Category: a slice of AMUSEMENT

Watch as we unpack and critique, with logic and levity — and the occasional incredulous sigh.

Social media: the forum for those who suck at relationships?

Posted on by Red Slice

Trolls. Haters. Pompous asses. By now, many of you have experienced those people who think hiding behind a computer screen – and often, near anonymity – gives them the right to throw all manners to the wind.

Whether a blog post comment that personally insults the writer’s mother or a hand grenade thrown via a sharp Tweet, many people have chosen the bring the worst of themselves online. This is not only annoying to others, it can impact your brand in a negative way. But there’s also lesser known offences about how to network and connect which I’m sure you’ve seen.

What gives?

My theory: Many people are bringing their real-life social skill baggage online.

There is no excuse to bring bad behavior online with you. If you suck at relationships in real life, chances are you’ll suck at them online as well. The medium can’t correct for human flaws around self-awareness, egotism, stubbornness, or civility, no matter how much people might think it does.

Some etiquette blunders I’ve seen:

  1. The Assumptive Connection: Sending a LinkedIn or Facebook connection request to someone you’ve never met or have no connection to – and not explaining in the note why you’re connecting or what the value of that connection might be. If I was sitting alone in a restaurant, would you just walk in, sit down next to me and not even introduce yourself if I had no idea who you were? Of course not. Just because you can click a button doesn’t mean you should. If you want to connect, use the Personalized Note space to say how you found me, why we should connect and how we can help each other. There’s a reason this field exists. Note: this is not an issue if you’ve obviously worked at the same company, met the person live/by phone or have done business with them. This is mostly for those who choose to randomly connect via Group Connections.
  2. The Fan Page Hijack: I’ve been a victim of this myself. One of your fans gets a little overzealous with their message and decides to use your business page as a forum to broadcast it to the world. I’m not talking about legitimate wall posts fans may post  – on my Fan Page, for example, I love if people promote their businesses or projects to each other on my Wall and I highly encourage it. I’m talking about someone who starts shouting their cause or message through the Comments. Not only does it derail the curated conversation you’re trying to have, but it doesn’t add any value to the community. If you disagree with a point being made by the page owner, that is one thing. But to craft 3 consecutive comments with links and aggressive opinions that go off on a tangent, that is entirely another. Be civil, people, and remember it’s a community page. PS : I must admit to being a little pro/con on this one, as I’m aware that some folks use this as a forum to get larger companies to listen or to protest, as in the recent Chick-fil-A controversy. I guess I’d argue it depends on the issue and the size of the company. Arguing with a Fan Page owner who supports a certain charity, for instance, is probably the best case of overstepping the bounds.
  3. The Over-Poster: I’m not sure if people realize this or not, but when you post 6 or 7 Facebook or Twitter posts in a row, you affect your friends and followers by “hogging” their mobile stream on a smart phone. One person I know, for example, had really interesting posts, but it got to the point where she’d crowd out all the updates from my other friends on my phone. It’s good to post valuable content – but not 9 or 10 times in a row. That’s just annoyng. There are scheduling tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite you can use – and even Facebook allows you to schedule posts on Fan Pages now. Use the tools. Just because it’s easier for you to write all your posts at the same time each day, doesn’t mean it’s easier for your audience to consume them all at the same time. Besides, studies show Fan pages lose subscribers and people lose FB friends if you post too often.

 What social media practices bug you the most? What bad behavior have you seen to add to this list? Please share in the Comments below!

The Seattle Freeze: How customer service differs by city

Posted on by Red Slice

There are lists for the best cities to start a business and  the best place to be a pet.

But when I tried to find a list of “Best cities for good customer service” you know what I found? Zip. Nada. Survey geeks, get on this. Would be useful to know.

Why, you ask? Because I recently moved from Seattle back to the San Francisco Bay Area and I’ve had a massive epiphany about how customer service differs from region to region.

We’ve always inherently known this by which cities have the friendliest people. Having grown up in both Queens, New York and Columbus, Ohio, I saw first-hand how people carry certain stereotypes based on city. Most people tend to think Midwesterners are kind, honest, friendly and that New Yorkers are brash, loud and rude. There are some kernels of truths in this, but I’ve also seen the exact opposite. I guess when you’re classifying “good” versus “bad” customer service it also depends on the vibe with which you personally are most comfortable.  Personally, I like directness when it’s helpful to my decisions. I hate passive aggressiveness or saccharin sweetness because I view it as fake.

Lately, I’ve seen in sharp contrast the differences between customer service in Seattle versus San Francisco. And I’ve had this discussion with numerous people so I know it’s not just all in my own head!

I really liked living in Seattle. Truly. But one thing that always bothered me was the customer service quality in restaurants, shops, and supermarkets. To me, the service mantra seems to be one of tense tolerance rather than true customer appreciation.

This attitude can make a customer feel like you’re “bothering” them. When asking a waiter for Splenda instead of sugar, I could sense the “Really? Are you going to be that kind of customer?” Or walking into a boutique and asking for recommendations and being told, in a “well, duh” tone of voice, “It kind of just depends on what you like.”

I swear these are not one-offs. I had this experience over and over again, no matter how kind, patient or little trouble I tried to be. It actually seemed to get worse the nicer I tried to be – maybe that was irritating!

Some folks attribute this to a phenomenon known as the Seattle Freeze. Won’t explain it here, but check the link. When I learned of this about two years into my residence there, it was like something clicked. “Yes! That’s it! That’s what the strange under-the-surface tension is!” People in Seattle are indeed fun and kind – and I have a ton of great friends back there that I miss terribly and to whom I mean no offense. But customer service in Seattle often made me feel like I was in the movie Mean Girls or something: rolls of eyes, looks of slight annoyance or standoffishness and always wrapped with an exterior of passive-aggression and faux helpfulness  – so I suspect that when the tape was played back, I wouldn’t be able to really prove any specific wrongdoing. “What? I did what she asked and even smiled!” would be the defense, I’m sure. One of the best descriptions I’ve seen: The attitude is “have a nice day, somewhere else”.

Am I paranoid? Ridiculous? Maybe. But again, I’ve spoken to many folks who admitted the exact same feeling. Customer service reps seem to do as little as possible for you. There is no engagement, no connection. Just spend your money so I can get back to the more important thing I was doing before you arrived, seems to be the message.

Contrast this to where I am now. It’s been like releasing a huge breath I’ve been holding in for so long. Look, I’m not a Chatty Cathy and I like expediency when checking out or ordering food more than the next guy. But engage, smile, ask me something about my dog or my scarf. I feel like I’m surrounded by a hundred new friends every time I explore a new café or check out a new boutique. Maybe it’s the sunshine and abundance of Vitamin D or something, but people seem genuinely happy to help and it shows when they serve customers. Even if they may hate their job – or you – you might never know it.

Am I generalizing? Heck, yes, but really not by much. I’ve had more baristas, clerks, waiters and even office receptionists offer me a delightful experience in the month I’ve been back than in my 4+ years in Seattle. Up there, it was not hard to have your business stand out with friendly, engaging customer service – the bar was set pretty low. Here? There are so many positive vibes that if I have a bad customer service experience, it stands out as the exception, not the rule.

So what’s the point of this rant for you? No, it’s not to bash my former home which I still adore fondly. It’s to prove that you need to be aware of your competition across every vector and find ways to stand out. What is the customer experience for your target audience like among your competition? Ask people, do research, conduct a survey. If you live in a city known for dreadful customer service, this could be the easiest way to stand out from the pack.

By over delivering in an area of low expectations, you can really set your brand apart. Tweet this!

Photo Credit: themyndset.com

What do you think of customer service in your city (or Seattle!) How do you use customer service as a key differentiator? Please share in the Comments.

Is your brand carrying excess baggage?

Posted on by Red Slice

Guest post by Betsy Talbot, author of Strip Off Your Fear: Slip Into Something More Confident. She and her husband Warren write about the 5 Tenets to Live the Good Life at Married with Luggage. They are currently traveling in Asia.

Isn’t it just a little bit funny that the owner of a site called Married with Luggage is here to talk to you about your personal and business baggage? I thought so, too.

You see, I just accidentally published a book on branding. While my intention was to write a book on personal self-confidence and speaking up, it appears that all those lessons are exactly the same as building a confident brand.

It wasn’t until we reached out to Red Slice for help on solidifying our message and working out our brand schizophrenia that we connected the dots between the book project and the brand. In fact, it wasn’t until we told Maria about the book and what we were doing that we realized we had a problem with brand schizophrenia.

Let’s see if you have the same kind of ‘a-ha!’ moment we did:

  • Can your friends explain in one sentence what your business does?
  • Does your website accurately reflect your message in an instant, or are you expecting people to draw their own conclusions?
    Can a new visitor to your site tell from the home page whether you can help them or not?

In our case, we were holding on to some old baggage with our business. While the evolution of our message and offerings was crystal-clear in our minds, it was a fuzzy picture for a visitor to the site. Even Maria, who
actually named our business four years ago, couldn’t tell exactly what we were doing.

Let me tell you, when your brand strategist cannot figure out your brand, you’re not being clear enough for everyone else.

Accumulating excess baggage

Perhaps your business evolution mirrors ours in some way. We started out in 2008 sharing our goal of long-term travel beginning at 40, and it resonated with overworked and under-lived people our age also wanting to break free from the rat race. As we went through the saving and downsizing process for two years, we attracted an audience of minimalists, savers, and those wanting to downsize. When we started our journey in 2010, travel lovers and early retirees started following our adventures.

We wrote about all of these topics, making one segment of our audience happy at a time.

The longer we traveled, the more we learned about ourselves and human nature, and our business evolved to address those interests with articles, books, and a newsletter. Plenty of personal growth seekers joined our tribe. We were starting to hit our stride in messaging, but we still hadn’t connected it together in a meaningful way for our audience.

It was all in our heads, and we needed to find a way to voice it.

Streamlining your message

We finally asked ourselves what all those people really wanted overall, and the answer was personal growth and meaningful life experiences. All of our topics fell under this goal, but we were doing a poor job of showing how they worked to achieve it. We realized we had to speak to the need of personal growth and achieving meaningful life experiences and not just the various expressions of those needs.

Is this true in your business (or your personal life)? Are you showcasing an overall strategy to resolve an overall need or are you displaying a disjointed collection of “fixes” for your audience? Is your image an accurate portrayal of your current brand promise or an earlier evolution that has long since passed?

As we started working with Maria on our brand evolution and messaging, I saw the distinct parallels between personal confidence and a strong brand:

  • Accepting who you are now and building on your strengths
  • Saying what you want in a clear voice
  • Attracting the right kind of people into your life

While I didn’t start out writing a book about branding, it seems as if the rules of personal confidence and speaking up are good for business, too.

  • Discover exactly what you offer to the kind of people you want to help
  • Clearly state how you can help your target market and what result they can expect
  • Focus only on the people with whom you want to work

There is no confusing it now, and our business revenue and website traffic reflects our renewed focus on our brand and message.

It is true in your personal life and it is true in your business. As I said in my book:

“Speak up. Be proud of who you are, what you know, and what you do. Help other women do the same. When you change your world for the better, you make it better for the rest of us.” 

Now start unpacking those bags. 

Has your brand undergone an evolution and how did you address it in your visual, verbal or experiential branding? What worked and what didn’t? What do you think about brands that evolve? Please share in the Comments.

 

How this small biz vodka + sausage + great story hooked us

Posted on by Red Slice

I LOVE when I see small businesses doing things right.

On a recent wine-tasting trip to Woodinville, Washington, we were leaving one small winery (many of the wineries there occupy warehouse park space so it’s fun to hit like 12 in an hour) to head to lunch when a sign caught our eye:

Project V Distillery & Sausage Co.

What? Huh? Distillery and sausage company? “Oh, we have to check this out!” we said. Intrigued, we locked the car back up again and went to investigate.

We were greeted by a charming, cozy, rustic store full of antiques and cool signs. Instantly, the woman behind the counter smiled and welcomed us. Another kind gentleman asked if this was our first time there and offered to give us a backroom tour and tell us about the place. He turned out to be one of the investment partners.

Project V is fairly new and produces, among other products, Single Silo Vodka, handcrafted from Washington Winter Wheat which is grown on a family farm. As their marketing materials say, “It is a labor of love and it makes damn fine booze.” Damn, yes, this is smooth vodka.

Our kind guide walked us into the back where we joined a few other partied milling about and sipping. He showed us the distillation stills that they built, educated us on the distillation process and the fact that a vodka which is over-distilled too many times actually means it loses some of its flavor. He also gave us some tasting samples. One was a chai tea vodka and as strange as that sounds, it was delicious.

“What about the sausage?” we asked. The place is still so new that the sausage is not yet sold there yet, but the farm is raising pigs on the leftover wheat from the distillation process and hoped to offer those products soon.

The brand vibe was pure, natural, almost Old West with it’s sepia-hued labels and dusty floorboards. They emphasized family farming, craftsmanship and even a joyful love for the work that they do. This definitely stands out from the hip and trendy vibe you feel with Grey Goose or Stoli.

The point here is that Project V has a story to tell.  They start with education to show you why their product is different and better, wrap it with passion, love and pride, and tie it up in a bow of natural, hardworking craftsmandship. You feel like every bottle was distilled just for you. This brand was further exhibited in the kind welcome we got, the knowledgeable staff and the hospitality we experienced even though we’d just “popped in.”

Effective branding and storytelling does lead to sales and word of mouth. We ended up buying a bottle, and here I am spreading the word about this unique little find. Oh, and they’re on Twitter: @ProjectVDistill

That’s how good small business branding is done, ladies and gents. And this is a story none of the big guys would be effectivly able to pull off so elegantly and believably.

How do you use your small size to communicate a unique and effective brand story? Please share in the Comments for some Link Love back to your site!

 

Shared purpose and animated pigs that make you cry

Posted on by Red Slice

Can an animated ad touch your heart and make you weep? It happened to me during the Grammy Awards last week. Everyone’s been talking about the Chipotle 2- minute long commercial that aired. My husband and I were literally turning the TV off and going to bed when it came on and stopped dead in our tracks in silence to watch the whole thing.

The killer choice of the mournful Willie Nelson song didn’t hurt, either.

Chipotle has built a brand around offering fresh, nutritious food in a convenient way. They have bucked the trend that fast-food needs to taste like crap – and be just as bad for you.

Lynn over at Power Chicks International did a great video interview with business coach Tara Gentile and they briefly talked about this ad. What I loved is Tara’s theory that this ad works because it’s about shared purpose. Chipotle communicated that they were on the same side as their customers, that they were after the same goal. As Tara states, if a multi-million dollar company can make you root for them, than any business can do the same thing.

But it comes down to a strong brand strategy and living that brand out in your actual operations, products and services. If it turns out Chipotle’s suppliers are actually mistreating animals and injecting them with all sorts of homones in horrible living condititions, then they will have a huge brand crisis on their hands. But I am an optimist – and I’ve also eaten their delicious food – so I hope not.

The reason I work with branding clients on their mission statement is that it’s the linchpin of your brand. It concisely articulates what you stand for, what you believe and gives you a guiding light for running your busines.  But it also gives your customers a shared purpose to support.

Watch the ad above. Then please tell us what you think about it in the Comments below and get some link love back to your site!

Photo: AnimationMagazine.net

 

Brand autopsy: Komen and Planned Parenthood

Posted on by Red Slice

Just in the last 48 hours, the breaking news on this brand implosion continues with more twists and turns than a corkscrew roller coaster at Six Flags. In the time between when I planned to write this post and now, the saga between Komen and Planned Parenthood experienced backlashes, reversal, backlashes to the reversal and social media chatter enough for us brand strategists to be talking about this for years. So how did the two brands fare?

To fill you in, The Susan G. Komen Foundation, champions of the Pink Ribbon breast cancer awareness campaign (previously one of the best non-profit branding successes known to man) decided to pull their grant for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. The cover story was that they would not fund any organization under investigation. Problem was, PP was only under investigation as a result of right-wing conservative politicos looking to score.

Social media channels lit up like a house on fire. Facebook posts, Tweets amplified the backlash of many supporters who pulled their funding and support from Komen for caving to politics. Local Komen affilates in several states distanced themselves from HQ and vowed to continue their support. Even NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged $250K directly to Planned Parenthood in protest.  Angry donors directed their donations to PP and the organization raised over $900,000 in support in the last few days as a result – enough the cover all of the lost grant and then some.

The revolt has been successful. Komen announced a reversal of their decision today.

Or did they? According to some reports, Komen still does not explain clearly why it withdrew it’s support in the first place, perhaps to hide political motivations. Komen is now saying that besides being under investigation, the group did not want to fund “pass through” organizations anymore. (PP refers out for mammograms and such). So the story seems to have changed. And from what I’m seeing on social media, people are still standing firm that they will no longer support Komen now, regardless.

Talk about a brand train wreck. What can we learn from this:

1) Public Perception Wins: Komen enjoyed an extremely loyal fan base for their brand. People that would walk 60 miles in 3 days, raise money and make huge donations. When this powerful base got angry, shock waves were felt all over the world. Didn’t matter how Komen tried to spin it – people saw what was happening for themselves. I can’t speak with certitude about whether this was or was not politically motivated, but all indications are that it was.

2) Never Forget your Mission: Komen was dedicated to women’s health and cancer prevention for all. People are not sure what the hell they stand for now. Komen pulled “grants that totaled roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before, going to at least 19 of its affiliates for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services.” And I would guess much of this was for low-income women. Help me understand why that’s not worthy of support? (PS, Can everyone finally get their facts straight and understand that only 3% of PP’s services are related to abortion? Most of their services are for cancer screening and prevention (16%), contraception (35%) and STD testing and treatment (35%). See infographic (courtesy of Goodis.com):

3) Your Brand is Never Bulletproof: I suspect Komen thought they could bow to political pressure, slap a coat of integrity over it (“we can’t support organizations under investigation” – even if a bogus investigation) and their Pink brand would be so powerful, it wouldn’t matter. Mightier folks have fallen from such thinking. What makes it worse is this is a mission-based organization. The power was not in the pink ribbons, 3-day walks and trademarks – it was in rallying people to support a cause that transcends politics. What makes people so angry is that a women’s health organization dedicated to saving lives couldn’t even rise above that pressure and take a stand.

4) If you’going to lie to your loyal supporters (customers), at least be creative and consistent: OK, this one is just my own personal commentary on the brand damage. I digress.

Planned Parenthood, however, got a brand boost from all this and is basking in the afterglow of this backlash. They came off extremely classy. Here was Planned Parenthood’ president’s humble and gracious response  to the reversal:

We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria,” Richards said. “What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer.” (WSJ)

I honestly don’t know if the Komen brand can bounce back from this doozy. Now that some of their true colors have been revealed, their trademark pink seems to look a little dingier today than it was two days ago.

And sadly, the only losers in all of this will be women fighting for a cure.

Do you think Komen’s brand can bounce back? Do you still support the brand or not? Please share in the Comments below (and please keep the discussion civil and related to brand – thanks!)

Photo: news.discovery.com

Please note: If you found this article while looking for cancer care resources, here’s one I might suggest. Family Assets is a senior care site and they published an in-depth guide on how care-takers and families can support their loved ones. Check out their guide here.

A word about expectations

Posted on by Red Slice

Your brand is, when it comes down to it, a way to set expectations.

Are you expensive or cheap? Convenient or hard to get? Cool or conservative? Will I save time, lose weight or make money by becoming a customer?

The generation born right around the Great Depression (aka, my parents, who are a bit older than most of my friends’ parents) expect: things to work if you pay for them (regardless of how much you paid), stellar service whether they are at the Ritz or the Motel 6, portions to be fair, human beings to answer help lines and walk them through a process and employees to be experts at whatever their conmpany sells (building materials, auto supplies, bikes, food, etc.)

My generation expects: better service at the Ritz than the Holiday Inn, that we get what we pay for, that a cashier at Home Depot may not know how to install a new door, and that sometimes it’s often easier if I can serve myself without any human interaction (ATM’s, self-service flight check-ins, online banking, etc.)

Millenials expect: Well, I haven’t a clue, but I have read that they expect to be praised heavily at work, instant responses to Tweets and texts, and technology to shift and adapt in new ways every year.

I’m generalizing, of course. But I’ve learned that I am less patient when it comes to poor customer service these days. That I expect people to return phone calls or emails (especially when I’m actually contacting them to help promote their business). I expect people to do what they say they will do, when they say they will do it (whether I’m paying them or we’re on a volunteer project). I expect honesty. I expect proactiveness. I expect that I may have to deal with ads or pitches, especially when I’m getting content for free – but that, if I like, I can pay to go ad-free. I expect that I should pay for content if its adding extra special value to my business or life. In fact, I expect that I will get more value when I make an investment than when I don’t – and that means I expect timelines, responsiveness, creativity, and responsibility.

Come to think of it, I expect all the things that I would be mortified if I didn’t deliver. My expectations of other brands seem to match my expectation of my own.

Do you expect more than you are prepared to deliver? If so, you might need to rethink things from your customer’s point of view.

Photo credit: Idiotsandgeniuses.blogspot.com

What types expectations do you have of companies you engage with? Please share in the Comments!

 

Why SOPA Sucks

Posted on by Red Slice

Not to be confused with a new made-up Mexican dish at Taco Bell, SOPA is one scary piece of legislation worming it’s way through Congress.  While aimed at protecting copyright holders, which I’m all about, it seems to be more an unrealistic mashup of political jockeying, corporate greed and inane lobbying.

The way this legislation is worded, folks who have blog comments enabled (like moi) could face fines or prison if someone posts something copyrighted. And the klugey (is that the right spelling) notification framework means you may not even know you’re in violation until it’s too late.

Mashable did a great job of breaking down the proposed bill and offering a link to the actual verbiage.  Among the most disturbing aspects of this (besides the blog comments piece) was this little gem that could result in a precocious 14 year old’s video of herself signing a Beyonce song landing in jail and paying a hefty fine, From Mashable’s Chris Heald:

…Total retail value may be shown by evidence of the total retail price that persons receiving the reproductions, distributions, or public performances constituting the offense would have paid to receive such reproductions, distributions, or public performances lawfully.

This means, for example, if you upload a video to YouTube of you singing a popular song, and that song might sell for $1, and your video gets 2,500 views, you are guilty of felony copyright infringement. Furthermore, you can tack on “willful infringement for commercial gain or valued at more than $1,000.”

This would make you a felon, and if a copyright holder were to bring a suit against you, would give you a criminal record that would make it virtually impossible to gain future employment, and may subject you to up to three years in prison for singing a song. You don’t have to receive any money. You don’t have to gain anything from your video. Simply receiving 2,500 views on a song you sung, which happens to have copyright held by someone else, makes you a felon

Yikes. Really. I guess I can get hauled off to jail for singing Backstreet Boys’ tunes in my car (yes, I have a closet love for boy bands) And what about when you video your daughter’s dance team busting a move to Usher. Yep, that would be a violation.
The description of website’s who can profit from such theft is so vague, it’s ridiculous. And the way they determine monetary value of the infraction is even crazier. It’s (number of views)  X ($ they could have earned for each playing). So, if a copyrighted tune is heard over a mall’s loudspeaker, do they get to claim the 235 people listening to the song as valid.
Not to mention the aspect that allows the government to take over the offending site or domain if they decide it’s in violation. That’s a whole other ball of scary wax.
Read up on this on Mashable. And then contact your representative or senator.  Yikes. PS: Image credit to fbi.gov – just in case….

What stage are you in?

Posted on by Red Slice

Traveling home for the holidays, I watched a charming little indie comedy/drama called Beginners. The title refers to how we all act when dealing with relationships. The film is about how “deeply funny and transformative life can be.”  And one part in particular struck me as truly profound.

Hal (Christopher Plummer) has passed away from cancer and as his commitment-challenged son Oliver (Ewan McGregor)  navigates a quirky new love, he reflects back on his memories with Dad. After the death of his wife, Hal came out as a gay man at the age of 75. Oliver recalls watching his dad experience this  renaissance: going to gay bars, throwing parties, becoming an activist and even finding a hot new young lover. Hal used to be the typical middle-class surburbanite but it’s not until he comes out that his flamboyant, joyful, adventurous side really shines through.

And then he’s diagnosed with cancer and dies, only five years after this new lease on life..

But there was one part in particular that stuck with me.

When Dad is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, he decides to throw a party instead of revealing his condition to his friends. Oliver is flabbergasted that his father refuses to tell anyone, especially his own lover, about his diagnosis.  They argue: (and I’m paraphrasing here)

“Dad, this isn’t going to get better! You have Stage Four cancer!”

“Oh, son, that doesn’t mean what you think it means. It just means there have been three other phases before this one.”

How often do we look at “the end” as a bad thing? How often have we looked at getting older as a bad thing, rather than simply “another stage that is happening after the ones that came before?” Or can you recall times you’ve looked at the end of something as sad or bad, when maybe it’s just about making room for rebirth or new opportunity?

For me, I never would have started my consulting practice and this blog had my old company not layed off the entire marketing team. What others might see as bad, I was actually hoping for so that I would have no excuse not to try my hand at freelance consulting. I saw it as the beginning, not the end. And I haven’t looked back since.

I love this idea of viewing every “stage” as merely another step in the journey – not to be judged as good or bad. Hal’s character proved that he was his best self and led his happiest life in what could be considered this last stage of it all. Maybe it’s not about the chronological order of things -but about what you do within that stage of the journey that makes it count. Just because it’s the last stage doesn’t imply it’s the worst one. Chronology has nothing to do with it.

Check out the film if you get a chance. It’s a bit slow and “cerebral” at times, but I found myself thinking about it long after the end. PS: There’s also a charming subplot about the human/dog connection as Ewan adopts his father’s dog, Arthur – and Arthur’s thoughts are revealed in subtitles.

When has an ending actually turned out to be the beginning of something wonderful for you? Did leaving a job end up helping you find one you absolutely loved? Did something bad happen in your business that opened up a new opportunity for you? Please share in the Comments!

Microsoft grabs the right position

Posted on by Red Slice

Are you a Mac or a PC? The epic battle between Apple and Microsoft rages onward, although these days Apple appears to be kicking butt – at least on the consumer front. It’s hard to believe that the iPhone has only been around a few years, not to mention the even younger iPad.

The Apple brand is a storied case study in what it means to capture imagination and emotion – and create a defined archetype of the “type of person who uses Apple products.” The latest Samsung ads poke fun at the Apple stereotype of hip, young, too-cool-for-school upstarts by mocking their desire to wait hours in line just to have the “right” brand of phone in their pocket. (The best line?, “I could never get a Samsung. I’m creative.” His friend’s snarky reply: “Dude, you’re a barista.”)

While Windows is “still the overwhelming market leader among desktop operating systems” it did slide from 92% share in September 2011 to (gasp) 91% in November 2011. So while concerned, the company is not crying yet. And XBOX continues to dominate the console gaming market. But let’s face it: as an overall company brand, Microsoft and Windows will never “outcool” Apple- at least not anytime soon.

And you know what? I think they are okay with that.

Because they’ve recently been finding a position that can own. One that’s credible. And one Apple is not necessarily going after: families.

You’ve probably seen the TV ads touting “It’s a great time to be a family.” One ad depicts a father running around a grocery store crossing off a shopping list on his Windows Phone, when odd items like coconuts nad candy start to get added to his list. He realizes his giggling sons are at home, updating the list in real-time from their PC. So he types back, “Do your homework” and it pops up on their screen. Another one shows a son struggling to solve long division problems on his computer while his dad grapples with a sales presentation. As the dad takes over the son’s computer to help with his homework, the son instantly turns his dad’s humdrum sales presentation into a rocking extravanza with music, explosion and color. Other ads can be found here.

And on my first trip to a Microsoft retail store, I was pleasantly surprised. At first glance, yes, it mimics the Apple store concept. But then I looked a little closer. The place was packed just before Christmas. Teenagers were playing a Kinect Dance game in the front, busy moms and dads whipped around with strollers. Staffpeople were helping toddlers figure out games on the PCs. I realized that, unlike the Apple store across the street, this place was full of families, not brooding hipsters. And you know what? That’s okay.

Microsoft is showing that you don’t always have to go after the same exact people in order to be successful. This is what is meant by “positioning.” Where does your brand play? Where does it “fit?” Instead of trying to out-Apple Apple, maybe Microsoft is playing to its brand strengths and building off of the success it’s already found with XBOX and Kinect, as well as the great strides it’s taken with Windows 7 and with Windows Phone (which I love, by the way.)

When others zig, maybe it’s the right move to stop trying to catch them and to zag instead. (hint – that’s a tweetable!) Where do you fit? That is what positioning is all about, my lovelies!