Why I Love Fall!

I live in Southern California. We have two seasons: nice, and nicer. This means we are blessed with good weather. Oh, sure, the valley is hot. And yes, we occasionally get a sprinkle or two (usually right after we wash our cars), but the weather here is pretty predictable.

We don’t get the benefit of seasonal “clocks”. In much of the country, Winter is marked by cold weather, snow, and rain. Spring is when the plants sprout new growth, and sunny skies prevail. Summer is warm, with fields and crops growing strong, and kids out of school. And Fall sees the changing of colors, and giving thanks for the harvest from which we have sowed.

Not so much is So Cal. We pretty much get the same thing, or close to it, all year. And other than a slightly shorter day, and a tad less heat, Fall is much like the rest of the year.

Until school starts.

That’s why I love school. Each year students and faculty gather on campuses. There is electricity in the air., Freshman are excited, but nervous. Sophomores and Juniors come back experts, in what to wear, where to eat, what classes to take, and what groups to join. Seniors come back to campus as emperors, but also anxious over the impending end of their college career just a few short semesters away.

Freshly scrubbed faces. Tanned skin from summer adventures. New clothes. It’s awesome. It is the best of times for many. College is time that effectively ends youth, and begins adulthood. It’s sort of a four (or five) year holding pattern until they choose a direction. Unlimited future and potential lies ahead for these students.

And then there is us. The faculty. Aging, to be sure. Sages, we hope. But alive and anxious for the school year to begin just like the students.

Each Fall for the past dozen or so years, I have been a part of this seasonal tradition. I love it. It might be because I learn so much as a teacher. It might be because I am ready for something different after a few months of summer away from the classroom. It also might have something to do with the fact that I loved my own college experience, and each year I get to relive a small part of that.

So here is to the Fall in So Cal, my Fall. God, grant us the the wisdom we need to teach these students. Give us the humility to find the wisdom they can teach us. And let us all open our eyes, ears, minds and hearts to all that You want us to experience this season/semester!

The Whole Apple / FBI Thing

This is why I am not a programmer…people can hack IRS, NASA, Target, Google, etc., from halfway around the world. They can get into servers behind miles of firewalls. I have trouble getting in WITH the password! That’s what’s screwy about this whole Apple/FBI thing. I would have thought you could walk down the halls of an office in Cupertino and find an Apple intern who could get the info out of that San Bernardino killer’s phone. I haven’t finished thinking this whole thing through, but I think the security of lives trumps the security of crap in our phones. Though arguably, this is all after the fact. Need to do more research and thinking. That said, will Apple’s stance hurt the brand? Or help?

Top Marketing Reads of 2015?

Inc. Magazine listed five books last year as “must read” books. Here a link to the original article. Let’s see how they are doing now in terms of popularity.

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/top-5-marketing-books-of-2015.html

The books are…

Ask   – Currently #3 on Amazon in “Marketing/Direct”

Traction – Currently #7 on Amazon in “Small Biz & Entrepreneurship/Marketing”

DotCom Secrets – Currently #25 on Amazon in “Marketing/Web Marketing”

The Membership Economy – Currently #21 on Amazon in “Business & Money/Retailing”

The Content Code – Currently #341 on Amazon in “Business & Money/Marketing”

Two in the top ten of their categories in terms of sales, two in the top 30, and one that’s in the 300’s. Honestly, that’s a pretty good average. This doesn’t rank quality, but popularity.

Honestly, I am probably most interested in The Content Code. As many of my students and clients have heard me preach, “Content isn’t just king, it’s currency!”

How many of these have you read?

 

What Makes Some People More Likeable Than Others?

Here is a great post from INC Online. How many of these traits do you practice? Want to create a stronger “personal brand”? Follow these simple steps.

http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/6-habits-of-remarkably-likeable-people.html?nav=next

Photo credit: Nina Matthews Photography / Foter / CC BY

Was Michelob A Generation Too Early?

Back in the mid-80s, Michelob launched their famous, “Who Says You Can’t Have It All” ad campaign. It appealed to the “yuppies” (a term that seems to have vanished) of the day. Work hard, play hard, do it all, and have a Michelob when you’re done!

In the years that followed, Michelob took some hits for it. Can you have it all? Is that realistic? Did it lead people to unreal expectations? I not really sure, and I don’t really care. That was 30 years ago.

More recently I’ve been involved in discussions about the Millennial Generation, aka Gen Y, or even Echo Boomers.

I think they’ve gotten kind of a bad rap. They’re now referred to as Generation “Me”, for the egotistical demands for creativity, freedom in work schedules, pay rate, and desire for fame.

I don’t see it that way. Teaching at the university level for the better part of the last decade, I see something different.

Sure, they want compensation, but us Baby Boomers were just as apt to fight and scratch our way up the corporate ladder to earn more.

And yes, they want creativity in their jobs, flexible hours, and even the potential for fame. The thing is, we, collectively, put all that out there. Remember the “dot com” 90s, and bringing your dog to work, and Frisbees at lunch, and flex hours, and instant code-writing superheros? We brought that on. Millennials just want a piece of what they’ve seen is possible.

Gen X, in my humble opinion, was more of a “me” generation. Or maybe I should say, “Woe is me” generation. Millennials at least want to make a better world. They want to work for better companies, doing good things. They are entrepreneurial. And shockingly, during this down economy, they’ve been willing to leave paid jobs when they didn’t respect their employers. (How many Baby Boomers can say they did that?)

I think Millennials will have a big impact on the world we are entering. As marketers, I suggest we make peace with them, learn more about them, and then hang on for the ride.

 

Image courtesy of ImageryMajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Why Advertising Has A Brand Problem

I am convinced of it—advertising has a brand problem.

Discussion after discussion, meeting after meeting, experience after experience, it keeps coming back to me: advertising is losing the war.

With big agencies, and big accounts, and big budgets, the word ‘advertising’ is still okay. But in small to mid-sized business, saying ‘advertising’ in conversation makes you sound like you’re completely out of touch with today.

The CEOs, managing partners, and presidents of today’s businesses and organizations don’t like advertising. It’s been drilled into their heads that it doesn’t work, or at least a big part of it doesn’t. That can be argued, but that’s for another blog post.

What can’t be argued (well) is that our terms have changed. Today’s executive is much more interested in ‘marketing’. Now the classic definition puts advertising as one activity under the marketing umbrella, but that’s beside the point. That’s not how corporate America is using the term.

Marketing is now loosely defined as everything to promote your product or service EXCEPT advertising. It’s about social media, personal selling, networking, PR, sales promotion, trade promotion, events, and ‘engagement’. It’s not about advertising.

The C-suite has been misguided, I will give you that. In the push for ‘accountability’ in marketing and advertising expenditures, traditional advertising has been pushed aside by the Internet for its incredible measurements and metrics. With the web, we know who is visiting our sites and opening our emails. When know when the did it, for how long, and where they clicked. And if a purchase action occurred, we can point our finger right to the action and know how, where and why.

Tradition advertising doesn’t offer those luxuries. It’s much harder to track—not impossible, but harder. CEOs want numbers…or better put, CFOs are pushing CEOs to want numbers.

Here’s the catch: just because its harder to measure doesn’t mean it isn’t working.

To add to the challenges of advertising accountability, we now have to worry about the perception of the whole concept.

Since the economic downturn of 2008, my students at Pepperdine University have learned that it is far easier to get ‘marketing’ jobs than ‘advertising’ jobs. And that, my friends, is a classic brand problem.

Advertising and branding luminaries Stuart and Bob Sanders years ago drilled into my head that branding problems are not always (or even often) from real circumstances. They are from perceptions. And the good news is those perceptions can be altered.

So I challenge you marketing folk to watch your use of the terms of this profession, and measure the results on the faces of your clients. If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself talking more about ‘integrated marketing’ efforts, and less about ‘advertising campaigns.’

 

Image: njaj / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is Customer Service Dead?

It used to be rare to find bad customer service. Now its rare to be treated well while shopping. You can’t just blame “holiday help” or the busy shopping season. I blame the brands.

I’ve been complaining about holiday customer service for the past few years, but I finally reached the breaking point.

Customer service is dead.

You can blame the company or owner or management, but it always falls back on the brand. Go to a restaurant and get a bad server, and it’s the restaurant’s fault. Just look at virtually any Yelp! restaurant review.  Have a bad checker at Walmart, a lousy aisle manager at Home Depot, or an idiot kid “genius” at the Apple Store, and we blame the brand.

There where new opportunity lies. If you provide good customer or client service you will stand out. But it’s not enough to say it. That doesn’t count. Everyone says it. You have to DO IT!

When you do, your customers will like you for it. And they will come back. And they will tell their friends.

Do you live service in your work? Can you do better than the others? It may just become your best differentiator!

The World According To College Students

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Every “first day” of fall classes, I ask my students a battery of questions. While it’s a good example to them of “market research”, it’s really much more self indulgent on my part.

This semester I have forty 18-20-somethings at my fingertips. It’s like have a focus group at my beck and call. Over the past seven years, I’ve found it’s my best method of keeping up on pop culture.

So, as my first posting of the fall, here are some of my findings:

• Coke beats Pepsi 2-to-1

• iPhone beats Droid 10-to-1

• as for the election, I won’t say they can’t be bothered, but it’s not high on their radar

• only half a registered voters, and they’re split on Romney and Obama

• they all drink coffee drinks, and Starbucks is the preferred brand

• between soda and water or energy drinks, water and energy drinks win hands down

• between water drinks and energy drinks, Vitamin Water is the clearcut favorite

The girls still dress nice on the first night of class. The guy, not so much. But I have learned I not only love teaching my class, I love the first night of class. It’s always fresh and new, and recharges my teaching batteries. I also know that I love teaching because I love learning, and there’s no better way.
So, let fall semester begin!

Launching Another Issue of Southern California Professional Magazine

Well, we made it to the next issue. My friends and fellow workers at Newman Grace have cranked out our second issue of Southern California Professional Magazine! Click here for a link to the HTML version.  Click here for a link to the flash (flippy page!) version.

This issue has features on creating business value, cloud computing, outsource solutions for business, negotiating favorable leases, and how to train young attorneys and accountants to bring in the business.

Guest contributors include Sheryl Mazirow of Mazirow Commercial. If you want to know anything about commercial leasing, she’s Southern California’s “go to” expert. Click here to read.

Good friend Davis Blaine brings his valuation and investment banking experience to the party and discusses maximizing business value. Click here to read.

Sandy Allen, Technology Director for the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) California Chapter, and president of Technology & Operations Solutions, Inc., speaks to the issue of outsourcing. Click here to read.

Bob Green, accounting and financial IT guru with Singer Lewak, developed our cloud computing article for the issue. Click here to read.

Cindy Rakowitz, who had me on her radio show recently, and the author of the new book Emergency Public Relations, Crisis Management in a 3.0 World , gives us some tips and techniques for dealing with PR problems in business. Click here to read.

And me, well, I wrote the piece on turning young professionals in to new business “machines”. Click here to read.

Hope you all enjoy!

PROFESSOR BRIAN TO GUEST ON STARS OF PR RADIO

Brian Hemsworth (aka Professor Brian), member of the Pepperdine University adjunct faculty, contributor to Southern California Professional Magazine, and president of Newman Grace Inc. will be interviewed by Cindy Rakowitz Thursday  on the Stars of PR radio show. They’ll be discussing the magazine, marketing, and a whole bunch of related topics.

Cindy is the CEO of Blackman Rakowitz Public Relations, and is  a highly respected, award- winning executive with years of experience in crisis management, branding and marketing. Rakowitz contributes as an expert analyst to several news organizations. She is the co-author of the new book Emergency Public Relations, Crisis Management in a 3.0 World and is currently enjoying her speaking tour.

The show is broadcast live at 7:00 am Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica internet radio. Click here for more info: http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/971/stars-of-pr.