In A Glass Please

Garth Beyer

It’s not coincidence that wine tastes better in a wine glass. Not scientifically, of course.

Scientifically, the wine tastes the same in a wine glass as it does in a styrofoam cup.

The same goes for how you feel wearing a suit. When I put one on, I feel like I’m important, I feel like I can walk into a room and own it, I feel respected. Are we any different wearing a suit as we are wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt, scientifically? I’m still me. You’re still you. Scientifically.

One more example,

Treat yourself to a cold can of bud light. Then treat yourself to a cold glass of bud light. Which tastes better?

We have these world views, these wonderful world views that in the most simplest form are summed up into that which we want to believe, is true.

We become more outgoing and astute when we put on a suit because that is what we believe a suit will do. The wine, the water, the beer, the tea, the coffee – tastes great in whatever glass we have it in because we believe that it will. So it goes…

The single best story punctures through the noise in two ways:

1) It parallels a worldview that we already hold.

2) It makes a promise that we will feel a certain way when we have or use the product.

Marketing, branding, advertising – whatever you want to label it – has one goal. To get people to attribute a feeling with a particular product or service. It’s damn difficult. That’s what makes marketing so valuable.

 

Stay Positive & In Marketing, Numbers Are Little, Worldviews Are Huge

My Concern With Google+

Garth Beyer

Google+

An incredible change is occurring with Abercrombie & Fitch and they have nothing they can do about it.

There’s a guy giving Abercrombie & Fitch a brand readjustment by giving their clothes to the homeless.

You can watch the short video here.

By all means, participate in the activity, but the activity isn’t exactly what I’m writing about.

Did you notice at the end of the video he suggested that you share the video on Google+ “if you actually use it.” That should frighten people not using Google+. It certainly concerns me.

It’s not the first time people have joked about Google+. And after the frustration of needing a Google+ account to use YouTube, there’s even more hatred directed at it.

Yet, the more we (yes, I’m guilty) hate on Google+, the more Google+ establishes its niche. We are reinforcing the idea of those using Google+ are “in” and anyone else who didn’t push through Google+’s low, doesn’t deserve their attention.

You can look at Google+ like the rich girl analogy made by Kate Knibbs,

“Google+ is like that rich girl with all of the coolest toys who tries to throw a party but everyone’s already made plans to hang out at their usual place and besides, she’s getting a little too eager. And although the numbers do indicate that there is a growing interest in using the network, they may be grossly exaggerating how many people consider Google+ a social media destination.”

Or, you can expect the rich girl to begin inviting the average kids, the drifters, those she doesn’t know and doesn’t have plans. That can be quite a number. And if the rich girl so wishes, she can resent all those who didn’t give her place a try instead of their “usual place.”

You’re better off getting “in” now, even if you have to develop a dual personality. You might not be let in later.

 

Stay Positive & Why Yes, I Did Post This To My Google+ Account…

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The Worst Way To Get New Customers

Garth Beyer

is to tell people that they’ve been doing something wrong. Especially to tell them they’ve been doing it wrong all their life.

Doing It Wrong

Electric can openers don’t sell because their marketing team call people who use the hand-held can openers dumb.

Ipods don’t sell because they say people using Walkman’s don’t understand what it means to have music in their pocket.

Even pizzerias don’t get new people to try their pizza by advertising that people have been going to the wrong place.

If what we do, use or eat gets done what we need done, the how doesn’t matter and surely doesn’t make it wrong. Hell, some even take pride in their traditional ways.

Yet, over and over I see people advertising their product or service by announcing someone has been doing it wrong.

  • “You’ve been baking that cake all wrong! Read our step-by-step guide on how to bake that cake!”
  • “You’ve been doing it wrong all your life! Buy our ten-in-one tool!”
  • “Can’t sleep in hotels? You’ve been doing it all wrong!”

A lot of the products and services that use this marketing approach might be right, but saying someone is doing something wrong doesn’t scale.

What scales is telling a story, showing what the product or service does (letting the user choose if what they’ve been doing is actually “wrong”) and marketing the feeling that the user will have when they use the product or service. That(!) scales.

 

Stay Positive & Seriously, Marketers, You’ve Been Doing It All Wrong

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Assorted Links

Garth Beyer

1. 40 maps that explain the world (look)

2. 27 unspoken suit rules every man should know (look/read)

3. The art of negotiation (watch)

4. Lessons from the New York Times (read)

5. The danger of telling poor kids that college is the key to social mobility (read)

6. Best music journalism of 2013 (read)

7. 16 of your beloved childhood icons reimagined as psychopaths (look)

8. US Obesity spike brings bigger coffins (read) (potential counter-point)

Two Necessities If You’re Going To Live The Busy Lifestyle

Garth Beyer

Weird art

We all have our ebb and flow. This time of year, though, typically marks the start of the ebb. School starts, numbers from last year’s sales get thoroughly reviewed and new strategies implemented,  we’re kicking ourselves to meet our new year’s resolutions. It all adds to a busy lifestyle.

I’ve had the ebb of life smash me against the wall enough times to learn two valuable necessities to making the ebb more bearable.

1. Have plans ahead of time, before you schedule all your work deadlines and meetings. Make it so you work around scheduled times of fun and freedom. Not the other way around. It’s essential you make the plans now. It’s easier to cancel them than it is to plan them a week in advance while you’re already feeling behind on work. And even if you have to cancel last-minute, it’s the idea of having something to look forward to that makes all the time leading up to the last-minute cancel worth it.

2. Have a playful, maybe even pointless habit. For me, I make sure to do a word search or some type of brain game every day.  Sometimes what stands between you making it through the ebb and just crashing is a little habitual, grounding nonsense. Doodle. Juggle. Play with legos. Make it weird. Make it you.

 

Stay Positive & Prepared, Always

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Higher Education Gatekeepers Restrict Innovation

Garth Beyer

Two Yale students made news recently with their creation of a better version of the school’s course catalogue.

The site didn’t make Washington Post news for being a useful website. It made news for being blocked and shutdown by Yale. Just another example of higher education gatekeepers restricting student innovation.

It’s frustrating that while universities endorse the idea of innovation and creativity, they don’t provide the instruments to effectively create within policy guidelines.

Instead, school systems use their policies to restrict innovation. It’s their glass ceiling to creativity.

Some might argue it’s not a ceiling; that it’s the last roadblock to success. I say no.

Ideas aren’t like cars with a cinderblock pressing down on the gas pedal. Ideas have momentum, but when stopped, have to work at building the momentum again. And when two students get so far with an idea, restarting (to accommodate school policy) is more daunting than building some new idea.

The positive part?

It’s much more difficult to stop a passionate idea fueled by frustration.

 

Stay Positive & Take The Dyson Approach

 

Do You Realize That

Garth Beyer

the thing that makes people happy is simply making progress at meaningful work.

It’s not just about reaching goals. It’s about moving toward reaching them.

That’s why I have an issue when someone says they are unhappy. It’s obvious they are just standing still.

And you know what I say about standing still. Don’t you?

 

Stay Positive & Progress For Your Own Sake