We Love A Great Interface

But not instead of face-to-face.

Here’s the next great mobile app that needs to be developed: you point your phone at someone else’s, push a button, and instantly beam them a message that says “Hey, I’m over here! Please look up and talk to me!”

We’re the same as you — we love our phones. They’re like mini-offices we carry around in our pockets. They’ve elevated our productivity to stratospheric heights. They’ve made us more connected than we ever could have imagined.

But paradoxically, they’ve also disconnected us from this analog life. There’s a bright, 3-D world going on all around us, full of wonder, beauty, and face-to-face interaction, which we ignore every time we turn our attention to that tiny screen. 

Marketing blogger Christina Childers shares an instructive anecdote about an industry trade show she attended where the vast majority of the vendors were only interested in playing with their phones.

How many customers walked away unacknowledged? How much business went undone? Maybe more importantly — how many simple, invaluable human connections were missed?

We’re not trying to turn back the clock here. We know that the digital lifestyle, the ubiquitousness of handheld devices, is here to stay. And we’re more than fine with that. We revel in it.

But we revel also in a simple, good old-fashioned conversation. We like eye contact. We live for smiles.

So we ask you to ask yourself: are your screen-gazing habits interfering with that? Are you checking your messages more often than you’re checking your surroundings?

If so, the solution couldn’t be simpler. Just put that thing down for a moment, look up, and give us a smile.

The C4

1. We won’t claim to be without fault here. We look at our phones a lot. They’re nifty little devices that streamline our communications, our business practices, and (let’s admit it) our entertainment. So yes, we look at 'em...probably more than we should.
2. But if you ever catch us ignoring our clients, our friends and co-workers, or our families in favor of pixels, please remind us how unspeakably inappropriate that is.
3. A lot of folks need just such a reminder. We all know this is true.
4. It shouldn’t be that way. Normal interaction shouldn’t suffer because of technology. And it doesn’t have to. Just think it over every time you reach for your phone. Ask yourself if now is an appropriate time to look at it. If the answer is no, then put it away.

Of Novas & Manatees

...and unintended messages.

Not trying to be alarmist here, but advertising can be dangerous.

The danger lies in sending out so many messages, each designed to elicit good feelings, goodwill, and great sales, that cut across so many societal and cultural boundaries. It’s true our world is shrinking, and culture is more unified than ever before. But still, the risk of crossed messages and misunderstandings increases with every campaign.

You’ve probably heard of General Motors' giant misstep back in the ’60s, when they introduced their popular muscle car, the Chevy Nova, to Latin America. If you haven’t heard the story, we can sum it up quickly, and leave it to you to surmise what their Nova sales were like, south of the border...

“No-va,” in Spanish, means “No go.”

The Nova story is one of the great cautionary tales in marketing, and we’d be happy to believe that all our peers have learned from it, and such an avoidable mistake can never happen again.

Sigh.

Target has recently introduced a line of plus-sized dresses. One of them comes in a particular shade of gray. A similar dress, available in standard sizes, names that same exact hue, “Dark Heather Gray.” For the plus-sized dress, however, it’s advertised as “Manatee Gray.”

To Target’s credit, they’ve moved quickly to correct the problem, and to apologize to their customers. They blame the mistake on a couple of buyers who simply didn’t communicate with each other.

Fair enough. Lack of communication, internal and otherwise, is an eternal challenge. Good for Target for recognzing that, and (hopefully) moving to alleviate it.

Still, couldn’t this have been prevented? Couldn’t just one Target employee — just one — have looked at that color description, and sent up a warning of bad things to come? Similarly, we’ve always wondered, wasn’t there just one GM exec with primary-school Spanish skills?

Is there a lesson here? There sure is.

Every marketing endeavor, every customer communication, should be put in front of as many eyes as possible, internally, before going external. And the question should be asked — not just "Ain’t this creative? Aren’t we swell?” But also, “Think hard. Do you see any way possible this can come back to bite us on the butt?”

The C4:

1. Target had a no-good, very-bad week, when they used “plus-sized” and “manatee” in the same sentence. We won’t pile on. Target is a great retailer, offering sweetly priced fashion for every body type. They made a mistake, and they moved to correct it. Target shoppers, we urge you to give ’em a second chance.
    
2. The good news is, second chances are earned because such mistakes rarely happen twice. Chevrolet renamed their export Nova “Caribe,” and it sold great. Target will probably now review every word in their marketing vocabulary for sensitivity and unintended impact. As well they should.
    
3. Even better news: we can all learn from Target’s example, and avoid such headaches for ourselves.
    
4. Always remember this: Your marketing material is going to be seen by diverse people, with diverse backgrounds, and infinitely diverse perspectives. Every word and every image you put in front of them is going to be filtered through those lenses. Once your words are published, it’s probably too late. You’re self-saving window of opportunity, then, is narrow indeed. By all means, use it.

Are You At The Tipping Point?

Here's a tip for you.

It's gracious to leave a gratuity. It’s tactful to tip. The word itself was derived from "to insure promptness."

Tipping is a cultural marker. Our European friends are sometimes a bit bemused by the amount of brain sweat we expend in calculating just the right amount to leave for our restaurant servers, our hotel porters, and our coffee-crafting baristas.

But still, it’s central to our culture. It’s built into the way we do business and recreation. Offshore outsiders might look in and shake their heads, but from our perspective it’s an ironclad clause in our social contract.

Tipping is not optional. It simply isn’t.

You know that nationwide, the average hourly wage for restaurant workers is adjusted down to something like $2.13, with the assumption that tips — which must be shared among the entire front-of-house staff — will comprise the majority of the employees’ take-home. Still, even with tips, the median earnings for non-fast-food restaurant workers is less than $9.00 per hour. That’s less than poverty level for a worker supporting a couple of kids.

This report demonstrates how technology is coming to the aid of one chronically under-tipped class — coffee-shop workers. DipJar, a card-swipe-enabled electronic tip jar, allows patrons to quickly authorize preset fund transfers in increments starting at $1. It’s been rolled out to a few independent coffee counters across Manhattan, and is expected to spread nationwide.

Another burgeoning tip-trend, a somewhat less positive one, is that of customer shaming. Servers are snapping pics of less-than-generous receipts and sharing them online. The results have been ugly: reputations have been ruined and people have lost their jobs.

It’s a shame it stoops to that level. Because — let’s say it again together — tipping is not optional. It’s an indelible line item expense for a night out. Or at least it should be.

It’s just this easy: 20 or 25 percent (You can figure that in your head!) for most restaurant bills and cab fares; a buck or two to your bartender, barista, or porter. Do it because it’s the right thing to do, and an irreplaceable part of their wages.

Or do it for the stick rather than the carrot. Tip because you are being judged. You might escape public shaming, but your dinner partners — family, friends, maybe even business associates — are watching. “Character is how you treat those who can do little for you,” goes a currently popular refrain. Demonstrate due consideration for the workers who’ve taken good care of you and your guests, and you’ve demonstrated enviable character.

People notice that sort of thing, and they remember it.

The C4

1. People use all sorts of excuses to under-tip, or to skip tipping altogether. “They don’t tip in Europe,” they say, or “A night out is expensive enough as it is.” True, perhaps, but irrelevant.
2. Because in our society, a proper gratuity is part of the expense of going out or receiving certain services. We have some leeway in how much we choose to tip, and true enough, we can choose not to tip. But even though we have the freedom to choose that option, we never should.
3. The servers and workers who rely on those tips are hurt financially every time folks like us decide not to tip. These are people already living on the margins of wage stability, yet they greet us with warmth and smiles and they do their best to make us feel at home. It’s a crime not to reward that with gratuity.
4. And if that doesn’t convince you, maybe fear will. You don’t want to be tagged as a bad tipper, do you? Stiff a server and maybe you won’t make the news, but someone will notice. And that someone will think a bit less of you. In the end your reputation and your self-respect are really all you have. Take this tip and preserve those things, by doing what you know is right every time.  

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Should We Differentiate?

If you can, yes, but it may be short-lived.

We may be your favorite marketing gurus, but we’re probably not your only ones. And we’re probably not the only ones hitting you up with this familiar bit of advice: “You’ve got to differentiate yourself from the competition.”

Which is, generally speaking, true. But within generalizations hide a minefield of caveats and exceptions. To whit: what if you’re engaged in one of the countless industries where differentiation is well-nigh impossible?

Within several blocks from the office in which we toil, there are several full-service mechanics to be found. While they’re in no way identical, the differences between their prices, services offered, guarantees, etc. are narrow enough to be almost unquantifiable. Clearly, their customers are choosing them for some other reason than, “This mechanic is utterly unlike all the rest.”

Similarly, even those companies that do have the ability differentiate themselves, certainly don’t have the ability to sustain that advantage forever. Success inspires copying. And copying erodes differentiation.

Some businesses choose to tilt at windmills, by way of fighting that. Their lawsuits and cease-and-desist attempts might, if they’re lucky, scare off the most skittish of copiers. But there are always less-skittish competitors lined up to take their place.

So differentiation, while often important, can’t be seen as a viable tactic for everyone, nor a long-term strategy for anyone. The solution, as always, is to be the best at knowing your business. Know where and how differentiation is possible — and know, likewise, if and when it’s not.

If you can differentiate yourself, do so. But do so with the knowledge that it’s a short-term proposition at best. If it’s not possible, or if it’s run its course, find other sustainable competitive advantages that keep you in the forefront of your customer’s consciousness.

Competition is challenging. It’s among the few true zero-sum games that real life throws at us. With stakes that high, it’s just good business sense to rely on a toolbox’s worth of advantages, rather than cliched, one-size-fits-all ideas.

The C4:

1. Differentiation is a marketing buzzword. There, we said it. It does make sense for some of our clients — maybe even a lot of our clients. But like most buzz-concepts, it’s over-used and over-relied upon. It’s time to correct that.
   
2. Because, let’s face it, differentiation isn’t possible for everyone. There are products and services — commodities, mostly — that will bear little differentiation in the marketplace. To try to force it upon them looks absurd. Do not look absurd in the eyes of your customers.
   
3. But maybe you don’t sell commodities, and maybe you’re well positioned to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Great! By all means, do so. But every dollar you make from that strategy is a dollar’s worth of incentive for your competitors to copy you. Differences don’t last, is what we’re saying.
   
4. What’s the solution? There isn’t a single solution, and that’s precisely the point. Differentiation might be a useful marketing tool for you. Then again, it might not be. All we can tell you at this point is there are a slew of strategies and tactics that are right for you. Walk through our door, sit down and talk with us, and we’ll discover your unique story, together.