Brand Autopsy

SWOMfest Haiku Contest

SWOMfest is happening in Austin on Thursday, October 30. Huh? ... SWOMfest? Yes, SWOMfest.

The Society for Word of Mouth (SWOM) is putting on a one-day conference which promises to share how companies can bake Word-of-Mouth into their business. Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell are the folks behind SWOM and given their experience as world-class marketers, best-selling business book authors, and sought-after speakers … you know this event will deliver upon its promise.

I’m going and so should you.

I believe YOU should go so much that I’m giving away a FREE TICKET to SWOMfest ($325 value).

Oh, but there’s a hoop you must jump through to get your FREE TICKET to SWOMfest …

Yep … you gotta write the coolest Haiku to get your pass to SWOMfest. Submit your Haiku in the comments section of this post and I’ll choose the coolest/funkiest/bestest one as the winner.

The entry deadline is FRIDAY, October 3 at 11:59pm (CST).

A winner will be announced on SATURDAY, October 4.

Need Haiku guidance? It’s a 3 line poem. The first line has 5 syllables, second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables.

Happy Haikuing.

** One comment per person. And make it word of mouth related. This is for a free ticket to a Word of Mouth Conference. Thanks. **

The Do:ology of Slide:ology

Earlier I raised the issue about THE HOW IS MISSING from recently published books on presentation slide design. The comments riffing off the post were great with some passionately arguing for presenters to hire graphic designers to create their presentation slides.

Paul Williams, from the Idea Sandbox business/blog, is someone I respect immensely for his PowerPoint prowess. (Back-in-the-day, Paul and I were the go-to folks within the Starbucks marketing department for PowerPoint tips. Part of our shtick was to go from cubicle-to-cubicle sharing PowerPoint MakeOver advice.)

Paul read my post on THE HOW IS MISSING and decided to recreate the AFTER slide example you see below.

image from slide:ology (O'Reilly)

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It should be noted, Paul only used tools available in PowerPoint to do his slide recreation. As you’ll read, this wasn’t an easy task … even for an PowerPoint pro like Paul. Kudos to Paul for doing the Do:ology of Slide:ology.

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PAUL WILLIAMS: For grins I tried to recreate the slide you used in the example in your post about the slide:ology book. It took me just over 38 minutes to create. I only used the shapes provided in PowerPoint. (I had to use white blocks to mask certain parts to match the look of the original slide).

DOWNLOAD SLIDE (.ppt)

I consider myself an advanced to expert PPT person and this was a big challenge... and my version still looks like crap compared to what appeared in the book.

I do have access to Illustrator and it would have gone faster for me if I had used that. But I wanted to keep it in PPT.

(I do have access to Apple Keynote and it would have taken me just as long, I'm sure. This is not a PPT vs. Keynote issue).

What's not fair is that there are all sorts of custom shapes and shading and stuff in the book illustration that are not part of PPT.

So, it took me 38 minutes to simply make a copy of what existed... The only "creativity" I used was figuring out how to bend PPT to my will...

To have produced this slide originally, you'd have to first have to create the concept of placing a yellow "person" on a curved stage with curved backdrops... THAT is truly the hardest part.

Would you miss Dairy Queen?

Continuing my “Would you Miss” series ...

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Does Dairy Queen provide such a unique product and customer experience that we would be saddened if it didn’t exist? Does Dairy Queen treat its employees so astonishingly well that those workers would not be able to find another employer to treat them as well? Does Dairy Queen forge such unfailing emotional connections with its customers that they would fail to find another fast food restaurant that could forge just as strong an emotional bond?

What say you?

Post inspiration | Mavericks at Work

The HOW is Missing

I’m a marketing ideas guy, not a graphics design guy. I know my way around PowerPoint but am clueless about how to use a program like InDesign. When designing presentation slides I know enough to know fewer words and bigger pictures are better. And when delivering presentations I know to speak to my slides and not read from my slides.

So as a marketing ideas guy who designs and delivers presentations, I’m always looking to improve my game. That’s why I’ve read books on presentation design and delivery like the just-published slide:ology.

slide:ology does a brilliant job of explaining WHY simplicity matters, WHY slide design matters, and WHY storytelling matters. Unfortunately, the HOW is missing.

For example, we see many Before/After makeover slides throughout slide:ology. Here’s one:

The “Before” slide is somewhat satisfactory, but certainly boring. The “After” slide is so much more dynamic and interesting — it rocks! However, as a marketing ideas guy (and not a graphics design guy), I have no idea how to create such a killer graphic.

slide:ology tells me WHAT should be done but shares very little step-by-step direction on HOW to make a killer graphic like the one above. I want to know how to make that killer graphic without having to call on the services of a freelance graphics design guy.

I recommend reading slide:ology because it shares thought-provoking advice like … “The audience will either read your slides or listen to you. They will not do both. So, ask yourself this: is it more important that they listen, or more effective if they read?” … and … “It’s laziness on the presenter’s part to put everything on one slide.”

However, if you, like me, lack graphic design skills and rely on the capabilities of PowerPoint to craft presentations … I recommend you also read BEYOND BULLET POINTS from Cliff Atkinson.

What I appreciate about Cliff’s book is he gives step-by-step directions on how to create better looking and more effective PowerPoint slides. Cliff not only explains the WHAT, he also details the HOW. Now that rocks!

(Note: You can learn more about BEYOND BULLET POINTS from this vintage Brand Autopsy post.)

More Business Failure Commandments

Earlier, we shared takeaways from Donald Keough’s THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF BUSINESS FAILURE.

Today, by way of Seth, we learn of Ed Welch’s list of 101 ways a business WILL destroy itself. Lots of chewy nuggets in Ed’s PDF — below are a few of the chewiest nuggets...

#1. When you have a great product that’s selling well - look for ways to make it cheaper – your customers won’t be able to tell the difference.

#5. Do everything you can to keep your customers from creating a community – you don’t want them talking to each other.

#16. Make sure your employees care more about procedures and rules than customers.

#22. Never try to build customer evangelists – mass advertising has always worked better!

#47. Make sure everyone in your company understands that people are loyal to products and brands – NOT other people and relationships.

SOURCE [.pdf]: 101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe (Ed Welch)

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(Hint … to apply what Ed shares, DO THE OPPOSITE.)

ANSWERS | !!! Required Reading !!!

Homework was given. A quiz was taken. Now its time to grade your work.

Answers are below.

(And no, we will not be grading on a curve.)

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DOWNLOAD QUIZ ANSWERS (.pdf)

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Buzz vs. Sustainable WOM

Kathy Sierra brilliantly (and succinctly) sums up the difference between "Buzz" and "Sustainable" Word-of-Mouth.

*** source link ***

Quiz | !!! Required Reading !!!

As assigned earlier, you were asked to read a conversation between Kip Tindell (The Container Store) and John Mackey (Whole Foods Market). You were also alerted to a “pop quiz.” This is the quiz.

Please answer the questions.

Correct answers to be posted on Mon, Sep. 8 on the Brand Autopsy blog.

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DOWNLOAD PDF of QUIZ

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!!! Required Reading !!!

In June, Time magazine ran a story about the business philosophies of Kip Tindell (ceo/co-founder of The Container Store) and John Mackey (ceo/co-founder of Whole Foods Market). Kip and John are kindred spirits because they hold fast to the belief “empowered employees beget happy customers.”

The article is interesting. However, the transcript of the CONVERSATION between Tindell and Mackey is FASCINATING.

This CONVERSATION is required reading for anyone remotely interested in building a business that matters.

I’m on vacation this week. But you can’t take a vacation until you READ THIS.

What are you still doing here? I ain’t kidding you. I am imploring you to READ THIS. (There will be a quiz.)

** Kudos to Lilly Rockwell of the Austin-American Statesman for the heads-up.