Lani and I are in beautiful New Paltz, NY, now at the end of three wonderful days spent with Guido Orio and Eve Orio of Golden Summit, experts in online, film, and video content. The professional (and personal) relationship was cemented a way back in 2001, when Lani, Eve, and Orio worked at Mattel, and though we’re now on different coasts, we’ve still maintained a great friendship with them.

It just so happened they were at a wedding not too far from here, and heck, when being 3,000 miles apart is suddenly reduced to 300, you can’t miss an opportunity like that.

Of course, we’ve been catching up a lot (and watching our older son and their daughter play together like old friends, too, and not kids that last saw each other two years ago as toddlers), we’ve been talking a bit about return on investment (ROI) on websites.

It’s one thing if you sell physical product on your site - you can make the calculation pretty easily: Add up your costs (hosting, design, programming, maintenance), and divide it into your sales.

But what if you don’t? What if you can’t cleanly tie your website to your bottom line? Stonyfield Yogurt “CE-Yo” Gary Hirshberg addressed this in an interview with Business Week about the Stonyfield blogging effort:

Q: What are you getting from this, really?
Hirshberg: It’s impossible to say what we’re getting. But if you press an ad agency really hard about their best ads, their best copy, and ask them to prove that that ad resulted in an increase in sales, it’s the rare case when you can spell out cause and effect.

But what I know in my gut from 22 years of doing this is that we have an emotional connection with customers. That helps explain why we’re growing at four times category rate in some markets and three times the category rate nationally.

What he’s talking about is essentially the same as “goodwill” - that part of a company’s stock market value not attributable to earnings or investments. Some of your company’s revenues are coming solely as a result of your brand’s value, which exists only in the mind of your customers.

Get your head around that on an early Thursday morning! So here’s the takeaway - if you have a website, but it doesn’t directly produce revenue, then add it to one more marketing category - branding.

Any sales you can’t attribute to directly to a specific PR or marketing effort have to be considered the result of branding - and at least partially due to your website.

Try it, and let us know if that makes the picture clearer for you!

Posted in Blog Bits, Brand Funk | 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 9:03 am and is filed under Blog Bits, Brand Funk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I just read Steve Martin’s memoir about his early years forging ahead into the entertainment business, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life. It’s an unpretentious, honest, and insightful romp into the heart of storytelling, the naivete of youth, and the inescapable truth that success takes patience, perseverence, and roll-up-your-sleeves WORK.

One of Martin’s experiences in particular struck me as a great metaphor for MARKETING and BRANDING.

You remember The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, right? Remember how an appearance on Carson was often the make-or-break litmus test for anyone trying to make it in show biz - especially comedians? Martin shares what the reality of his first “Big Break” revealed:

There was a belief that one appearance on The Tonight Show made you a star. But here are the facts. The first time you do the show, nothing. The second time you do the show, nothing. The sixth time you do the show, someone might come up to you and say, “Hi, I think we met at Harry’s Christmas party.” The tenth time you do the show, you could conceivably be remembered as being seen somewhere on television. The twelfth time you do the show, you might hear, “Oh, I know you. You’re that guy.”

Martin’s first appearance on The Tonight Show was in October of 1972. After a few appearances, he experimented with a schtick that got him “demoted” to appearing with guests hosts instead of Johnny himself. Still, Martin showed up whenever he was invited, and kept working on his material, doing his best, and sharing his style. After proving himself, he was re-invited to a Carson-hosted episode (on which Sammy Davis Jr. was also booked), and he finally got his Big Break. The camera panned over to Carson doubled over in laughter during Martin’s routine, and thus a Comedic Star was endorsed to millions of TV viewers.

This happened on Martin’s 16th (!!!) Tonight Show appearance, in September of 1974.

Martin started dabbling in magic and entertainment as an employee of Disneyland in the summer of 1955. That means it took 17 years just to play and dabble and fail and put things OUT THERE before he made it to the Tonight Show stage for the first time. 

THEN it took TWO MORE YEARS of: Working things out in clubs, in his head, and on paper; sharing, honing, and experimenting with content to all types of audiences; saying “Yes!” to opportunities at inopportune times; trusting the process; not getting all down and gloomy when “results” weren’t showing up as quickly as he thought they should have, etc., before Martin’s work really paid off, in his own estimation. 

Doesn’t this sound like the small biz owners’ experiences with marketing? We want our one-shot efforts to PRODUCE RESULTS, darnit! We want to know our time, energy, and money aren’t wasted, that we’re investing in the right things to make our businesses successful.

But like all good things in life, building your Content Kingdom, your Brand, and your relationship with your Ideal Audience TAKES TIME.

Wanna know the funniest thing, though? After his killer appearance in 1974, what Martin himself said was “…the first one I could really call a smash,” he had an encounter with a woman in an antique store the very next day. She asked him if he was the boy who was on The Tonight Show the night before. When Martin said yes, she blurted, “Yuck!”

It just goes to show that even when you’ve done your job to the best of your ability, even when you’ve put as much of your message, mission, and vision OUT THERE for your Ideal Audience to consume in as many ways as you can with the time and resources you have on hand, you’re still not right for everyone.

Guess what? You’re not supposed to be! Martin himself ended up being one of the most successful, commercial, influential comic talents of all time, going on to write books and screen plays, star in movies, and win prestigious awards like Emmys and Grammys and such. Turns out the opinion of that chick in the antique store didn’t really thwart his own ascent too too much.

So while you’re thinking about new ways to have fun connecting and communicating with your own Ideal Audience, enjoy a clip of one of Steve Martin’s appearances on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, below. :)

Posted in Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, Mood Boosters | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, Mood Boosters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

By way of introduction…

Gene and I knew those old shows would be worth saving, but for a long time nobody agreed with us. In the years before home video, it seemed like a waste of expensive video tape to preserve hundreds of episodes of “Opening Soon at a Theater Near You,” “Sneak Previews” or “At the Movies.” After all, the movies we were reviewing weren’t going to be opening again, and who’d want to watch a show of old movie reviews? Right?

That’s Roger Ebert, movie critic with the Chicago Sun-Times, writing the Introduction to the Balcony Archive on the At the Movies website. And as he continues, you realize how lucky and prescient they were.

Siskel and Ebert (now Ebert and Roeper) are arguably the most famous movie critics in history, and their commitment to never giving a thumb sideways - not to mention their obvious passion for the art of moviemaking - resulted in a catalog of reviews to die for.

And now they’re making all the reviews they have available online. For free.

They throw a 15-20-second ad up before the review plays, and they sell banner ads on the site as well, so they’re certainly not sharing their content out of charity. What they are doing is reinforcing their brand even further, as they add new reviews and content, to do for the web what they did on TV - become the go-to powerhouse for online movie opinion-making.

And considering their core audience, who’ve aged with the show and are increasing in numbers, demand, buying power and confidence online, this is one of the smartest content moves I’ve seen all year.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again - if you’ve got a lot of content about your business, your hobbies, your passion, or however you think about that area of life where you excel, PLEASE, get it out there and grow your reputation as THE source of knowledge and education in your field.

Build your brand with solid, reliable, relevant content. Siskel, Ebert, and Roeper seem to think it’s a good idea. If you trust them for movie-viewing advice, would you trust them with the marketing example they set, too?

Posted in All About Content, Brand Funk | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 5:24 pm and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

By now you’ve likely seen The Secret, that ambitious 90-minute info-tainment flick delivering a high-concept, high-energy overview of The Law of Attraction.*

I’m a fan of the movie and of creator Rhonda Byrne’s overall spunk and vision. I’m also a fan of their forward-thinking branding and content initiatives. A few of the highlights include:

• The fact that they made the movie available as a $5 download without a bunch of obnoxious hard up-selling, so cost has never been a barrier to getting the idea out to the masses on an international level. (BTW, the pink-spoon sampling approach has been integral to their overall sales success!)
• A robust and generous website that lets enthusiasts and knowledge seekers get into the story and spirit of it all, with membership areas, printable pdfs, visualization tools, and simple idea-enhancers, like this printable check from the universe.
• Consistent brand voice, energy, content quality, and visual integrity through and through. Not an easy endeavor, but wildly important for world domination.

The Secret is the fearless thrust of a bold idea into the ether — inspired by insight, stories, and optimistic thought leaders — built on the premise of 1000s of years of the world’s most enduring people and legends.

What’s more, the peeps behind The Secret haven taken this bold idea and leveraged today’s tools of technology (not to mention, TALENT POOL!) in fun, creative ways so their message gets out to as many people as possible.

Sure, they’re making a bunch of money, but the MESSAGE reigns supreme. That’s what makes it so very successful.  

An “A-Ha Yourself!” success story if there ever was one.

*A few people I’ve spoken with have read the book instead, but I think the movie is far more effective and efficient, quite frankly. It’s sleek, visual, captivating, and gets the concepts out through a diverse gathering of talking heads, from quantum physicists to authors to passionate idea evangelists. The book loses the multimedia wallop. The information’s there, but you don’t digest it the same way. I’m sure it’s a fine companion piece to the movie, but if you have to choose between either the movie OR the book, go with the movie, ok?

Posted in Brand Funk, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 am and is filed under Brand Funk, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The world is aware that Code Crunchers, Techie Heads, and Java Jockeys share an uber-geeky way of communicating, which is as endearing as it is prime fodder for mockery.

But few people understand the depths of Geekdom into which Content Lovers, Brand Bohemians, and MarCom Mavens submerge themselves.

In a quickie email exchange initiated by Gretchen de Castellane (the Content Dev Goddess over at Mattel Brands Online, a friend, former coworker, and one of the most talented and wonderful people alive on the Earth today), Gretchen critiqued a “Welcome” message from Converse.com. Content Specialist Gary Barnum, replied with this evaluation…and made up a great term while he was at it, too:

I like it. Casual tone… to the point… Nice use of humor for standard messaging (in which I firmly believe).

I think I’d want more “brandstand” to the message though. As a first contact, this wouldn’t leave a big impression on me, and it wouldn’t excite me to get back to the site… They say they’ll get back to me soon, and maybe that’s where they’ll punch it up, but why send me TWO e-mails if they don’t want to pester me? I’d prefer a confirmation screen when I register, and then just one “Welcome” e-mail.

Brandstand - marketing speak. verb: To “grandstand” for a specific brand, hyping selling points or other positive features in order to excite consumers. noun: The element or elements of an advertising message wherein brandstanding occurs.

(I just made this term up, but it seems like one we can use…)

Thanks, Gar. I share your thoughts on the matter. Every “first touch” effort should be full of energy, brand-focused banter, and radical authenticity. Too many companies — from the small biz outfit to the billion-dollar MegaCorp — overlook the “little things,” like their signup autoresponders, thank-you page messaging, and “subscribe” confirmations. Tsk-tsk.

It’s a competitive inbox out there. Take the time to say what you mean and mean what you say, before your opt-ins become opt-outs.

Besides, it’s in the nooks and crannies of “the little things” where the magic of “A-Ha-ing Yourself” really comes to play.

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 11:08 am and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Time: 11:45.

Featured Expert: Kevin Skarritt, Branding Expert and Chief Nut, Acorn Creative

Summary: High velocity taglines are vital to your business success. (Tagline Velocity = Increased information and emotion + Fewest letters and syllables as possible)

Teaser Quip: “Would it work as its own message on a T-shirt?…A business wants to have a message, mission, or philosophy to become something bigger than it is.”

Posted in ADD Info Summits, All About Content, Brand Funk | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 3:39 pm and is filed under ADD Info Summits, All About Content, Brand Funk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No doubt you have heard of the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. It’s been around since ‘94. The premise is simple: You gather with friends, someone names an actor, and then you try to get to Kevin Bacon in six steps or less by association through other actors via the movies they’ve all been in - in as few steps as possible.

You may not be surprised to hear there are many websites devoted to it - even websites associated with major US educational institutions, like The University of Virginia’s “The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia” site.

However, if you go to the Oracle of Bacon site, you may be surprised that it typically takes fewer than THREE links (2.946, to be exact) to get from any actor in the history of Hollywood to Mr. Bacon.

You may be even more shocked to find out there are more than 1000 actors with a BETTER “Bacon Number” than Mr. Bacon himself.

“What the heck does this have to do with branding and marketing?” you ask?

1. There are 1049 actors that are closer to the Center of the Hollywood Universe than Kevin Bacon, yet none of them have had millions of college students, suburbanites, and cinema buffs obsessed with the depth and scope of their acting careers.
2. It’s possible that the thing you’ll be known best for will be entirely out of your hands, your fame and fate determined by three college students watching TV who are spontaneously inspired to obsess over you and what you’ve put out to the world…and then invite millions of other accidental evangelists to do the same.

Now, those who have played the Six Degrees game have a mix of amusement and reverence to a guy who they may have otherwise dismissed as “that dude who starred in Footloose.” I, personally, can’t think of even one movie featuring Rod Steiger, yet HE’S listed as the guy with the best Bacon Number (2.678695), and thus as the man who stands at THE center of the Hollywood universe.

So the lesson is as follows:

Sometimes all you have to do is be sure to put yourself out there often and consistently (or, “A-Ha Yourself!” - as we like to say), and the viral marketing pixies will do the rest.

In other words, you don’t have to be the best or most popular, you just have to be the brand or business that comes to mind when other people are yapping about your field or industry.

A very encouraging thought for the start of a new business year.

Want to learn how to maximize your 7 major marketing opportunities so you can get yourself out in front of your target audience often and consistently? Click here and download the FREE 18-page Special Report, How to Make Your Business GO NUTS in 2007!

Posted in Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"? | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 11:21 am and is filed under Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Jiggidy-jig and away we go! Look at how Office Max gets savvy & hip with FUN, ENTERTAINING content - riding the holiday spirit wave…

If you watch the clip, you may notice that the pic of me to the left (which was taken at my home a week ago, I reluctantly admit) is the same one that’s on the dancing elf. Easy personalization, fun, quick, and perfectly branded, through and through. Bravo, Office Max! Thanks for knowing it’s good for your business to fund stuff that makes us happy.

(If for some reason that link doesn’t work, or it’s got an expiration date, try your own at www.ElfYourself.com.)

Elfing yourself, it turns out, is a dynamite way to “A-Ha Yourself!”

Man - if artists, creatives, and programmers can develop and launch customizable animation like this in 2006, imagine what 2007 will bring…

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in All About Content, Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Mood Boosters, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 11:31 pm and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing, How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Mood Boosters, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

In this updated corporate interpretation of “too many cooks spoil the broth,” Guy “Empower Entrepreneurs” Kawasaki explains exactly why a Mission Statement stinks to high Heaven, while the mighty Mantra (comprised of just 3-4 carefully placed words) is all a business needs to anchor itself…then fly to the great big infinite ATM in the sky.

Brevity! A noble goal for all. And definitely worth the agony of choosing those few powerful morsels to represent your company’s purpose. Once you get a good, strong mantra down, it’s gonna be much easier to “A-Ha Yourself!”

And speaking of…

Allen and I have been working with “Bold Insight PLUS Joy-Filled Action” as the way to “A-Ha Yourself!” - but hmmm, that’s five words. Does that make it wrong as a mantra?

Rats. It’s midnight, and there’s more thinking required here. Will it ever end?

(Then again, Guy’s Mantra is only two words. So maybe rules can be bent just a little to suit the rebels among us.)

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in All About Content, Brand Funk, Dances With Gurus, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!" | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 1:30 am and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk, Dances With Gurus, Tools to "A-Ha Yourself!". You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Check out this “Dove Film” – a 1-2 minute movie that shows a makeup-less, ordinary woman get transformed into a billboard hottie. It ends with the message: “No wonder our view of beauty is distorted” (or something like that). (I found out about it on the fab “Nuts & Bolts” blog.)

What I love about this – aside from the gawker value and what it says about unreasonable beauty expectations – is that the Dove brand is using it to advertise these “Real Beauty” workshops designed for 8-12 year-old girls and their moms, sisters, or caregivers. Unbelievable leveraging. What a smart way to take a normal consumer product and turn it into a movement that can have a profound effect on the world (or at least the girls who live here!).

Well done.

Hey - if Dove can change how people think, and attach a giant world-changing cause, through something as squeaky clean and plain as soap, imagine what you can do with your widget?

(Can’t wait to see!)

For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for our ezine, “The Inciter,” at EpiphaniesInc.com!

Posted in All About Content, Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing | 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 11:26 am and is filed under All About Content, Brand Funk, Fun With Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.