Two Minutes for Entrepreneurial Leaders
by The Creative Alliance Founder and CEO, T Taylor



Our culture’s love affair with overspending, debt, and excesses have produced a Katrina-like financial spreadsheet for businesses and families across America.

Yet, there are some good things emerging from this recession-meets-depression
period in our lives.

A few days ago, President Obama said that businesses are “starting to show mild profits.” This appears to be true, as most of these companies have scaled back, laying off staff, reducing salaries, cutting overhead, and more. “And,” Obama continued, “it’s because businesses are finding they can get by with less.”

While the government wants us to spend more, capitalism demands sensibility.

My companies have experienced this 21st century phenomenon. In the midst of this difficult year, we are starting to do better, and prospects appear to picking up as well.
Have we cut back? Yes. Are we making sacrifices? Absolutely. Like most companies, we are doing whatever it takes to get through this mess.

However, just like smart investors buying in a down market, my firm and many of our clients are ramping up sales and marketing to take advantage of this sluggish economy. That also makes sense. Costs are lower and good deals are being made everywhere. It hasn’t been this affordable to grow a business and increase market share in a decade.

Savvy businesses are sharpening their pencils and doing more for less, being more creative, adding more value, and working extra hard to procure new business. They are giving better service—because they have to. This is all good. It’ll make us more competitive and innovative.

On the personal side, families are tightening their belts and getting closer. There’s less frivolous spending and more thoughtfulness on what’s important. Hmm, that’s a thought: important. There is new light pouring in slowly, as homes, cars and people are using less energy. Is it possible that conservation and conservatism will soon be cool? Trend marketers would put the good money there.

As the holiday spending season is upon us, I hear my wife say how we are going to give homemade gifts this year to friends when we would normally buy something. Our kids are getting less and more practical things. We’ll spend more time together sharing some traditionally favorite meals, instead of going out as much. I’m getting excited just thinking about that. Giving to those in need (and there are many this year), will have extra special meaning.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

by David Heitman

One early morning recently—we’re talking 4:00 am or so—I came to the office to finish a design project that had to go out before break of business day.

I entered our company offices and somehow triggered the burglar alarm. The eardrum-splitting wail would not stop even after I entered the deactivation code.

Tried again. Still blaring.

Called the security company. They’ll send a guy out later. They don’t do 4:00 a.m.

Choice: A) Disappoint the client? B) Save my hearing?

Well, that one’s easy.

I settled in at the computer which just happened to be under the darn burglar alarm.

Stage One: near insanity as the sound reverberates off my molars.

Stage Two: a weird thing happens. I get so engrossed in the project, that I no longer hear the alarm. I was an hour into the work before I realized I had somehow ignored the sound which was still going strong. Some sort of noise-cancelling brain cells had kicked in.

Well, if I could do that, what’s the chance that a clients’ customers may be getting numb to the messaging we help them create?

It’s all reminiscent of the Threat Level Orange* warnings at the airport, having now become some sort of government-inspired Haiku/Muzak hybrid that millions of travels hear but no longer listen to.

Think about the frequency that the Threat Level Orange message has achieved: In just the twenty busiest US airports alone, over the past eight years, this phrase has been heard 35 billion times.

But nobody’s listening.

Is it possible to have too much frequency?

That seems counterintuitive—sort of like you can’t be too thin or have too much RAM in your computer. But it’s true. Frequency is crucial to marketing, but there is also a tipping point where frequency has to hit…another frequency.

It has to reach people from some new angle, with some new hook. Frequency blended with newfound relevance and creative engagement will always trump brute frequency alone.

That’s why, while appreciative of media buyers’ penchant for reach and frequency metrics, I’m convinced that without creativity, frequency is just more threat level orangeade. For example, new research is showing that creative, animated online display ads are far out-stripping their higher frequency cousin, the basic banner ad. Social media is instantly rewarding print and broadcast ads for their creativity by fostering commentary on them and recommendation of them.

Frequency, like any commodity, is necessary but not sufficient. That’s because creativity will always be the ultimate non-commodity.

* By the way, be sure to read the WIRED Magazine story about Threat Level Orange and why we’re perpetually stuck there. The TSA wonks have determined that if they go to red, they’ll freak everyone out. If they change to yellow and, something happens, they’ll be blamed for whatever happens. Net result. Americans are not one whit safer.

by David Heitman, President of The Creative Alliance

According to a recent poll cited in Newsweek, the number of Americans who believe that global warming is caused by human activity is 36%. That’s down from 47% just a year ago.

Only 57% of Americans believe the world is warming at all, down from 71% a year ago.

So what has changed? Have millions of Americans spent the last year studying the scientific evidence and changed their opinion?

Or does the bad economy loom so large that environmental concerns have taken the back seat of the Prius?

Supplanted by economic worries, environmental concerns have been relegated to a lower place on the list of national priorities, which are in essence the collective personal priorities of Americans concerned about job security and retirement.

It’s obvious, and even predictable, that environmental concerns would diminish in a recession. But here’s the truly remarkable part: It has also diminished the intensity of belief in global warming.

In other words, as a topic of public discourse wanes in importance, its believability suffers.

The issue that once held a financially smug nation in its grip, and was making converts by the millions thanks to Al Gore and Co., has now lost its eco-mojo. It’s not only less important to folks—it’s become less credible.

The lesson to marketers and communicators here is that you can only promote one most-important-thing. People—both individuals, and collectively as societies—can be expected to focus on just one most-important-thing at a time. That’s part of the reason healthcare reform is stalled and sputtering.

If Maslov was right, there is a hierarchy of needs that allows concern for massive, academic, long-term issues like global warming only when unemployment is low and 401(k)s are secure. Healthcare reform fits somewhere in the middle between joblessness and climate change.

A corollary to all this is that as economics worsen, there is a tendency for people to invest less time in academic exploration of issues, and instead seek out familiarity in previously held beliefs. The polarization of liberal and conservative news media in the US is evidence of a national dialog that is fractionalizing into two predictable monologs with no converts being made by either side.

So just as every ad in every major magazine once promoted the advertiser’s environmental responsibility (that was so 18 months ago), now the message every company is trying to convey is their economic value in uncertain times.

Well, in good times or bad, the edict that there is only one most-important-thing is a foundational principle of branding. You can’t be everything to everybody. Stand for one clear thing, leave the remaining turf to competitors, and be the best in your category. Sure you shift the benefit statements from time to time for relevance with your audience, but the core of the brand and your deliverable must remain rock solid.

In fact, that kind of tenacity is usually rewarded in tough times when your competitors are shape-shifting with the latest trends.

Two Minutes for Entrepreneurial Leaders:
by The Creative Alliance Founder and CEO, T Taylor

Lauren, the printing rep for our live music business called me the other day and asked, “When would you like me to deliver this month’s promotional material? I heard the printing is done early and thought you might like them now.” I said sure, and asked what time she could bring them by. “How about right now?” Lauren said with the typical smile in her voice.

When she arrived, she pulled me aside and said, “T, I’ve got two tickets for the Nuggets game tonight for you!” Lauren knew I loved basketball. “Wow, I’ll take them!” (not even thinking if I could go or not—just figured I’d make a way). Handing me the envelope, Lauren added, “And I also made sure you got free valet parking.” Walking out the door, she asked about my brother who was recently hospitalized. I said he was in good spirits, thanked her again, and walked back to my office. The next day, my brother called and asked if Lauren was the same girl I was bragging about who did our printing.

She had just sent him flowers.

A recent research study by Convergys confirmed that America has “shifted from a service economy to the experience economy, where customers are in control, brands are becoming commodities and successful companies create consistently superior experiences.” 86% of customers now believe service defines the brand. “The customer experience is at least as important as product quality and more important than brand or price.” The not-so-good news is that 42% of customers will stop doing business with a company following a bad experience…and never tell the company why they left.

After my 11 years at CareerTrack (once the nation’s leader in professional development seminars), and now as a CEO of three businesses, I believe that company leaders can only improve overall customer experience two ways: the first is finding creative ways to “go above and beyond” in delighting customers; the second Is leading by example.

This is good news for Lauren’s company. And, by the way, they just promoted her.

by David Heitman, President of The Creative Alliance

Heard this one the other day:  “A good jockey can’t make a bad horse win, but a bad jockey can make a good horse lose.”

That’s true of marketing. A company that produces mediocre products and delivers poor service won’t last long, even if it hires the best marketing minds in the world. The agency may end up with some great work to show off in their portfolio, but the client and their customers are no better off than when they started.

On the other hand, there are some wonderful organizations with dedicated, talented people offering unique products and services, but whose outdated brand is sending a negative signal to potential customers. Or perhaps they do no marketing at all, or the wrong kind of marketing, and are leaving millions of dollars on the table.

In these scenarios, the good horse (the company) is being ridden by a bad jockey (bad marketing). The good horse never gets the chance to win. The fans (customers) never get a chance to see what the horse can do.

That’s why smart, creative marketing is so important. It gives the good horses a chance to compete. Non-profits, small businesses, multinational corporations…if they’re good horses, they merit a great jockey. They deserve to run…and win.

by David Heitman, President of The Creative Alliance

Whew! The recession is over. Well, that’s a relief

Or so said the Commerce Department. The 3.5% GDP growth in Q3 proves it. Right?

The announcement has been greeted with understandable and almost universal skepticism. It obviously comes as small comfort to the nearly one in ten unemployed Americans and their millions of underemployed brethren.

The problem is that the upheaval of the last year has shaken things up more than we can possibly foresee. The government steroid…er…I mean…stimulus…programs couldn’t help but stem the tide of economic decline temporarily.

I’ve done enough home improvement projects using duct tape to know that temporary fixes work…well sort of.

To call what we’re entering uncharted waters would be an understatement. I know this is true when I see the names of some of the leading new business books: There’s The Chaos Scenario by Bob Garfield (actually a great read) and Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change.

The point is that what has happened in the last year and a half has been more than “disruptive.” That buzzword of the early 2000s sounds somehow quaint today in light of the current situation.

I’m no economist, but at least some of the economic news I read, and more importantly the conversations I’ve had with business owners and CEOs, suggest one thing: That somewhere along the way roughly 25 – 30% of revenue, employee count and most other business measurables have been eliminated.

Not just “disrupted” but permanently destroyed. Disappeared.

It’s as though some cosmic, macroeconomic samurai sword swept down and lopped off the top third of the economy.

Some companies are successfully navigating these dangerous waters, and thankfully, nearly all of our clients are among them. We’ve partnered with them to launch new brands and sub-brands, new products and services, while holding true to their core values, service commitments and brands.

That seems to be the formula. Hold to core values, and then become incredibly creative, nimble, resourceful, responsive and efficient.

Oh, and did I mention fast?