The Thing About Legal is

26 08 2010

The thing about legal is that they are misunderstood. As marketers we have great ideas but our stalemate always seems to be the “mean, short-tempered” attorney. Sitting in a meeting the other day with several other people and our lawyer I began to think about why this is…

“As our attorney began to read the legal copy (at light speed I might add, and these sessions are called “poetryreadings,” ironic) everyone else in the room is busily scanning their copy and writing down the changes that she had. Every now and then someone would have a question or a clarification that needed to be addressed, and all eyes would shift from the paper into the eyes of the Legal Maven sitting before us. She typically wouldn’t budge on any point, despite the convincing nature of many of the argu-

Legal Readings are far from Poetry Readings

ments. A joke would crack, we would all laugh and even the attorney would smile. ‘Did you think my edits were optional,’ harped our attorney half way through. ‘Don’t take this personally,’ she said. This fazed no one and we moved on…”

Was our attorney just being difficult or is there a method to her maddens, I’m inclined to think it is a little bit of both. But why then is it always the case that dealing with the Legal Team is the most tiring and challenging part of any project. I can recall bringing new print ads and TV scripts to a lawyer and having the humor stripped away leaving a glorified public service announcement.

The attorney doesn’t always understand why we need to use simple language or use funny punch-lines in a great script. Likewise the marketer wants to appeal to the customer and forgets about the risks we may pose to the brand. The more I interact with people in the corporate world the more I am starting to see a reason for the disagreements and disgruntlement.

It all boils down to point of view and priorities. We often forget that we are not the only folks working for the company. I will admit to getting caught up in my own passion and opinions that I forget to consider the view points of my co-workers. It’s hard to remember especially when your performance is graded on a bell cure and your only incentive for cooperation is so that you perform above your peers. At the end of the day we all want the same thing; to be profitable, customer friendly and memorable. How we achieve these goals is very different depending on the group we represent and what we personally believe in.

Next time you are sitting in a room and everyone seems to be only after what is best for them, remember that they are. Legal wants to mitigate risk, marketing wants to engage customers and production wants to reduce waste. Each is a valid priority, but in a fight whose will win out? No one wins out because priorities aren’t in sync. So what’s the point…?

Spend the time at the start of a project and align all team members’ priorities. Hash them out openly and honestly up front instead of wasting the aggravation of disagreement in the long run. The synergy of your team will be essential to meeting tough deadlines and following through.  Remember:

Together Everyone Achieves More


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Whose Brand is it Anyway?: A lesson on Brand Improvisation

19 08 2010

You have to think on your feet.

    “Ding Dong,”  a doorbell rings.

    “Those must be the guests. I have to get the chips out and the fondue set all just right.”

    “Coming!” The host of the party yells.

    As the door opens, a lady with a huge grin on her face grapevines into your “living room” and starts singing a medley of show tunes.

    The host asks “You aren’t from around her are you?” and before the guest even has a chance to answer the doorbell rings again…

    This is the beginning of what I am sure is to be a most hysterical scene set up by one of the greatest acting improvisation games ever invented, Party Quirks. This is a game where the audience asks three people to assume the roles of guests at a party. Each guest is assigned a famous person or other unique characteristics to make up as they interact with the host of the party. The host, having no knowledge of what the quirks of the guests are, must guess who each guest is. Classic improv at its best.

    This game and many improv game alike, help to train actors and actresses to think quickly on their feet and react to the scene around them. While we are not all actors on stage, as marketers we are contantly pressured by “Brand Improvisation.”

    Brand Improvisation is when a company and its employees are asked to think quickly on their feet and react to a customer’s need, a complex complaint or even to a newly introduced product. As an employee, it is our responsibility to act in the company’s best interest by upholding the values and morals set forth by the company culture and by the senior leadership team.

    It is impossible for a company to script every interaction that it will have with society every single day. Mostly because a company has many angles to approaching society. For example, a customer service representative will react differently than a litigation attorney. Both team members are representing the same brand, but both are faced with different and unique challenges.

    This is becoming more and more evident with the advent of social media becoming mainstream. Having a presence on Twitter, suggests that the company is interacting in the here and now space.  With Twitter having “water cooler” like qualities, it become very important to formulate an opinion on issues quickly, maybe often times with no preconceived planning. This situations forces strong brand improvisation skills to be needed. The ability to relate, react, and reciprocate becoming extremely important. Here is how I break down the three R’s of Brand Improvisation.

    Relate

    Connecting with your opposite is key. Setting your frame of reference and understanding where they are coming from will allow you rule out negative responses and populate positive ones. During this phase, placing yourself in the shoes of your brand isn’t enough. You have to elicit emotions and speech as if you were actually the brand in human form. To a certain extent this involves being comfortable being uncomfortable. You will get nervous, but keep in mind if you were hired, you probably already have many of the brand qualities needed for a response.

    React

    You are not playing a part in Ms. Wilkinson’s fifth grade play. You are assuming the role and totally immersing yourself. Being an employee means that you cannot simply act your way through situations, but rather you must react in order to demonstrate that you hear the concerns and are taking action.

    Reciprocate

    It isn’t enough to answer every question with “Yes” or “No” or “We can’t answer that at this time.” By not looking for opportunities to carry on your scene, you will surely cause a short interaction with no real substance. Asking open ended questions has never become more important as it is during Brand Improvisation.

    Remember…

  1. Not to be nervous. Concentrate on continuing the dialogue
  2. Brand Improvisation leads to a fresher corporate image that demonstrates growth and maturity
  3. Brand Improvisation leads to autonomy with employees
  4. Brand Improvisation will lead to development and self discovery as a brand. For new companies this is a way to develop a voice and for established firms a way to stay current
  5. Brand Champions are improvising and spreading positive word of mouth, be sure to listen and interact with them

    6. Despite what people say, brands are always evolving and changing, do your part and don’t just act… react.


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Categories : Marketing

Marketer’s Word

12 08 2010

I would definitely 100% consider myself to be a marketer. This isn’t just because I enjoy coming up with campaign ideas, thinking about building an outstanding customer experience or even because that’s what my diploma says. Being a marketer means that I can build and foster meaningful relationships, cultivate loyalty and drive positive word of mouth. Also being a marketer means that I get to carry on with a particular vocabulary rich in acronyms and creative lingo that finance and operations folks just wouldn’t get. And if you hang around me enough you will also uncover my “marketing word.”

A marketing word would be any positive word that is used when writing emails, giving a presentation or even just in every day meetings. If you are a marketer, you have a word. You find that no other term would do justice for what your marketing word does to a situation. I have found that it infuses a situation with enthusiasm and positivity often time resulting in immediate buy in from peers and co-workers. So what is my word, you may be asking? If you know me, this will come at no surprise but my marketing word is,

Terrific.

Things are “just terrific.”

That slide, wow that’s terrific.

I think it would be really terrific if…

I hope you are having a terrific day.
And isn’t that a terrific idea.
It was so terrific to see you today

The terrific thing about marketing words is that it could be any word you want. I know people whose words include, but not limited to: cool, good, great, awesome and even neat-o.

The concept of having a signature word becomes essential to your work style, personal brand and overall energy when working with others. You might be reading this with a cynical eye and be thinking to yourself that owning a trivial positive affirmation couldn’t possibly effect the way I work. Well I challenge you to search your vocabulary to find your word. Once you find it, use it and I think that you would be surprised at the positive feed back you receive.

A few things to keep in mind when isolating your word:

Keep it Simple

A word too complex will confuse others and you will spend more time explaining your vocabulary then just saying your word.

Keep it Natural

If you wouldn’t say it to your grandma or your CEO then it probably isn’t a good word. Choose a word to use that rolls of your tongue easily and does not draw too much attention.

Keep it Top of Mind

Consciously find ways to incorporate your word into your activities. It you are making an effort to work in a positive affirmation into your presentation or emails; the effort will be noticed immediately and will be received favorably.


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Categories : Marketing

Straight Lines are for Architects

5 08 2010

If you haven’t noticed, the hot topic in the business world is reinvention and innovation. Within the last five years I have observed companies shift their key competencies and priorities in order to focus more on exploring new ideas and expanding the horizons of their business platforms. Most of this is derived from need, but part of it comes from the senior leadership thinking that innovation will help to spark a renaissance within the company culture. Unfortunately most of the time the leadership team leaves no means or tools to properly facilitate this new priority. This can often times lead to resistance and even neglect of these priorities, loosing the creative capacity of the company. Employees can feel that they do not have enough time in their days to spend being creative or inventive because they are too busy meeting deadlines, attending meetings and being cogs in a giant machine. These people are experiencing rote.

A rote way of thinking constitutes a very linear thought process by which there is a distinct beginning, middle and end. Rote is a one way street and driving against traffic you will lead to you being squashed. A rote person maybe able to get things done quickly, but their effort will be unimagined and lost in the mundane nature of process. Being rote used to be the way to work. Keep your head down, do your job and follow these steps and if you do, you can leave an hour early on Friday.

Imagine a gigantic room full of small desks with typewriters on each desk. Every morning at exactly 7:30, the typists file into the room, sit down and type. At exactly noon, they all take an hour lunch break only to return by 1:00 to complete their day’s work. I hope I have painted a rather boring picture for you, because that is what rote is.

Companies on the innovation kick should be fostering a sense of grope not rote. Grope is a process by which there is no defined path, in fact the path might not even be a path at all. Grope allows for non-linear thinking by which the beginning, middle and end are not important; but the creativity and ideation that occurs is. Grope is exploring the unknown and experiencing the unexpected. If I could just make innovation and reinvention appear then I would be a wealthy man, but since no once can predict what will become of a grope exercise we must continue to explore the creative world around us.

Rote and grope can coexist but; a company cannot expect to foster creativity without allowing for grope to takeover situations. If you feel like you are stuck in a rote, here are a few suggestions for releasing yourself from the monotony of the order:

Reevaluate your job
I am by no means advocating you quit your job, move to Tahiti and open up a mango farm. I am however suggesting that you split your work time to allow for grope to creep in. You should be spending 70% of your time on your immediate job, 20% of your time on continuous innovation in your job and 10% of your time on discontinuous innovation on other areas of the company. Your ability to incorporate innovation into not only your job but to the company will help to drive innovation throughout.

Brainstorm, even when you don’t have to!
Brainstorming is one of the most important tactics to achieving grope. There is no distinct process and the journey to ideation is completely determined by who is participating.

Seek out Ambiguity
With ambiguity comes the unknown and the unknown creates grope. Embrace the ambiguity and accept the fact that the solution will not be achieved by following a step by step guide.

Opposites are your best friend
Do you know someone that does something COMPLETELY different than you? If you are in marketing, find a genetic researcher or an architect. Reaching out to people outside of your functional area will allow you to see things from a different point of view that will aid in releasing you from your rote and encourage more grope.

(For more on this topic, I would refer you to “Orbiting the Giant Hairball” by Gordan MacKenzie.)


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Categories : Innovation


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