Through the ears of an entrepreneur

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What the Lion King can teach you about damage control.

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Claudia Iao

The Lion King is one of those childhood movies I recently watched again (in 3-D!) I watched baby Simba have all signs of life around Pride Rock bow down to him on Day 1 of his life. In addition to about 87 minutes of expected fun and chummy “Hakuna Matata” times, I realized how much darker the topics were in the movie’s storyline through the eyes of a non-six year old. (How did mini-me come out unscathed from scenes of deception, abandonment and death?)

And what about Scar? He’s a concoction of my greatest fears blended into lion form. Long movie short, Scar tries to kill his brother (Mufasa) and his brother’s son (Simba) to take over the kingdom. Quintessential to all Disney movies, Scar explains this to his subordinates via song.

Hyena insults aside, Scar pep talks his armies for upcoming plans regarding his kingdom of doom. He romps above all the hyenas and belts out in his mischievous voice how he is about to massacre all the good in Pride Rock and replace it with Scar time. He exposes his murderous plans and highly encourages his minions to “be prepared for the murkiest scam!”

Parallel to real life, businesses should definitely be prepared to tackle their own murkiest scam. Whether it’s an unexpected glitch in the system that causes harm to others, or the unjust behavior of their own employees, businesses should try their best to let never their competitors see them sweat.

In recent years, we’ve seen plenty of high-level company scandals come out of the woodwork. These unethical plots were obviously contrived for the personal gain of a small group and were in no way relevant to the best interest of the greater good or the company itself.

So, ethical education aside, think about how you would deal with a PR crisis due to the unethical behavior of even just a few of your own people. Even if these employees are reprimanded, terminated, or even charged in the court of law, the brand takes a hit. The situation will dictate your immediate actions, but think about how you would help your brand recover.

Of course, the situations are never as black and white as Scar’s character in the Lion King, but it’s always better to be prepared.

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Is JCPenney Chasing Waterfalls?

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Lauren Pelkey

Listen, I’m not saying to stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to. I’m all about letting a new creative strategy take a brand to a whole new level. But is JCPenney chasing a waterfall with their new logo? This looks a whole lot like the Gap logo mishap back in October of 2010.

JCPenney, I know that you’re gonna have it your way or nothing at all, but I think you’re moving too fast.

Is it time for a JCPenney rebrand? Probably. But is this really the visual direction they want to take? Although the old logo is a bit safe, it has a timeless quality with a high level of brand recognition that many brands strive for. This new logo, however, not only throws in a new company color (since when does blue correspond with JCPenney?) but also incorporates so much negative space that it’s just plain confusing. Negative space is good, but in this case, it seems to be more like dead/bland space.

So what do you think? Do you think the Moms of America will respond to this bold change in a positive way, or has JCPenney pulled a “Gap” on all of us?

Posted in Hip Hop, Rap, TLC | 7 Comments

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How Pinteresting…

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Lauren Pelkey

It’s a tough world out there; tough to get a job, tough to find a nice date (well, for me anyways…) and especially tough for marketers and advertisers to break through the thick clutter of the ad world and get consumers to notice their brands.

So how do you get noticed? How do you impress your consumer where every single word would come out insightful or brave or smooth or charming? (Am I on a Dashboard kick or what? I guess Chris Carrabba really mesmerized me at the Paradise Rock Club a few months back…)

Pinterest, the hot new social media network boasts an awesome opportunity for marketers to target consumers based on their interests and the things they post to their virtual cork boards like food, fashion, vacation spots, beauty, etc. When you get down to it, Pinterest is a marketers dream; it’s a consumer psychographic break down. Consumers can be visually mapped, based on what they pin, what they comment on, and what they like. Retailers such as Nordstrom have taken full advantage of this and use Pinterest to track trends and styles the community likes based on user engagement.

Pinterest doesn’t just act as a great tool for marketers to track consumer interests, but may also drive purchases. Online retailer Etsy pins looks from their website and embed direct links to products that users may like.

This social media outlet has not only broken through the clutter of other hopeful networks but also provides an avenue for marketers and advertisers to understand their consumers in a whole new, visual way. So don’t mope around hoping for consumers to want you, need you, and notice you; you may have been aided by the wonderful world of social media.

Posted in 2000 Rock, Dashboard Confessional, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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Come On, Be Memorable

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Danielle Carbonneau

You’re in the car with a few buddies when it comes pulsing through the speakers.  You’ve heard it before, so you know how this works.  These high-pitched staccato notes will soon be joined by a deep, electronic sound and then the telltale clapping will be added to the beat.  You and your friends all shout simultaneously, “Sail!”  No, you’re not singing a song from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack.  This music comes from AWOLNATION’s aptly-titled song, Sail.  It has the catchiness of a Britney Spears tune but the badassery of an alternative rock band’s hit single.

It is nearly impossible to listen to lead singer Aaron Bruno shout out “SAIL!” and not join him.  The infectious song is stuck on repeat in your head while you’re showering, on your way to work, and trying to sleep.  Usually, this is an annoying phenomenon that plagues even the best of us.  In this case, however, the song’s catchiness is not only accepted, but also welcomed.  What is it about Sail that makes it so pleasantly shout-able?  Could it be the not-so-sweet lyrics?  The perfectly raspy voice?  The electronic vibe of the beat?  I can’t put my finger on it, but one thing’s for sure when it comes to Sail’s catchiness: you want to have the same effect.

No one wants to be forgotten, but not enough people want to be remembered.  That in-between spot is where you put those memories that are just there, like the date of your sister’s birthday or the name of that guy two cubicles over.  You know, the one with really impressive facial hair.  Yah, that guy.  Anyways, you want to have ideas that stick with people just like AWOLNATION’s music does.

Your enthusiasm and the potential of your work should make people want to jump on board and metaphorically shout “Sail!” with you.  It should stick with people and stay in the forefront of their minds rather than stored in that area of memory where they keep the name of facial hair man (seriously, what is his name?  Jerry? James?).  How you make it happen is up to you, but do everything in your power to make yourself as memorable as any respectable AWOLNATION song.

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Always be my… Customer?

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Danielle Carbonneau

Let’s go back to 1996.  Clinton is reelected, Dolly the cloned sheep is born (created?), and I turn 7 in November.  In my opinion, however, one of the best things to come out of 1996 was Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby.”  Talk about an amazing pop song.  Mariah Carey, or just Mariah if you know her as well as I do (note: not at all), can hit a high note that could probably shatter glass and she knows how to use it for good, not evil.  She has sold more than 200 million albums, making her one of the best-selling artists in the world.  Always Be My Baby may not be her most successful single of all time, but it remains popular even today.  For proof, check out Tufts University Beelzebubs’ hilarious take on the classic.

 “You’ll always be a part of me

I’m part of you indefinitely

Boy don’t you know you can’t escape me

Ooh darling cause you’ll always be my baby

And we’ll linger on

Time can’t erase a feeling this strong

No way you’re never going to shake me

Ooh darling cause you’ll always be my baby

This should really be the theme song for The Walt Disney Company.  Just as Mariah’s relationship with her “baby” is everlasting, so is a consumer’s relationship with certain brands.  The Walt Disney Company does a phenomenal job at branding for life.  Hook your consumers while they’re young and adjust so that you can grow up with them.  Introduce them to Disney with cartoons like Dora the Explorer and attractions like Disney World in Orlando.  Remain a presence throughout their adolescence with more “hip” shows like Wizards of Waverly Place and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, in addition to one of the many Disney-created pop stars like the Jonas Brothers or Miley Cyrus.  The teenage years might be a little tricky, but…

I know that you’ll be back boy

When your days and your nights get a little bit colder

I know that, you’ll be right back, babe

Baby believe me it’s only a matter of time!

Whoa, it sounds a bit creepy in that context.  It doesn’t matter if they lose you during your goth/angsty/rebellious years, because you’re already hooked.  You’ve become a Disney fan for life and you’ll probably shop in their mall stores and eventually bring your kids to Disney World to repeat the cycle.  It sounds strangely manipulative to grab your future consumers while they’re still in diapers, but this is how Disney does its lifetime branding.  I don’t know about The Walt Disney Company, but Mariah Carey’s music has undoubtedly hooked me for life.

Posted in Mariah Carey, Pop, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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Marketers: Why Do You Fight?

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Daniel Finger

It’s not often you stumble across a song with a title that makes you stop and think. The song “This is Why We Fight” by The Decemberists is one of the few songs to have had that effect on me. With emotional personalities and dramatic shots, the video evokes all of the feelings that one would have if they were to ask themselves why they fight.

We fight for many things in life both personal and professional. As advertisers we fight for causes and for our clients. In cause marketing we battle against disease and inequality. For clients, we battle for the lion’s share of the market and to change consumer perception. Our weapons are not guns but simply our message. We are lucky enough to be in an industry where the message we communicate can and does make a difference.

To achieve victory, our strategy must be well thought out. It must be well executed. Our motivation and passion should shine through our strategy from beginning to end.

Moral of the story: Asking yourself the right questions and understanding the reasons behind your fight will always help you achieve greater success.

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Fewer Distractions, More Quality!

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Danielle Carbonneau

If you’ve ever seen a movie starring Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, then you’ve seen a sick action sequence.  Maybe it was a car chase, maybe it was a thirty-on-one fight, or maybe it was just Arnold yelling at the top of his lungs at a group of whimpering toddlers.  (Kindergarten Cop was a strange, strange movie.)  The constant, quick movements of the camera hide the fact that, in most cases, there really isn’t that much going on.  Bruce’s fist isn’t making contact with the villain’s jaw, Vin’s car is only going 65 miles per hour, and Arnold- well, he really is yelling at those little kids.  It’s all about distractions.  If you can get your consumers, the audience, to look at something other than the lack of actual action, then you’ve done your job.

The xx (don’t ask me how to pronounce that) are a British indie pop trio with shy voices and calming melodies.  Their catchy singles have been used in countless TV shows and covered and mashed by a wide variety of artists like DeadMau5, The Gorillaz, and Shakira.  It is their music video for Crystalised, however, that really sets them apart.  They don’t need to distract their viewers with synchronized dancing, car chases, or even petrified children.  They are able to stand in the same spot for the entirety of the 3’22” video and simply do what they do best: perform their music.  Sure, there is some fancy lighting and interesting camera cuts, but at the end of the day the music video is great because the song is great.  What a crazy concept!

The business world should take a hint from these soft-spoken Brits when it comes to quality.  It’s great to make your presentation aesthetically pleasing.  Heck, throw some sounds into that PowerPoint Presentation if you want to.  What you don’t want to do, however, is distract your clients and coworkers from the actual idea.  If it can’t stand on it’s own without pesky distractions, then you might want to rethink it.  Common distraction techniques include, but are not limited to:

1.) Faking an allergic reaction during the climax of your presentation

2.) Spraying the documents with perfume, á la Elle Woods in Legally Blonde

3.) Including silly numbered lists towards the end of a document (hey, wait a minute…)

4.) Running in place while wearing 1980s wind-pants mid-conversation

5.) Highlighting literally everything in your presentation documents

If you find yourself doing any of these things, stop right there.  Think less Bruce Willis and more The xx!

Posted in The XX, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

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You’re calling too late, Netflix.

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Lauren Pelkey

Let me reference my sappy emo days of listening to Dashboard Confessional (whom I still adore and will be seeing perform in a few weeks, don’t judge) as I attempt to tackle the Netflix debacle.

The beautiful words of Chris Carrabba in the 2001 Dashboard Confessional song, The Best Deceptions, express it best: once someone you trust betrays you, it’s hard for them to ever win your trust back.

And that’s how Netflix customers felt: betrayed, deceived, and ready to receive an apology that came much too late.

As many of you know, on September 18, 2011, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that the previously known Netflix would be splitting into two services: Netflix for streaming video and Qwikster for renting DVDs. Customers were far from happy.

As the SNL Netflix Parody video jokes, “We raised our rates from $10 a month to $16 a month, but that’s not all! We knew you loved Netflix because it was an easy to use website for all your movie needs. To make it better, we split it into two separate, slightly more confusing sites.”

What Hastings failed to consider when making this decision was the consumer.  From the customers’ view, streaming and DVDs are just two channels of the same product. So why split them? In his apology/explanation blog post, Hastings claims, “We realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.”

In making this de-bundling decision, it’s clear that the Netflix customer was barely even considered. What happened to the customer-centric approach Netflix was always known for?  Where were the other Netflix decision-makers while this horrible idea was brewing? Looks like a classic case of Groupthink to me.

On October 10, 2011, Hastings announced that the separation of the company into Netflix.com and Qwikster.com would no longer occur due to customer dissatisfaction.

But Netflix customers aren’t having it. Now that over 800,000 customers have closed their accounts, Netflix is feeling regretful, sorry and wishing they could set things right with their customers. Sorry Netflix, “You’re calling too late, too late to be gracious, you do not warrant long goodbyes.”

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Is your idea born out of the heart?

Posted on October 31, 2011 by tripti kakkar

Nervously between whoops from the upper tier and all of 16,000 people, she stepped on the stage. Accompanied by only a piano and her magical voice, she started singing and the world stopped.

It was the night of Brits 2011, when Adele performed “Someone like you” – with sad and doleful eyes, now sneering, now fighting back tears, hauled everybody though the mangle of a break-up. At the song’s end she bit her lip trying hard not to cry in the face of a standing ovation.

Thousands downloaded a live recording, 5.5 million watched its YouTube upload and the rest forwarded emails through that week, mostly with a title “Bloody Hell”.

It wasn’t just the incredibly beautiful and rare voice that touched people like never before. But the fact that she felt it. The song moved through her heart before it poured out of her lips.

Just like her song, when an idea is born out of the heart, it travels beyond advertising and strikes a unique chord with its audience. One such idea is, Be Bold, Be Bald!  A fundraiser started by Small Army for a Cause, where people can show their support to cancer survivors by wearing a bald cap for one whole day. This idea was originally conceived by Jeff Freedman to keep the memory of his friend, Mike, alive, and to honor the immense courage he showed in the face of cancer.

Started in 2009, Be Bold, Be Bald! has now spread to Puerto Rico, South Africa and all over US. Every year, thousands of people wear bald caps for their loved ones and raise money to fight cancer. And this time, it almost turned into a movement. All this became possible only because Jeff’s idea didn’t just talk to people, but their hearts.

So feel the ideas you want to share with your audience. Because if you feel it, they can feel it too.

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Shut Up and Let Me Go

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Danielle Carbonneau

You wake up in the morning (a) feelin’ like P. Diddy, and (b) with what could possibly be an industry-changing idea.  An idea so original that you’re sure it will send your company straight to the top of the food chain.  You find yourself strutting into the office, ready to blow everyone’s mind with your incredible proposal.  Maybe you even set up a mid-morning meeting just to properly express yourself.  After all, they’ll likely promote you to President of the company after they see that you’re the most dedicated employee that’s ever worker there.  You should probably keep a journal of the day because this will make an excellent chapter in your autobiography, aptly titled “Life of a Creative Genius.”  The meeting begins and you lay out your idea.  You don’t want everyone to actually fall out of their chairs, so you conservatively keep your enthusiasm to a 9.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

“So that’s my idea.”  You expect interns to faint, co-workers to spit out their coffees in amazement, and the mayor to show up and give you a key to the city.  There must be something wrong, though, because they just stare at you blankly with a pitying look in their eyes.  As it turns out, no one else can see the value in your brainchild.  They pile out of the office while you convince yourself that they’re just a big bunch of close-minded doofuses.  As weeks go by, however, you also see the flaws in your plan… the economic impossibilities, the potential for disaster, the illogical waste of manpower.

And here’s where The Ting Tings offer you some valuable advice: Shut Up and Let Me Go. Their upbeat, techno-pop creation is the sugarcoated bop in the head you need to realize that sometimes you just have to let it go.  The business model doesn’t care if you put 40 hours of work into that project- if it isn’t good, then it isn’t good.  Instead of wasting your energy on something that isn’t worth salvaging, focus your effort on something worthwhile.  Letting go isn’t easy, but maybe rocking along to the English duo’s 2008 hit will make the process just a little bit easier.

Posted in The Ting Tings, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments