Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Marketing and synergies using the know-how: Virgin America

A great creative idea doesn't always come from looking at what you need or where you want to get. Many times it's much easier to find inspiration by looking at what you have to work on, or the actual position you're starting from.

Virgin is a conglomerate of many different kinds of businesses. And Sir Richard Branson's brand airline "Virgin America" is well known for not being shy when it comes to marketing communication in order to support it's great slogan "A breath of fresh Airline".

Their spirit complies with this slogan.The clearest evidence for this is the depth to which they're already involved in the online world and it's trends, as can be most clearly seen on their YouTube Channel; containing dozens of videos of all kinds, trying to get the users to spread their word.

Their latest release (just yesterday) is a music video that tells the safety instructions on a plane in a much nicer way. Their are not the first ones on doing something like that (Delta and New Zealand Airlines did it already in a really). But on Virgin they have taken advantage of their know-how in the video-clip industry, and the result is a hundred times better, thanks mainly to an incredibly good production.

Since it's safety instructions, the content it's still boring sometimes, but they have done the best that can be done with such a base. Enjoy:

#FlexLikeCarrie. A great example of Viral Marketing

Many companies have tried to come up with a good (which means cheap) viral video.
Since viral works strangely, and are too interested on being too traditional on the methods and refined on the message. Many have had no success.

Well, maybe this one can give you an idea of what to do:


Good stuff...

MARKETING

Big round of applause for this commercial and the super powerful marketing concept that tries to bring about. Big round of applause for P&G. A 10 on branding.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Communication through stories: Storytelling applied to Marketing

Marketing is about communicating. And one of the way of communicate something is to telling a story about it. Good ideas get tremendously powerful when told through a story.


One of the best Marketing books for me is "Será mejor que lo Cuentes" a great guide on storytelling by Antonio Nuñez. Storytelling is a high form of art that, nonethelesss, can be applied in a huge range of disciplines including obviously most sorts of communication.

Today I'm bringing you a recap of 22 tips to create great stories by the Story Artist Emma Coats after her time working at Pixar. The beautiful presentation using frames of some of their most famous films was done by the designer Dino Ignacio. I'm sure that any marketing project can be enriched using these tips.

Here they are. Learn and enjoy:























Monday, September 23, 2013

Learning and the company's lifecycle.

It's always been said that a 4-year-old kid learns easier and faster that a 40-year-old grown-up. But is that a scientific truth, or just the result of lacking some exercise?


From the minute we are born we spend the entire life learning, or at least we should if we want to progress in our skills, knowledge and values. But then, the pace and efficiency this occurs changes from case to case. Of course, at the end this defines how we evolve.

And the most curious is that the same happens in the lifetime of any organization.

In business schools is taught that companies have the same life-cycle as people, with the same phases (Birth, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Death). But it's not that common to hear that, also like humans, an organization goes through different phases of learning.


Actually it seems sound to state that the attitude on learning might make the difference on how well the company evolves through it's life-cycle phases and if, finally, it ends up dying or being born again.

At the end it's coming back to the same principle as usual: Attitude. In this case expressed as humility, motivation, attention, questioning and inquisitiveness.



One of the first premises to learn something is always humility. Without the humility of admitting that we still need to learn any effort is useless. Someone (or some company) who believes to know enough will find it very hard to find the willingness to learn new things.

That is why children learn faster an easier than adults, their still don't have all the arrangements from education and pride that make our learning slower and harder. What makes us a sponge when we are kids is our undiluted eagerness to explore.

There are many young and old organizations that didn't give learning, examination and change the importance they deserve. They sacrificed them for execution, because time was everything.

And the point is that learning is the cornerstone for adaptation and agility. So, since it's true that time is everything, any company should develop during it's first years the procedures and models to learn fast and deep.

Keeping always an flexible attitude and being open to questioning shouldn't be fashion terms limited being used on conventions and the Values Statement of the company (as Flat Hierarchy is). They should be the foundations of any company that wants to survive these days.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Boss or Leader?


Yes, of course, we all know that a leader is better than a boss. Even science proved long ago that intrinsic motivators (autonomy, mastery and purpose) work much better than extrinsic motivators (dangling carrots and threatening sticks). And still many companies don't get it...


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

INSPIRATION. (Volume 2: Education)

This is about Education.
This talk is about Education and Humility.
This TED talk is about Education, Humility and Learning by doing.
This inspirational TED talk is about Education, Humility and Learning (peace) by doing.


Enjoy, Learn, Share.

Getting political communication naked (Desnudando la comunicación política)

Political communication + Market Research = This guy.
(Comunicación política + Investigación de Mercados = Este tío.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsLySmtzros&feature=share&list=PLsRNoUx8w3rNpHP7-uNSZEgSq97Dmw6yC
(VIDEO in SPANISH)

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Notes on "Business Model Generation"

OUT-THE-BOX-DEFINITION:
A business model is like recipe for a creative manager.
What are we cooking today?


IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS:

-Narrative Coherence: The business model holds a story of moving a business from one opportunity to another.
  • Incoherence/Components misaligned = Long-term failure.
  • Strong narrative = Positive changes
-Business Model 2.0: Based on the potential of the web.
  • Collective intelligence
  • Self-improving systems
  • Networking
-Complementarily: To find good partners, the business models of both have to fit together.



(Some) BUSINESS MODEL TYPES:

-Long tail: Small amounts to many, many clients (Niche markets + Good Channels)

-Multiplatform: Bring together different groups of clients and rise value of their interaction.

-Gratis! (For free): Three subtypes:
  • Get one free, pay for another (Evolution of “Bait & hook”)
  • Service/Product paid by Advertising/Sponsors. (Traditional Media)
  • “Freemuim”: Pay for the full version
-Open: Create value by collaborating with clients and partners. It can be applied inwards or outwards. (?)



TOOLS TO INNOVATE ON BUSINESS MODELS

customer_insigth_empathy_map_business_models_tools_notjustmarketing
-Customer insight: Empathy. Know, think and feel like the customer.

-Ideation: Have a multidiscilinar group analyzing and brainstorming on the project.
·        Focus on finding problems and solutions (Create plan B, C, D…)
·        *Rules: No early-judging, respect, be visual, embrace craziness…
·        *Any of the 9 blocks can work as a starting point for the innovation (Resources, Product, Clients, Finances…).

-Visual Thinking: Use pictures, diagrams, outlines, post-its (more immediate), create a tag-cloud, a moodboard…
  • Back of the Napkin (See visually, imagine visually, show ideas visually >> SIMPLIFY)
-Prototyping: Helps exploring ideas by making the more tangible. Do several different prototypes for the same business.

-Storytelling: A good story gives strength to any idea. There’s a natural resistance (reluctance) to change and the unknown. a strong story can make more familiar any new idea. It helps when telling the stakeholders (Alternatives: Talk, Video, Play, Text+Image, Comic…).

-Scenarios: Set out and consider different specific scenarios of how the business can evolve. This way is easier to figure out where to go (Develop plan B, C, D…). Observe your environment, detect trends and apply them to your ideas.



STRATEGIES TO CREATE AND MANAGE BUSINESS MODELS

-Evaluate the environment of the model (the forces that affect it):


-Analyze constantly the business model (through checklists, SWOTs…) to Validate or modify each of the 9 building blocks.

-Blue Ocean Strategy: Create your own uncontested market.
  • Eliminate useless factors that the industry takes for granted.
  • Reduce some factors below the industry’s standard.
  • Raise some factors above the industry’s standard.
  • Create those interesting factors that the industry has never offered.
-Work out: Practice managing several models. Learn when to integrate them to create synergies and when to separate them to prevent conflicts.

  • Similarity of the building blocks + potential for synergy - potential for conflict = Recommended level of Autonomy


PROCESSES TO CREATE A BUSINESS MODEL:

-Mobilize: Set the stage for a successful business model design project.

-Understand: Research the elements needed for your business model design.

-Design: Generate various options and test them to select the best ones.

-Implement the chosen business model idea in “real life”. Execute what you thought.

-Manage: Modify your plans according to “real life feedback”. Evolve.
  • A business plan tends to be static (it’s like a script).
  • A business models reacts and is dynamic (it’s like Impro).

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The future of the Third Sector

Almost everyone would agree that NGOs are a good thing, that Cooperation is positive and that Development Projects are necessary. That's why many of us think about donating money to an NGO, but then various kinds of criticism come to join our natural reluctance to give money away. Even when we trust  that a NGO is not corrupted, and that they really want to make a difference, we keep on worrying about "what are they going to do with the money". 

Well, we all should realize that our criticism of the Third Sector has a totally mistaken focus. We have thought that non-profit Companies shouldn't work under the same rules as the rest. That Marketing, Business Models and Investments are evil tools that the Third Sector must avoid.

This video is a must if you ever thought this. It tells the five ways in which we are judging the Third Sector the wrong way:



But it’s also true that in many NGOs is needed a change in the way things are done. Many of them manage enormous amounts of money and their impact is either small (the money is useless) or negative (they create dependency).
In this other talk, Ernesto Sirolli sets the key of NGOs efficiency when it comes to development projects: Listen to the local entrepreneurs:



If both the people around and the people inside NGOs follow this simple yet effective tips, the future of the Third Sector can be very fruitful. I'm convinced that a change in this direction will lead to finally see non-profit organizations making a big difference.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

29 ways to stay Creative


How Loyalty works?

This beautiful and simple infographic (created by the brand new Portugese branding agency "WHY") shows the two parts Consumer Loyalty is composed of:



Some experts will add, in the part of the company "duties", its behavior (Call it Responsibility, Ethics, Authenticity...) and some others think that loyalty doesn't exist in a market where most consumers just care about the price.

All this depends on the actual behavior of the consumers. Do consumers care about what's behind the companies they buy from? And even more important: Are consumers aware of how powerful their purchasing decicions are?

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Leave your Comfort Zone, expand your Boundaries

Here is the video of the talk Martina Flor shared last Feb. 21 on the monthly meeting of the Creative Mornings in Berlin. The talk by the Argentinean designer had the title "Stepping out of your comfort zone". And, very beautifully presented, it explained how advisable is to confront bravely the challenges we find in our professional life.

She exemplified it with her own experiences. The method she suggested to achieve better projects was simple: Just do it and then show it.




It was a nice coincidence the title of the talk and the day it happened. Because just a couple months ago I wanted to spread a new "tradition": I find so important to leave our safe spaces regularly, that I started to "celebrate", on the 21st of every month, the "Out of the comfort zone" Day.



So it was an even nicer coincidence that last 21st I was taking part on something so estrange as a “Virtual Interactive Seminar”. The people from WorldAfterMidnight have created a virtual world to carry out any kind of educational or collaborative meetings. It was a really nice workshop about the innovation in the business world and, as we could interact, we were working with a very useful model for problem solving. These seminars are for free and take place every month; highly recommended.

Stepping out of our comfort zone is very useful for those moments in life (or at work) when life puts you in a difficult position. It's really easy to just don't do it. But when you step usually out of your comfort zone it starts being even funny!

And you? Do you step regularly out of your comfort zone? What totally new thing, or same thing on a totally different way, are you going to do on the next 21st?

Monday, February 25, 2013

Transmedia, crimes and publicity: All in one.

January 2013, Hannover. Someone stole the golden cookie which the German company "Bahlen" used as the emblem of their brand "Leibniz Keks".
A couple days after the robber sent this picture to a local newsletter:


The robber, dressed as (a seedy version of) the cookie monster, holds the golden cookie. The ransom note says that he wants the company to give cookies to the children in a near hospital, as well as 1000 € to a local animal shelter.
It was hilarious that the note specified the cookies needed for the ransom to be the good ones, "those of milk-chocolate, not the black-chococate or the plain ones".
It was also part of the joke that a former CEO of the company during the 70s went then into a political career, and the press used to call him "the cookie monster".

Of course Sesame street hurried to keep clear that they had nothing to do with all that:
 And the company, also pretty fast, said to the media that they were happily willing to pay a ransom of 52.000 packs of cookies to 52 different NGOs. And reminded of their many current proofs of "social involvement". Just after some more days the cookie was back again.

Since whole story was so funny and beautiful at the same time, it had international effect on the press. Besides, the company managed all this so well that they turned it into a huge opportunity for publicity:




Finally many cookies were given, and the brand gained (or recovered) lots of fans. As they say here in Germany "Ende Gut, Alles gut".

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Strokes doing Research-Marketing?

Ok, maybe is a bit too elaborate, but here is the conjecture:

Did the rock band “The Strokes” just did a really fast and precise market research to know what the fans wanted their next album to be before releasing it entirely?


19 days ago the band released “One Way Trigger” the first song of their new album Comedown MachineThe song was so different, that barely anybody liked it. The enormous amount of comments posted the internet where a really good feedback: People said it was horrible, and they were missing the Original Strokes.



So just yesterday they fullly released "All the time"the Single of that same album. It’s complete different, it has the sound that everyone was asking for.




And the question is, did they released the first like a trial? Did they want to research how fans would react to that risky song? And will the rest of the new album follow the sound that all their "customers" demanded?

What do you think?

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

INSPIRATION. (Volume 1: TED)

My brother taught me once that learning by listening was way better than by bungling when talking. Then I started realizing how easy and useful it is to listen actively to people: Most of the time they know more than me about the subject and, anyway, they always bring a different perspective that enriches my own idea about it.
Since then I love to get informed about topics I am interested in by any means of verbal communication (the radio, talks, speeches, classes, conferences, debates…). I’m very fond of nice conversations in cafés.
And then, just last year, I discovered a marvelous invention called TED.

TED (Acronym for “Technology, Entertainment, Design”) is an NGO dedicated to spread great discussions and conferences on a variety of different subjects.  The talks are lead by all kinds of different people that are always full of innovative ideas that can change world.
It was created in the 80’s, but went fully on-line in 2006. And it’s on the net, and under a Creative Commons License, that their mission got real strength, because the Speeches started to be available for free all around the world.

On TED I found brilliant discussions about Marketing, such as a very comical speech by Rory Sutherland about how advertising can change the consumers’ perception of the value of a product and further how real and important this value becomes:


TED consolidated my ideas about the huge power and responsibility that consumers have on discussions such as the one given by John Gerzema. Just one of the many stirring speeches about Consumer Behavior and Market Research that can be found flicking through the Tags’ listing on TED’s App for Android and iPhone:


But also thanks to TED, I’ve discovered how a social stigma (like mental illnesses) can be fought and altered with humor. The comedian Ruby Wax shows how in this very intelligent speech (Or should it be called stand-up comedy?):


TED even provided me with an easy way to answer when friends ask me “but what’s this thing about meditation?”, because I could never explain it better than Andy Puddicombe in his own words:
-


Business educator Eddie Obeng taught me in his electrifying speech that Problem Solving should be, nowadays, Problem Forecasting. He says that getting something wrong is not always failing because in our world “after midnightthere’s certainly not enough to make safe decisions:


And last but not least, TED has reminded me how crucial positive thinking on life and work is. For instance, in this hilarious speech by Shawn Achor I learned that the Competitive Advantage is not as important as the “Happiness Advantage”:



So, when I decided to create a series of Posts about the things that inspire me, I knew that TED was going to be the first one. Because all my favorite speeches on TED give me hints how to evaluate the present and also how I want things to be in the future. And that is, as I see it, pure inspiration.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Small-scale Branding: Street Marketing for start-ups

Direct, Street, Gerrilla, Ambient. This different names have been given to the slightly different varieties of a same kind of Marketing actions.
This BTL advertising is characterized by being normally on the street and using its elements to attract the attention of the people passing by. Besides, this kind of actions are normally very creative and even funny. And a main feature is that they don't disturb to send their message but try to get the attention of the individuals by surprising them.
This turns them into interactive and very memorable actions, and thus its effectiveness rockets.

The bad part is that, as many innovations and great ideas in Marketing, many people thinks that this kind of actions are only within the reach of big companies. Well, this is a complete nonsense. One of the features of this kind of Marketing is its posibility of being "low-cost".



You just need a good idea to make people stop and look to your message. You have to start from a very simple idea you'd like to communicate and put it on the streets in a way that always has to be:

  -Nice to bump into, whoever does it.
  -Interesting to your potential consumers, telling them something
(Of course, as always, humour is a good way to acomplish this two objectives.)

Maybe you are willing to try some Street Marketing for your small business, but you are too busy to take charge of it, or you don't find capable of organizing all that is needed to set it off. In this case I recommend you to turn to a small local advertising agency.

They are going to be thrilled with the challenge, and their small size is perfect for giving you this service with a low price. Besides, being local they will be able to know how and where to reach your potential costumers in the city.

After trying Street Marketing in your small business, you'll leef how effective this kind of actions can be in a local scope.

Do you think just big brands can use Guerrilla Marketing? By using a good idea, costumers can be reached with a really small bugdget.