Listening II

Do you listen to understand?

Or do you listen to respond?

A $3 latte worth $506,628???

It is if:

• You save that $3 a day and invest it weekly in the stock market
• You're in your 20s, and continue this for 40 years
• The stock market matches its historical average return of 10%

The power of compounding is amazing. Do the math, here; if you're not familiar with financial calculations, start with 0 for your Present Value (assume you have nothing now); enter 40 Years (if you're in your 20s), compound your interest rate Annually, at a 10% Rate, your Contribution is that weekly $21 saved by not buying the daily latte (discipline counts: you must do this each and every week; set up an automatic contribution into an index fund). Finally, push the Future button.

So, millennials, ask your self each morning, how much is that $3 latte worth?

Knowledge matters.

A 400-year advantage

In "Google Maps announces a 400-year advantage over Apple Maps," blogger Mike Dobson writes

If you go back over this blog and follow my recounting of the history of Google's attempts at developing a quality mapping service, you will notice that they initially tried to automate the entire process and failed miserably, as has Apple. Google learned that you cannot take the human out of the equation. While the mathematics of mapping appear relatively straight forward, I can assure you that if you take the informed human observer who possess local and cartographic knowledge out of the equation that you will produce...a failed system (emphasis added).

A blow-dry bar???

Walking back from dinner, I noticed a scad of young women in a recently renovated store front. But there was seemingly nothing there...

"Oh," my wife said, "that's the new blow-dry bar that just opened up."

Huh?

Selling trust

At a Meetup group sponsored by I Love Marketing (lots of good tips and videos), we listened to a local entrepreneur who has developed a 6-figure home cleaning business. She has built both a loyal clientele and workforce by delivering consistently superior results and is able to charge a premium - heck, who hasn't gone through multiple cleaning ladies (this tends to be a female dominated profession) and thus is willing to pay for reliable results.

A cardinal sin

I (try to) regularly attend a variety of Meetup (*see below for a description) groups, for learning and professional and social networking. Basically, you can find a group of people who have similar interests: books, kids, art, food, sports - something for almost everyone.

Mostly, I appreciate deeply the effort of the organizers, and I have no issue if they personally benefit.

What I abhor, though,

Buying v selling

Who doesn't like buying? The excitement of acquiring something something new creates a mild euphoria in the human species. Yet, we hate to be "sold" to: we turn off very quickly the minute we feel we are being "closed?" Why?

Do you have a dog's resilience?

Yesterday, our dog ate something he shouldn't have, and had, um, shall we say, serious indigestion. We spent a good part of the day nursing him back to health. He was one sad puppy - loss of bodily fluids does that to you.

Today? Yesterday doesn't exist. He's back to doing his job, which is mainly to be cute, friendly and affectionate.

Dogs live in the present. Jane McGrath in a piece for Animal Planet writes it is because they "they don't have the power of episodic memory, or the ability to remember particular events in the past."

Radical v incremental innovation

Innovation, writes Patrick Thibodeau, "is the most abused word in tech." A Google search yields 108 million entries and, without even trying, I found more than 20 articles published in the last 24 hours.

Part of the confusion is that few distinguish between radical and incremental innovation. Radical innovations, like the steam engine, the cotton gin, the telephone, the automobile, the computer (quick quiz: when was the first programmable computer invented? - see the end of the post), and penicillin change the structures of societies.

Microsoft's new logo won't make a difference

The intent is laudible. Preparing to launch updated versions of most of its products, "we felt it was a good time to express the newness in the Microsoft logo (see below) as well," said Jeff Hansen, Microsoft's general manager of brand strategy. 

Microsoft certainly needs to do something. With the exception of late a spike in 2007 and a dip in 2009, the stock price has hovered between $25 to $30 for a decade.

Losing the sale

My daughter, shopping for clothes for her first job, walked into an upscale store, approached a saleswoman and asked if she had any suits.

"No," she said somewhat disdainfully.

Dogs are loyal

Dogs are loyal.

Until someone else gives them a treat.

Dreaming of sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a must-see documentary about the world's greatest sushi chef, 86-year-old Jiro Ono, the only sushi chef to receive 3 stars from the Guide Michelin. The restaurant, located in a subway station in the Ginza, has 10 seats. A 20-minute meal STARTS at $370, and diners often reserve a year in advance.

Jiro has been perfecting his craft for over 75 YEARS (his alcoholic father abandoned the family when Jiro was 7 and when he left home at 9, he was told he had no home to come back to), yet says "even at my age, in my work, I haven't reached perfection."

Robotic brand behaviors

By now most marketers (effective ones, anyway) have moved beyond a Mad Men "brand = logo (or advertising - read From Mad Man to Superwomen) view of the world, and are focused on behaviors.

And with good reason. Viewing marketing as communications (only) is like viewing sales as cold calling or finance as accounting - necessary, but no where near sufficient. A logo or ad may catch your attention, but the customer experience results in the sale, and repeat business. Great companies define and build the experiential aspects of the brand into everything they do, creating a competitive advantage that can't be replicated.

But there is a fine line between definition and prescription.

Movie theaters

Movie theaters should be dead.

Yet, the latest statistics from the MPAA show international box office receipts are up 35% over five years ago and even US receipts are up 6% over the same period. This despite the fact that a ticket costs more than a monthly subscription to NetFlix, which many can watch on home systems exceeding the sound and video quality of the theater.

And yet the movie theaters are packed. Why?

Brand premium: the difference between a $15 haircut and a $160 haircut

Ahh, brand premium. The holy grail of branders. We all seek it, yet few find it.

I've always been mildly intrigued by the difference in pricing between a woman's stylist and a men's barber. But today as I was getting my $15 haircut at the local barbershop, I decided to do some research. What I found, though, was that prices for men's haircuts - in Manhattan anyway - can approach those for women.

What's the difference between a $15 haircut and a $160 haircut? Turns, out, a lot. Stylist Antonio Gonzales writes that for $160,

Branding overload

Last week I wrote about the brander's paradise that is South Beach. This week, I spent some time in Manhattan, which most would think of as a brander's paradise.

But right now I only feel fatigue. And I'm not just talking about Times Square.

Manhattan, everywhere, overloads the senses.

What experience are you delivering?

South Beach, where I live, is a brander’s paradise.

No, I’m not just talking about the ubiquitous retailers, including Sunglass Hut which opens its largest store in the nation tomorrow or the always-packed Apple store.

Even my wife goes to Home Depot now

Been to Home Depot lately? If not, go and see how a good HR strategy equals a good marketing strategy!  And no, they're not paying me for this.

In the midst of this record heat wave, I got up early to replace a hose so my lawn doesn't burn out, and some weed killer, and Home Depot is conveniently close by. Several years ago, I would drive elsewhere because, IF I could find a clerk, they might have known where these were, IF I could get their attention.

How not to write sales letters

Occasionally I get a sales letter that is so bad I can only scratch my head. Here are extracts from two that inspired me to write this post, in the hopes that none of you will similarly ever waste your resources.

The first was accompanied by a slick (expensive) brochure: