Archive for the ‘Sales and Marketing’ Category
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Apple’s advertisements for the video calling feature on their latest iPhone have caught my attention. While elusive, the promise of combining a video feed of the person with whom you’re talking via a phone has been around at least since Dick Tracy’s fancy wristwatch. Technology that actually delivers on this promise has blockbuster potential.
Apple had done a good job of focusing on the human element of its technology – a grandfather viewing his newborn grandchild for the first time – a woman telling her mate that she is pregnant (though she describes their efforts at achieving this status as “work,” a term that is at odds with my personal experience). It is this human touch that makes the promise of the technology so powerful. In this disconnected age, anything that brings people closer together has tremendous value.
This makes me think of Aldous Huxley’s “Feelies” described in his 1932 novel Brave New World, one of my all-time favorites. When will Hollywood transcend “moving pictures” to create actual experiences and transmit feelings directly? The recent success of 3D is a step in this direction. Virtual reality devices are another stab at this. Someday, perhaps, we’ll be able to experience love scenes where we feel everything, including the hairs of the bearskin rug on which the movie stars lie, as Huxley described it.
Huxley’s future was largely dysfunctional, of course, but I don’t foresee sinister implications from video calling – it looks like a great thing!
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Neal Roberts’ eyes light up when he advocates for more bicycle riding. He speaks from the heart when he describes how “micro-entrepreneurs” are creating new economic momentum in Central Ohio. What is cool in his life today is the way he has integrated these two passions, his professional skills and personal life into a balanced whole.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
The classic marketing entrepreneur identifies a need, creates a solution to that need, develops a marketing strategy to exploit the solution then sells the hell out of it. Sparking that creativity is where the magic in marketing originates and the source of the spark can come anywhere, anytime.
For David Stein, President of Beertubes.com the moment of inspiration came in the heat of a 2005 bowling competition when he poured himself a cool, refreshing brew from his pitcher of beer and it wasn’t as cold as it needed to be – horrors!
Collaborating with company co-owner Jason Drum, the team came with the “beertube” – a portable combination of a keg and draft beer dispenser that can be put on a table and keeps its contents colder, longer than a standard pitcher. Starting small, they created a prototype of the idea using an actual bowling ball for the base and drilling out the necessary holes for the tube of beer and tap. Reaction to the prototype was positive, Sequoia Pro Bowl’s owner wanted 25 right away. By March of 2006 they had 50 units made and they headed to a bowling trade show to try and sell the stock – they returned with orders for 180!
Early bowling center buyers confirmed the “Beertube” delivered on its promises and the business continued to grow. David and Jason expanded the line to include more themes in the designs and more customization options – they now have over a dozen bases that can be used. In 2007 the duo had enough business they had to quit their “day jobs” to pursue the opportunity they had created.
Cool thrills for David in his entrepreneurial journey include:
- Anytime he sees the product in use in the marketplace and people talking about it
- Setting up the first full container-load of product from their supplier in Asia
- Getting placed in the Anheuser-Busch product catalogue for distributors in 2008
To date, their business has grown through trade shows, beer distributors and direct business. In 2010 the company is positioning itself for expansion beyond beer and promoting the concept of “drinktubes.” Licensing opportunities with brand equities such as sports teams is another area they have identified.
If you want to experience the Beertube first hand, it is in use at local Quaker Steak and Lube locations and Wings and Rings in Lewis Center.
Author’s Note: This “Profiles in Cool” blog series puts the spotlight on folks in Central Ohio doing “cool” things in the field of marketing. My definition of “cool” is 100% subjective – I welcome your comments!
By Paul Dumouchelle , Management Consultant, ADVISA
This “Profiles in Cool” blog series puts the spotlight on folks in Central Ohio doing “cool” things in the field of marketing. My definition of “cool” is 100% subjective – I welcome your comments!
I meet Chris Rockwell, founder and President of Lextant (a market research firm), in the lobby of the 6th floor of the Smith Brothers Hardware Building at 580 N 4th St. If you’ve ever driven on I-670 north of downtown Columbus, you’ve seen the building, it looks like an old warehouse – which it was, but it has been marvelously rehabilitated and the people of Lextant have an impressive view of the city’s landmarks and skyline from this location just near the convention center.
Perhaps it is the inspiring surroundings that spark Lextant’s creativity leading to advancement in design for clients in markets as diverse as automobiles, healthcare, financial services and appliances.
The day I visit, part of Rockwell’s team is in a research “war room.” They are posting sticky notes all over a wall to capture learning from multiple qualitative research sessions among “911” phone system operators. The scene reminds me of a visual from a Walt Disney “Imagineering” team.
Lextant occupies the nexus of marketing, humanity and design. Rockwell describes their mission as “problem seeking” to ensure the things his clients design create great experiences for users. Successful research in design, from his perspective, channels creative energy within his clients toward successful outcomes in the marketplace.
This work seems to be in Rockwell’s blood. His father was a researcher who taught at OSU, and in 1965 he was conducting eye-tracking research within cars. When Chris was a kid his science fair projects built on this family legacy – he recounts doing a study on how reading legibility is affected by the contrast between printed words and paper color. Armed with degrees from Ohio State and Virginia Tech, Chris spent 6 years in Colorado working with Hewlett-Packard on enterprise system management before starting Lextant in 1997.
So far, Lextant has survived the “dot.com crash” and the “great recession” – something many of Rockwell’s entrepreneurial peers cannot claim. Energized by the ongoing challenge of creating insights on humanity for his wide variety of clients – not only understanding what is going on BUT ALSO WHY! – Rockwell and Lextant seem poised to expand their coolness factor well into the future.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Creativity is at the core of marketing. The act of defining an offering to an identified market segment through a well-crafted message should involve new thinking every step of way. To foster such creativity it helps to understand the different approaches people take to the challenge, “Boxlessness” is my term for those who not only think outside the box – they live outside the box – many don’t even know there is such a thing as a box!
Boxlessness is a drive for independence, freedom of expression, freedom of thought and a dislike, avoidance and even disdain for “rules.” The “Boxless” person is a ceaseless innovator because they always look for the way to do things differently. Uniqueness for uniqueness’ sake could be their motto.
Boxless people seek and thrive on risk. If it’s been “done before” they want nothing to do with it. If you seek creativity just plug one of these people into the team and stand back!
Involving a boxless person on a team adds a spark of inventiveness but these people rarely want to dig into details. If your challenge involves substantial follow-through and highly-detailed execution you will want to pair them up with others who will provide these qualities to the team.
A primary challenge in manage boxlessness is that the condition does not just apply to the work of marketing – it applies to everything, including the relationship of the boxless person to an organization, their colleagues on a team and their boss. The same drive to avoid rules in the marketplace means a lack of respect for internal rules that groups typically need to function effectively. Providing the boxless person with the freedom they need while maintaining enough structure for an organization to function effectively is a constant tension requiring intense management involvement and support.
Depending on the strength and degree of the boxless drive, a leader can incent appropriate behavior by clearly communicating the consequences of rule-breaking to boxless people. If the consequences are meaningful to them (and mere disapproval is rarely sufficient) then the boxlessness MAY be held in check – but you can expect the boxless person to constantly test the boundaries and publicly ridicule the necessity of rule all the while.
Knowing your own approach to creativity and those of people on your team provides valuable leverage for maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Creativity is at the core of marketing. The act of defining an offering to an identified market segment through a well-crafted message should involve new thinking every step of way. To foster such creativity it helps to understand the different approaches people take to the challenge, the role impatience plays in people’s work should always be considered.
Impatience is a drive to get things done as quickly as possible. The impatient person starts with the end in mind and looks for the fastest route there – skipping steps and multi-tasking are hallmarks of their activity. If something can’t be done as quickly as they like the impatient person is sorely tempted to abandon the project and move on to the next new thing. They thrive on pressure and variety. The role of impatience in creativity is to generate a hotbed of intensity with ideas flying thick and fast.
Impatient people hate to wait. If your creative challenge requires a methodical process, with multiple necessary steps that build one upon the other, the impatient person may lose interest. To avoid this tendency, create “mini-deadlines” that keep the pressure on and lessen the temptation to stray from the task.
Much of the marketing world revolves around quick turnarounds, high-pressure, and multiple changes made “on the fly.” Impatient people thrive in this environment – when combined with a drive for achieving goals, impatience creates the pro-activity especially valuable in a 24×7x365 competitive marketplace.
Beyond maintaining focus long enough to achieve closure, another primary management challenge with impatient people is negotiating the tension created when mixing them with their opposites – people with patience. Mixing impatient people with patient people creates issues in all areas of work methods but in my experience the biggest issue is communication. For example, impatient people start at the end in communication and this leaves patient people at a loss because they need to start at the beginning so they can view the “end” in context of everything that goes in front of it. Conversely, the thorough approach of patient people leaves impatient people tapping their toes (at least) in frustration as they do anything BUT listen to the meaningless preamble provided by their patient colleagues. Managing these “oil & water” tendencies requires constant coaching to remind the different people about their counterparts’ needs.
Knowing your own approach to creativity and those of people on your team provides valuable leverage for maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Creativity is at the core of marketing. The act of defining an offering to an identified market segment through a well-crafted message should involve new thinking every step of way. To foster such creativity it helps to understand the different approaches people take to the challenge, the “Perfectionist” is one of these.
Perfectionists’ creativity centers on a drive to define an “ideal” solution that meets objective criteria for excellence. They never rest until all the details are identified, arranged and polished. Masters of adaptation, they will take ideas proven to work in one arena and transfer them to the current challenge. Digging into available data, understanding all the nuances of the scenario and crafting an approach most-likely to succeed is their specialty.
Perfectionists are cautious and really hate mistakes. If your challenge involves a truly “new-to-the-world” situation in which no precedent or standard of excellence exists, a perfectionist may be stymied due to this aversion to risky recommendations. In today’s world of instant access to information, however, there are very few marketing challenges where a perfectionist cannot access a model or a case study that will inform their approach and lead to productive results.
One of my clients had a perfectionist creative director and she found his work quite “edgy” and she was surprised when I described risk aversion as a common trait of such people. I encouraged her to ask him about the inspiration for his ideas the next time he presented a concept that struck her as new and bold. She explained that her approach to creativity included ongoing research about winning ideas from advertising competition around the world. Her innovation was to adapt an idea from this research to the challenge at hand – resulting in a creative approach that was new, fresh and exciting in the eyes of my client, and the market in question.
Managing them can be difficult at times because perfectionists have a tendency to be stubborn – after all, once you’ve crafted the “perfect” recommendation how can it be improved? Any change from perfect can only make it less perfect!
Perfectionists are especially valuable contributors to any group effort where you need someone grounded in facts and details to provide perspective and input in problem-solving and plan implementation.
Knowing your own approach to creativity and those of people on your team provides valuable leverage for maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Creativity is at the core of marketing. The act of defining an offering to an identified market segment through a well-crafted message should involve new thinking every step o f way. To foster such creativity it helps to understand the different approaches people take to the challenge, the “Social Approach” is one of these.
People who take the Social Approach to creativity have a special advantage in that their strength – building connections with other people – is the heart and soul any sales effort that involves emotions and feelings. If your creativity challenge can be addressed through any form of collaborative approach that involves many people or folks of diverse backgrounds, then the skills involved in the Social Approach to creativity will be valuable. These skills include empathy, listening, trusting, persuasion and, when combined with other personality traits can even expand into enthusiasm and excitement.
Optimism infuses our social creatives because they crave positive responses from others and we all know you get more flies with honey than vinegar. This outward focus on response means they will always have the audience in mind for their ideas. This can cause a limitation, of sorts, in that unusually outrageous or controversial ideas may never be pursued due to this concern for acceptance.
Creativity that relies on the Social Approach is especially well-suited for marketing challenges involving intangibles such as services, concepts or even politics. The tendency to “talk in pictures” or with stories helps to evoke the feelings and images necessary in such challenges.
Managing them can be difficult at times because they are always “playing to the crowd” and you need to understand what that crowd is to understand what is important to them. Asking them, “how do you want to be seen around here” can be a useful entrée into a meaningful discussion on how best to lead them.
This same crowd-pleasing attitude also means they are especially well-suited to team-oriented efforts. They are natural facilitators of discussions and if you need to get the best from everybody in your creative efforts if won’t hurt to have a person who takes the Social Approach leading the way.
Knowing your own approach and those of people on your team provides valuable leverage for maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
Creativity is at the core of marketing. The act of defining an offering to an identified market segment through a well-crafted message should involve new thinking every step of the way. To foster such creativity it helps to understand the different approaches people take to the challenge, the “Analytical Approach” is one of these.
The Analytical Approach relies on logic and separating or reducing elements to their most basic level. This is a problem-solving mindset which looks at the various factors involved in a marketing challenge as pieces of a puzzle with the focus then being on figuring out the one best way all the pieces fit together.
One dimension that is shortchanged in this approach is that of emotion and feelings. If you’re in a market segment where emotions are critical to success, either in the product/service itself or in the communication content, then you will want to complement your Analytical creativity with approaches that tap into the world of emotions.
Creativity that relies on the Analytical Approach is especially well-suited for strategic challenges such as new product development, repositioning and segmentation. People employing the Analytical Approach will often prefer to work alone or at least have clear “ownership” of their turf regarding the business.
Managing them can be difficult at times because they have such strong confidence in the value of their own ideas that they discount the contributions of others. They believe their own ideas are best so when trying to direct them in a particular way you are well-served to frame the discussion in such a way that they will come to your point of view on their own.
This same stubborn belief in their own ideas also means they are especially well suited to pursue entirely new areas and create “new to the world” concepts. As you can guess, many entrepreneurs come from the ranks of people employing the Analytical Approach to creativity.
Knowing your own approach and those of people on your team provides valuable leverage for maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
As highlighted in this NPR article, increased fuel costs, demands for improved work-life balance and technology advancements all support more people doing their work from their home.
Two key reasons this is of special importance to the marketing community. First of all, many of us are “knowledge workers” – in that what we do involves information, graphics or communications – all of which can be digitized and managed as well from one’s home office as from anyplace else. Also, as marketers, we need to be aware of all such trends. There are marketing opportunities in the “telecommuter” segment, either by bundling business services in a new way that appeals to the telecommuter segment or in yet-to-be-defined innovative products, services or campaigns.
One promising aspect of this trend is the incredible productivity boost it can create. For the employee it comes from eliminating the time and cost of transporting yourself from your residence to your place of work. On any given day this probably adds at least an hour of discretionary time for most people. It is certainly something I value in my own “work from home” environment.
The employers’ side of the equation includes reduced expenses for facilities to make room for the employee.
Of course telecommuting won’t work in all situations and for all people. It takes a certain type of person to manage the independence inherent in telecommuting. If you’re looking for hierarchy and structure you won’t find it working from home. While the NPR article also mentions a need for personal interaction, I think this “need” will be increasingly fulfilled by interactive technology as time goes on and in fact it may be easier to connect with people via a network than face-to-face in a workplace. Anybody who has ever scrambled for a meeting room at the last minute can relate to that!
People who grow up texting and on Facebook will collaborate in different ways than older generations, for sure.
