Atomic Ideas

Wow! Here's Why Amazon Bought Zappos.

There has been a lot of buzz about why Amazon bought Zappos for gazillions of dollars. Well, how much is WOW worth? Zappos has wowed employees, wowed wall street and wowed customers with free shipping, personal service and more to get where they are today. Apparently, they wowed Amazon, too.

At Atomic Ideas, we are big believers in Internal Branding. In other words, we believe that the companies who sell more stuff are the ones that don't just focus on selling stuff to customers.

They also work hard to sell stuff to their employees. They sell them on a brand story... a belief system. They make employees want to be cheerleaders for the brand. They create a culture that is contagious.

Then they take it to the streets through genuine employee evangelism and External Branding to turn prospects into believers (customers), too.

As successful as Amazon is (in most endeavors), they are buying Zappos to study and learn from them, because they are a breakaway brand that has been doing almost everything right.

Oh, and they want to sell more stuff, too. According to the New York Times, Amazon's online shoe site endless.com got 777,000 visitors in 2007. Zappos... 4.5 million.

The picture in this post tells the Zappos Internal Branding story. Go to the site and check it out. It's well worth a look to see how your brand measures up, or find out what you're missing.

Or check out the videos from Zappos.TV below to see how Zappos employees express themselves and spread the word.

Pop This

For a week or two in the 90’s, people probably thought web pop-ups were a pretty nifty feature.

Along with sites that flash Flash and flash again (yours doesn’t, right?), pop-up love petered out, since it interrupts the web speed world.

Browsers block many pop-ups by default. Probably because no one enjoys a digital smack in the face. When I get my print magazines I immediately tear out all the heavy-paper ads that interrupt my article reading, which is the offline equivalent of blocking ads. Bonus – you burn calories tearing the ads out.

Setting a pop-up to go off when someone first comes to your site has a pushy salesperson feel. "Hey! How you doin'?!  Whatcha looking for? See anything you like? How ‘bout this new baby – runs like a charm." (Check the body language out in the photo).

But…. done right, pop-ups can help build a following. Done right. That would be after a visitor has spent some time on your site, getting to know you. You can then have an exit pop-up in a new window, thanking them for their interest, and offering up something they may want.

You haven’t overshot the new relationship and you’re practicing good netiquette. People may be interested in your offer and you’ve provided a thank you and a polite nudge.

After a visitor has been on a site for awhile, some companies provide, in a small pop-up, an offer to type-chat with a service person if you have any questions about their product or service as you're gathering info. Not in your face or prematurely pushy, but help if needed.

Nicely popped.

 

Photo credit: sdpitbull on Flickr

Quote From New GM Marketing Chief Bob Lutz Will Make Ad Agencies Quake!

If you don't know it by now, Bob Lutz has been anointed appointed as Government General Motors' new marketing chief. As one of the owners of the company (taxpayer) and as a grizzled veteran of the ad industry (lucky to still be alive), I'm watching and reading with interest.

For one thing, while Mr. Lutz has done some good things to point GM down the road of innovation (Chevy Volt), is he really qualified for the new job? Obviously, he thinks he is. But an article in AdAge today proves he may be a tad clueless. In the article, he states that GM's agencies are safe for now. But he also says this (pass out the red flags):

"If, after strong senior-management direction, the agency, for some reason, repeatedly fails to come up with a product where the customer says, 'Yes! That's exactly what I want' and fails to move the needle, then obviously you start reviewing the agency," Mr. Lutz said.

Oh boy.

If I'm running one of GM's agencies (especially the creative department), I'm quaking in my Birkenstock's. Go ahead, go back and read that quote again.

It clearly states that the advertising agencies are responsible for coming up with something (a product) that consumers want (ah yes, I can hear the manic laughter turn to sobbing in the halls of GM's roster shops even as I type this).

Much has been written about the fact that what got GM into this position in the first place is that they haven't really given customers what they want; too many brands (without clear brand stories or differentiation), no real story or brand for the Mothership (GM itself), spotty or just plain bad quality and on and on and on.

Google the subject, there's tons of backup on this. Forget the economy, that was just the nail in the coffin. They lost customer trust a long time ago with clutter and confusion. 

Advertising will not fix the problems of the past or catapult the new GM into the future. Before Lutz criticizes his advertising or his ad agencies, he needs to work on his brand. He should turn a critical eye to the GM brand itself, internal and external. And then do an even more critical analysis of all the brands in the GM portfolio. The Volt alone will not save this company... not everyone is going to want one.

Before they advertise anything, they need to actually define the new GM's story and then actually build great products customers want.

Do that, and the ad agencies' jobs will be easy. No agency in the world, no matter how smart or creative can sell something that doesn't exist. And I'm not talking about individual products. The Corvette is a phenomenal machine. The Camaro is gorgeous (at least on the outside). But like the Volt, they won't save the company because they are niche products.

I'll say it again (my very humble opinion of course), GM needs to redefine and sell the GM brand first, then build products under that umbrella that will make customers say (to quote Lutz again), "Yes! That's exactly what I want."

Only then will they begin to restore lost trust. If Mr. Lutz can't figure that out, he should go back to marketing school. Failing that, he'll be going back to bankruptcy court.

You can quote me on that.

Six Words That Almost Brought America To Its Knees.

Most attribute the phrase, "It's not personal, It's just business," to Michael Corleone who uttered the now infamous line in The Godfather (thanks, of course, to Mario Puzo). It's quite possible that more damage has been done by uttering those six words as an excuse for or defense of questionable ethics or morality than any other words in history. I'm sure Bernie Madoff thought them or said them more than once. And you can bet they were smugly spoken in the halls of Enron, WorldCom, AIG and countless other companies. You may have even said them yourself.

I have heard those six words spoken by a few people over the course of my career in business.  Most of those folks were nice people. People I respected.  People I would consider a friend. People who, in their personal lives, are committed to family and high moral values. In each case, it generally affected my life, the lives of people employed by me and the lives of vendors and others in my personal  and business world rather negatively, to say the least.

So what is it about business that can turn good people, bad? What makes it okay to toss the standards we live by in our personal lives out the door? How has it become so easy for otherwise decent folk to rationalize cheating people out of fair compensation, stealing their money, or taking insane risks that affect thousands, even millions of lives?

For many, it seems business is a sport. A win-at-all-costs game where the concept of  "Win/Win" is a losing proposition. Greed is another obvious reason. But greed is an emotion. In order for greed to succeed, it needs a wall to hide behind. In commerce, the rationalization for bad behavior almost always comes down to those six incredibly powerful and oft-spoke little words with such big ramifications... "It's not personal, It's just business." 

The fact is it is personal. Whether you're dealing with customers, employees, partners, vendors or negotiating the deal of the century... take "it's just business" out of the equation. If nothing else, the events of the last year have shown us the fallacy of the concept. Live your business life as you would your personal life and you can't go wrong.

Of course, if you're a crook to begin with, disregard this post. Someone will get you, somehow, some way. I'm sure you're familiar with five equally powerful little words... "What goes around, comes around."

Somebody probably said them to Bernie.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Great Minds (Don't) Think Alike

A lot of sayings don’t make much sense when you stop and think about them.

 

“You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” Really? Isn’t eating the cake the point of having it?

 

When a rowdy group of us Atomic Idea makers got together recently to do some major mojo creative thinking, sparks were flying, neurons were firing, and all kinds of ideas filled the feisty air.

 

Excellent!

 

Contradictions, oppositions, lively arguments…great minds were thinking not alike, but in wildly different ways.

 

The result? A brilliant solution that never would have been achieved if we had all been thinking alike.

 

The trick? Have the same endgame in mind. Knowing where we wanted to get to, but getting there in different ways, got us to a better place than any single one of us could.

 

With a shared goal, the thinking on how to get there can run/swim/rappel/skydive/bungee jump/tap dance in.

 

Then everyone can eat cake at the end.

Kumbaya, You Typers, Kumbaya...

Is social media nudging a trend toward renewed civility?

The rise of 'netiquette', Internet etiquette, has gained ground as more new people join the online community and quickly learn from the Internet vets how to properly communicate with each other.

Rudeness online begets a thunderstorm of digital finger wagging. And it's not a feelgood to be chastised online, worldwide. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

Just the other night, as Kevin Spacey taught David Letterman how to tweet (watch video below), everyone watching was getting a quick course in tweeting netiquette.

I had a friend that would go to another room in his house and IM his wife when they were having a disagreement.

Who knew that by not talking with each other directly, we'd start becoming more civilized with each other?

Maybe I'll tweet my ex-wife.... Maybe not.

Today’s Kool-Aid Tastes Different

What is it that really stays the same? Other than death and taxes, not much, and both of those are being addressed as you read this.

Take the kid’s drink Kool-Aid. With its catchy, upbeat jingle, “Kool-Aid, Kool-Aid, tastes great. Wish I had some, can’t wait’, the powdered drink launched thousands of ‘Kool-Aid stands’, and provided a fun, cheaper alternative to soda pop.

Then the product name took a sinister turn in 1978, when Jim Jones laced a flavored drink with cyanide he had for his followers at Jonestown, Guyana, resulting in a tragic mass suicide.

A few years later the term “drinking the Kool-Aid” entered the business world, meaning the people at a company who were drinking the Kool-Aid were following and espousing the corporate line, even when they knew better.

But ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ at companies has dwindled from a company party punchbowl to the size of a bathroom Dixie Cup. We’ve been reassured by our companies about a bright future, reassured by our stockbrokers about a great portfolio, reassured by our politicians/clergy/athletes, so many times, and fooled over and over, that we’re leery to believe what we’re told from on high.

People are not so ready these days to drink the Kool-Aid and follow, or share with others, what they really don’t believe. People more and more are thinking for themselves. And companies more and more are having to be….honest with their intentions.

Social media has given rise to 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice….I’ll go on-line and blog about it.' And definitely not share the Kool-Aid. Not when it doesn't taste right. 

Have you drank any Kool-Aid lately?

Less Is More. What GM's Bankruptcy Can Teach Us About Brand and Personal Focus.

It's amazing isn't it? In just 40 days, GM apparently went from a slow, bloated, somewhat backwards, bureaucratic behemoth, to a lean, mean, laser-focused auto-making machine (TBD). Wow.  That's pretty dang cool in my book. The sad thing is it took the bankruptcy of an American industrial icon and the loss of thousands upon thousands of jobs at GM and peripheral companies to make it happen. The good thing is, there are brand lessons and life lessons we can learn from this.

Clutter = Chaos.

GM was a victim of clutter. And clutter creates a mess. When you are in the middle of a mess, you become unfocused... you lose direction. Priorities become unclear,  you begin to lose control. You focus on putting out fires rather than the big picture and eventually spiral into a never-ending loop of mistakes, stress and eventual burnout (or bankruptcy). It doesn't matter if you're a company or an individual. Clutter can be paralyzing.

Think about your own life, both business and personal.

When you take on too much without a defined approach and strategy for achieving your objectives and organizing and prioritizing the information and actions required to execute them well, things tend to pile up around you and you lose perspective. It is impossible to focus and give everything on your multiple plates the attention and consideration they all deserve. Usually, the end result is mediocrity.

The same applies to brands.

Successful brands usually achieve acclaim doing one thing really well . But too often, many companies begin to branch out into peripheral offerings and services that ultimately dilute the brand and bloat the infrastructure and costs required to keep it alive. Eventually, perspective and control are lost and all the clutter will cover up and suffocate what made the company great in the first place.

Unclutter for Clarity.

For both individuals and brands, "less is more" has perhaps never been more relevant. We've all got too much stuff. Too much stuff impeding our progress towards personal or business goals. Cluttered product and service offerings, cluttered rooms, cluttered desks, cluttered brains.  As brands or people we begin to get lost. All the clutter dilutes our focus.

As businesses and as individuals, I say we all step back and take a long hard look at who we are, what our greatest strengths are and then throw out whatever is not relevant. Just like GM did. It remains to be seen whether or not they can come back. I for one sure hope they do. And they have a much better chance now that the clutter that was strangling them is gone. Simplify your life. Simplify your brand. Succeed!

Photo - Josh Smith on Flickr

Big Lessons In Branding From a Little Burger Joint Called Louis Lunch.

The other night I was watching a show on the Travel Channel which was showcasing the best burgers in the country. One of the places they highlighted is a tiny little burger joint in New Haven, Connecticut called Louis (pron. Louie's) Lunch. What fascinated me most about the place, much more than than their drool-worthy burgers, was the fact that they represented everything a brand should do right to become famous (and Louis Lunch is indeed famous)! Hence this post. So how is it possible for something so small to be everything every brand could be? Well, first let's take a look at what every "famous" brand is doing right, and then see how it applies to the truly outstanding little burger purveyor in Connecticut.

First of all, what is a brand? At its most basic, a brand is nothing more than a promise. A promise to provide goods or services that solve a need, problem or desire in a way that satisfies, and hopefully, delights customers. Because to be a truly successful brand, you must delight your customers... at every level (read about recent delightful experience I had here) . Sounds easy, but of course, it's not.

Take a look at some of the most successful brands (iconic names like Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Starbucks and many others immediately jump to mind) and you'll find that they all have a number of things in common that set them apart form their competition - Louis has pretty much nailed all of them:

1. A compelling creation story.

From their web site, "One day in the year 1900 a man dashed into a small New Haven luncheonette and asked for a quick meal that he could eat on the run. Louis Lassen, the establishment's owner, hurriedly sandwiched a broiled beef patty between two slices of bread and sent the customer on his way, so the story goes, with America's first hamburger.

The tiny eatery that made such a big impact on the eating habits of an entire nation was, of course, Louis' Lunch. Today, Louis' grandson, Ken, carries on the family tradition: hamburgers that have changed little from their historic prototype are still the specialty of the house. Each one is made from beef ground fresh each day, broiled vertically in the original cast iron grill and served between two slices of toast. Cheese, tomato and onion are the only acceptable garnish -- no true connoisseur would consider corrupting the classic taste with mustard or ketchup."

2. A charismatic, visionary leader.

                                                                                                  

3. A clearly defined, simple position that clarifies their mission and purpose simply and easily
for everyone.

"The standard fare at Louis' Lunch is the original hamburger and a wide assortment of beverages."

4. An iconic logo that clearly communicates their position and served as the
foundation of their identity system across all channels.

5. Formidable enemies (non-believers) to overcome.

6. Sacred Words/Icons/Lingo.

           

From their website, "If you want to visit Louis' for the first time, yet not appear to be a novice, you may want to learn a little of Louis' Lingo. For example, a Louis' regular might walk up to the counter and say "gimme two cheese works, a californian, a salad, and a birch". This translates (roughly) to "May I please have two original hamburgers with cheese, tomato and onion, cooked medium rare and served on toast, a hot dog with cheese, relish and onion, an order of potato salad, and an icy-cold birch beer. Thank you."

There are many other examples of Louis' Lingo to be learned, but we suggest learning them first hand from the regulars, while sitting at the counter of Louis'. After all, we don't want to give away all our secrets."

7. A Belief System = vision, values, trust, relevance, leadership. All great
brands create a culture of belief.

From their website, "More than just another eating place, Louis' Lunch has held a special place in the hearts of New Haveners for generations. When it was threatened with demolition some years ago to make room for a new high rise, scores of people from all walks of life took up the cause for its preservation. Plans for its relocation were finalized just hours before the deadline and in a thirty minute journey by truck, the pocket-size landmark was moved to its present spot on Crown Street.

To help in the reconstruction, friends and supporters sent thousands of bricks from every corner of the globe. Each one has its own unique story and Ken Lassen proudly points them out to special visitors as he takes them on a "tour of the walls".

It doesn't take long for a lunchtime crowd to fill Louis' as it has every working day for more than three quarters of a century. Since most of the handful of seats are quickly taken, most of the customers just hurry in the door, yell out an order "to go" and hurry out again, taking with them a little bite of history."

8. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

From their website, "Today, Louis' grandson, Ken, carries on the family tradition: hamburgers that have changed little from their historic prototype are still the specialty of the house. Each one is made from beef ground fresh each day, broiled vertically in the original cast iron grill and served between two slices of toast. Cheese, tomato and onion are the only acceptable garnish -- no true connoisseur would consider corrupting the classic taste with mustard or ketchup"

So there you have it. Proof that you don't have to be a giant to be a breakaway brand to become famous. Proof that sticking to what you do best, staying true to your roots, vision and culture, and consistently putting out a unique product or service that delights customers everyday is a winning recipe for success! It would have been very easy for Louis Lunch to expand their offerings, serve ketchup, mustard & mayo and change many things that would have ultimately diluted their brand into blandness, sameness and ultimately, extinction. Thankfully, they didn't. Next time I'm in New Haven (and I may go out of my way to get there), I'm heading for Louis Lunch!

Social Media Isn't

Try turning this page. You’re on a web page, right?

In 1893, when Frank Duryea drove 200 feet in his brother Charles’ invention, no one knew what to call the contraption, so it was named based on what it evolved from – a 'horseless carriage'.

Fast forward 87 years to 1991, when Tim Berners-Lee posted a brief summary of the 'World Wide Web project' on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. This was the official debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet. (Can you believe the Web is only 18 years old? My, they grow up fast…).

This hot new invention, like the automobile, had no real precedent, and so the website information is described with printing terms, from which it evolved from. The web screen you are looking at is universally described as a ‘web page’. And sometimes you’ll ‘bookmark’ a ‘web page’.

Same with email. When it came out it its terminology was based on the way previous messages were sent, a 2- or 3-part written form, where you’d write on the top and the carbon paper underneath would create a ‘carbon copy’ of the message you could keep or give to someone else.

So if you ‘copy’ someone on a message, you 'cc:’ them. There are probably large groups of people that have never once stained their fingers with the ink from a carbon copy.

Which brings us to ‘social media’ Here we are 18 years later and we’re in the midst of another evolution/revolution, one that has quickly grown to unbelievable proportions. It’s ridiculous how fast Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn sites have grown in users, nosebleed fast.

So we call it what it evolved from – media. Media has been used in reference to the agencies of mass communication – the news media, print media, broadcast media. And “the media” has primarily meant one-way communication, top down. ‘Social media’ is anything but. It’s information democracy.

So with all the free thinking out there, it’d seem we could come up with a more precise, more accurate term for these interactive, individual, personalized, ‘bottom up and out’ conversations that are growing and flying freewheelingly from everywhere.

It ain’t your mama’s media anymore. And this baby needs a better name.