Wild Ideas - The Cure For Businesses that Suck

No Boring Ideas Allowed!

Where are all the new business ideas, the next great innovations going to come from? The same place all the old ones came from. Creative people are going to think them up.

Are you creative?

A 2008 study by psychologists at Drexel University and Northwestern University demonstrated that creative people actually do think in a different way than everyone else. The brain activity between non-creative types and creative ones do show different patterns. People are wired differently. Still everyone is creative in some area of life. But we aren't all creative in the same ways.

Getting lost in a tangle of terms

Imagination and creativity aren't the same things. Instead of playing dueling definitions let's make the distinctions this way. Imagination produces ideas or images that aren't real and can't actually exist. It's flights of fantasy. Creativity takes imagination and puts it to work. Creativity is shifting your perspective to look at something in a new way and then doing something.

On one hand creativity is art - like lightning in a jar and never to be restricted. On the other hand we need to make it practical so we assign it a process, label it and develop a methodology. Which is exactly the opposite of what creativity is and how it works. How many times have you seen an agenda that includes something like:

11:00 - 11:20 Develop creative ideas to increase revenue.

That's not how it happens. You don't train your people to be creative on cue.

Every child is highly creative and most adults aren't. What happened?

We all started out just being who we were. We were kids. We explored. We didn't worry about it. What happened? We got busy and life became more complicated. We haven't forgotten how to be creative we just decided we have better things to do. But you can go back.

Be creative your way. Here's my way

I have made my living by being "creative" for 40 years. It is what I do. I'm not about to tell you how to do it - after all it's your head. There are a few things you might consider if you need to feel more liberated in your creativity but please do not consider these rules or tips. They are things to jumpstart your juices.

Forget looking for answers and look for questions - We seem to put more importance on knowing the answers than asking the questions. Creativity lives in the questions. By continually asking questions about the world around us, we fuel our creative fire. Great minds are those that have asked the greatest questions.

No Rules Just Wild Ideas - Work fast, don't over think or think at all. Having an objective is good, structure isn't.

Scribble - The problem isn't structure killing creativity it's not having a way to record your ideas. We forget most of our best ideas or try to remember them until later - and then don't. Write them down, napkins, backs of business cards, I scribble on the palms of my hands to "hold on" to an idea until I can write it down. Get in the habit of capturing the idea in detail.

Turn it on its head and think in opposites - Flip the question and let your brain consider it in a different way. I've lost count of how many times I've used this to come up with an unexpected approach. Instead of wondering how to increase sales by 30 percent ponder, "What can we do to reduce our sales?" How about, "How can we get our most valuable customers to leave?" In A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe the hero, Arthur Dent, learned to fly by throwing himself towards the ground - and missing. Turn everything opposite, throw yourself at it and miss.

Trust yourself and your instincts - The time to ask for feedback is when you're finished. The goal is to explore your ideas and thinking and not what someone feels the results might be. Creativity is essentially selfish. That doesn't mean over-valuing ever notion you have, just not letting someone else's ideas influence your direction. Remember every change meets resistance.

Simplify it until it's stupid - Keep asking, "What does this really mean?" Peel back the layers of the onion and see what's left. Simplify until something happens or the solution appears.

Perfection isn't a requirement - Just accept that it won't be complete, developed, refined and "correct." It's okay to come in with unpolished ideas because that's what collaboration is for.

Eliminate "No" - Chuck Jones was one of the creative geniuses behind the Warner Brothers cartoons. In his book Chuck Amuck he talks about 'Yes Sessions." During these creative sessions, no one was allowed to say "No" so every idea; no matter how far out was explored. So toss out the calendar, the budget and any restrictions to manpower and resources. Go for quantity - don't edit, don't refine just let your brain go. Now here's the big payoff. Once you've taken everything to the extreme go back and come up with ways to hold on to as much as you can. Make the goal to find ways to say "Yes" to your ideas.

Sometimes the obvious idea really is the best idea

There is actually very little real creativity. It’s connecting the dots that other people fail to see. It’s connections and associations. Don't attempt to shake the world, just see things differently. And please recognize that creativity is intensely personal. You can't make it happen you have to let it happen. Understand your own bubble of creativity - where it works for you and recognize your limitations. Understand where your mind can and can't take you. Don't try to become someone else's flavor of creativity and be yourself.

"The more you understand yourself—what you do, why you do it—frees you up to do other things and to be other people." Robin Williams

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences.

I Want To Be Engaged, Are You Available? The Real Rules Of Customer Engagement!

Love Hurts

One of our boys stood in the office door. Samuel is 10, an amazing kid and my unofficial business partner. I steal my best ideas from him. He looked up and hit me with a 357 magnum question, "Dad, how can I make people like me?"

It was one of those Father/Son moments that are so difficult. I answered, "Well, I was always told that the only way to have a friend is to be a friend." He thought about it for a long moment, gave me a smile and left. That's Samuel.

You know it seems to me that is what we are trying to do the majority of time in marketing is "make people like us." We select the people we really want, research and analyze them in hopes of uncovering their secrets and then do anything we can to make them like us. Of course we can't just call it that - we call it engaging people.

Let's Get Engaged

Do you engage? Are you engaging? Do you practice and encourage engagement? The idea of engagement is rapidly being mutated from a basically good idea into a business buzzword and cliché de jour. Here’s the telltale hint – no one can agree on what it means or it’s various manifestations. Do you notice there's a lot of that going around now days?

Customer engagement, employee engagement, audience engagement, engagement marketing, engagement modeling, engagement lifecycle and customer engagement agencies - it goes from the five word basics to ways to measure the strength of “brand marriages.” Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

What We’re Really Talking About

Let's agree to park the analytics, statistics and psychology for a moment. Customers, employees and audiences are all people and the only difference is in our expectation of them. Their reactions don’t change with their titles nor do their sensitivities and beliefs. Simply adding a title doesn’t change the essential requirement of engaging people or making them like you.

Engagement = People

A better way to think about it is that engagement is a relationship about a specific thing for a specific time. It’s involvement, commitment and personalization. If you see your customers as people then relationships are easier to form. The relationships draw them to your company, not the products or all the marketing. When you treat customers like people and not account numbers they will respond like people. People are loyal - accounts numbers aren't.

Think, Feel, Act, Do

One of our principles around here is Think, Feel, Act, Do. We see them as the keys to achieving critical results regardless of your communication deliver system. They are all people terms, not processes or models. Think, Feel, Act, Do is the strategy we use to approach every project because we believe that all results come from people. People expect a purpose. Engaging someone isn't an action, reaction or a programmed interaction. If engagement is a relationship then it has a beginning, middle and, hopefully, no end.

How To Engage People

Let us save you $500,000. You can spend a day searching the Internet for a simple, practical and do-able way to connect. So, at the risk of enraging thousands of consultants, firms and agencies here is how to engage people.

1. Attract people and gain their attention in ways that are interesting.

2. Involve them in an activity, dialogue or some type of participation so they can relate to you on a personal level.

3. Give them a sense of purpose, control and return.

4. Provide information, response and feedback that are specific to them.

5. Put them in the middle of the relationship as a participant and not a spectator.

6. Recognize that there is no such thing as 100% engagement -100% of the time.

Making People Like Us

About an hour later Samuel was back at the office door. "Dad I was thinking about what you said. That thing about being a friend to get a friend is really dumb. The best you can do is try to be the kind of person someone would want to have as a friend."

Samuel nailed it. We can't make people like us, our companies or our products and services. We have to become worthy of their attention.

People need to:

• Know who you are

• Understand what you’re telling them

• Care about what you’re telling them

• Value what you’re telling them

• Discover common things you both share

• Want to Know, Understand, Care, Value and Discover more - Together

I learned that from Samuel. I steal my best ideas from him.

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.

Build Response By Blasting Buzz Marketing - Stun Them!!

Feed The Bees!

Shake things up, grab attention and generate some Buzz! Let's talk about Word of Mouth marketing. Of course we just can't call it that. We enthusiastic marketers have to relabel it, rename it again, twist it halfway to Tuesday and end up with a tangle of terms. Word-of-mouth marketing, Viral marketing, Buzz marketing, Product seeding, Evangelist marketing, Influencer marketing, Organic word-of-mouth, Amplified word-of-mouth ... just scream when you've had enough because there's more at the door.

Buzz-literate marketer

But hold on! People talking to other people is so - 20th Century. We are wired, hot-linked, online and very Web 2.0. Talking is so passé when you can blog, IM and Tweet. Well, in spite of the fervent desire to transform word-of-mouth to "word-of-mouse" it's estimated that 80% of word-of-mouth marketing communication happens offline … only 20% is on-line.

Where is the 80% happening?

According to 2009 research from the Association of American Geographers buzz and word-of-mouth are driven more by places than by groups and the Internet. "Buzz-worthy" events and locations have direct and obvious links to the culture and characteristics of the people who attend. Why do you suppose dress and jewelry designers jockey like racehorses on Oscar night to have the right high-profile actress wearing their couture? Because they know careers and reputations can be made during that short walk from the limo door to the theater door. It's all in the name of buzz. Word of mouth has redefined V.I.P to become Very Important Place. Depending on what you are marketing, determine the places your target audience goes - go there, establish a presence - and then give them something to talk about.

The Ah-Ha Moment

If you remember only one thing from this article please let it be this. In new marketing, whether it's Word of Mouth, Buzz, Viral or Social Media the rules are reversed. Your target customers don't join you - you join them. You do all the work to create the relationship, present the story or be a part of the community.

What's the Buzz; tell me what's happening

The goal of Buzz marketing is to generate such a level of word-of-mouth discussion about your product, service, company, location, cause that the simple act of talking about it becomes entertaining, fun and, above all, personal. Buzz is "about" something and someone. Your marketing and brand can only encourage and enable the conversation. So here are some ideas to get people talking.

#1 Feed The Buzz - Buzz, just like gossip needs a great story so give people something juicy to talk about. The trick is to have a buzz-worthy story that benefits the company and your products and services.

#2 Controversy is your Buzz BFF - It can't be what you want to talk about it has to be what they want to talk about. There is no boring Buzz. If the executive team is comfortable you haven't gone far enough. Buzz feeds on emotion, the unexpected, the funny, the extreme and the unmentionable.

#3 Intrigue the media - Look online at CNN, Fox, Drudge and Huffington Post. Even the most naive will see marketing at work. I've just read a story about how Nokia is investigating a way to power cell phones with Coca-Cola! Wow and look at that great big Coke can and how many times the name is mentioned on four major news websites. Who do you suppose seeded the story? The moral is you don't need opinion leaders and documentation you need surprise, disagreement, outrageous reactions, a sprinkling of paranoia and puppies and kittens.

#4 Don't tell it all - Watch the TV "entertainment" and gossip shows. The story develops over a period of days looping back and forth with each new "development." The expectations of a new Harry Potter book or movie begin literally years before and build consistently in small "Buzz Bites" until the release. Every rumor fuels the flames. Then the buzz peaks when the book or movie is released and drops off. It's carefully orchestrated. So tell enough to get people interested and react to their reactions. Then toss out more of the story. Drag it out.

#5 Go for a feeding frenzy - The instant you sense the first shift of attention sweeten the pot. Add a contest, survey, coupon or promotion. I hope didn't think Oprah gave away cars out of the goodness of her heart. It was the parlay in a brilliantly executed Buzz campaign that ramped up attention and made her the topic of media, chat room and fitness club chatter for several more weeks.

#6 It's not your brand it's how people react to your brand - Remember Buzz is personal. There is no spin control. There is no tiny type at the bottom of the screen that reads, "Professional driver on a closed course" or "Results not typical of average weight loss." The goal is to create a personal connection with your target consumer. It has to be real or those demographically desirable customer segments will eat you live and sting you to death.

Be ready for the attention

As Seth Godin puts so clearly you need to have a product worth talking about in order to generate some Word of Mouth.

• Make sure there are no skeletons in the closet
• Anticipate the flip side of the conversation as well as the variations of the topic and never assume you can control the conversation
• Have a strategy in place to respond. Don't debate, argue or correct the public. Be prepared to join the conversation.

If you are hungry for the marketing honey buzz creates then give them an irresistible story to talk about. Make your brand a part of the story but not THE story. And, make it personal. Feed the Bees!

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Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.

One Drop Of "You" Is Worth $1-Million Dollars In Marketing

Stand by for the #1 thing you can do in 2010 to build your business

Never in recorded history have more messages been flying back and forth. At any moment literally millions of messages are sent. According to a survey by ExactTarget we are calling less and writing more … sort of. In 2009 telephone calls, email, instant messaging and letter writing were down. Text messaging increased 50%. The fastest growing method of sending written messages to friends was social media, up to from 3% to 10% over 2008. So should you quickly revise your communication and marketing strategies and jump on board the latest, hottest trends?

I'm a Contrarian

I'm that guy who tends to run against the crowd. The only way to stand out is to do things differently. Every communication/marketing method has value but none are the magic path to profitability. Anyone who offers you the promise of vast returns based on broad generalities is simply trying to sell you something. So before you join the crowd please consider the potential of doing the opposite.

Email?

Email marketing is powerful but what happens when your marketing becomes just one more message in an email box crammed with 177 other messages? That's the number of corporate emails the average executive received per day in 2009. If the projections are correct that number will be up to 228 by 2011. So, what can you do to buck the trend?

Social Media?

Twitter is receiving about 8 million unique visitors per month. Facebook claims over 300 million users. There's great potential in this community concept but how do you get them talking about your company and how do you know if they are? Social Media takes a great deal of work and constant involvement. The experts pinpoint 10-20 tweets per day as the "sweet spot." Remember you are competing for attention against millions of Tweeters with thumbs that can break the sound barrier on a slow day. So what can you do to buck the trend?

Internet Marketing?

In North America Internet penetration is just over 74%, Oceania/Australia is 60% and Europe 52%. Worldwide the average penetration is almost 26%. There has never been greater access to information yet it has never been more difficult to identify, target and find the content customers and consumers need. Just being there and ranking on Google isn't enough - you have to fight for attention and conversion. So what can you do to buck the trend?

The #1 thing to do in 2010 to build your business

Here's the plan. This is a very focused approach that's targeted to your most valuable, influential and indispensable customers and clients. It is extremely different in a number of critical ways. It is:

• Personal
• Thoughtful
• Emotional
• Engaging
• Respectful
• Surprising
• Memorable

Here's the greatest benefit of this approach - 99% of your competition doesn't do it. Grab your best stationary and a good pen because you are going to write some letters. WHAT???? That's right, you are going to take a contrarian concept and use it to make a significant difference in your business in 2010.

One drop of "You" is worth $1-million dollars in marketing

Remember the last time you got a personal letter? How did you feel? Now I'm not talking about some mass-produced faux letter in a fake font I mean a handwritten letter from someone you know. In a world filled with instantaneous, digital communication there is incredible power in a physical object you can hold in your hand that connects on an individual level. Electronic is all about the moment. Personal letters are carefully chosen thoughts and ideas that take time to express. Each letter is a limited edition of - one.

Make It Personal

Okay, don't deliberate, it's time to take action. Be intentional and let's get this done.

1. Make a list of the ten companies or people who you depend upon for success, sustainability or your career. Please feel free to do more.
2. Write each key person a short handwritten letter. If your handwriting is terrible type it but write a note at the bottom.
3. Make it personal, informal and not corporate.
4. Thank that person for her/his business, loyalty, support - the things they did that mattered the most to you in 2009.
5. Be sincere, simple and make it short.
6. Mail your letter in a simple envelope with the address written by hand.

What this means to you

Nothing has more impact than simple, person-to-person communication. In a world of instant messages, Tweets, emails and disposable marketing you have done the unexpected. Your traditional letter will grab attention because it is so different. But, beyond this aspect, you have removed all the business barriers and expressed yourself.

I don't write letters!

If you have a dreaded "thank you" note phobia just get over it. If your instant reaction is, "I don't write letters I have a staff for that" it is even more important that you do this. The higher you are in the corporate food chain the greater the impact. Peer to Peer, CMO to CMO, CEO to CEO, Manager to Manager you can influence on a level that your marketing can't ever achieve. If that isn't enough motivation what if your competition sends a letter?

Yes it's that important

In the end the rest of the world has taken the left fork in the road and you have taken the right fork. And, if it makes the companies or people you depend upon for success, sustainability or your career view you in a more positive and personal light - then you've made the right move.

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Scroll down - there's much more!

_________________________

Please Subscribe! There's a new article every week and we are determined to give you valuable information you can use to be successful and make more money. So, go to the Be The First To Know box and just fill it in.

Andy Johnston is an multi-faceted communication professional with deep experience from strategic planning, to messaging, to marketing, to media, to events, to training, to creative direction … and there are several other ”to’s.” Andy is known for his energy, creativity and his unique ability to discover the key results that must be generated – and then to develop ingenious ways to engage and motivate audiences. Positive business results are the objective. He believes that one of the most important results is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Andy is a principal partner at Think! Consulting Group and The Idea Group.