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Integration. Collaboration. Teamwork. Partnership. What do these words really mean in relation to marketing? To me, these things were always “a-duh” of things that should and did take place within any kind of company. But do they really?
I know these skills are particularly difficult for large corporations to be successful at. Many times, there are hundreds of different divisions within a company, each with their own set of goals and objectives. In a perfect world the leaders of the divisions would be talking together to prevent overlap of tasks, research and projects. In reality, that rarely happens. People are either too busy, are working on different deadlines or get involved in office politics; all of which prevent communication and collaboration. How much money is spent by different divisions conducting the same type of work or backpedaling their work because they have unintentionally hindered another division?
Risdall has about 70 employees. We have structured ourselves to have different specialty divisions led by experts in each specialty. Then we have another division that works on tying the different specialties together and ensuring the appropriate divisions are involved; and working together to successfully achieve the client’s goals and objectives. However, I’m curious how other companies conduct internal communications and if they feel they are successful? Is there a better and more cost-effective way ensure integrated marketing efforts?
If you were a betting man at the Valley of Elah in the 10th century, chances are you’d have placed every shekel you had on the heavy favorite in a contest that pitted a young upstart, (armed only with a sling!) against a giant of a man bedecked in full armor with sword and spear in hand.Â
You’d have lost – as did Goliath.
But how could this have happened? Surprisingly, David’s victory was not an anomaly. “Davids” beat Goliaths all the time as Malcolm Gladwell points out in a recent article in the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell).
In David’s case, he refused to fight in the conventional manner of sword on sword. Instead, as a shepherd, he took a weapon he knew and used on a daily basis. But it wasn’t just unconventional armaments that won the day. David also had the element of surprise and supreme confidence on his side. As the story goes, he not only stands firm, he runs at Goliath who in his astonishment becomes immobilized for the few critical seconds it takes David to let loose his stone. The rest, as they say, is history.
In another stunning upset, Lawrence of Arabia refused to attack the Turkish stronghold as expected in World War I and instead, successfully wages a guerilla war along the enemy’s supply lines where they were weak. His band of ragtag Bedouin zealots were unskilled in conventional warfare, but accustomed to the terrain, willing to endure great hardship for their cause and in the end, victorious.
Gladwell also describes how teams of under-skilled and smaller (but highly conditioned and determined) basketball players can, and do beat, far better opponents simply by tenaciously contesting the normally routine throw-in pass, then defending every inch of the court with a full-court press. By making their opponents abandon their game plan and try to adapt to rarely used tactics, the underdogs were able to score easy baskets as a result of turnovers and other errors.
The same principles can help businesses succeed in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace. If your company goes up against a stronger opponent on their terms, you will almost certainly lose. Defy convention and look for ways to use your own strengths and new weapons to their best advantage. Embrace new technologies and use social networks to reach out to your customers and learn what your brand means to them. (You may be very surprised at what you hear!)
By catching your opponents off guard and firmly believing you’ll win, chances are you just might.Â
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I saw a great story this past Sunday on the CBS Sunday Morning news show. It was about the death of Michael Jackson, but the story didn’t go exactly how I expected. The story talked about how this week was a significant milestone in the growth of the Internet and social networking sites. Everyone took notice as the social networking sites and blogs disseminated information faster than anyone thought possible – last week proved that people are talking, listening and engaging through social networking now, more than ever.
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The celebrity gossip site TMZ.com posted the news of Michael Jackson’s death approximately 6 minutes before the coroner actually pronounced him. Word of his passing spread like wildfire throughout Twitter and tribute pages on Facebook gained thousands of followers per minute, posting condolences, photos and videos of the dead pop star.
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I only heard about the news because I happened to catch the 5 p.m. newscast in a waiting room, I was skeptical at first – how could they know? Is the story accurate or just gossip? But when I got home and logged into my Twitter and Facebook accounts, the chatter was overwhelming and even CNN and all of the reputable news sites were reporting the same story. He was dead.
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Last week was the first of many milestones Facebook, Twitter and many other social networking sites will experience. There are bound to be ups and downs, but I am just glad I get to go along for the ride.
Thomas Friedman ( a U of M J-School grad) was on Public Radio today talking
about his new book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded.” It deals with the
problems the world faces from being…you guessed it! Too hot, too
flat and too crowded.
He closed his talk with this story. It’s a great lesson in
problem solving and a great metaphor.
A company CEO was trying to read his newspaper one evening and kept
getting interrupted by his lively 4-year old daughter. He was trying
to think of a way to keep her occupied (and out of his hair) when he
came across a full page ad with a satellite photo of the world
occupying 2/3 of the page. He tore the ad into small pieces and
challenged his daughter to tape the photo back together.
He then settled back for what he thought would be 15-20 minutes of
reading without interruption.
To his surprise, his daughter had the photo taped together in under
three minutes. Every segment of the photo fit perfectly.
In amazement, he asked her how she could possibly have finished that fast.
His daughter replied.”Well, I noticed that there was a picture of a
person on the backside. When I fixed the person, I also fixed the
planet.
Hmmmm.
Since my wife has been sleeping a lot (recovering from surgery) for the past two weeks, I’ve had time to do something I have been promising myself to do for years. I’m re-reading “Huckleberry Finn.”
Many critics consider it the great American novel, and I hadn’t read it since high school, so I thought I would revisit it from an adult’s perspective.
I would recommend it to everyone! Twain’s descriptive powers are vivid ( (He describes Huck’s drunken father’s complexion as “fish belly white.”) His social commentary is biting and there are scenes of great poignancy (when Huck can’t bring himself to turn in his friend, Jim, as a runaway slave, Huck is afraid he’ll go to hell for it.)
It’s too bad that, for most of us, our exposure to the classics came in school, when we didn’t have enough life experience to appreciate the truths about the human condition that these great authors were sharing.
Other novels I would like to re-read include: “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo. and “Lord Jim” by Joseph Conrad (”Lord Jim” should have been required reading for every guy of draft age during the Vietnam War).
When students come to me asking for advice on how to be a great copywriter, my answer is simple: READ
You learn to write great ad copy by reading great literature.
I’m sure everyone has a favorite book or two that you would like to recommend. Let us know!
We came across an issue using the jQuery idTabs plugin and printing. For a particular Dotnetnuke skin we are using, we have tabs set up using the idTabs plugin. When the page is printed, only content in the selected tab is visible.
To remedy this, we opened the source of idTabs 2.2 and found that it is using the the jQuery standard hide() and show() functions. These functions put an inline style of display:none; and display:block respectively. Since these are inline styles it’s impossible to overwrite them in a print stylesheet.
Solution
We made some changes to the source of the idTabs plugin. Since this was a minified version, it was no easy task!
Now all the content in the tabs shows when printing. This is not unique to Dotnetnuke skinning with jQuery either.
I’ll pass the information on to the plugin writer to see if there is a better long term fix.
Publications are shrinking. Newsrooms are slashing their budgets. As a result, more and more journalists are joining the ranks of freelancers. In fact, at a Minnesota PRSA event that I attended this week, Christy DeSmith, lifestyle editor of Mpls.St. Paul magazine, predicted that within 10 years, magazines will shift to a model that has one editor with many freelancers.
At the event, which also featured freelance business journalist Dan Haugen, the consensus was that the best way for public relations professionals to adapt to this new model is to focus on the relationships with the writers. Give them ideas for great stories. Know their work. Respect their time.
DeSmith and Haugen also pointed out that journalists are being more entrepreneurial than ever, pitching many story ideas to national outlets. Keep up your relationships with them, and your company’s story just might be in consideration for publications across the nation.
