Business Week presented a fantastic online article on the lessons a number of businesses learned when they survived the Great Depression. You can read it yourself at: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1017_depression_lessons/1.htm but I’ve boiled them down into the points here:

· Get creative in your marketing

· Be open to new possibilities and innovations

· Think in the long term

· Hang on to your good people

· Improve your core

· Customer service is key

· Don’t abandon your brand; can’t shrink to win

Get Creative!

A.E. Schmidt was a billiards table manufacturer. One of the ways they got creative during the Great Depression was to send media to work camps, where billiards became the chief form of entertainment.

Bixler’s, a jeweller/silversmith, opened up a lending library to get people into their store.

D.G. Yuengling & Son, who survived by making near-beer during prohibition, sent a truckload of its Winner Beer to President Roosevelt when it lifted.

Be Open and Innovative!

Cornell Iron Works became open to work they wouldn’t normally consider.

Crane & Co. adapted the business to changes in the industry – for example, when stocks went from using certificates to being electronic, they shifted to security features for currency. D.G. Yuengling & Son diversified, using the owner’s shrewd business sense to determine good investments.

Don’t forget Google – their innovations in search technology is what allowed them to emerge from the Dot-Bombs and Y2K as an industry giant!

Think in the Long Term!

Harden Furniture refused to abandon efforts to promote their brand, knowing it was impossible to become succeed by shrinking away from the public. The company got smaller during the depression but their marketing didn’t.

Adapting to industry like Crane & Co. also always means to look ahead as well as being open to innovation.

Hang On to Your Good People!

Crane & Co. went to great lengths to retain its employees – when you lose people, you lose their experience, spirit and skills as well as their labour. In order to retain them during the Great Depression, they went from milling paper to painting houses.

Don’t forget: turnover has a high overhead cost, not just in compensation, time invested in interviews and training. Morale, experience and insight get lost as well.

Improve Your Core!

Marshall Elevator didn’t have the resources to diversify or expand like Yuengling & Son, so instead they focused on core competencies and offering top-notch customer service. Marketing is more than just advertising – it’s knowing what your customers want and being sure to provide it.

Martin Guitars might be a bit stodgy in their principles, but they’re reliable and when it comes to bills, there are no surprises. When times got bad and their competitors changed their policies, theirs remained the same –a steady, sturdy oak in the storm.

Customer Service is Key!

Bixler’s jewellers philosophy was to get and give the best value for the money, and that helped them build customer loyalty spanning generations.

Harley Davidson dealers like Rocky’s or Kitchener-Waterloo Harley Davidson keep close tabs on their customers’ satisfaction. By following up sales promptly allows them to address concerns and where they stand in the marketplace. Outstanding customer service is their driving force – and their clients, some of whom will drive two to three hours just to do business with a dealer they trust.

Don’t Abandon Your Brand

As mentioned in the Harden Furniture example, you can’t abandon your brand or shrink to win. When it comes to branding juggernauts, Apple is a prime example in these times – especially considering how close the company came to total failure until Jobs returned to the company. While the products themselves are good, the Apple brand itself is the true power – it’s consistent and omnipresent throughout anything to do with Apple, from the store to the distinctive iPod earbuds.

You might not have resources of Apple or its brand power, but without a brand, how can you distinguish yourself from direct competitors, future competitors and substitutions? A brand is your business identity. If you don’t have a clear brand, or don’t invest in it to some degree, you might as well paint yourself grey and change your name to “Generico” for all the good it will do you.

If you discovered the meaning of life, what kind of impact would it have?  Would you have new purpose?  Inner peace?  Would sharing your secret make you rich – or would you just give it away?  (Which would probably make you famous… with wealth following)

Would your enlightened self still need to eat, breathe, and sleep?

My point is that before you obtained enlightenment, you needed food, water, and shelter.  During your enlightenment, you’d still need food, water, and shelter.  Enlightenment wouldn’t change those facts (unless you transcended your physical form – but then you can also forget about the fame and material wealth) Hence the Zen saying:  “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water”

Business has a Zen of its own, too.

The basic survival needs of a business are:

• Marketing
• Accounting
• Profit.

Some might argue that all a business really needs to survive is profit, but that’s like arguing all we need is liquid bread. For legitimate businesses, profit is what you want, marketing and accounting is how you make it.

Before the economic panic that we’re currently enduring, you needed to market your product, services and brand, keep careful track of your cash flow, and if everything went well you’d make a profit.  Those rules still haven’t changed – what has is the margin of error.  When times are good, you can afford to make more mistakes.  When times are too good people make BIG ones (much to the chagrin to Accounting), and that leads to panics like what we’re dealing with now.  The Zen of Business is to never forget the basic rules regardless of feast or famine.

Now is not the time to cut your marketing.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going:  It’s time to focus your marketing activities more than ever.  The only thing that thrives during a downturn is innovation and guts.  Innovation is Marketing’s department.  (The reality check is Accounting’s department, and they will be energetic in telling you exactly how gutsy you can afford to be)

If your market has shrunk, just don’t say “it’s the crisis” and leave it at that.  WHY has the crisis affected your market?  Do you know if your market invests heavily?  Are they affected directly or indirectly due to their employers’ investments?  Keep asking questions – once you’ve questioned something five times as Christopher Lochhead suggests, you’ll start to get the real picture.  Knowing the answers to these ‘whys?’ may draw your attention to new opportunities.  People who might not have considered your business before might be open to it now and your market might very well have just grown substantially.

If you want your business to survive, it’s marketing, accounting, and profit.  If you want your business to thrive, it’s marketing, accounting, and profit.  That is the Zen of Business.  It and applies now, it will continue to apply when the economy recovers, and throughout the next crisis.

From Kris Abel’s Tech Life:
Cool Link - Hello Sour Sally!
by Kris Abel on Thu 11 Sep 2008 09:55 AM EDT

I’m a regular reader of Kris Abel’s blog, and one of his “Cool Links” recently caught my attention.
“Hello Sour Sally” (http://www.hellosoursally.com/) is the home page for a frozen yogurt shoppe in Jakarta, created by Kinetic Singapore.  (http://www.kinetic.com.sg)

Sour Sally as a home page is completely Flash driven, but chooses to use platform game-style controls instead of a traditional site navigation:

• She initially starts floating around with a balloon, which you pop to make her land into cups of yogurt that represent the site content.
• If you pop her balloon, you can get a new one at almost any time, or you can travel by foot.  Using the cursor keys, you can run, jump and use cupcake springboards to traverse the site.
• If you collect all the possible frozen yogurt ingredients, your game experience is completed with the additional “reward” content being unlocked.

If the game-like navigation isn’t your thing, you can still browse the site via menu tab.

With only 7 content dialogues (not including the hidden bonus) there’s not really a lot of actual copy on the site, which could be the reason for the whole ‘game’ experience of it.

It’s a fresh approach to a home page, but does it work?

From a marketing perspective I’m going to say “Yes”. Kinetic either had a clearly defined brand identity to work with or they really did a good job of helping Sour Sally define it.

Their Brand Identity:  “something different but sweet”

Their Product:  Non-fat frozen yogurt with unusual toppings (avocado?) and flavours (green tea!).  According to the website, the actual shoppe itself is equally quirky and filled with various nick-knacks, and thus the experience is part of the product.  Matching with their identity, it’s different but sweet.

How Their Site Works:

“Different but sweet” pretty much well captures the vision of the site’s design, from the pen-and-ink art style, choice of music, novel navigation, and message presented in the style of an old-fashioned children’s storybook.  The message is consistent across the board.   They could have easily done the site without the game-like navigation, but incorporating it just heightens the brand identity – DIFFERENT in a GOOD WAY.

How could this be applied to other businesses?

It’s not the navigation, artwork, music or style.  What makes the technique is the brand has:

• A clearly defined identity.
• A single, consistent message.
• A little bit of honest truth.

What, what?   A bit of truth?  In marketing?

Yes.  To demonstrate how whimsical Sour Sally applies this:  No-Fat Frozen Yogurt, in the world of desserts, is the ‘loser mama’s boy’ of the group.  Even if you like it, the ‘no fat’ dessert makes it look like you’re watching your weight and behaving yourself with a ‘wanna-be’ ice-cream instead of just eating something fun.

Hence, Sour Sally’s ‘weird kid’ avatar WORKS. She’s the friendly oddball that shows you something different and is fun to be around.  She’ll never be a part of the clique and she’s honestly OK with that with no hard feelings at all.  She offers green-tea no-fat frozen yogurt with avocado and choco-balls.

Turning a little bit of honest truth – especially one that’s a little negative — into a brand identity is hard, which is why “Hello Sour Sally” is such a clever site worth highlighting.

I’d like to hear your thoughts and comments as to the effectiveness of Kinetic’s site design for “Hello Sour Sally”.  Please comment on this post, or email me at scott (at) rgdirect (dot) com!

From Toronto Mayor David Miller’s proclamation:

“Childhood cancers differ from adult cancers, with adults suffering from breast, lung, prostate, bowel and bladder cancers.  Children are most affected by acute leukemia, tumors of the brain and nervous system, the lymphatic system, kidneys, bones and muscles…
… over 80% of children will win their battle with cancer; however, nearly 2/3 of all survivors may develop late effects from treatment which can last through adulthood”

Cancer has deeply touched my own life, affecting several of my family members over the past few years, rearing its vile head again only recently.  As hard as it’s been to deal with, I can’t begin to imagine having to come to grips with cancer at age 12 like Cassy.

Cassy has Ewing’s Sarcoma – an aggressive cancer that starts in the bone. Her mother’s taken an indefinite leave of work to help her deal with chemotherapy treatments and monthly hospital stays.  The problem is that it cuts the family’s income in half, and there are no programs available to cover the loss.

Fortunately, there’s a community effort to help overcome this hardship that you, if you’re local to London Ontario, can take part in:  “Kickin’ for Cassy”, a soccer fundraiser set for September 21st.

From the Press Release:

“Cassy’s brother Zach is goalie for the Nor’West Nitro boy’s regional soccer team. Team parents wanted to help the family and went to work with what they knew – soccer.  Lisa Heslop, team manager, explains how Kickin’ For Cassy took shape. “Our system doesn’t provide for families in these kinds of situations where family incomes are cut in half with no notice. People are amazing in getting on board to raise funds to help Cassy and her family during her battle with cancer. A lot of people are helping out for the September 21st soccer day plus at the London Knights September 26th game there will be a sports memorabilia silent auction.”

Kickin’ For Cassy, sponsored by Nor’West Optimist Soccer Club and the Optimist Club of Nor’West London, will take place Sunday, September 21 at North London Soccer Fields (Adelaide at Kipps Lane). The fun-filled family day, starting at 11:30 a.m., will feature performances by local band Tomorrow Depends.

The Ultimate Soccer Challenge between the London Police and London Firefighters will be a highlight as will be matches between Masters and Coaches and Nor-West Nitro vs. London City Juventus and Women’s Master Leagues soccer games.

A barbecue, raffle table, silent auction, family games, canine demonstrations, and soccer skills competitions round out the day. Kids can buy a “shot on Zach” for $1 to test his goalie skills. Organizers still need more donations of food, raffle and silent auction items as well as cash donations for Kickin’ for Cassy.”

For additional information:
check out www.kickinforcassy.com
or contact:

Lisa Heslop, Tel: 519-200-6514
Email:  lheslop(at)policelondon(dot)ca

Thanks to a Tweet from Mathew Ingram, this video was brought to my attention:

This is a prime example of how a brand should respond to its people. Not firing up the legal team, not demanding someone take a video down because they made fun of your stuff, and not screaming copyright infringement like you’re Golum and someone has “your precious”.

Let’s take a brief look at what the video has accomplished:

1. Makes EA look human – “Hey, they’re posted video responses on YouTube just like anyone else!” = PR Boost!
2. Demonstrates EA has a sense of humour = PR Boost!
3. Demonstrates EA listens to its fans = PR Boost!
4. Encourages fandom – instead of being ignored, or worse, threatened legally, EA is encouraging people to create fan videos about various nuisances in the game.  Fandom means powerful, far-reaching and FREE marketing.  And a PR Boost!

This is how you effectively use a social networking tool like YouTube to your advantage. Very simply, you use it like anyone else for the purpose it was intended for.  No clever schemes, no seeding, no shilling, no spamming.  It’s natural and it’s human.

Take away lessons:

1. If someone posts about you, it means they’ve seen you and they want to tell others about you.  Unless they’re claiming you’re the Snidely Whiplash, leverage that free publicity.  It only gets you seen and remembered more.
2. If what they posted is clever, funny or entertaining, reward them with a little recognition.  This only encourages others to create even more publicity for you, while giving your brand some humanity to boot.

“The Word of Mouth Manual II” is an e-book, but it’s also available in print.  The book was discovered via an entry-level BzzAgent campaign I was invited to.  It’s free to share, so I’ve included it here:  http://www.bzzagent.com/monkey/. Dave Balter has a decent share of excellent insights and observations.
If you’ve read Seth Godin’s Unleashing the Ideavirus, a lot of the content will seem like review; both books want to tap into the same potential of using people to spread the word about a product in a natural way.  (The authors share more than just book themes in common – they both have web-based companies which reflect their passion and ideologies.)

Balter makes his case across three chapters, reviewed here:

“What You Should Know (In Theory)”

The chapter’s title is truth in advertising; it’s a review of everything that you, in the business of marketing or a recent graduate from a business marketing program, should already know.  The preferred list, the makings of a good conversation, cognitive dissonance, the difficulty of measuring Word of Mouth and cultural complications should all just be review.  Despite this, it serves the purpose of bringing what you should already know to the front of your mind again, as it’s all related to the rest of the book.

While I’m grateful that it isn’t loaded down with catch-phrase jargon, my problem with this chapter is that the examples tend to be of the “100% Pure” variety, yet Balter states that 99.99% of companies will never achieve this.  I appreciate the need to have powerful illustrations of potential, but I would have preferred more down-to-earth case studies.  Comparisons between the costs and success of a traditional campaign to that of a word-of-mouth campaign would have better proved his points.

“What You Probably Know Already (Unless You Don’t)”

Balter, like most people with new or different concepts, must have come up with a fair share of naysayers because a good is spent defending BzzAgent’s method of operation.  I found the presented arguments against ‘managed word of mouth’ to be a bit suspect – such as the very first one where someone claims to have never remembered a time where she offered or received an opinion about a product or service, ever.  At the same time, having logged enough time on the Internet I know there are a lot of crazy opinions and theories floating around, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt if only so he can prove a point. If you question the effectiveness of Word of Mouth, please read this chapter and let me know your thoughts.

In comparison, his arguments on the strengths of BzzAgent were well presented, especially the points that communication shouldn’t be automated and that favours shouldn’t have a cash value.

“Random Bonuses Are Worth Talking About”

The closing  chapter is actually an example of the sort of thing you should look for to see if your campaign was a success – albeit several years down the road.  It’s a little piece Balter wrote back in ’91 as a true “typical college student” as he wrote about various brands that shaped his childhood, not for the purpose of promotion (unless Quaker Oats had a campaign involving crash-and-burn celebrity lifestyles) but simply because he remembered them.

Conclusion

“The Word of Mouth Manual II” by Dave Balter is presented well for quick absorption, with an understanding that the people who read books like this don’t have a whole lot of time to do so.  I wouldn’t call the book a “Must Read” but I certainly recommend it– it’s not long, it’s presented well and there are some really good insights to be gained.

No egos. No agendas. No membership fee. The London Creative Network is an organization of London’s creative industry - graphic designers, web developers, photographers, illustrators, writers, marketers, printers, account managers, students, and even waterboys. Everyone is welcome!
 
It’s wonderful to find an outlet that you can relate with a large group of people that truly understand the ins and outs of the evolving marketing world – without having to stand around and “talk shop”. It’s like a virtual watercooler that we can meet at and discuss the things that we only do in secret at work. Although you will be pressed to hear “did you see what she was wearing?” This isn’t a fashion show or a competition.
 
If you are on this site  and you have some relation to the amazing world of advertising and design – and I am sure in need of some relaxation and meeting some interesting people, join us at the next meeting.  There is a LCN event scheduled quarterly – check out londoncreative.net - or email Amanda@rgdirect.com and I’ll keep you informed.

Response is excited to launch our marketing blog. We’re looking forward to connecting with you in the coming months as we start contributing a regular flow of topics of value to our customers and colleagues. We hope you’ll join the conversation.