.  VC does need to change and be more responsible, and we can only hope that there are more changes for the better yet to come.   My hope is that the people I listened to and met last week will be the leaders of the charge.

In summary all the panelists seemed to connect with the audience and while the sessions were short for the most part, fifteen minutes, it left me wanting to hear more and learn more from these experienced and very smart people.

Bravo Rebecca.  I can’t wait for the next installment!

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The way habits change day-by-day

Posted on March 25, 2013 by markkolier

Change day by dayWhile the talk is often about the nature of disruptive change, most of the time change while it is happening is incremental and not easy to discern.  Think about watching your parents grow older – one day you look at them and you think – when did they get old?   The same is true of watching your kids grow up.  Day by day you don’t really notice it but then one day your son or your daughter is taller than you.

In the context of daily habits, change is incremental as well.  I thought of this as I read part of the newspaper on my phone this morning.  A few years ago I would have categorically rejected the thought that I might enjoy reading the newspaper on my phone screen.    I recall a trip out of the country where I was able to read the New York Times on my phone and I was pleased to both have the access as well as surprised at how easy it was and how much I enjoyed the experience.   I am on the road to dispensing with printed newspapers (and magazines) altogether.  Not this year maybe but the process is well underway I acknowledge.

An article in this morning’s New York Times cited a recent Nielsen study that estimated five million households do not have TV sets, adding that “50 percent of those homes have heads of households under 35.”   We already knew that traditional television is losing real time viewers and younger viewers, but this statistic really caught my attention.   The change did not happen in a disruptive manner but rather in an insidious and incremental way.   Yet there’s no denying that the change in television viewing is a significant behavioral change.   It just did not happen overnight.

Pundits like to talk about massive societal ‘inflection points’ – where there is clear demarcation that a major disruptive change has occurred.   I think that too often an answer is forced to fit a particular hypothesis – like the launch of Facebook changed people’s online habits forever more.  I contend that the change in people’s online habits began long before Mark Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard.

I try to be self-aware of incremental changes that I make without thinking about them.   I am not all that successful at it until after the changes are imbued in my daily behavior.   I’m not quite ready to give up my cable connected television just yet but I feel that I am closer than I was a year ago.   Internet enabled television (for example) is on the precipice of becoming the norm and aside from watching live events (news, sports, Oscars?) most of the television I watch is recorded.

How about you?   Have you noticed changes in your day-to-day habits while they are occurring or after the change has occurred?

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How online video gamers learn business management skills

Posted on March 21, 2013 by markkolier

video-gamesI have two grown children – a son who will be 24 next month and a daughter that will be 20 this summer.   Their digital skills as digital natives exceed mine despite my great efforts to keep up with the dizzying platforms and pace of platform expansion.    I find it amusing that my daughter Haley feels that parents do not use Facebook ‘properly’ (whatever that means) and we parents are in general somewhat of an amusement to she and her friends.

My son Gordon is a different story having been exposed to computers from the age of 4 years old by my late mother who herself was an early adopter of computers and was one of the first ‘Power sellers’ on eBay back in the 1990’s.    Gordon saw my mother playing a game called Mickey 123 and Jazz Jackrabbit and his life has not been the same since.   Today Gordon, like so many men and women (boys and girls for that matter) is a fairly dedicated online gamer.   He works at his job, sees a few friends but spends a good deal of time engaging in online games with other friends complete with headset, real-time conversations with people from all over the world and the (as far as it seems to me) constant evaporation of countless hours spent participating in different online games.

Back in my 20’s my roommates and I had a non-online gaming system called Intellivision from Mattel.   There were a few games like football, baseball and I think hockey that we would play on a semi-regular basis but only with live people or against the game itself.   We’d also go out to video arcades to play ‘console video games like Battlezone (my all-time favorite).  We got to be so good at Battlezone that one quarter in the machine could last the whole night much to the displeasure of anyone else that wanted to play.    For these reasons I somehow feel that I have an understanding of how addictive and engrossing video games can be and what we had was stone aged in comparison to what is available today.   I do not play video games today because maybe, just maybe, I am afraid of what I might become.

As a parent however it’s difficult for me to understand how my son and others like him can whittle away the hours playing a game.  How can one learn about life playing a game with others wearing a headset from the comfort of a living room or bedroom?    I made that point to him about interacting with ‘real live people’ and how it must be more difficult to learn how to manage people without interacting with them one on one.   Gordon’s response was immediate and very enlightening if not completely surprising.   I am not quoting word for word but it went something like this:

“Actually I have learned about management when gaming.   As a guild leader (a guild is a group of online gamers each with a specific role to play in helping achieve a common goal given their talents and accomplishments within the game platform), and recruiter I have to pick the right team keeping in mind both their abilities and personalities.   Since conversations during the game occur in real time, there is constant back and forth while the game is played.   Some people respond well to being kicked in the pants (this has been edited just a bit), and others will absolutely not respond well to out-and-out public criticism and you have to handle them differently than the player who really does not mind being publicly told they are not getting it done and need to do better.”

This response shut me up – at least for a while.  The notion that one can learn management skills in a virtual environment was something that had escaped me.   Yet it makes sense to me more and more and virtual workspaces have yet to take hold the way I suspect they will in relatively short order.

Like the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince song – ‘Parents just don’t understand’.   But maybe, just maybe we can learn a thing or two from our kids.  After all people learn differently today than when we were kids and so on.  I know I have learned things from my children.   How about you?

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, Leadership, Living in the World Today, Social gaming, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Trying to figure out the puzzle that is Asia

Posted on March 18, 2013 by markkolier

asia rubiks cubeMy friend Mel travels more than anybody that I know well.   That’s saying something since I have a fair amount of friends that travel frequently.   For what it’s worth I don’t consider myself a member of the ‘travel frequently’ club.  In order to be in that club it seems to me that you’d need to travel roughly ten days or more every month.

Mel’s latest travels have taken him to Shanghai where he spends a few days helping companies with their business processes and bring-to-market strategies.    I had sent him an email asking if he’d seen the dead pigs floating down the Hangpu River in Shanghai.   He referred to being in ‘Porkville’ but made no mention that he’d seen the floating swine.    One line that caught my attention and fancy was – ‘There’s a huge opportunity here but like a puzzle to figure out’.   I thought to myself – he totally nailed it!

For me that’s a good thing because I like puzzles.   Not only crossword puzzles but jigsaw puzzles, anachrostics, and even ken-kens.   For whatever reason I have never become enamored of Soduku.  I’m pretty good at doing crossword puzzles, and who really cannot ‘do’ a jigsaw puzzle given enough time?    I had a Rubik’s Cube back in the 70’s and recall being able to figure it out – eventually.    It was not a significant life achievement or even a little deal at the time.

As far as I am concerned the thing about puzzles is that some of them just take time – sometimes a great deal of time, to solve.  Other puzzles can be unsolvable – at least by most people including me.  But the effort that goes into ultimately coming up with a solution is more than half the battle and offers more than half of the reward.  Along the way you can gain insight

So when it comes to doing business in Asia with all of its cultural differences and varying approaches to doing business, I think it helps me to think of it as a puzzle that I am trying to solve but never will.   In the process of thinking about various approaches (good puzzlers – even crossword puzzlers, employ strategy in order to more quickly find a solution), I expect that I will gain insight and understanding which will be worth more than half of that unreachable ultimate reward in finding a solution to the puzzle that is Asia.   Somehow not being able to reach that ultimate goal doesn’t bother me at all.

The journey really is its own reward.   I’ve got to keep that in mind.  How about you?

Posted in Best business practices, Business in Asia, China, Travel | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you a last word person?

Posted on March 15, 2013 by markkolier

having the last wordYou know the type.   The person who regardless of the situation (online or offline) has to always have the last word.   It can be a beyond annoying habit.   In person, most people are somewhat aware of and on guard to NOT be that person who has to have the last word.  Some ignore it anyway, and some have no clue (and will never have a clue).    But does this follow in the online environment?    YES!

In my experience people are more prone to being a ‘last word’ type person when commenting in social media.   Facebook posts, LinkedIn forums, Twitter posts and blogs are the four areas that are at the top of my list.   Since I write and comment on all four platforms I’ve developed a sensitivity to not being that guy – the one who always has to have the last ‘post’ or ‘word’ on any given topic.    In particular I think it’s important to keep in mind the initiator of the conversation.    If someone online starts a discussion or makes a point first in a forum, that initiator, as long as they engage by responding at least once, should most often have that last response.   Obviously when the initiator fails to respond the point is moot.   Yes I am aware that I am completely dreaming but it’s a pretty good one.

It’s absolutely fine if there is some repartee between initiator and reader/commenter, but it’s also fairly easy to tell when things have gone too far.  This happens when the over-commenter begins to look desperate to have that last word.   Surely you’ve seen it?   I acknowledge that there are some people who are not quite able to figure out when to stop – possibly thinking that it would be rude to stop commenting.   There are and always will be clueless people, so in that case let them have that last word and simply ignore them.    Those people are the exception to the rule.

Since being aggravated by other people is a part of real-life we have no right to expect the online world to be any different.   Let’s just say that sending messages on a screen while being behind a screen has the unintended effect of making people frequently lose their sense of etiquette.   What many people will do online, (and this still makes me shake my head constantly) is a far cry from how those people will behave when actually interacting in person with other people.

As someone who writes a fair amount of online content and reads and comments on many other people’s blogs and pages, when someone posts something online they are nearly always hoping for some interaction.    What that online ‘poster’ does not want is to have his or her point drowned out and falling prey to a commenter’s personal agenda.   It’s an easy trap in which to fall as I’ve done it myself.

So are you someone that needs to have the last word?

That’s all I have to offer. Nothing more.  That’s it.  I’m done.  Really.

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WeChat – the best voice texting application I’ve seen but can it make it in the U.S.?

Posted on March 13, 2013 by markkolier

WechatMy Mandarin teacher first introduced me to WeChat last year.    In China it is known as Wei Xin from Shenzhen based QQ.  Wei Xin or WeChat has many similarities to another more well known texting app called WhatsApp which is becoming more popular in the United States.   However I think WeChat is WAY better.

Like WhatsApp, WeChat allows users to send and receive instant messages for free – no matter what countries the users and receivers are in – all that’s needed is an ITouch, iPad, IPhone or Android phone with iOS 3.0 or later with Internet access.  Because it’s based in China Wei Xin comes in Mandarin Chinese (Traditional and Simplified characters) and English versions.

WeChat users can send and receive text messages, instant voice messages, photos, group messages, and share their locations. Users can also use a GPS function to see other users who are within a 1,000-meter radius of their GPS phones although I’m not sure that’s all that useful to non-city people.

One of the reasons texting apps are not more popular in the U.S. is that calling plans often include unlimited texting.  We’ve all heard the stories about the teenagers that send 3,000 or texts in a month – something that cannot possibly be a good thing for wireless carriers and will not be this affordable forever.

There are many reasons I like WeChat so much – the most significant of which is the ability to hear the person’s voice and emotion, and respond in the same way – at your convenience (after all if you are going to have a real time voice texting conversation why not just simply call the person).  I also like having the conversation preserved for as long as I want.    And when my Mandarin teacher sends me a 20 second voice text in Mandarin I can listen to it like fifty times to be sure I understood what she said (or at least think I understand).  And even more, I can take as much time as I need to respond in Mandarin (my ability to respond in Mandarin in real time is still ‘in development’).

Another thing crossed my mind with regard to a big benefit of using WeChat – with a little voice recognition technology integrating WeChat would in fact make texting while driving a non-issue.   The only stipulation is that you have to be invited to WeChat by a WeChat user as it has to stay inside the circle.   BTW – did I mention WeChat is FREE?

What do you think?  Are you at all intrigued and interested enough to try?

Posted in Communication, Innovation, Mobile Communication, Networking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Be careful with Google translate!

Posted on March 11, 2013 by markkolier

Google translateThis past Friday morning my Mandarin teacher cancelled our lesson due to an early March east coast U.S. snow.  She sent me the message entirely in Chinese characters and I understood what she wrote without using Google Translate.  I have a program in which I can write in pinyin (English alphabet entry of words that sound like Chinese characters – type in ni hao and you get what looks like 你好 – it works pretty well as long as you know the pinyin).

What I thought I wrote in Chinese characters to my Mandarin teacher:

“Morning Grace (Jie Hua is her Chinese name),I understand.  Next Monday I am going to the New York office.  Is next Friday possible?

Mark”

After I sent it I thought to copy and paste what I thought I wrote in Chinese characters into Google translate. 

 This is what I got:

“Early Jie Hua

Hydrogen. The nest (Monday) came up with the New York office. Next Friday could that be?

Horse off”

Here’s a warning for you.  Be careful with Google translate.  The application is very good (and free) but don’t, don’t, don’t, rely on it for an accurate translation. 

只是说- Just sayin’

 

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, International business, Technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Leadership in business – the fish stinks from the head down

Posted on March 8, 2013 by markkolier

Fish stock-photo--fish-caught-on-a-fishing-line-79263631It’s widely held that the best leaders do more than make things work on the bottom line.    There are many examples of successful leaders in terms of contributions to the financial success of their companies or organizations.    Yet we’ve also seen – far too often – examples of leaders that delivered very positive financial results that turned out to be built on false pretenses (think Bernie Madoff and Enron).   Seemingly successful leaders that did not practice financial fraud but let down their companies by exhibiting unethical behavior (think H-P’s former CEO Mark Hurd and former Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn) impugned the reputation of their respective companies for selfish reasons.    When it comes to truly winning leadership – the fish stinks from the head down.

There are many reasons why when it comes to running a company the saying goes ‘it’s lonely at the top’.  A leader balancing commitment to positive performance while maintaining business ethics should be standard operating procedure.   I’d like to believe that most leaders take on new challenges with exactly those thoughts in mind.   But we know better.   Pressures for performance can cause compromises in business ethics especially when the very survival of the enterprise is at stake.

It goes beyond business doesn’t it?   When I think of the volunteer boards I’ve been a part of there have been a few in which bad and selfish leadership poisoned the entire organization.   When a leader is only interested in hearing his or her voice the organization’s willingness to pull in the same direction is or will be lost.   At that point what happens is that good people leave the board or company, the pool of potential good new talent becomes shallower (word does get around) and the spiral towards complete ineffectiveness is well underway.

There’s a word that all leaders need to constantly keep in mind – humility.   And I mean real humility – not false humility.   Having humility does not mean one has to be soft.  It seems to me that sometimes people confuse that concept.   Nobody has much use for a wishy-washy leader – a leader that lacks confidence is hardly inspiring.   But hubris often gets mixed up with confidence and the combination is often tragic and sometimes catastrophic.   Believing in your own omnipotence whether that is a conscious thought or not is a path to failure – moral and professional.

Former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin (remember him during Hurricane Katrina?) was recently indicted on 21 charges including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.    Could there be any other explanation for his malfeasance than a total succumbing to his own bravado and misguided sense of purpose?    The answer has to be it’s possible but I would suggest a lack of humility and misguided moral compass would be the primary drivers.  It is often argued that people get caught up in their own mission to make a difference and sometimes lose their way – but one should never lose the exceedingly important moral compass.

When a leader violates his or hers organizational trust and confidence the entire organization takes a hit at the same time.   Unfortunately for the innocent bystanders – the smell of the fish stinking from the head down pervades the entire organization.    Removing the smell requires more than a little disinfectant.  Fast Company magazine posed an article on the five characteristics of great leaders – http://www.fastcompany.com/3004914/5-characteristics-great-leaders, by Bill McBean as part of his book, (which I have yet to read) The Facts of Business Life http://www.amazon.com/The-Facts-Business-Life-Successful/dp/1118094964 – and you can rest assured being a closed-minded blowhard is not one of them.   My personal favorite is #5 – being responsible.   While Mr. McBean uses the expression ‘A skunk stinks from the head down’ (I always that skunks just stink all over) the intent is to compare that to businesses which he notes do as well.

Always keep in mind that every organization takes its lead and direction from its leader.  How that leader wishes to be remembered should be part of every action, every day.   All the money in the world cannot repair a terminally damaged reputation.

 

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Dennis Rodman is NOT an American ambassador

Posted on March 6, 2013 by markkolier

Kim_Rodman_620x350Pickens_Bomb_RiderWhile I was in Asia I kept up with the news in the U.S. as best as I could which was really not all that difficult.  The story of former NBA star Dennis Rodman being invited to North Korea to meet its young leader Kim Jong Un seemed to me to be something from The Onion.    I mean it should have been a big joke right?   It wasn’t a joke at all and a guy (Dennis Rodman) who has never taken himself seriously is now..being taken seriously.

Time Magazine’s Michael Crowley wrote an article entitled ‘Could Dennis Rodman’s North Korea Trip Affect U.S. Policy?’ Now I liked the”Worm’s” tenacity under the boards when he played in the NBA but his visit to North Korea is nothing short of bizarre.   The DPRK and the U.S. claim to have direct communications according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, but even the White House was at a loss to explain how Mr. Rodman’s visit would be beneficial to U.S. – North Korean relations at the governmental level.   The request passed along to the White House that Mr. Kim asked that President Obama ‘call-him’ (Maybe?), and you can’t help but shake your head.   It was less than a month ago that North Korea yet again detonated an underground nuclear device in defiance of just about every country in the world, in fact even agitating the neighboring (and supporting) Chinese.  Mr. Rodman also termed the North Korean leader as being ‘awesome’.    He did not specify why.

If Mr. Kim is trying to be a relevant leader I can safely offer that this is precisely NOT the way to go.  Mr. Rodman is simply irrelevant and this episode does nothing to change that.  The scary part is thinking that the North Koreans could possibly view ‘The Worm’ as being representative of Americans in general.   It’s a good thing former NBA player Daryl Dawkins (self-declared being from the planet ‘Lovetron’) was off on vacation and unavailable for comment.

I now have a picture in my mind of Mr. Rodman riding on a North Korean missile like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove.    OK maybe I am wishing that a bit as it would make a GREAT photo opportunity.  If I was adept at Photoshop I’d be all over that.

Hey I can dream can’t I?

 

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