Brand Autopsy

The first CrackerJack Marketer webinar is scheduled for May 18 at 11:00cst. (For those CrackerJacks on the email list, you’ve already been clued in.) For those of you not on the list, you're just now hearing we’re charging an unheard of $4,000* for the webinar.

Why so much?

Because $4,000 is closer to the real value of the information Paul Williams and I are going to share about how a retail business can become a Talkable Brand.

*However, since $4,000 is a ridiculous amount to spend for a 60-minute webinar... we’re giving a massive 99.9% discount when you use the not so secret password of: CRACKERJACK.

That knocks down the price to a reasonable $40.00.

But wait, there’s more... as in, more information about the CrackerJack Marketer webinar.

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WEBINAR
Becoming a Talkable Brand:
How Customer Touchpoints Lead to Customer Talking Points

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The most endearing and enduring retailers connect with customers in the most surprisingly meaningful ways. Most of these ways are invisible to the consumer’s eye. (But not to a CrackerJack Marketer’s eye.) The smartest marketers understand any and every place a customer can “touch” a company is an opportunity to spark conversations and form connections with customers.

Expect a fast-paced webinar loaded with examples galore of actionable best practice advice on how to engage and encourage customers to tell others about brands they find talkable.

Key takeaways from this webinar will include:

• Marketers don’t decide what gets talked about, customers decide.
• Long-lasting word of mouth is more about living a company’s culture every day than delivering upon a heavy-up marketing plan.
• Every employee is actually a member of the marketing department.
• Plus, oodles of ideas on making word of mouth happen to spark conversations leading to higher sales.

Cost:	$4,000* (MEGA discount available. Read below.)
Date:	Wednesday, May 18
Time:	11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (central)
Registration:	Click To Register!
* Use this discount code: CRACKERJACK and receive a 99.9% discount and pay only $40.00

All attendees will receive a detailed PDF summary of the webinar as well as a boost in confidence.

Presenters can learn a lot from comedians on developing a better act. The process in how a presenter crafts, develops, and delivers a presentation is much the same in how a comedian puts together their act.

Presenters and comedians have much in common.

Presenters, like comedians, must share a unique point-of-view. Presenters must also share their unique point-of-view in a smart way, just as comedians must do. Good presenters and good comedians utilize the power of timing and pauses in their delivery. The very best presenters and comedians go the extra mile by managing to give the illusion of their on-stage performance being a dialogue and not a monologue.

Last fall I delivered a presentation sharing some of the lessons I’ve learned from comedians to hone my act. I put the slides up (without narration but with stand-up clips) as an online video. You can watch it here or click play below.

I’m always on the lookout for more lessons from comedians to help me improve as a presenter. HBO recently aired a program called, TALKING FUNNY. It’s a roundtable discussion between master comics Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis C.K.

It’s brilliant. It’s a must watch for anyone in the presentation game.

These comics address so many issues presenters deal with in developing an act, relating to the audience, and finding the funny. Or in our case, finding the pithy, poignant takeaways for attendees to be influenced and inspired by.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing some of the many smart comedy lessons discussed in TALKING FUNNY. I’ll help to translate the comedy lessons into practical presentation lessons.

For example, there’s a discussion between these master comics about how long should a comedian keep the same material in their act. We presenters face the same issue... how long should we continue using the same slides with the same takeaways?

Chris Rock and Louis C.K. throw away their act every year. Meaning, they start from scratch every year and develop an entirely new act.

Jerry Seinfeld takes a different approach. He evolves his act over a long period of time. Jerry knows the first month he starts telling a joke it’s not going to go over as well as it will six months later, when he’s practiced and refined the bit.

In explaining his approach to crafting his act, Jerry relates it to a people management philosophy from legendary ceo Jack Welch: “I like to keep evolving … like how Jack Welch ran GE. Every year he would fire the bottom 10-percent. That’s the way I do it.”

Yes, you read that right.

Jerry Seinfeld applies the Jack Welch 20/70/10 rule to his comedy act. Makes complete sense. Keep the great jokes (the 20%). Continue working on the average stuff (70%) until they become great jokes. And dump the bad jokes (10%) that have no potential to become great jokes.

Turns out, I’ve been using the 20/70/10 rule with crafting my presentations. 20% of my act is proven evergreen material. 70% of my presentations use newer examples with less practiced material. Some of that will become proven, evergreen material and some of it will be destined for the dumpster. And yes, 10% of my presentation material should be put in the dumpster today.

The point is, like Jerry, I cycle through my material. All of us presenters should cycle through our material. Some of us will be more like Chris Rock and Louis C.K. and start from scratch after cycling through all our material within a year. Others of us will be more like Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais and cycle through all our presentation material after a few years.

Expect more “Presently Smartly” lessons on the Brand Autopsy blog from HBO’s TALKING FUNNY roundtable discussion with master comics.

I’ve had some challenging speaking gigs but none more challenging than eulogizing my oldest sister, Lana.

Melana Love Moore Eaves passed away on April 19, 2011. After a prolonged ordeal, her kidneys gave out. She was 47.

I knew this would be a very difficult talk to give.

No more than four minutes. That’s all the time I had to deliver my words. Not nearly enough time to capture the essence of Lana.

As I drove up to Dallas I began to string together something authentic and affecting in my mind. Tears gently rolled down my face as I began stringing together my words.

On Saturday morning I rehearsed my words. I felt confident in delivering an authentic and affecting eulogy.

That confidence waned as I entered the modestly appropriate chapel on Saturday afternoon.

I was overcome with more emotion than I thought. A slideshow of photos spanning Lana’s life brought me to tears. I thought there is no way I will be able to get through my short talk without losing it.

(I prayed for help.)

The service started and this simple video played of my Mother talking about her firstborn daughter, Lana. (Keep in my mind, no one at the funeral had heard my Mother’s voice for several years because she passed away in 2007 from ALS.)

Lolly, Lana’s long-time friend, spoke first. Her talk was from the heart and closed with reciting lyrics from an 80's TV sitcom we all know. So fitting. So lovely. So Lana.

Steve spoke next. (Steve married Lana to her husband, Denny Eaves, in 2008.) He shared Lana’s connection with Christ and ended with reciting verses from Ecclesiastes.

Next was my turn.

Doing my best to keep my composure, I walked behind the podium. Paused. Breathed. And spoke...

I didn’t really know my sister. I knew of my sister more than I knew my sister.

There are many reasons for this.

One reason is age.
When Lana graduated from High School, I had yet to enter Junior High.
There was just too much of a difference in age for me to know my sister.

Another reason is Lana had another family she belonged to ... her family of friends.
Lana chose to spend a lot time with her family of friends.

What I knew of my sister is she always had good intentions.
She meant well.
She wanted to be good to others.

I felt her good intentions when I was in the sixth grade.
One morning I awoke to find Lana at the foot of my bed.
She wanted to be the one to tell me some horrible news.
She wanted to be my big sister and be the one to tell me a friend of mine had committed suicide.

That was Lana’s good intentions in action.

Many, many years passed.
Many Holiday family gatherings passed ... some Lana spent with us and some Lana spent with her other family.

In 2005 I felt very distant to Lana.
So I called her.
Asked her to meet me for lunch.
We talked.
We talked for the first time since I don’t know when.
That felt good.
She better understood my life and I better understood her life.
It was good to reconnect with my sister.

If there is any moral to this story it is to reconnect with someone who you’ve lost touch with.

Call them.
Invite them to lunch.
And talk.
I’m sure they will appreciate your good intentions.

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{PAUSE ... BREATHE ... hold up the scrapbook}

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My mother kept a detailed scrapbook during Lana’s early years.

Every little thing was noted and dated.

The day Lana first crawled. Noted and dated.

Lana’s first syllables, "Da-Da." {Look at Dad.} Noted and dated.

And Lana’s first sentence was noted and dated.

Two weeks before her second birthday, my Mother noted that Lana said, “I want to go home, Mommy.”

We’re about two weeks before Lana’s next birthday ... “Mommy, she’s home.”

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After the service, we met with family and friends in the receiving line. While I managed to not to lose it while delivering my eulogy, I lost it in the receiving line.

Unbeknownst to me, the mother and sister of my childhood friend who committed suicide were in attendance. When they reached me in the receiving line, I lost it. I cried uncontrollably. I also hugged both of them uncontrollably. Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a big-time hugger. Thank you Sherry and Shannon for being there.

And thank you Lana for being my big sister. Although you lived a short life, you’ve taught me life-long lessons. Give Mom an uncontrollable hug from her youngest son.

I recently happened upon a social media tip from an obviously knowledgeable person. Problem was, he had too much knowledge. “Too much knowledge, how could that be bad?,” you ask.

Too much knowledge becomes bad when it becomes a curse that prevents smart people from sharing smart advice that less knowledgeable people can understand. Case in point, this social media tip found online:

"Use the friendship paradox to identify the social brokers at opaque target markets. Identifying people closer to the center of the social graph delivers higher ROI when evangelizing.” [name withheld to protect the guilty]

Obviously, this social media expert has lots of knowledge. He unfortunately suffers from the "Curse of Knowledge."

Chip and Dan Heath wrote about the Curse of Knowledge in MADE TO STICK. Here’s how they explained it,

“Here’s the great cruelty of the Curse of Knowledge: The better we get at generating great ideas—new insights and novel solutions—in our field of expertise, the more unnatural it becomes for us to communicate those ideas clearly. That’s why knowledge is a curse. But notice we said ‘unnatural,’ not ‘impossible.’ Experts just need to devote a little time to applying the basic principles of stickiness.”

The antidote to the “Curse of Knowledge” is the Blessing of Simplicity. Using simple, easy-to-understand words will make you look smarter because you’ve communicated your complex advice in an easy-to-digest way.

Don’t confuse simple words with dumbing something down. It’s actually harder to use simple, jargon-free words than it is to use supposedly smart and knowledgeable words.

For example, here’s another social media tip I found online that probably says the same thing the “friendship paradox” quote was trying to say,

“Remember that this is social. Don’t approach it as an opportunity to sell, sell, sell. It’s about building relationships and trust – things that take time and come from reliable and repeatable actions. Treat social media just as you would a social function in real life.” [name withheld to not make the guilty guy look guiltier]

Ahh ... much easier to understand.

NOTE: To understand my Starbucks bias, scroll to read my disclosure statement.

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I can’t recommend Howard Schultz’s book, ONWARD: How Starbucks fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, to every business book reader. I can only recommend Howard book chronicling his second go-round as Starbucks ceo to about 250,000 people.

ONWARD will only appeal to the current 200,000 Starbucks employees, thousands of ex-employees, thousands of wannabe employees, analysts working on Wall Street, and a handful of Starbucks customer zealots.

ONWARD has such focused appeal because it’s all inside baseball stuff. Howard positions too many insignificant details as earth-shattering business defining decisions. The only people who can fully appreciate and understand the minutia Howard writes about are those 250,000 people whose jobs are linked to Starbucks or whose lives are fanatically linked to Starbucks.

For example, Howard spends time writing about the switchover from the old automatic espresso machines to the new automatic espresso machines. He waxes poetically about giving Starbucks baristas “world-class technology at their fingertips.” And he agonizes about finding the opportune time to “announce the Mastrena to the marketplace [Wall Street].” Palpable stuff for those closest to Starbucks and not really for anyone else.

Another palpable moment in the transformation story of Starbucks detailed by Howard is the decision to remove heated sandwiches from the stores. Howard felt, and rightfully so, the smell of burnt cheese overtook the smell of coffee in the stores. So we, the reader, get to learn all the details about Howard being conflicted in removing the sandwiches because sales would suffer and Wall Street wouldn’t be happy.

We also get to learn the nitty gritty in how Starbucks cracked the code on serving heated sandwiches without overtaking the smell of coffee. Turns out, according to Howard, “... by moving the cheese to the top of the sandwich and lowering the baking temperature to about 300º F, the cheese was less likely to burn. The result was, I had to admit, a breakfast offering that was worthy of our coffee.”

Now do you understand the limited appeal of this book? This is all great stuff for Starbucks employees to know and for prospective employees to be aware of, but not necessarily anything anyone else would be remotely interested in.

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Besides the book’s focused appeal, ONWARD has many AWKWARD moments. One such awkward moment is where Howard refers to himself, multiple times, as the founder of Starbucks. (Jerry Baldwin, Zev Seigal, and Gorden Bowker might have something to say about that.)

Another awkward ONWARD moment deals with Starbucks positioning its lighter-taste profile coffee, Pike Place Roast, as “... nothing less than our reinvention of brewed coffee.” Howard writes, “For customers, Pike Place Roast ushered back in some of what had been missing in our coffee experience. Aroma. Freshness. A little theater. And... Pike Place would be proof that the company was actively reclaiming its coffee authority.”

Most people I talk to and the Starbucks employees I’ve talked with have a different opinion about Pike Place Roast. It’s lacks the bold flavor Starbucks built its coffee reputation on and in no way, can this every day coffee be viewed as reinventing brewed coffee. It’s simply a coffee that tastes more like coffee people can expect from Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s. Howard even admits Pike Place Roast is “... a bit light for [his] personal preference.”

Perhaps the most awkward moment is the many times Howard derides how Wall Street measures the success of a company based upon short-term financial figures. Yet, Howard essentially claims victory in transforming the company because in fiscal 2010, financials for the company were at an all-time from revenue to operating income to operating margin. It’s too early and born of too much hubris to proclaim victory.

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Awkward moments aside, there are many VANGUARD moments in ONWARD where Howard shares smart, thought-leading business advice for entrepreneurs, marketing managers, and business owners/operators. However, these vanguard moments are hidden deep inside in the 330+ pages of overly dramatized details.

I’ve collected ten VANGUARD moments in this SlideShare presentation. Along with the smart business advice snippets, I’ve added in some audio commentary to explain why that moment is a VANGUARD moment. Click the play button to view the slides and hear my commentary. Enjoy...

AUDIO INSIDE | click the play button below

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DISCLOSURE: I am a biased reviewer of anything Starbucks. Why? I worked there for eight years a marketer in the mid-90s and early 2000s. I wrote a book sharing some of the fundamental business and branding principles Starbucks followed to become an iconic brand. The consulting advice I pass along to businesses is steeped deep with my knowledge of how Starbucks became a beloved brand. I also know too many of the long-time Starbucks employees who were laid off during the bad times. My perspective is influenced because of my experience but my opinions are also shaped by now having an outsider’s view of Starbucks. (Also, while I receive many business books from publicists and publishers, I bought my copy of ONWARD.)

UPDATE: I received a free copy of ONWARD from a publicist. It has been donated to the Austin Public Library.

Not too long ago, in a business galaxy not too far away... Paul Williams and I were retail marketing managers at Starbucks Coffee. Our hands were always dirty working in the trenches designing and implementing marketing programs to acquire new customers and to get current customers to buy more, more often—standard retail marketing activities.

Since my days at Starbucks, I’ve spent time at Whole Foods Market as a national retail marketing director and more recently as a one-man marketing advice shop with Brand Autopsy.

Paul has spent his post Starbucks days building out his Idea Sandbox brainstorming business helping clients generate remarkable marketing ideas.

Over the years Paul and I have kept in touch and have worked together on a few retail marketing projects. The work we’ve done has been top-notch and we’ve had fun doing it. So much fun that we’ve decided to create an offshoot business to help you become a really good marketer... a CrackerJack Marketer.

The CrackerJack Marketer business is being setup to share lessons we’ve learned about the retail marketing game. Everything we’re doing with CrackerJack Marketer is to help marketing managers and retail business owners better solve for acquiring new customers and getting current customers to buy more, more often.

Learn more by watching this homemade video...

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The simplest way for you to participate is through signing up to receive the CrackerJack Marketer email newsletter. Each month you’ll receive a strong dose of retail marketing knowhow packaged in an easily digestible email. For signing up, you’ll immediately receive a .pdf of our Ten Timeless Tips for Marketing Career Success. The cost is only your permission and your time.

Another easy way to participate is follow the CrackerJack Marketer website. Every week, Paul and I will give two answers and two perspectives to relevant marketing questions like: How best should a Brand Style guide be designed? ... Is a sports sponsorship with the expense? ... Is sampling the best way to drive trial of a new product? All totally free marketing advice.

We’ll also be doing monthly CrackerJack Marketer webinars (beginning in May). Topics for these webinars will be timely like “When and How to Use Groupon to Boost Sales” and timeless like, “Designing Effective Customer Loyalty Programs.” There’ll be a charge for these webinars but the payoff from attending and learning will be large.

With CrackerJack Marketer, we’re also offering various tiers of consulting services. Learn more here.

The Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice will continue, just as Paul’s Idea Sandbox business will also continue. We’re just adding on a new way to work with businesses by focusing our advice solely on the retail marketing game with CrackerJack Marketer. Come along for the ride...