Taking Risks

The URL below, penned by Seth Godin, is his take on risks:
http://tinyurl.com/yhmvwyx
As usual, Seth's words got me thinking.
First, the picture on the right. It's of my son Ryan, when he was about 4 years old. My brother Paul took the picture and I've always loved it. A friend said to me not long ago when he spied this picture "whoa, that looks risky." Well, I suppose it does a bit. But Ryan didn't think so and I guess my brother didn't either. When Ryan took that step, I don't think he understood the risk or possible consequences if his balance was off. Most of us took many risks when we were younger and learned from them in the process. I'm sure there's some cool graphic illustration out there that shows the correlation between age and risk. For some people, as they mature, their appetite for risk decreases, for others, not so much. Tiger Woods, for reasons we may never know or understand, allegedly made a number of very risky decisions that had nothing to do with how he was going to play a particular hole on a golf course. Crazy on so many levels. On a less dramatic scale, but still crazy, are the decisions that small and large companies make when thinking about marketing. There are those that forge ahead of their competition with continued or even increased marketing efforts and there are others that would rather ride out the current economic climate without a marketing strategy in place. That's risky. I'm not sure if that will hurt your marriage, but I know it will hurt your brand.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Won't get fooled again

Arguably one of the best songs from the British rock group "The Who"...."won't get fooled again" seems to be a theme in our world today. From people that are tired of the hypocrisy in the church, to people that are weary of big lending institutions and Wall Street, from folks that just can’t believe what politicians have to say, to folks who keep big business at arms length. Trust is a commodity in short supply. 

Last week, in discussions with a new client, stories of broken promises and inconsistent service from their previous marketing agency poured out. On a scale of 1 – 10, their trust level for our industry was a pretty small number. Without verbalizing it, this client was saying, “we won’t get fooled again.” So our journey with this client might be slightly uphill, but it’ll also be an opportunity to grow their trust again and redefine their perspective on our industry.

Like every other industry and business that is faced with heightened consumer/public skepticism, the goal of trust will not be realized over night. It will take some time and once achieved, should not be mishandled.

If you have a product or a service, what are you doing to grow the trust of new and existing customers? How has your marketing changed to reflect your efforts?

My 9 year old son Ryan ~ an inspiration on a daily basis ~ came home from the North Carolina Arboretum camp not too long ago with an interesting fact: It takes 4 gallons of maple tree sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. As Ryan described it, the sap gets boiled, water evaporates and it becomes thick and sweet, then it goes into a bottle. My first thought was that's a lot of sap to make a little syrup and that I'd appreciate the next banana pancake breakfast more than normal.

My next thought was centered on the marketing process with clients and how it paralleled the maple syrup process. Before we make any marketing recommendations, there is a ton of information that needs to be "boiled down" in order for the true essence of a product or service to be defined and implemented in a marketing strategy. External and internal variables make for a very dynamic process that should not be taken lightly. 

So, next time pancakes and maple syrup are on your plate, think about all that sap that was boiled down. If marketing is on your plate, think of the information that needs to be boiled down for your brand to stand out.