30 November 2005 
Cartoon Cause For Congratulations
Your audience can laugh with you. Or at you. Today’s case study has the blog Reasoned Audacity as the subject of both.
First, the gentle, genteel example:
Mike Wallster at Ipso Facto uses the subjects as props to generate chuckles. To laugh with all involved. A pro can pull this off. Do not attempt without professional advice. Comedy is hard work. Humour doesn’t have to hurt.
Sometimes.
The second example is somewhat brutal. Marketing expert Seth Godin explains.
Seth Godin’s
Purple Cow
In his bestseller, Purple Cow, Seth says that your marketing campaign must stand out from the herd of common “brown cows” to be noticed.
A “Purple Cow” would be eye-catching.
Today’s products and services must “be different, remarkable, extraordinary, exciting…challenging” to standout. To succeed.
So how would you know if you got it right?
Seth reminds us that:
For decades, mass marketing through television worked wonders and it sold billions of dollars worth of products. It even worked for the internet…for awhile.
But no longer. Seth, once the President of Direct Marketing for Yahoo, gives a number of benchmarks for success today. One that caught my attention was parody.
An advertising and marketing program might be labeled a success when it is cited as comedy or satire. If Saturday Night Live makes fun of your brand — you’ve got a winner. Seth writes:
If you can show up in a parody, it means you’ve got something unique, something worth poking fun at.
It means there’s a Purple Cow at work.
By this parody definition, Your Business Blogger has become a “success.” And wife Charmaine. We got hit by Tbogg.
Quite an honor. I think.
Tbogg, was the winner of the 2003 Koufax Most Humorous Award for left/liberal blogs. He gets over 7,900 visits daily. (And to his credit he unmasks his sitemeter.)
A link from Tbogg is almost as good as an insta-launch from Glenn Reynolds in the blogosphere.
The anonymous Tbogg described one of my posts as paste-eating stupid and Charmaine as a fat drunken cow. Funny.
It’d be funnier if Tbogg called her a purple fat cow.
Later, Tbogg criticises Charmaine’s spelling. For comparison, Michelle Malkin is merely a crazy-a** bi*ch.
Parody, as I think Seth would correctly describe, is a bit different from being the butt of a joke.
But it sure feels the same. In any event, Seth is right: Sales and marketing and advertising these days requires being a Purple Cow, with a thick hide.
Thank you (foot)notes:
The reader will note that Mike Wallster publishes under his own name. Tbogg does not.
Our friend Mike (aka “Waco Kid”) has made the code to his Ipso Facto cartoon available. Be sure to visit Ipso Facto headquarters to check out some past ones you might have missed. And, then, tell a friend.
Seth’s Blog has more with his new book, The Big Moo. Good reviews from readers. I will be joining fellow Seth supporters and reviewing also.
Mudville Gazette is running a test on Open Post.
More Than Fire has more on Cow and Moo.
Outside the Beltway has Traffic Jam.
The Indepundit has Liberty Call.
This is an update from 24 October 2005.
Update 20 Dec 05: Don Surber is on TBogg’s radar.
29 November 2005
Why Were You Really Hired? The Two Qualities That Count
Many factors were considered when you were hired. Including your particular set of knowledge, skills and abilities.
And competence was certainly the first hurdle you cleared when you were brought on payroll.
But it wasn’t the real reason.
Henry Ford once said:
If you take all the experience and judgment of men over fifty out of the world, there wouldn’t be enough left to run it.
This doesn’t mean only post-fifty geezers have what it takes to run the world. It means that there are two necessary characteristics to lead and manage significant processes, projects, or people.
Henry Ford 1919Ford suggests that experience and judgment are the only two reasons to hire anyone.
Ford, famous for the assembly line and interchangeable parts, knew that, in contrast, management talent was not a commodity. Management talent was, and remains unique.
No matter what your age, the emphasis in hiring — as hire-ee or hire-or, should be wisdom. The ability to think.
You got hired for your experience and your judgment.
In your next hire, go thou and do likewise.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Basil’s Blog has dessert.
Ford quote from Old Age is Always 15 Years Older Than I Am, by Randy Voorhees.
28 November 2005
Mark Your Calendar for Glad
Glad
Glad is coming to the Baltimore area. If you’re in town on Friday, December 9th, be sure to see Glad in Concert.
Email me for more info.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The concert will support, in part, the local crisis pregnancy center.
The Carnival of the Capitalists Is Up
Tony from the Gill Blog is hosting this week. A review of the best in business for the past week. Go visit
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Carnival of the Capitalists.
Rob May at BusinessPundit has a great piece on Peter Drucker at the Carnival.
The Carnival of Marketing Is Up
PC4MediaPete is hosting this week. Visit him and check out the best marketing ideas for the week.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Carnival of the Capitalists.
27 November 2005
$500 for a Business Idea
Noah Kagan at Okdork.com is having a contest with a cash prize. This is not a joke. Go visit.
Gwen Stefani, Brand Name, Line Extension, AMA Winner
Gwen Stefani
AP Photo
Stuart Ramson
Singer Gwen Stefani was a winner at the American Music Awards. Making her name even more valuable and more trusted. Continuing her celebrity as a platform for other markets.
Stefani has released a new line of clothes — a line extension of her name as brand.
And Robin Givhan at The Washington Post doesn’t like it:
…[T]he fashion industry … is populated by corporate marketing teams … It is overrun with celebrities working to increase their fame. . .
This is the downhill road to cultural hell… It is being pushed along by consumer demand, lowbrow tastes, society’s obsession with celebrity, and the rising costs of doing business. Fashion has already ceded significant aesthetic authority to pop stars and actresses.
(She might be right about cultural hell, but let’s keep in mind that this is the woman who wanted John Roberts’ kids to wear clothing from the Gap to the White House.)
The business case is easy. In bringing any new product to market a company should identify thought and opinion leaders to champion the product or service.
I Want You All Over Me
Like L.A.M.B.
Robin Givhans’ confusion continues:
And of course, there was exuberant use of her L.A.M.B. logo in its Gothic script. The logo (love, angel, music, baby) dates back to Stefani’s collaboration with LeSportsac in 2003, a deal that essentially was the creative catalyst for the current business.
A singer as fashion model as business model. If the thought or opinion leader is the product, then whatever she wears and sells or sings is a simple line extension. And a low risk money maker.
Something business understands and journalism doesn’t.
Co-opting symbols: lamb from JollyBlogger’s Church. The image originator won’t sue.
Basil’s Blog has terrific Covered Dish.
This is an updated post from 19 September 2005
Basi’s Blog has brunch for 27 Nov.
25 November 2005
Peter Drucker vs. Henry Kissinger
Peter Drucker
Claremont
Peter Drucker, from Claremont, and Henry Kissinger, from Harvard, had two very different styles. Especially when dealing with students or staff.
Drucker from Claremont had a heart for his students. Professor Gordon Bjork, Claremont, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, November 22nd, that:
He had a standing offer to students to reread their reworked papers for a higher grade — and he demanded the same high quality of exposition in their work that he exhibited in his own.
Kissinger, from Harvard, also demanded the best work from his staff. And he demanded that they rework briefing papers. Again and again.
Henry Kissinger
Harvard
But with a minor difference. As the story goes, Kissinger would accept the staffer’s briefing paper, dismiss the underling, and put the paper in a drawer.
He would summon the staffer the next day, give the paper back and ask the subordinate, “Can you do better?”
Intimidated by the brilliant Kissinger, the staffer would rework the paper and return. Kissinger would do a number of laps like this with his people.
Finally, Kissinger’s staff would say, “Yes, this is the very best — I cannot do any better.”
“Great,” would reply Kissinger. “Now I can read it.”
Kissinger never read the first drafts.
Kissinger served on the Harvard faculty from 1954 to 1971.
Kissinger is universally respected and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973. For something about an “uncertain peace in Vietnam.”
Drucker was universally loved and respected by students of all ages.
The world would be a better place with more Druckers.
And, perhaps, fewer Kissingers.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Outside the Beltway has Cranberry Jam.
Media Alert
To The ContraryDr. Janice Crouse, from Concerned Women for America and the Beverly LaHaye Institute will be appearing on To The Contrary on PBS airing the Saturday or Sunday. Hosted by Bonnie Erbe.
Her topics are:
Children Hunting
Women in Charge
Women and Dieting
I heard a little about the show after it was taped. These women were cooking…with cordite.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure — Dr. Crouse is Your Business Blogger’s mother-in-law.
Laptop Loss Leader
Today is Commerce Day, which is celebrated on the Friday following Thanksgiving Thursday. The day was instituted to satisfy pent-up demand that accumulated over the mid-week consumer diversion to Sam’s Club (for food-stuffs), away from Wal-Mart (for all other-stuffs).
So Charmaine pulls up Drudge and relates how AP reports:
At a Best Buy Co. Inc. store at CambridgeSide Galleria, in Cambridge, Mass., the line of about 400 shoppers snaked through the indoor mall for the 5 a.m. store opening, a scene that was played out across the country.
Que-ed consumers were:
…enticed by deals such as a Toshiba Corp. laptop computer, with a 15-inch screen, that was $379.99
Sales ends at noon. We’re outta here.
Happy Commerce Day to you and yours!
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Charmaine working Reasoned Audacity.
Revenue Magazine has Shop ‘Til You Drop.
Challies has Black Friday.
Basil’s Blog has dessert.
The Big Picture has Mixed Confidence (and big spending today).
Don Suber After Hours (new name as line extension) has Tide Lifting and is working today.
Stop the ACLU has Thankful List from Real Teen.
Grow a Brain has Thanksgiving Everybody and good time management advice.
Sister Toldjah has Thanksgiving – check out sale items from her commenters. Wal-Mart always has deals.