Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 326

The Church And State Of Advertising

Are marketers poisoning the well? 

When I first started publishing music magazines back in the nineties, I kept running into the question of ethics. We were a two-person operation back then and my job was not only handling all of the editorial content, but the advertising as well. Having a role with that kind of duality was seen as a no-no. The world of editorial content in the media and the advertising that surrounded it was separated like the church and state. To maintain the integrity of the content, they never wanted journalists anywhere near the sales reps. This way, the content could not be impacted because some advertiser wanted more bang for their buck. It was never a perfect world and the well was poisoned on more than a few occasions by a myriad of different media outlets (it still happens to this day). One of the main challenges that the institution of journalism had as social media took hold was the potential ability to sway Bloggers who may not be as inclined to follow in the same footsteps of journalism's morals and ethics. To this day, there is a constant stream of Bloggers caught in payola-like scenarios where paid trips and free merchandise is given in return for a few nice words on a highly trafficked Blog without any disclosure from the Bloggers.

Does anyone remember Blogola?

They called it Blogola, and it got to the point in 2009 that the FCC in the United States decided to step in with an attempt to regulate Blogging. The idea was that Bloggers who didn't clearly disclose any freebies or payments they received from companies for reviewing their products could be fined (and even face injunctions). It was an attempt to create a level playing field while pushing for transparency and disclosure (which is never a bad thing). The more serious Bloggers didn't need the FCC stepping it, because they intrinsically understood the merits of full disclosure and the value of being on the up and up, but as social media continued to evolve into video, audio and images, the lines got fuzzy and very blurry.

This isn't about Bloggers Gone Wild, it's actually about the entire world of marketing, communications and advertising.

Now, more than even, it's not always clear to the consumer if they're watching a movie or one big advertisement. Last week, the news machines kicked up when it was reported that in the next James Bond movie, Skyfall (which is due for release this coming November), the suave British agent will be ditching his famed martini (shaken, not stirred) for a Heineken beer thanks to product placement. While that may be enough heresy for you to start an Occupy Hollywood movement, it's only a part of the intrigue when it comes to Bond... James Bond. Skyfall will break all product placement records by taking in more than $45 million in product placement for just this one film. Some sources place that dollar amount at one third of the cost for the entire film's budget. A huge windfall for the movie studio, but how is the paid customer to know the difference between what is an action movie and what is a commercial? Sure, the odd product placement here or there was a "no harm, no foul" move so long as the context maintained its credibility, but when you're moving into the $45 million range, you begin to wonder if the product is being placed into the movie or if the movie is being written to fit the products?

More dirty little secrets...

Another dirty little secret of the product placement world is the current use of CG (computer graphics) to input product placement where it had not been before. That's right, while you're watching those five year old re-runs of Everybody Loves Raymond, don't be surprised if there's suddenly a box of cereal on Ray's kitchen table that wasn't there in the original version. This is big (no, massive) business. Re-runs can go on and on in syndication for years, so what's the harm in dumping in a few computer generated products here and there?

Advertisers are constantly looking for ways to get their messages in front of you.

From product placement in video games (don't think for a second that the advertising on the rink boards in EA Games' NHL 13 don't go for as much as a rink board at your local NHL hockey arena) to ads in the bins where you place your shoes at the airport (yup, that's a paid placement too!), it's all becoming a game of filling every inch of eye space with some kind of advertisement. People often marvel as they step into New York's Times Square barrage of billboards without realizing that the movie they just saw could well have been one big, massive advertisement and exposure to about the same amount of commercial messages. This doesn't mean that we need to shut it down, but it does mean - in a world where everyone is publishing content in text, images, audio and video - that all of us need to be a little wiser to who is being paid what to say what. There are many prominent video bloggers who currently have representation with talent agents in Los Angeles and New York and are getting backed by serious brands for sponsorships. Perhaps a small paragraph detailing their disclosures is enough, but it may, ultimately, not be. Are you going to sit around until the last credits roll at Skyfall to see a list of who paid for placement?

Doubtful.

The above post is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:

Montreal Gazette - Secret agent of messaging.

Vancouver Sun - not yet published.

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advertising

billboard

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blogola

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james bond skyfall

journalism

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montreal gazette

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nhl

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postmedia

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vancouver sun

video games

The New Media Diet

How much media can you switch through in an hour?

For years, new media speakers would tell the story of their sixteen year old niece, who plops herself down in front the television after school, grabs her iPad with her smartphone near-by and engages in the digital native dance known as multi-platforming. These young people just don't watch TV and then go on to read a magazine, they have multiple media channel inputs all happening at the same time. The head-shaking from marketing professionals ensues because none of us can fathom how to market to this new consumer. We've tried dumping ads into video games and we work hard to offer free (ad-supported) services, but there's this shuttering and sinking feeling that advertising is going to have to go through some fundamental changes to make itself viable in the coming years.

The picture gets a little darker.

One news item being tossed around today (over and above the news that Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars), is an Advertising Age piece titled, Young Consumers Switch Media 27 Times An Hour. According to Ad Age: "It's every advertiser's worst nightmare: consumers so distracted by a dizzying array of media choices that they no longer notice the commercials supporting them. And its time might be closer than you think. A recent study found that consumers in their 20s ('digital natives') switch media venues about 27 times per nonworking hour - the equivalent of more than 13 times during a standard half-hour TV show."

That's a whole lot of media consumption on a plethora of devices.

So, what's a marketer to do? The article points to a few solutions. They include:

More engaging content to keep consumers around. They're jumping around because they're losing interest.

Marketing must become more snackable (short and fast).

Surround consumers with advertising as they move from one media to the next.

More compelling creative.

Create smaller windows of opportunities to capture their attention.

More problems... not solutions.

When marketers started realizing that consumers were not clicking on banner ads, do you know what they did? They added in more size options (bigger!) and placed these ads in more places on the same page (more flashing!). They created interstitials and then takeovers. Yes, they cluttered the experience rather than taking the time to figure out how, exactly, consumers would prefer to connect with marketing messages in a platform that was (clearly) not just a digital version of a magazine or newspaper. Personally, I don't think any of the solutions above create a better way to connect with consumers. It just seems like more noise in a more noise world of content.

It's time to take a step back.

I believe that consumers enjoy relevant marketing messages that fit in with the content experience (look no further than the success of Google AdWords or the ads that you will see in Vogue magazine). If consumers are shifting from media to media at such a rapid pace, perhaps the answer is to retreat, rethink and re-imagine (to quote a brilliant book title by Tom Peters) how to create compelling marketing messages in a world where consumers don't take in content as a beginning, middle and end experience that is pre-defined by the content creator?

Moments in transition.

This is where to start. As they transition between media and as the device begins to understand both the content and context, properly targeted messages could become interesting if they add to the content experience. If that sounds murky to you, you're not alone: this is concept I'm working on - not a finalized creative execution. What could this look like? Better long form content? A quick burst of something relevant? A game to play? A mystery to solve? A tool that offers the consumer some utility? We have to rise above the notion that the only thing it can be is an ad. It doesn't have to always be an ad... or an ad supported by a contest.

We keep saying that marketing has changed forever. In truth, it's the media that keeps changing and the marketers are simply trying to keep up.

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video games

vogue magazine

Is Nike A Technology Company?

Episode #300 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. This is also episode #21 of Across The Sound 2.0.

Joseph Jaffe is widely regarded as one of the top Marketing Bloggers (Jaffe Juice) and Podcasters (both Jaffe Juice in audio and Jaffe Juice TV in video). He is the author of three excellent books (Life After The 30-Second Spot, Join The Conversation and Flip The Funnel) and recently launched his latest venture, Evol8tion. A long-time friend (and one of the main inspirations behind the Six Pixels of Separation Blog and Podcast), we've decided to hold monthly conversations, debates and back-and-forths that will dive a little deeper into the Digital Marketing and Social Media landscape. This is our 21st conversation (or, as I like to affectionately call it, Across The Sound 21.20). This week, we talk about brands and technology. Is Nike a sporting goods brand or a technology company? After Jaffe waits in line for close to an hour at SXSW to score a Nike FuelBand, you may be surprised by what we come up with. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #300.

Tags:

advertising podcast

blog

blogging

brand

business book

david usher

digital marketing

evol8tion

facebook

flip the funnel

fuelband

itunes

jaffe juice

jaffe juice tv

join the conversation

joseph jaffe

life after the 30 second spot

marketing

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podcasting

social media

sxsw

technology

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #94

93Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

Typography Shaped Entirely By Human Hands - The Creators Project . "For a font nerd like me, there's something soothing and organic about this. Watching hands smoothly transition letters from upper to lower case. Okay, I'm a dork, but this is Type Zen." (Alistair for Hugh).

Warp Tight Shut Like Doors - Vimeo . "At Bitnorth last year, Yelena Rachitsky screened this beautiful five-minute video she wrote and directed. There's something beautiful, and profoundly troubling, about it. Yelena's brother is Localmind 's Lenny Rachitsky , who gave a great TEDx presentation on losing serendipity ; clearly that family has a ton of talent." (Alistair for Mitch).

The Personal Analytics of My Life - Stephen Wolfram Blog . " Stephen Wolfram is a genius, and he likes data. A lot. Here he has charted every email sent and received in the past decade. And phone calls. And steps. Behold: a human's decade in graphs." (Hugh for Alistair). 

Creativity: No discounts - Jane Friedman . "Are humans too creative? As we get better and better at solving problems (due to technology and application of previous solutions), we solve them faster. And these solutions create more problems, more quickly. Which we try to solve faster. There's a kind of creativity treadmill that keeps going faster and faster and faster, and we can't get off." (Hugh for Mitch).

Keen On... Clay Christensen: How To Escape The Innovator's Dilemma - TechCrunch . "Andrew Keen (The Cult of the Amateur) sits down with Professor Clay Christensen of the Harvard Business School . Christensen is also the author of the must-read business book, The Innovator's Dilemma. In this short chat, Christensen demonstrates his very big and impressive brain with some fascinating perspectives on not only the business world, but the challenges that companies like Google and Apple will, inevitably, face. In short: what goes up, must come down?" (Mitch for Alistair).

Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is. - Ted Talks . " Chip Kidd always judges a book by its cover. Kidd is known as one of the world's most talented book cover designers. The art of creating a compelling book cover is not as old as you might think, but in the age of the Kindle it could become as relevant as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (he actually designed the book cover for that best-seller). I was fortunate enough to have been in the theater to see this wonderful presentation live at TED this past year. On one hand, I too love nothing more than a well-designed book. On the other hand, I can't see myself buying and reading a physical book ever again. Strange? I agree. I still love going to book stores, but I refuse to buy a book unless it's available in a digital format. Very strange? Yup." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

Tags:

alistair croll

andrew keen

apple

bitcurrent

bitnorth

chip kidd

clay christensen

clayton christensen

complete web monitoring

gigaom

google

harvard business school

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

jane friendman

jurassic park

kindle

lenny rachitsky

librivox

link exchange

linkbait

localmind

managing bandwidth

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pressbooks

stephen wolfram

story

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ted

ted talks

tedx

the book over

the creators project

the cult of the amateur

the innovators dilemma

vimeo

year one labs

yelena rachitsky

The Other Side Of Our Digital Selves

You need to wrestle (deeply) with what you are about to see.

Since I attended this past year's TED conference, I can't get the dinner conversation I had with Sherry Turkle out of my mind. With each passing day, as I get further and further involved in technology and digital media (especially because I am neck-deep in writing my second book, CTRL ALT DEL), I straddle between marveling at this amazing new world and how it has changed business forever, while at the same time, seeing so many people use technology in a way that is (without question) enslaving them. Turkle is a professor at MIT and the author of the fascinating book, Alone Together - Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other. It's the kind of book that I caution new media thinkers about reading, because it can be as depressing as it is enlightening when you begin to deeply think about our lives and our digital selves.

Digital makes life better.

That was always my assumption. Technology is awesome and it's hard not to marvel at the iPhone and the incredible computational power we have in the palm of our hands (and how it connects us all). Turkle suggests another perspective: do we really think that digital will help us lead better lives in our protein forms? Shortly after attending the TED conference and discussing these topics with Turkle (which happened the night before her TED talk), I found myself at a party in Montreal for a new product launch. I got to the event a little early and instead of mingling, I retreated to a couch in the corner and the safety of my iPhone. There was nothing pressing in terms of emails or tweets for me to tend to, but it was much more like a security blanket than anything else. I took warmth in my connectivity to it and how it shielded me from being social in public (something I'm self-admittedly not all that great/comfortable with). At that moment, I realized that the iPhone was a better companion than a human being. That sounds very tragic. That's not me or who I am, but that is how I felt. I'm not sure I would have ever realized or acknowledged those feelings had I not met and spent time with Sherry Turkle. As much as I love technology and new media, it's important to think about the consequences as well.

In this amazing TED Talk, Turkle asks a very important question: "is technology taking us to a place that we do not want to go to?"

Tags:

alone together

business

business book

ctrl alt del

digital media

digital selves

iphone

mit

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sherry turkle

technology

ted conference

ted talk

Watching Me Blog

Blogs are one of the most valuable marketing tools ever created.

I believe that. I don't just say it. I mean it by walking the talk. I started blogging in September 2003, and since then I have written almost three thousand posts. I'm proud of this blog mostly because it serves two personal Gods for me: my love of writing and my love of sharing. I had the pleasure of speaking in Oslo, Norway last week at the re:think conference. Also on that bill was Chris Brogan (Trust Agents, Social Media 101, Google + For Business). Chris and I have been friends since we first met at PodCamp Boston back in 2006, so any chance to hang out when we're in the same city, we take advantage of. The morning of the conference, we had breakfast and our conversation sparked a blog post (this one: Where Do Ideas Come From?). It was one of those posts that just had to come out, so I started writing it as soon as we got to the venue. To my surprise, Chris blogged about me blogging (how meta!) with his post: Watching Mitch Joel Blog. In the comments section, Peter Petrovski said: "Would love to read more about how you draft, write and publish posts." Here's the deal, Peter...

My blogging philosophy:

It's me. Only me. I write, edit, post, moderate, etc... everything. I have an amazing team at Twist Image that did all design and infrastructure, but the content is all me (including the updating of the Blogroll).

It's visceral. I write (almost) everyday. I post when I am done writing. There are moments when I write more than one blog post at a time and - in those rare cases - I will schedule them to the next day.

I commit to consistency. I attempt to have six unique blog posts every week and one audio podcast (on Sunday). So, while I may not post daily, you will receive seven pieces of content from me each and every week.

It's one shot. I don't ruminate and hold blog posts as drafts. I have an idea, I write it.

I do not mention brands. As often as possible, I try not to call out brands - especially ones that have screwed up. My philosophy is that the learning from the mistake is more important than who made the mistake. Also, as an agency owner, you never know where your next client will come from.

Easy on the self-promotion. I do my best to provide value to you with the intention that if it's valuable, I'll become an option should your company require digital marketing services. I try to keep the self-promotion to a dull roar... as much as possible. That being said, I'm proud of what we're accomplishing here, so it does creep in. The core ideology is that the content should be of value to you first and foremost.

Pre-show (what happens before I blog):

I'm an infovore. No doubt about it. From e-newsletters and magazine to business books and RSS feeds, I'm constantly consuming reading, watching and listening to content. My attitude is that I would rather be inundated with emails and feeds than be left surprised when news breaks. I much prefer the delete button over not being in the loop.

When something turns into a blog idea, there are two repositories for it:

I keep an email folder titled "Blog", where links to articles that inspire are put.

I write it down in my trusted. Moleskine notebook.



I've tried keeping notes on my iPhone using Evernote and the like, but it just doesn't work for me. I'm better off emailing the idea to myself and placing in the Blog folder.

Writing the blog post:

The physical space doesn't matter. I don't need to be in a specific room, desk or chair to be inspired. My attitude is very military-like: just write.

I prefer to write in silence (music: even classical and jazz) takes my focus off of the words.

I use a MacBook Air 13 inch laptop to write.

My blogging software is Windows Live Writer. Because this is a PC only program, I run vmware on my MacBook Air just for that one program. I wish someone would write a Mac software as awesome as Windows Live Writer (I blogged about all of this right here: My Blog Writing Dilemma).

The blogging platform is MovableType. I'm sure we would be on WordPress had it existed when I started blogging, but it wasn't as robust back then. It's just too much work to switch that all now.

I believe in tags. As you can see from this post (and any other post), I love adding lots and lots of tags. It makes it much easier to find content later on.

A typical blog post takes me twenty to forty minutes from cradle to grave. Yes, I write fast. On average, I can write about 1000 words of original content in about an hour.

After the post:

Once it's posted and live, I tend to let people on Twitter and Facebook know by asking a question. For example, with this blog post I might tweet: "What's your blogging philosophy? Here's mine..." I find that asking a question generates comments and sharing.

I try to respond to comments, but I'm admittedly not great at it. Some weeks, I respond to every comment and then there are weeks when I don't respond at all. It's not you... it's me. It's nothing personal. I read each and every one and I am always honored that people take the time to comment, it's just that life often catches up to me and my philosophy is that I'd rather spend what limited time I do have writing more original content than responding to comments. It's probably not the most "social" way to be, but that's how I am wired.

While the idea of tagging a blog post as a way to start a meme has all but died, I'd love to see people like Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund, Jeff Jarvis, Mark W. Schaefer, Avinash Kaushik, Jason Falls, Gini Dietrich, Tom Peters, Jay Baer, Darren Rowse and David Meerman Scott follow this template and write a post about how they Blog. Feel free to ping them and let them know that I've called them out!

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avinash kaushik

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tom peters

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writing

The Art Of Marketing Is Coming To Chicago

The Art of Marketing is coming to Chicago on April 24th, 2012.

I'm very excited to announce that The Art of Marketing full-day leadership summit is happening in Chicago on April 24th, 2012 at The Chicago Theater. As you can see by the agenda, the line-up is out of this world. I have the honor of sharing the stage with Seth Godin (Purple Cow, Linchpin, Poke The Box, etc...), Gary Vaynerchuk (Crush It and The Thank You Economy), Keith Ferrazzi (Never Eat Alone and Who's Got Your Back), Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0) and Facebook's former head of Marketing, Randi Zuckerberg (I believe you know her brother ;). Like I said, this is a marketing line-up and a full-day of learning like no other.

You can buy a ticket or you can win a ticket.

If you would like a chance to win one of four pairs of VIP tickets to The Art of Marketing in Chicago (which means four winners - each winner gets two tickets), all you have to do is leave a comment below about the marketing book that changed your life (and why) or the one marketing book that you can't wait to read (and why). The deadline for entries will be April 13th, 2012 at 12 pm ET and the winners will be announced by 5 pm on that same day. If you win, you have to cover everything else (travel, accommodations, etc... are not included... it's just the tickets). A VIP ticket gives you:

Express VIP entrance.

Reserved premier seating in the first five rows

Exclusive VIP three course Lunch.

An eco-friendly tote bag and personal spiral bound notebook.

Copies of featured bestselling business books:    


Poke The Box by Seth Godin.

The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk.

Signed copy of my first book, Six Pixels of Separation.

If you don't want to risk it, buy your tickets now (with this special promo code)...

These events always sell-out (and this one is expected to have almost two thousand attendees!), so if you don't want to risk the contest, the kind folks at The Art of Marketing have a special offer for the Six Pixels of Separation community:

Six Pixels promo: Use the promo code: TWIST. This will give you a savings of $50.00 per ticket or $100 per ticket when registering three or more people at the same time. If you prefer, you can also register by phone: 1 (866) 992-7863 (just be sure to mention your promo code).

I hope to see you there.

I spend the entire day at these events hanging out, meeting people but more importantly, listening and learning from the other speakers. Next to the TED conference, these are the events that I attend to learn, grow and expand my marketing horizons. I not only hope to see you there (and please come over to say "hi" if you do), but I hope that you take this opportunity to learn and grow right along with me.

I'll see you at The Art of Marketing in Chicago!

Tags:

avinash kaushik

branding

business book

chicago marketing event

crush it

facebook

gary vaynerchuk

keith ferrazzi

leadership summit

linchpin

mark zuckerberg

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poke the box

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seth godin

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the thank you economy

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whos got your back

The E-commerce Tipping Point

The business of selling is about to get a whole lot more interesting.

When you think about e-commerce, how does it make you feel? Do you feel that it's still a fairly nascent part of the retail experience or do you think that it has matured to the point where it's not only a proven merchandising channel, but a critical function of how people buy? Recently, a very senior marketing professional who works at one of the world's largest corporations was recounting a story of how they saw a postal truck outside of their corporate head offices in Silicon Valley, and every single parcel that was being offloaded from this truck was from Amazon. He thought to himself: "this is the what retail looks like in 2012."

It's big but it will become a whole lot bigger.

Last week, MediaPost ran a news item titled, PwC: Even With Social, Stores Aren't Keeping Up, in which the company expects to see U.S. e-commerce sales hit the $279 billion mark by 2015. So, we're talking real money and big money. Like anything else in business, with that steep growth and adoption comes a myriad of challenges, roadblocks and adoption issues. The biggest challenge? Figuring out how, when and where consumers want to connect, order and buy. Retail is, without question, morphing from a physical location (a shopping mall or a busy intersection of a popular city) to a state of digitization. What Amazon started is now being continued by new and fascinating online retailers like Fab. Driven by analytics, Fab.com is a daily deal site that offers up products with a modern contemporary design flare. From posters and art to furniture and jewelry, its about more than a great price (although sales can be up to 70% off retail) as Fab has managed to create it's own brand, look and feel that nurtured a passionate community of customers (and fans). Other brands like One Kings Lane (which offers up home decor, gifts, kitchenware, and vintage finds) are also doing brisk and growing business in this ever-evolving segment. These new start-ups are not only churning out millions of dollars in profit, but they're helping to redefine the world of retailing.

A million stores in the palm of your hand.

A testament the challenges that traditional retailers face is the exponential growth of mobile (in that cluster, let's include smartphones and tablets). With this new and hyper-connected customer - who is also highly untethered - we're able to get a crystal clear view of where the struggles begin. Choose a favorite retailer of yours. Now, enter their website URL into your smartphone and tell me what you see? Is their experience adaptive? Does it work as elegantly as their website experience? More often than not, it's the exact website and nothing else - making it a nightmare on a smartphone.

The E-commerce Tipping Point.

It's here and it's now. Retailers are doing themselves a massive disservice by sitting on the sidelines and waiting for consumers to adopt e-commerce. The opportunity is for them to lead. To enable all of their platforms to accept the transactions and help their consumers navigate through the multi-channels. Check out this little nugget of reality from the MediaPost news item mentioned above: "In fact, the PwC survey finds, people aren't waiting for stores, but inventing the multichannel experience for themselves as they go along. 'Because most retailers haven't yet created efficient multichannel models, consumers are working it out for themselves, using different channels in ways that best suit them.'" Just imagine - for a second - if the retailers took the lead, instead of waiting for consumers to adopt. Without whipping out a crystal ball, here's my prediction: e-commerce conducted by smartphones and tablets is going to be pervasive within the next two years. Once it is as ubiquitous as e-commerce is today, it's going to make our current world of e-commerce, mobile and social media look like a joke in terms of sales, size and people using it.

The future belongs to selling everywhere, anytime. Why some retailers are sitting back and waiting is beyond me.

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post called, Media Hacker . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

The Huffington Post - The E-commerce Tipping Point .

Tags:

adaptive mobile experience

amazon

business

business column

consumer

daily deal site

ecommerce

fab

marketing professional

mediapost

merchandising

mobile

multichannel experience

multichannel model

one kings lane

online community

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pwc

retail

retail experience

retail stores

retailing

selling online

shopping mall

silicon valley

smartphone

social media

startup

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the huffington post

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traditional retailer

web analytics

website experience

No Pictures Allowed

I nearly got kicked out of a furniture store yesterday.

Apparently, I broke a very strict rule of "no photography" while looking to make my purchases. Do you understand why this rule is in place? I'm going to guess that it's because a competitor can walk into the store, take a picture of a unique piece of furniture and soon be knocking it off? Could there be another reason? Maybe I can price compare? Take that picture over to a competitor and see if they have a similar piece (or the same one) for a lower price? Neither reason seems to make any sense, because the general sentiment of the statement "no photography" screams: "we don't trust you!"

Pictures are not just used to rip people off.

Here's the funny part: I was taking a picture of the price tag and dimensions because I didn't have a pen on me and, between us friends, why bother writing it down when I can snap a picture of it? (much in the same way that I take a picture of where my car is parked instead of writing down the section). There was a lesson here: the world has changed, and so long as brands hold on to these random and strange draconian rules, all is lost. What if I wanted to take a picture of a new coach because I bought it and I was very excited to share it with everyone I know on Facebook and Twitter? What if I was taking the picture to ask my friends on Twitter what they thought about it? What if I was price comparison shopping? I may be talking about and sharing my brand experience with hundreds (if not, thousands) of people who - based on my recommendation - may consider shopping there. See, the feeling I got from the security guard (beyond the, "hey, this ain't my rule" type of vibe) was that I was doing something wrong... almost criminal. Up until that point, I was rather enthralled by my in-store experience. Now, I just have a bad taste in my mouth about the brand.

Taking a picture is worth it.

Let's stop in-store picture takers. Let's stop in store price comparison shopping. Let's block people from using Facebook at work. All of these sentiments (and more) point to trust. The funny (or not so funny) thing about trust is this: the more you let people do what they naturally want to do (like take pictures of furniture in a furniture store), the more trust you build. Yes, the retailer may be screwed by a handful of people, but instead they're punishing everybody for the misgivings of a select and evil few. Can you imagine the people at any major retail operation not allowing consumers to use their mobile devices in the store for fear that they may price compare? Imagine if you walked into an Apple store and they said, "no photography."

What we're going to do.

The problem with this Blog post is that you are already converted. You already know the drill. You know how much technology has changed business and marketing. You're a believer (even if you're still a little skeptical). I turned to the security guard and said, "what's the difference between writing down the dimensions and the price versus taking a picture of it?" His response was, "this is just my job and if I turn my back and you take the picture and I don't see it, then it doesn't matter." I felt bad. He was just doing his job. The problem with "just doing his job" is that the job doesn't even make sense to him. Brands live and die by the people that represent them on the floor - each and every day. If those people don't understand or believe in the brand rules - and neither do your consumers - who do you really think is at fault here?

Final message: let people take pictures of your products and services. Lots and lots of pictures (trust me on this one).

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The Realities Of Being Brandwashed

Episode #299 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Welcome to episode #299 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. I was honored to share the stage with Martin Lindstrom at The Art of Marketing last month in Toronto. If you listen to this Podcast and read my Blog but you've never heard of Martin Lindstrom, please drop everything and pick up each and every one of his brilliant marketing books. His last three gems are, Brandwashed, Buyology and BrandSense that should not be missed. Right after the event, Martin was kind enough to spend some time with me discussing everything from ethics in marketing to what we truly know about people and how they react and interact with brands. If you thought I was a massive marketing nerd, you ain't seen nothing yet! Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #299.

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