Unsolicited Marketing Advice

In an update to our earlier post, "Getting Your Event on Your Audience's Calendar," Calgoo.com will soon launch a cross-platform service that promises to put events like your company’s upcoming education seminars, your store’s upcoming sales events, your professional sports team’s game times, a golf course’s open tee times, or even relevant eBay auctions on your Outlook, Google or iCal calendar. The company describes their approach as a permission-based marketing medium for businesses to promote time-sensitive products and services

Links

• A 3-Minute overview of Calgoo in-calendar marketing
  
• Calgoo blog

Jackson Pollock's art is interesting, especially the more colorful pieces, but I've generally had a much harder time appreciating other abstract art. I found some rationale for my tastes (or lack thereof) in "Acquired Taste," in article by Gene Edward Veith in World Magazine (subscriber login required for full article, Feb 9/16, 2008 issue), where he explains "A work is beautiful to the extent that it displays at the same time both complexity and unity."

"A canvas of random paint-splatterings may have complexity, but it has no unity," Veith said. "The Sistine Chapel, or a Rembrandt woodcut, or a Hudson River landscape has both, being full of individual details that come together into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts." Veith extends the concept to music, drawing contrasts between simplistic and more complex forms, even within the same era or genre of music itself.

Enjoying junk food or junk culture isn't bad once in a while, but developing taste in art (or music, or writing, or dance, etc.) does require discipline. "Growing in taste means learning to take pleasure in what is objectively good," Veith said.

While classic thinkers spoke of three kinds of absolutes: the true, the good, and the beautiful, Veith clearly bases his definition of "good" on a Christian worldview. "The Bible tells us to set our minds on 'whatever' is 'excellent' and 'of good report' (Philippians 4:8)," he said. "To think that beauty is nothing more than a subjective preference—unconnected to standards that originate in God Himself—is to buy into a foundational principle of today's anti-Christian worldview."

Regardless of worldview, a principle we can apply here is that making good judgments about art, copywriting or strategy is often less subjective than the novice (or naïve) may think. Rationale patterns flow underneath good communications, and the professional communicator does well to become a life-long learner of theory as well as the practical application of our trade.

Labels: Marketing, Public Relations

Author and pastor Bill Hybels (bio & books) spoke about decision making during his keynote address to the Willow Creek Leadership Summit on August 7.

Good decision making is critical to being a leader because so much of leadership is about making decisions. In addition, many decisions we make as leaders have "high stakes," affecting the lives of those who work for us, as well as hundreds or perhaps thousands whom our work efforts touch, according to Hybels.

It is important to have a process to arrive at good, God-honoring decisions. Likewise, it is important to learn how to improve our decision making over time. Hybels recommended Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis as the best book he's read on the topic. He then outlined a traditional, four-point approach to Christian decision making:

1. Does the Bible say anything about this?

So many decisions aren't that hard, Hybels said, because the Bible gives clear direction. For example, leaders should admit when they are wrong. They should set an example. They should treat all with respect. He recommended leaders read the Bible regularly and see what effect it has on their decision making.

2. What would smart advisors tell me to do?

All leaders should establish a formal or informal network of advisors, Hybels said, since in the abundance of counselors there is safety as Proverbs 11:14 suggests. However, the leader must also apply their own discernment to the advice they receive, as in the case of Absalom, the son of Solomon, who made the poor choice of following the advice of his peers instead of his elders, which resulted in a civil war instead of consolidating his hold on the kingdom after his father's death.

3. What have I learned from past pains, gains and experience?

Reviewing the scars from past experiences helps give perspective to subsequent decisions. Likewise, gains from past bold decisions can help influence the current decision. Put together he abbreviates this step as P,G & E – pains, gains and experience. Hybels said journaling can be a valuable way to add to your wisdom if you include information about decisions and their results.

4. Is the spirit prompting me?

When facing a decision, Hybels attempts to listen for an inaudible whisper that is God's voice. Sometimes when he feels God is warning him against a course of action it is like God is saying, "Let me save you from yourself." Relying on the spirit's promptings leads to life and peace according to Romans 8:6, he said. Another method he uses to make decisions is a "test decision." He will make a decision in his mind, and then carry that around for a few days to see if it feels right as he goes through his day.

Decision Making Axioms

As leaders lead over time they often begin to subconsciously compress these decision making steps into principles or proverbs for themselves. As they use these and find them helpful, they may become part of the organizational culture. Such "business proverbs" are the topic of Hybel's most recent book, Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs.

Abraham Lincoln's response to people who wanted revenge on the South after the Civil War was phrased as such a proverb, "The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend." Likewise, Bob Galvin, retired CEO of Motorola, is known for "create motion for motion's sake," meaning that taking an organizational action is generally better than complacency and forces individuals to make changes that have potential for improving operations.

Colin Powell, a former Leadership Summit speaker, has about a dozen such proverbs according to Hybels. They include "check your ego at the door," "promote a clash of ideas" (don't seek consensus, but ask "And who has a contrary point of view?) and "reward your performers; get rid of your non-performers" (don't waste time on non-performers).

After interviewing Powell last year, Hybel's staff pointed out that "you have sayings too." He began to write them down over the course of the year and came up with a total of 76, which became the basis of Axiom. These include:

Vision leaks – Even after a leader sets a vision, people forget. They need the vision and goals restated for them from time-to-time. My wife noted that a better analogy might be that "vision evaporates" since it's not necessarily the fault of the recipient that the vision gets dull over time.

Get the right people around the table and it will be fine – Meaning that a challenge is best addressed by a team of the right people, not necessarily preconceived solutions.

Facts are your friends – I've found myself saying something very similar in my career. Hard data helps make decisions, and make them easier.

When something gets funky, engage – In other words, when a situation is awry, don't think it will go away or heal itself. Actively intervene instead.

Leaders call fouls – when someone or something crosses the line, the leader should say so publicly. Sometimes a leader has to call a foul on himself and admit when his behavior was out of line.

Take a flyer – Take a bold risk to launch a new initiative. Every once in a while you will have to create an action plan that takes your breath away, Hybels said. This should be differentiated, however, from moves that "bet the farm" by risking everything.

Of course, axioms that you create and coin yourself as a leader will always be more powerful than those you adopt from other leaders, Hybels said.

Leaders cannot be decision-adverse, Hybels said. Leaders need to make decisions. It's what leaders do. If the decision turns out well, your response should be to thank everyone you can think of. If it turns out to be a poor decision, don't blame others. Don't whimper or whine. Rather, take the responsibility for the poor decision and use the lesson to improve your decision making in the future.

Having a framework for decision making, a network of advisors, and an awareness of principles that have worked for us in making decisions in the past are all excellent recommendations applicable to marketing and public relations professionals.

Additional Resources

• "Next Steps" Resources for Hybel's presentation at the Leadership Summit
  
• Digging Deeper links and references from Hybel's presentation
  
• Dave Ferguson of the Velocity blog reviews Hybel's talk on decision making

Labels: Leadership

Good customer service and safety standards encourage your employees wear their name badges in a clearly visible manner, but sometimes this can be a challenge.

Name tags with simple pins are common in restaurant and retail businesses, but corporate organizations generally issue a name badge. Frequently these are embedded with a proximity reader, bar code, or other "smart chip" devices for security, identification, or time card purposes. Such badges generally have clips, which work well enough for employees with suit coats. Shed the jacket; however, and the name badge creates the dreaded droopy pocket syndrome.

Lanyards are often employed in such situations, but these may involve safety concerns, even with break-away connectors. In addition, a lanyard still positions the name badge around the navel, rather than where it is clearly visible to customers in the upper body area.

Badge Supports, LLC has now created a very nice option for shirts or scrubs that include a breast pocket. Their Nerd-Buster Badge Support slips into a shirt pocket providing an easy way of displaying a vertical or horizontal badge. The device also includes a tab that sticks up to attach a recognition or ribbon pin. Versions are available to hold a few business cards (I'm always forgetting to bring my cards to vendor meetings!), or may be pre-printed with a logo, calendar, mission statement, commonly used chemical formulae, or safety information (such as your organization's overhead paging codes). These features make the badge support a unique idea for vendors to give away at trade shows or Human Resource departments to purchase in bulk for their organization.

Name Badge Links
Unsolicited's crack research staff has scoured the Internet for solutions to droopy pocket syndrome and found these resources:

• Badge Supports, LLC – The best approach we discovered, economically priced and Michigan-based (founded by a former automotive engineer like my father so they get extra brownie points).
• Arm Band Badge Holders – May be appropriate with lifeguards or staff in T-shirts, we suppose.
• Pocketprotectors.com and securityimaging.com produce Pocket Protectors with Name Badge Holders – An option for those that carry pens, pencils or other items in their shirt pocket.
• Government ID Badge Holders from Evolution Card Systems & Badge Supplies – Rigid, color-coded, magnetic, arm band and other badge holders for school, military or government use.
• Badge straps with hole or with extra loop - Versions of straps without the ubiquitous clip for use with necklaces, reels, tube lanyards or the like.
• Badge Holders, Lanyards, Badge Clips, Badge Reels and more - from IDwholesaler.com

Labels: Branding, Customer Service

You've worked hard on designing and promoting your event. Now the challenge is making sure those hard-earned registrations actually show up. In some cases, reminder calls are appropriate, but in an age driven by electronic calendars what you really could use is an easy way to get your event onto your audience's computer or PDA.

Option 1: Integrate Yourself with Online Calendars

Users of eventful.com have the option of a button "Save to calendar" which gives options for posting to Outlook, Google, iCal format and other calendars. Eventful.com, which bills itself as having the world's largest collection of events, is a neat website which allows you to post details of your local events for free. It is easy for anyone to search for concerts, exhibits, lectures or other events of interest in their area, or a city they plan to visit. I found my region well represented with local events. In addition to the calendar feature, there are RSS feeds, e-mail notification, promotional tools available (Demand it!), imports from iTunes or last.fm (to track where your favorite bands are playing), and groups/friends social options. Posting your event to eventful.com can be the first step toward an integrated effort of pushing your audience to a popular online location where they can choose to add your event to their calendar.

In a similar manner, Markthisdate.com is a European-based calendar portal and event promoter that offers widgets to promote your schedule of events. Of course many other city web sites or daily newspaper sites provide a venue to post local event details (e.g., cincinnati.com), and you could always hold a virtual event in Second Life .

Option 2: Build a Convenient Calendar Link on Your Site

For a more customized approach, consider how WebEx online meetings have an "add to calendar" feature so you can add either a single meeting, or a series of their meetings, to your Outlook Calendar (although it was simpler in Office 2003 than in security-enhanced Office 2007). Minor league baseball teams the Toledo Mudhens and Corpus Christi Hooks, as well as the major league Detroit Tigers have an option to add their game schedules to your Outlook calendar. Unfortunately, these are a manual and somewhat complex process from a user's perspective. Such approaches use the vCalendar and iCalendar standards.

Until (or unless) someone has created a secure but simple approach to adding items to a customer's Outlook calendar, the most effective approach may actually be a combination of wired techniques such as existing or custom programmed "add to calendar features," or perhaps you-to-your-audience e-mail reminder services, with more traditional approaches like registration confirmation letters, reminder slips, and so forth. Let us what you use to get your events on your audience's calendar by using the comment link below.

Additional Calendar-Related Links

• Add or remove holidays to Outlook
• Easily Add Major League Baseball Team Schedule to Your Calendar (via markthisdate.com)
• Customize your employee's Outlook calendars with your company's important HR dates
  How to create & distribute a vCalendar file for Outlook
• Google Calendar with Outlook and Smartphones Automatically
• Sync your Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook
• Add Google Calendar to Outlook
• Outlook 2007 Calendar and Google Calendar integration (YouTube tutorial)
• Create an Add to Google Calendar button for your Web page
  CalendarHub.com: Access your online calendar from anywhere, privately, shared in a group or published on your blog
• Upcoming: Yahoo's less than impressive event and calendar service (but it does use the hCalendar microformat, which may impress some geeks)
• Memo to Me, Online Reminders, RS Outlook and Free Minder are email reminder services, although none seem to promote a bulk or "one to many" option
• Send invitations via Evite.com (such as for Cinco de Mayo)