S.O.S.O. – The Drug of Choice for Some Businesses - How About Yours?

S.O.S.O. is the abbreviation for the Same Old Same Old. It does have a rhythm to it. And, it’s as comfortable as an old shoe. Many once successful businesses have been lulled into oblivion by its soothing sameness. Those who are completely addicted to it are easy to spot. They usually use tired clichés such as; turn your dreams into reality. Or, we're the key to your success and my favorite; we're here to serve you.

Why do these same addicts call in someone like me to fix their S.O.S.O. problem? Because they’re not aware of their addiction, only the results of it and they state with a straight face that need a boost of something. They earnestly tell me that they need someone to help them start thinking outside the box. They need something fresh. They offer examples like – hey, how about carpe deim? And, ultimately as soon as new ideas are presented threatening their comfort zone, they backslide. They can’t deal with what they said they think they wanted and fall out of the program and end up exactly where they started. Blaming practitioners like me of course.

Are they even aware that they may be - living lives of quiet desperation or, as the man who coined that line, Henry David Thoreau, wrote to his friend Harrison Blake, “It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” Do these same S.O.S.O. addicts realize that their customers and advertising audience doesn’t like being spoken to with such innocuous drivel? Think of how many of these once tried and true promises were used too often and only communicate that they are now nothing more than tired and through clichés. These promises are now seen as vapid little transparent lies just like the classic; the check is in the mail, I’ll call you in the morning or, the universal hybrid lie-cliché – I have a headache!

There’s a measuring stick that marketers use to gauge the age of a business. It’s called the business cycle. Every business starts off at step, or stop one if you prefer in the four step/stop cycle. Every business was new at some point. It didn’t just spring fully formed as Venus did from the head of Zeus. If your business is at the new or introductory stage you can become as addicted to S.O.S.O. as the seasoned vets. In fact, if you do, you’ll cliché yourself out of business so fast that you’ll never make it to the next business stage. I’m sorry! Here I’ve been ranting about written or verbal clichés and totally forgot about the visual ones. How about photos of babies, kitties and puppies? Then, there are the cute chimps, beautiful horses and overtly buxom women just to name just a few more.

At the growth stage, a business is usually successful at attracting customers. The challenge is the growing part – attracting more and repeat customers. I’m not so sure a business can grow if it’s going to depend on S.O.S.O. to get them there. What about successful businesses that also drink the S.O.S.O. Kool-Aid? Well, they must have something people can’t get anywhere else. Now imagine if they were more imaginatively evolved? They would be far more successful. Even these businesses can eventually reach the third stage with the same old same old. But, if a new competitor comes into their environment who knows how to speak to consumers, they’ll bump the S.O.S.O. business right to the very last stage. More about that - just a bit.

The third stage of the business cycle is the maturity stage. At this level, or stage, even those who were lighting up the sky at one time can get hooked on S.O.S.O. and eventually become a shadow of their former selves. The comfort and security of longevity can lull even the best businesses into a stupor, or worse yet, rigor. Once you start hearing the excuses, which are clichés in their own right, such as; we tried that once, management would never go for it or, it might just be a fad and we don’t want to get in there just yet. All aboard the Tiny Train to Oblivion! Then, of course, when reality hits the fan and gets on everyone and the jagged little bits start to become unavoidable, they realize they’ve just had their ticket punched for the fourth stage - decline - the stage few escape from. In German, klein means small. Sales are fewer and smaller. Profits are smaller. Client rosters are smaller and on it goes until the company gets so small – it disappears!

So, if you’re hooked on the soothing, numbing and mind clouding affects of S.O.S.O. you’re business or organization will eventually become as small as your manner of thinking. Think small. Be small. Avoid S.O.S.O. from the start. You can’t afford it at the new or introductory stage. You can’t and won’t grow as much as you would have or could have if you’re happy with the same old same old. And, even if you make it to the second or growth stage, any competitor can stop you in your tracks if they’re perceives as newer, fresher or better than what you have to offer. Maturity doesn’t mean security. It just means you’ve managed to get to the third or, mature stage of business. And, no matter what stage you’re at, it can be a quick hop, skip and jump to the final or decline stage. All because you embraced S.O.S.O.

Only Jesus Could Get Pots & Pans That Clean!

No, I’m not being sacrilegious. Before you judge, let me sound out the title for you: Only Hey-Zeus Could Get Pots & Pans That Clean! Jesus was a Latino dishwasher in a restaurant I once worked at and, he was perhaps the best pot scrubber I’ve ever encountered. I still don’t know what his secret to pot scrubbing success was but I do know he was very proud of his abilities. Why I’m even writing about Jesus and his pot scrubbing skills is simple enough. Dishwashers; good ones, are hard to come by. And, in nearly all of the restaurants I worked in from the time I was fourteen and up through college, and for a bit beyond, good dishwashers were rewarded.

However, rewarding a good or even great dishwasher, especially one who was an excellent pot scrubber as well, always seemed counterproductive to me. Truth be known, that was my first step towards becoming a cook. So what is my problem with that? I really don’t have a problem with it in general. But I do think it’s an excellent example of how management, no matter how well intentioned, can sometimes totally miss the big picture.

Look, a dishwasher, although usually considered the bottom of the totem pole and a classic point of entry to the food service industry, is, in my estimation one of the most overlooked pivotal positions in any restaurant. I always told my dishwashers how appreciated they were. As a supervisor, I never let my cooks abuse them. I had a simple rule that all cooks had to follow - you burn it, you scrub it. You see, if a dishwasher decided to fold their arms and refuse to work or, just quit and leave, the restaurant’s wait staff would suffer. Dishes would pile up. Cooks would run out of dishes. Wait staff would have nothing to deliver to their guests.

Think of how an anticipated restaurant visit can be for you or how it can be ruined by dirty silverware. Dried-up egg on your fork isn’t the end of the world but it is an indication that service standards may be out of sync. The dishwasher, regardless of competence, doesn’t set the table. Either the host or the wait staff does. One dirty fork ruins one customer’s (guest’s) experience and everything else is gauged off of that. Now imagine what happens with an incompetent dishwasher or, one who refuses to be abused, walks out. The result is pandemonium. Cooks are rewarded with better pay. Wait staff is rewarded with better shifts and sections. How are dishwashers rewarded? They’re trained to be prep-cooks!

What’s wrong with that? Let’s go back to Jesus. He deserved to be rewarded. But, by making him a prep-cook, management created two problems. They lose a great dishwasher and now they have to find a replacement dishwasher. Finding one of the same caliber is not that easy. That’s why the really good ones stand out. What’s my solution? Give the man a raise. Give him added responsibility. More importantly, make him responsible for training new dishwashers and establishing a legacy of dish washing and pot scrubbing excellence. Everybody wins!

If you apply a standard dictionary definition of management – it’s how an organization’s enterprises and activities are coordinated within a structured environment with specifically defined objectives. Management guru Peter Drucker (1909-2005) defined the management as twofold: marketing and innovation. Yes, I’m still in awe of Alvin Toffler who wrote Future Shock, which I’m re-reading forty years later. In the book he describes how technical innovation consists of three stages, “First, there is the creative, feasible idea. Second, its practical application. Third, its diffusion through society.” With that in mind, innovation, in general is about a concept that can be applied and spread throughout an organization.

Jesus obviously grasped the concept of what it took to make pots and pans, as shiny and bright as when they were new, quickly and effectively. His knowledge and skill was not only practical but it could be learned by and applied by others within the organization. First, to solve a problem, you must first identify it correctly. Second, how many practical solutions are there, or do you know of, to solve this problem and, which may be the most effective in theory? Third, how will the selected solution be most effectively applied in practice for the anticipated result? Miraculous!

Writing Proposals is Part of the Solution. Accepting the Correct One is the Solution.

Marketing and advertising have their own language just like law and medicine. And, like those disciplines, marketing is a practice. A practice is a business that is professionally engaged and offers clients a specific type of professional service, which it works at repeatedly in order to become proficient at it. Many practices write proposals summarizing and outlining the services they feel a prospective client may need. The proposal is usually based on a brief meeting where specific questions are asked by the practitioner, as well as, the prospective client describing why they need the professional assistance.

Marketing isn’t as much a science as medicine is, nor is it as highly regulated as the law. However, it does have it methods and practices and, as Al Ries and Jack Trout described in their (1993) book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! Conveying this sense of structure to clients can sometimes be difficult without first discovering what their perceptions about marketing are and why they feel they need it now. It is sometimes easier sticking yourself in the eye with a pencil. Why?

In many cases, the prospective client believes they know what’s wrong with their business. And, in many cases they are wrong. So, the solution they already envisioned before contacting the marketing practitioner is also wrong. But part of their solution is to find a marketer whose solution matches the problem they believe is the cause of their woes. Why then, are they looking for help with their marketing? Because, they don’t know how to execute the solution they’ve already identified. What a great start to a relationship! If I can survive through this first meeting and be asked for a proposal, that means they expect a plan that matches what they already believe is the solution to their problem. Do doctors and lawyers go through anything similar to this?

I assume they do but their credibility is related to how high up their professions are ranked, the size of their practice and their location of course. Maybe marketers are closer to lawyers. You only call them when you really, really need to. Preparing any client proposal or presentation is time consuming and not profitable since no fees have been paid. Plus, the probability that other marketers will be spending their time on a proposal is almost always certain. Now the issue here is not who has the absolutely correct solution; rather it’s more who has the solution the prospective client feels most likely matches their problem for a fee their willing to pay.

What a great start to a potential relationship! So, here’s what I do. I meet with the prospective client at their place of business and let them talk and then I ask them pointedly specific questions. While I’m there, I observe what is or is not going on and make note of it. I cannot and will not offer any seat of the pants solutions. But, I do walk away with a sense of what is really needed. If I can be invited to offer a proposal, I usually go with what I’ve heard and what I’ve felt based on thirty plus years in the business. And even then, when I’m writing the proposal, I know I may not have the actual solution because more time needs to be spent finding it.

My proposals are short; one or two pages because no one reads. The problem is that many prospects feel that enough thought hasn’t gone into it. Shirley Polycoff the legendary Madison Avenue copywriter who created one of the most famous ad slogans ever Clairol’s – Does she or doesn’t she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure hair dye campaign in a day and age where women who dyed their hair were considered of low moral character. She knew what she was up against. She also knew she was doing more than selling a product. She was changing the public’s perception of women who dyed their hair. The solution was simple but Shirley knew that if you give a client a concept too quickly, especially one as critical as this, they would feel she didn’t work hard enough on it. She came up with her Clairol concept the first time out. She wrote it down and put it in her desk drawer for a couple of weeks before presenting it. Oh, which reminds me, psychology is a practice too.

With all that in mind, my proposals are outlined based on these points: Objective, Reason, Purpose and Direction. What is the actual objective of what the client wants or, more importantly, what they need? If the objective is to eliminate a problem, it makes more sense to make sure the actual or correct problem has been identified. A client’s classic identified problem: Increasing sales. Increasing sales is not an objective. If you could increase sales you would be doing it and obviously it is not happening. What is the objective is; identifying what is preventing sales from being where they should be. A good place to start would be assessing why shopper and buyer traffic is flat or falling. An objective describes a goal. So, increasing sales could be a goal, the question remains, why is it not happening and how to make it happen?

What is the reason for the goal? Increasing sales will do what to the company and why? Increasing sales will do what for the company and why? What is the purpose of the goal? And, what will increasing sales indicate to management? What direction will achieving the goal take the company? Increasing sales will mean what for the company and why?

To some, this seems like babble. To others, it appears to be simple. But, these are hard questions. Some of the answers involve painful or costly changes, eliminating current or, adding new personnel. Moving to another location or expanding. Or, completely reinventing or restating your brand. Assessing and replacing or retooling the products or services currently offered. I’m reminded of the six human faults which are similar to the seven deadly (or, Cardinals) sins and prevent most of these changes from occurring: vanity, impatience and laziness; greed, selfishness and ignorance. They speak for themselves. They are usually at the root of what is preventing the resolution of most problems.

What could possibly be preventing the increase in sales? Look at your POP. How many sales are recorded at different times of the date or week or season and why? How many transactions are for single items? What is the average sales total? How much traffic is generated on a given day? Is there a difference between pedestrian and vehicular traffic? How visible and accessible is your location? How close to your location is the competition? The list goes on. Sometimes the answers are too simple. Henny Youngman’s classic joke: Doctor it hurts when I do this. And the doctor says, don’t do that! My proposal is similar! Next time I’ll put in my two-cents on the 22 Immutable Laws.

Facing Facebook…

Supposedly one of the most used words in advertising is the word new. It’s sort of paradoxical when, if you think about it, most humans fear change. So doesn’t new mean something’s changed, or it’s going to? I am now facing Facebook. I know what it does and what it’s used for. I even teach marketing students how important it is. But, until recently, I didn’t put my money where my mouth is. Like Israel Kamakawiwo'ole’s 1993 album (is that now an old word?) Facing Future, I’m doing just that.

I brought up Iz, as Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, is more widely known because several years ago, a friend sent me a clip of Somewhere Over the Rainbow – one of the tracks one this album . The song was featured in the movie Meet Joe Black. With the email came a photo of what I first thought was a sumo wrestler floating on his back in a swimming pool. I thought it was a joke! So, what the heck; I clicked on the link and heard Iz sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow for the first time. But, I either couldn’t or wouldn’t associate that huge man with the biggest little voice I ever heard until I replayed it about twenty times. The little voice was big because it soared and if you ever thought the original Somewhere Over the Rainbow version could not to be topped; listen to this version.

Change can be bittersweet. I was afraid of change. Really, who isn’t? I was afraid of leaving my comfort zone. And, when I did, I surprised myself. The Facebook experience has been almost the same kind of experience except, yeah, I thought I really knew what it did and how it worked. But, I really had no direct experience with it. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” My horizons have also expanded.

Timothy Leary, on the other hand, an educator and the LSD guru in the drug-culture of the Sixties and Seventies, was all for expanding your mind. “My advice to people today is as follows: if you take the game of life seriously, if you take your nervous system seriously, if you take your sense organs seriously, if you take the energy process seriously, you must turn on, tune in, and drop out.” We know now that you don’t have to drop acid (LSD) to tune in and you don’t need to drop out and turn your back on society either. All you have to do is tune in to what’s going around you. Facebook really isn’t a big waste of time as Betty White perhaps jokingly said.

So far, Facebook has been a huge boost in helping me with a lot of “things” but more especially, in my search for the missing members in my family tree. I’ve been dabbling in genealogy for over twenty years and have the Fortier line back to 1593 in Normandy. Yet, my biggest challenges have been finding people born here in the United States in the last half of the last century.

Back to the word new for just a minute; based on a Yale University study conducted a few years back by their Psychology Department’s report, number ten in the top ten words used in advertising was – new. Number nine – save and followed by safety, proven and love; discover, guarantee and health up to results, in the number two slot, and finally, numero uno – you! No surprises there!

Wrapping this blog up I could say, we’ll change if we can save time or money or feel that any promised safety in our migration from our comfort will be proven and, as such, we’ll love how brave we are and how we’ll eventually discover many new, wonderful and beneficial things. And, yes, that we can remain assured with a guarantee because, after all, we can control how we access what we need or want. Above all what is new, is good for our mental health since we embark on this adventure expecting specific results that will improve or enhance some or all of the you we care about most - us!

One final and perhaps ironic note, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's fans shortened the big guy's long name to the tiny - Iz. If only he could have won his life and death battle to reduce his 757 pound body. He died just four years after his Facing Future album was released; catapulting him to fame beyond his beloved Hawaii.

Karma, Dharma, Ted Mack and American Idol.

The great granddaddy of today’s popular American Idol television show was the classic Original Amateur Hour that had its beginnings in the earliest days of American radio and television. Its bloodline, however, goes even further back to Major Bowes Amateur Hour, a staple of the radio airwaves from 1934 to 1945.

In the 1950’s it evolved into Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour who used a spinning wheel to determine the talent's order of appearance and uttered the now classic words, “Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows." This variety show/talent search genre also produced offspring and another classic in its own right, Star Search, which begat many local and regional community audition versions such as Star of the Day. The tradition rolls on to today’s American Idol and America’s Got Talent and a boatload of sub-specialty shows searching for dance and singing talents in many genres.

Now, for a little side trip; karma is defined as the effects of a person's good or bad actions that determined their destiny in their next rebirth or incarnation. While, dharma, which also comes from Hinduism, is believed to be that which comes from the Divine and leads the believer to the Divine; it is the principle or law that orders the universe. “Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows."

I’ve always thought that perceptions foster thoughts. Thoughts lead to actions. Actions become behaviors. Behaviors comfortable become habits. Habits thoughtlessly become part of our culture. Cultures define societies. Societies define the framework of consciousness. Consciousness reveals true wants and needs. Wants and needs form perceptions and round and round she goes. Everything then is connected somehow and in some way, as illustrated by the old Want of a Nail rhyme which is incorrectly attributed to Shakespeare’s Richard III and has erroneously gone round and round as such. It came from a 14th-Century proverb Benjamin Franklin recalled in his Poor Richard's Almanack. Good or bad actions or intentions and the order of the Universe. “Round and round she goes, and where she stops nobody knows."

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

And since this blog is supposed to be about marketing - for the want of a nail - is your business enterprise missing a nail, or two? How do you know? Can you afford to wait until a shoe, a horse and a rider are lost? Is your organization’s performance the result of luck, chance or destiny? Luck is timing. Chance is opportunity. Destiny is – more on that a bit later. Round and round, indeed; until this very moment I wasn’t aware of the following unattributed quote:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Wow! Forrest Gump said, towards the end of the movie of the same name, "Jenny, I don't know if mama was right, or if it's Lieutenant Dan, I don't know if we each have a destiny or if we're all just floatin' around accidental like on a breeze... but I think, maybe it's both. Maybe both are happening at the same time..." Destiny then, is the result of everything you do. Marketing teaches us that businesses have a four stage life-cycle.

But first, let’s look at what has been referred to as the ‘I Had No Idea" syndrome coined by David Birch, a former head of a small business research firm to demonstrate how little many entrepreneurs know about running a business. According to Birch the business failure rate is highest in the first year but businesses that make it to year five have a fifty-fifty chance.

• First year: 85%
• Second: 70%
• Third: 62%
• Fourth: 55%
• Fifth: 50%
• Sixth: 47%
• Seventh: 44%
• Eighth: 41%
• Ninth: 38%
• Tenth: 35%

The new or introductory stage causes many entrepreneurs plenty of sleepless nights filled with fears, some unfounded, an impending sense of urgency fueled by the unknown and by their inexperience. And, of course, there are the countless nagging doubts of whether or not the venture will survive and eventually deliver some level of profitability.

Eventually the business will enter the third or maturity stage and this is where perfectly healthy businesses can go as bad as an American Idol audition because “…just floatin' around accidental like on a breeze...” and, not paying attention will bring the business to the fourth and final stage; decline. The German word kline means small in English. How appropriate is it that a business in decline gets smaller and smaller until it is no more?

So, if dharma is what comes from the divine and leads us to the divine or, one's righteous duty then, in order for a business to be successful and prosper, it must have and objective – a plan. The plan has to define the reason as to why the organization is in or does business. It must also consider the purpose of its existence, which is completely based on serving a specific customer base. And finally, the business plan must consider what direction success will take the enterprise towards. Forrest asked his mother, “What's my destiny, Mama?” She replied, “You're gonna have to figure that out for yourself.” Or, with blatant self-promotion, call a marketing engineer.