So apparently I really need to work on keeping promises. I keep telling you "I'll follow-up on this post tomorrow"...and I never do! Not in reference to the "tomorrow" bit, anyway. I do try to finish them eventually. Usually it's before my next blog day. That's why I end up with so many TEDtalk Thursdays, I think. Wednesdays are just so busy! Turns out that my new schedule makes Thursdays busy, too. hmm...Oh well. 3am on a Friday is still Thursday to me, as you all well know!
Last night I introduced you to Tim Leberecht, a marketing guru who is used to a certain degree of chaos. Every time I listen to the video, I swear he says that he works for a company called "Frog", where one of their "giving employees more control" exercises is speed dating all the old and new employees together.
**I do hope you noticed that his talk is under 7 minutes long. I also hope this means that you actually did watch it. =D
With my new internship, I've migrated into the world of brands, branding, SEO, marketing, and really obscure business models that I'm struggling to understand. You see, business was never an interest of mine. I skip over all the business and entrepreneur TEDtalks because either I don't understand them, or I considered them fodder for all the people who would eventually have a use for all those strategies I didn't understand.
Up until last week, I didn't know that "brands" can be pretty much anything--at least that's how I understand it. I always thought that a brand was a company or family of companies that sell actual, physical products. Nike is a brand. Jif is a brand. Apple is a brand. I can go out, buy these things and wear/eat/use the items these brands sell (although maybe not in that order).
I never thought that my family's favorite chiropractor, Dr. Jex, has a practice that can be considered a brand. His brand is Jex Chiropractic, and he sells exams, adjustments, and massage therapy there. These are not physical things--they're experiential. But they're still provided by a brand.
So this internship I have is with brandbuddee.com--a brand in and of itself. It's a start-up in Redmond, and they buzz they're creating for themselves on their own platform is pretty amazing. Some of the analytics we're getting on our campaigns are just out of the roof. We had to double-check our servers to make sure we could handle all the traffic!
Here's a video to help explain what it is...it's taken me quite a while, many re-explanations, and a fair bit of research to understand it as I do now.
I'm not sure if the creators and their partners knew it would blow up this quickly (and I use "blow up" as an extremely positive term here.) All this traffic is great news for us--and for a really great advertising idea. But if the brand keeps "blowing up" at this rate, there's a possibility that we could lose control of it, and I'm trying to decide if that's normal for start-ups by watching this TEDtalk.
Now that we have technology, we can see what people are saying about us. We can see what they think of our brand, and we can implement the suggestions they have for us. We're a start-up--we thrive on customer feedback. It's how we improve. It's how we grow, and how we succeed. In a nutshell, "technology has increased our control over our loss of control."
About mid-way through the talk, Mr. Leberecht goes through a list of ways that other companies have demonstrated their experiments with harnessing their loss of control. (Just watch the video, please. His talk is much better than my notes.)
Eventually, he notes that brands have a choice to give their customers and employees more or less control, and that this choice is part of your business strategy. There are a few psychological tricks for making your employees happier (limiting their choices so they aren't as stressed out when they have to make big ones), and feel more productive (forcing your employees to help others makes them feel less pressed for time.)
I feel incredibly useful at my internship--I have a broad knowledge base that I can add to mad google skills to make me one smart cookie. I'm not forced to help others...that's just in my nature (or maybe it's a productive way of procrastinating). Either way, in these first few days of the internship, we interns have been helping one another--and really, the whole start-up is one big experiment being pushed by this team of people who are really keen on helping each other out (as well as other brands, and buddees!) It's a great environment to work in, what with all the altruism floating around.
But the thing I love most is the way Andy (entrepreneur extraordinaire) and his team have reinvented advertising. I mean, advertising has always been about telling stories--but it was always someone else's story you had to listen to. brandbuddee puts the mic/video camera/pen/keyboard in your hands and you get to tell your own story for once, about brands you really care about...and there's a possibility you could be rewarded for your work, if you're a good enough storyteller.
At this point, I think we have to keep on doing what we're doing to make this thing successful. We're managing the chaos fairly well, and still managing to stay far enough back to let the thing grow on it's own. I understand now why so many small business owners claim that their business is their baby. It's like a long extended metaphor--over the course of years. You get to raise it up from a fetal idea to a toddling start-up, keeping your distance as it finds its roots as a teen to hopefully grow into a badass moneymaking sugardaddy (or sugarmomma, as it were). From there, it could partner and start a family of brands! (sorry...it's 3am and I got a little too excited over my revelation).
But this metaphor really does extend further. Tim Leberecht says that with all the hyperconnectivity and transparency we achieve with technology, "staying true to your core values (your brand's true self, as it were) is the only sustainable value proposition." And sticking to your guns like Andy and his team have been doing earns them a lot of respect from customers and other brands. brandbuddee is about sharing stories about the things you love and getting rewarded for that work; it's not about spamming your friends with advertisements, and not about farming clicks for rewards. Play the game fair, and everyone gets rewarded.
For all you insecure teens out there, this extended metaphor quote is for you:
So I'll just leave this here for now...I apologize for the plethora of words and lack of visual humor/stimulation. Maybe I'll have some mind-wander connections for it in the future, but this is where I'm at. I simply wanted to connect that business TEDtalk to my new internship...so...happy TEDtalk Tuesday/Thursday(Friday), and I'll see you tonight for Florence Friday!
(yeah, yeah, so I'm trying extra hard to make sure I keep up with my blog this year. It's a New Year's resolution)
***also as an addendum to this post, if I've said anything I wasn't supposed to...trade secrets or whatnot, let me know and I'll change it asap. I've messed up on the internet before, and while I thought I was pretty careful with this post, I'm not about to let that particular mistake repeat itself. =)
Last night I introduced you to Tim Leberecht, a marketing guru who is used to a certain degree of chaos. Every time I listen to the video, I swear he says that he works for a company called "Frog", where one of their "giving employees more control" exercises is speed dating all the old and new employees together.
**I do hope you noticed that his talk is under 7 minutes long. I also hope this means that you actually did watch it. =D
With my new internship, I've migrated into the world of brands, branding, SEO, marketing, and really obscure business models that I'm struggling to understand. You see, business was never an interest of mine. I skip over all the business and entrepreneur TEDtalks because either I don't understand them, or I considered them fodder for all the people who would eventually have a use for all those strategies I didn't understand.
Up until last week, I didn't know that "brands" can be pretty much anything--at least that's how I understand it. I always thought that a brand was a company or family of companies that sell actual, physical products. Nike is a brand. Jif is a brand. Apple is a brand. I can go out, buy these things and wear/eat/use the items these brands sell (although maybe not in that order).
I never thought that my family's favorite chiropractor, Dr. Jex, has a practice that can be considered a brand. His brand is Jex Chiropractic, and he sells exams, adjustments, and massage therapy there. These are not physical things--they're experiential. But they're still provided by a brand.
So this internship I have is with brandbuddee.com--a brand in and of itself. It's a start-up in Redmond, and they buzz they're creating for themselves on their own platform is pretty amazing. Some of the analytics we're getting on our campaigns are just out of the roof. We had to double-check our servers to make sure we could handle all the traffic!
Here's a video to help explain what it is...it's taken me quite a while, many re-explanations, and a fair bit of research to understand it as I do now.
I'm not sure if the creators and their partners knew it would blow up this quickly (and I use "blow up" as an extremely positive term here.) All this traffic is great news for us--and for a really great advertising idea. But if the brand keeps "blowing up" at this rate, there's a possibility that we could lose control of it, and I'm trying to decide if that's normal for start-ups by watching this TEDtalk.
"Companies are losing control. Reputations are volatile. Loyalties are fickle. Companies are losing control of their customers and their employees...but are they really?" --Tim Leberecht (about 30secs in)
"Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room."
Now that we have technology, we can see what people are saying about us. We can see what they think of our brand, and we can implement the suggestions they have for us. We're a start-up--we thrive on customer feedback. It's how we improve. It's how we grow, and how we succeed. In a nutshell, "technology has increased our control over our loss of control."
About mid-way through the talk, Mr. Leberecht goes through a list of ways that other companies have demonstrated their experiments with harnessing their loss of control. (Just watch the video, please. His talk is much better than my notes.)
- collaboration (feedback and such)
- pricing (radiohead album promo)--offer was exclusive and sold only for a short period of time
- purchase chocolate on the condition that they go do something nice for a family member. turned transactions into interactions, and generosity into a currency
- Microsoft + Kinect + hackers = genius and innovation
- Patagonia asks customers not to buy their products new, and directs them to ebay for used products instead. This strategy killed short-term sales, but increased long term company loyalty based on shared values customers felt they had with the company.
- giving employees more control over their own work makes them happier and more productive
- employees at some overseas company can set their own schedules and own salaries
- hulu and netflix have open vacation policies
Eventually, he notes that brands have a choice to give their customers and employees more or less control, and that this choice is part of your business strategy. There are a few psychological tricks for making your employees happier (limiting their choices so they aren't as stressed out when they have to make big ones), and feel more productive (forcing your employees to help others makes them feel less pressed for time.)
I feel incredibly useful at my internship--I have a broad knowledge base that I can add to mad google skills to make me one smart cookie. I'm not forced to help others...that's just in my nature (or maybe it's a productive way of procrastinating). Either way, in these first few days of the internship, we interns have been helping one another--and really, the whole start-up is one big experiment being pushed by this team of people who are really keen on helping each other out (as well as other brands, and buddees!) It's a great environment to work in, what with all the altruism floating around.
But the thing I love most is the way Andy (entrepreneur extraordinaire) and his team have reinvented advertising. I mean, advertising has always been about telling stories--but it was always someone else's story you had to listen to. brandbuddee puts the mic/video camera/pen/keyboard in your hands and you get to tell your own story for once, about brands you really care about...and there's a possibility you could be rewarded for your work, if you're a good enough storyteller.
"Traditional business wisdom states that trust is earned with predictable behavior."
At this point, I think we have to keep on doing what we're doing to make this thing successful. We're managing the chaos fairly well, and still managing to stay far enough back to let the thing grow on it's own. I understand now why so many small business owners claim that their business is their baby. It's like a long extended metaphor--over the course of years. You get to raise it up from a fetal idea to a toddling start-up, keeping your distance as it finds its roots as a teen to hopefully grow into a badass moneymaking sugardaddy (or sugarmomma, as it were). From there, it could partner and start a family of brands! (sorry...it's 3am and I got a little too excited over my revelation).
But this metaphor really does extend further. Tim Leberecht says that with all the hyperconnectivity and transparency we achieve with technology, "staying true to your core values (your brand's true self, as it were) is the only sustainable value proposition." And sticking to your guns like Andy and his team have been doing earns them a lot of respect from customers and other brands. brandbuddee is about sharing stories about the things you love and getting rewarded for that work; it's not about spamming your friends with advertisements, and not about farming clicks for rewards. Play the game fair, and everyone gets rewarded.
For all you insecure teens out there, this extended metaphor quote is for you:
"What's interesting about you, is you." -Alonzo King, famous ballet dancer
So I'll just leave this here for now...I apologize for the plethora of words and lack of visual humor/stimulation. Maybe I'll have some mind-wander connections for it in the future, but this is where I'm at. I simply wanted to connect that business TEDtalk to my new internship...so...happy TEDtalk Tuesday/Thursday(Friday), and I'll see you tonight for Florence Friday!
(yeah, yeah, so I'm trying extra hard to make sure I keep up with my blog this year. It's a New Year's resolution)
***also as an addendum to this post, if I've said anything I wasn't supposed to...trade secrets or whatnot, let me know and I'll change it asap. I've messed up on the internet before, and while I thought I was pretty careful with this post, I'm not about to let that particular mistake repeat itself. =)
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