Start with the assumption that your industry is in over-supply.  This will help you make smarter decisions related to bradning, marketing, and business development.  Even if you are not in a category that is in over-supply, it will still make your more focused and disciplined.

So how do you differentiate?  There are a lot of different ideas and theories on this; with an over-supply of gimmickery and insincere promotion.  But here are a few concepts:

• Be unexpected.  Most consumers go into an experience with some level of been-there-done-that.  Breaking their paradigm of expectation is a great way to create conversations; truly stand-out.
• Be simple.  Like a red dot on a white sheet, simplicity in your marketing creates a less-is-more feeling.  Remember Ron Paul’s hand-made signs?
• Be person-to-person.  Too much marketing/biz dev is done behind a logo, ad, web, and/or press release.  WIth a little bit of effort you can be more personal in your marketing - i.e.  using real employees or real customers.  Better yet, correctly embrace social media.  This starts with your CEO blogging, Facebooking, and Tweeting.

There is another reality that you might have to face - irrelevance.  Maybe your business model is out of alignment with market conditions.  Maybe your product/service is obsolete.  Know this - advertising doesn’t fix irrelevance.  Instead, re-tool and start over with something new and different.  This really is just a matter of integrity - or too quote a recent post, not sucking.

In all seriousness, the best thing you can do for your marketing (advertising, PR, brochures, sales presentations, et al) is purge yourself of all cliches.  This includes common analogies, industry lingo, current buzz words, and commonly used marketing phrases (like “great service”).

This doesn’t mean don’t be creative - everyone loves a good turn-of-phrase.  Instead, make up your own.  This accomplishes several things:

1. It is not a cliche if you are first one to say it.
2. It helps you communicate with simplicity.
3. It prevents lazy communication.

Here are some other ways your brand becomes a cliche, not just your marketing:

• A generic or non-descriptive/non-inspiring tag line.
• All of your employees look exactly the same.
• Your product becomes a verb - i.e. Xerox, Kleenex

So let the cleansing begin …

http://www.executiveroundtableradio.com/

Part II is about culture; about being generally aware of trends, current events, and “soft news”.  This is part of just being a good conversationalist and not getting stale.  Keep in mind, “aware” doesn’t mean that you have to actually like this stuff!  So … here are 6 cultural things every professional/executive should know.

1. Be able to name at least one top 10 artist (or a current indie band).
2. Be able to name at least one of the two teams that played in the most recent Super Bowl.
3. Have spent more than $100 the last 6 months on electronics or clothes.
4. Now how to download a song and sync their iPod.
5. Only read the newspaper for ritual, not for actual News.
6. Be able to name one celebrity involved in a scandal (extra points if it is you!)

I’m sure there a dozens more, so pitch in …

To the topic at hand …

I believe there are three fundamental keys to success.  These keys apply to business, people, non-profits, government, etc.

1. Don’t suck.
2. Be social.
3. Simple math.

An explanation …

It seems like everybody wants to be great; want to go from cellar-dweller to championship.  So they spend unbelievable amounts of time and energy on processes, messages, differentiators, training, etc - all in an effort to be great.  But greatness is almost always accidental.  Or better put, there is not a specific formula.  In fact, organizations that set out for greatness seem to have the highest failure rate.  The simple ideas that stay simple have the highest success rate because of their humility, flexibility, and “get it” factor.  If you were to interview the founders of Google, eBay, Disney, Apple and hundreds of other brands, you will find that a good portion of their early strategy was to be simple - and not to suck.

Let’s define “not sucking”.  This just means have a general level of excellence; driven by the primary principle of doing the right thing.  It doesn’t mean striving for perfection, because the process of being perfect will very likely take you away from your simplicity.  It also means having a level of industriousness; of just knowing how to grind.  Not sucking means spending extra attention on people; primarily being nice to your employees and customers.  It also means have a reasonable level of usefulness in your product or service.

Defining “social”.  This means running your organization in a glass house.  Not just acting transparent, but truly being transparent.  It means being involved in meaningful ways in people’s lives - employees, customers, and the general community.  It means being relevant - of creating and being part of conversations.  In the words of Guy Kawasaki, being social means making “meaning”, not just money.

Simple math is well, simple math.  Sell stuff.  Don’t spend more than you make.  Basically, first grade math.

All of these are very attainable by EVERY organization.  But they won’t be attained by many.  Too many egos.  Too many people more interested in the process of business.  Too many marketers.  Therefore, they become differentiators.  Which is sort of amusing - that less-than-perfect companies with a collaborative attitude end up being great.

1. The service here is incredible.  Everyone is quick with a smile, friendly, and eager to help.  This taught me several lessons:
   • Sincerity matters - This is not deferential treatment.  It is a sincere desire to be helpful.  A smile is the currency of relationships.  “Transparency” is a popular term right now in business, but all companies are eventually transparent (usually by force).  I believe “sincerity” is the next big thing.  More on that later.
   • Service is a cultural issue, not a matter of process.  I’ve always found the concept of “customer service training” to be ridiculous.  Instead of worrying how to handle a complaint, companies should worry about creating a culture of helpfulness; that empowers employees to work with customers while maintaining their dignity.
2. Malayan is the primary language, but English is language that bridges the culture of the locals and tourists.  In a typical exchange, English is not the primary tongue of either person.  This forces simplicity - no cliches, analogies, clever turns of phrase.  Just simple communication.  This is a lesson for marketers - in less you have an audience that is fluent in your “language” (or the language of your client), keep it simple.  This is further reinforced by signage that uses pictures to help communicate.
3. I have noticed local advertising - primarily billboards and banners on buildings.  I have noticed not because I’m the business, but because they are truly different.  Most make excellent use of creative images, crisp writing, and high resolution graphics.  In short, my brain paid attention.  Which lead to this observation - what has happened to creativity in US advertising?  It seems like agencies are way to0 quick to go to shocking or provocative; or get lazy with stock photography; or use clever (in their minds at least) phraseology.  And I have not seen one advertisement here with a talking animal!  The point is that we marketers need to work a little more on having our creativity truly stand out - and be meaningful.

These are the lessons for now. I’m sure there will be more …

Stay tuned for marketing/branding lessons and observations.  Some great inspirations!

This post discusses 5 technical skills a modern professional should know.  This was inspired by actual experiences and my wife’s 80-year old grandmother.  More on that below …

1. How to send and read a text message.
2. Know how to set-up and use LinkedIn and/or Facebook.
3. How to take digital photos and post them on a web-site (like Facebook or Flickr).
4. How to post a video to YouTube.
5. How to use a Blackberry or some sort of “smart phone”.

Why these particular skills?

First of all, Joyce (my wife’s 80 year old grandma) knows how to do all of these things.  I mentioned to her that she was very “young minded”.  She replied that she is just curious how things work and figured it can’t be too hard.  What a refreshing attitude!

Second, these are the bedrock of modern communication.  If you don’t know how to communicate while mobile and don’t have some functional knowledge of social media, then you will be left out of the loop.  This is especially true if you are working with Gen Y and younger (and some of us Gen X’rs).

Finally, you should know these things because staying relevant makes you interesting.  And being interesting makes you a good conversationalist - and this might be the most useful skill of all.

Have a firm hand-shake.

Look people in the eye.

Mean what you say.

Be gracious.

Be a good listener.

Do the right thing even if nobody is watching.

These are some of the age old rules of civility; of having good manners and proper etiquette.  Yet these rules are fresh and relevant today.  This is because these are the rules of high-integrity organizations and people.

They are also the rules of Social Media. That is because Social Media is not really new.  It is just people now doing on-line what they’ve been doing off-line for 6000 years.

Make no mistake about it.  Social Media IS the future of marketing and branding.  People are tuning-out from broadcast media; causing a huge disruption of the broadcast business model.  Without broadcast mediums, The People turn to each.  This means organizations must follow the above rules or they will be exposed.  It also means high-integrity organizations will grow even faster.

Are there still crappy products outselling good ones?  Are no-talent people still becoming famous?  Are people still watching TV and reading newspapers?  Yes. Yes. Yes.  But massive change is happening all around us.  And it is just good business sense to realize that this change is real and that it might be time to re-visit some of the old rules.

1. I don’t get it.
2. What is the ROI.

Both of these issues are about intent - why are you using social media?  The answer is the same for both - you have to change your thinking.  The best way to do this is to implement a simple 3-step formula:

Conversations create relationships which create transactions.

Break it down this way …

Go out and start or participate in a conversation.  This will create relationships (and the ensuing exchange of contact info).  Continue the conversation and will inevitability see some sort of reciprocation. This could be buying something, providing a referral, continuing the conversation - some sort of reciprocating behavior.

The reality is that this has always been the formula for effective relationships.  Social media just accelerates the process.  And while social media is not the place for “message control” or pitches, it is the place for strategic conversations.

So for the “don’t get it” people - if your intent is to expand your sphere of influence, use this formula.  For the “ROI” crowd, if your intent is some sort of pay-off, use this formula.  Either way, it keeps your intent pure as you learn the ropes.

The bottom-line is this … the only way to screw up in social media is to have the wrong intent.

We recently posted a video about this topic over at the Trike site.  Check it out here.