Logic+Emotion

Don't Hesitate

Are you dipping your foot in the pool or have you jumped in with both feet?  What can children teach us?  They can teach us how to live.  To live without regret.  To learn something new.  Ask silly questions.  Be spontaneous. You know, the way we used to be before spending so much of our time in an office, or car, or train—doing the same things over and over again.

What have you done this summer?

Have you played as hard as you've worked?  Children are naturally creative because they don't have to be taught how to play.  They just do it.

Do you remember how to play?

The office will always be there when you get back.  Go and play.  Don't hesitate.  Jump in with both feet.

My Life, My 15 Seconds

Missed this while I was on vacation.  Digitas got some love from Communication Arts off their Site of the Week feature.  Well, it's no "viral video"—but we'll take it.  :)

From Design Interact:

American Express 15-Second Clips Competition

This site brought the American Express “My life. My card.” ad campaign online in the form of a unique competition. Sponsored by American Express and the Tribeca Film Festival, site visitors were given the opportunity to submit a fifteen-second video clip addressing one of the thirteen questions posed by the popular ad campaign. We have to disclose that we’re suckers for all incarnations of American Express advertising. It’s great creative. All of it. And, this site is no exception. And, although we can’t give the creative team credit for the content, we can give them props for creating an interface that makes the submissions shine. The competition has been closed for some time—the winner was announced at this year’s festival in May—but the 100 finalists in the Gallery are still the stars of the site. The visual approach and the interface are refined and understated, and never pretend to be the entertainment element. The spare graphics on a white background exist simply for the purpose of creating a stage for the film-like content. The global navigation is a divided cube with each section (Gallery, Awards, Judging, Submit) represented by a single quadrant. Although it changes position with each click, it never loses its functionality. Supplemented by a tab-based navigation for “less essential” links and a series of thumbnails in the Gallery, it’s a clean, clear architecture that effectively serves content—rather than requiring visitors to retrieve it. The development team successfully targeted their audience and kept the content focused. Ultimately, it’s the lack of superfluous content that makes the site so efficient and engaging—although the high-quality, user-generated clips certainly don’t hurt it any. This site moves quickly and competently between sections and between clips. While that may not sound like a big deal, it is when you’re trying to look at 100 of them. We’d be remiss if we ended our review without mentioning the application for applying for an American Express card. While most online applications are met with a heavy sigh, the one on the other end of this Apply Now button is skillfully done. Game-like in its approach, it’s the coolest application interface that we’ve seen in a long time—possibly ever. During the 3-week-long submission period, the site received 350,000 visitors and 1,800 submissions.

Lincoln Bjorkman, executive creative director Kenan Aktulun, creative director Henry Min/Ooonie Chase, associate creative directors Grace Cham/Radis Jensethawat/Jeff Kurek, art directors Whitney Hess, interaction designer Min Chung/Benny Bianco/James Sol/Teresa Lagerman/Eric Trinidad/Kathy Chou, Flash designers Erin Stitzel/Gail Thupvong/Lane Mitchell, writers Christine Beardsell/Venessa Ramos Velasquez, video Digitas, site design and development Web site: clips.mylifemycard.com Web site: www.digitas.com

Change Agent

Tom Asacker is a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is change agent.  His recent article contains quite a few metaphors used to make a point about the intense need for change in marketing.  My favorite part of the article:

The Masses Have Left the Tree

"The marketplace of old resembled a mass of caterpillars hanging around the tree of traditional media,venturing down the branches of mass distribution, and consuming the offshoots of brand advertisers. No more. The masses have escaped their pupae, spread their distinctive wings, and are fluttering around fields blossoming with an abundance of colorful and succulent offerings. A fleeting glimpse is all one usually gets of them. So what’s a marketer to do in this chaotic environment of abundant products andservices, fast-flying consumers, and a rapidly changing landscape?

Will Rogers once remarked, “Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.” Orderly inaction describes today’s ineffectual, status quo marketing. Chaotic action is the new marketing imperative; to wit:

1. Be wherever and whenever your audience is most receptive to your message (verifiable metrics be damned). Like butterflies (okay, enough with the metaphors), consumers are best observed when they are “feeding.” With some experience, you’ll quickly learn to find "hot-spots" of butterfly activity;

2. Get their attention by being unique, relevant, and authentic. Bright, plastic flowers may attract butterflies from a distance. But once they get close enough, if it’s the wrong species or devoid of aromaand taste, they’ll quickly flit away to something worth engaging with;

3. Deliver value in exchange for their time, since the key to long-term marketing success (read: ROI) is toget them to come back for more, and to bring all of their friends; and

4. Keep notes on what you observe regarding the habitat, the offering, the way the butterfly moves and communicates, and other matters of interest. And you can leave your nets at home. You’re not trying to capture anything."

Thought of the Day

 

Growing Ideas

Mindblob has gone through the trouble of documenting our recent adventure together in refining the "levels of influence" idea.  For the first time, I get someone else to do a visual for me—and I didn't even have to ask.

"The incredible thing is that Armano pointed this paradigm months ago on his "Sharing ideas in Flat vs. Round Worlds" scheme. This time, the process is proven through a real blogging experience. How surprising it is to discover that the subject was blogging itself. In french there is an expression that describes this : "une mise en abyme"... like Hamlet of Shakespeare, a play telling a story of a play revealing the plot of Hamlet, the play."

"He initiated an idea and shared his vision of a subject on his blog. His idea was immediately "criticised" (positively) by the readers of his blog. Their feedback fed David's original idea and so, the first visualisation evolved and grew, step by step, to reach higher levels of accuracy. David modified and re-shaped his idea progressively and changed his original visualisation to get a new one, closer to the reality shared by his "sphere of influence".

Experience Map Blogcast

powered by ODEO

The "Experience Map" (download PDF) is one of the first visuals that I uploaded onto Logic + Emotion.  It's a high-level attempt to document an approach to designing an interactive experience within an agency setting.

The approach is founded off of five core steps:

Uncover
Customer, Brand & Business Insights
Define
The experience strategy
Ideate
Immerse interdisciplinary teams
Build
The concept
Design
The experience

Want to know more about it? You can listen to the story and hear me talk about this—and how it came together in the first place.  No iTunes needed.  Just throw on your headphones and click the big button.  If only life were this simple.

Tip of the hat to Paul at Hee Haw Marketing for the Odeo app.

Influence Ripples 2.0

Yet another stab at the blog levels of influence idea.  There are multiple ripples overlapping, happening in a three dimensional space—in real time.  If this were animated, the ripples would not dissapear, but radiate. 
However more recent ripples would come into focus as new thoughts, conversations, and interactions happen over time.

Influenced by:

"it's a model - but one that should recognize a lot of other overlapping ponds. {worm holes might be another analogy)."
Craig Lefebvre

"One thing that I did wonder in your diagram was whether it was true that there was only one pool of influence… "
leisa.reichelt

"The sphere (blog) has a pulse from the inside, various sizes, various intensities and frequencies... making ripples, or making waves."
mindblob

"My guess is that it's more 3D than that (with time as another axis?) but this is a really good start"
Seth Godin.

"One conceptual problem I have with the ripple concept is ripples disappear, where as the ripples in the blogosphere form permanent records of memes and ideas."
karl long

"The influence sphere is constantly changing."
Toby

"It strikes me that topics simultaneously appear across the blogosphere ... in a zeitgeist kind of way -- resulting in the emergence of conversational topics that begin, leap and skip from one blog to another.
Gavin Heaton"

Contagious Culture

One day I strolled into the kitchen in our office to get my morning coffee.  As I waited for it to pour, I noticed a single picture of someone from what looked like to be their High School yearbook.  I stopped for a minute, because the person looked really familiar.  After a few seconds it hit me as to who that person was (a copywriter I work with).  The whole thing was a nice little deviation from my morning routine.

The next day I strolled into the kitchen and there was another High School photo.  This was one from a prom no less.  Again I studied the picture as I knew it had to be someone in our office.  But I couldn’t figure out who.  Another co-worker came up to me and was like “what are you looking at?”.  When I said I was trying to figure out who the person in the photo was, they joined me.  Before I knew it we had three people studying the photo.  Eventually, one of my co-workers figured it out.

A week passes and now the wall is peppered with photos of people from childhood and high school (and pets too).  I get my morning coffee and if someone is there in the kitchen with me, chances are we start talking (and laughing about the photos).  There is a richness to the discussion—texture you could say.  We talk about the hairstyles.  The clothes.  It immediately bonds me with whomever I am conversing with at the moment.  I’ve actually found out more about the people I work with in these informal discussions then I do on a daily project basis.  And more importantly, we deviate from our routines and engage eachother as people.  Not co-workers. 

Several more weeks pass and the wall is full with personal photos.  And the informal conversations go on.  “Who’s that?” “Oh I know who that is!”, “Look at that tie”, “Oh, you look like a different person!”.  And I couldn’t help but notice that what’s going on in my office is what needs to be happening more in marketing.  People having genuine conversations and taking interest in each other.  In what we do.  In who we are and who we used to be (I participataed as well—can you find my photo?). 

A spontaneous action, being rewarded by participation.

An action that causes people to not only have conversations—but also take action themselves by tracking down their own photos and pinning them up on the wall.  One act sparked a contagious response from others who wanted to be more than mere spectators. They wanted to be a part of it.  They didn’t want to be left out of all the fun. Each contribution sparked more contributions and so on.   

I track down my co-worker who pinned up that first photo.  “What motivated you to do that?” I ask.  She replies, “I was curious to see what would happen”.

Blogsourcing

I recently Googled the word “Blogsourcing” to see what would come up.  I found this:

“The practice of news gatherers outsourcing to blogs the quotes they would usually get from interviews with qualified sources. It’s easier to find online a quote from a blogger than to wait for a conversation with someone in a position of authority.”

What I have in mind is actually blending the idea of crowdsourcing with using blogs to refine an idea.  Thus coming up with the idea of “Blogsourcing”

Wikipedia says this about Crowdsourcing:

“While not a new idea, it is becoming mainstream. Open source projects are a form of crowdsourcing that has existed for years. People who may not know one another work together online to create complex software such as the Linux kernel, MySQL database, and the Firefox browser. In recent years Web 2.0 technology has evolved to allow non-technical people to participate in online projects.”

Building upon ideas in the blogoshpere is nothing new.  Actually, it's a hallmark of how the Social Network operates.  I’ve been using this blog to help refine my own thinking.  Did this recently on the “Influence Ripples” and "Levels of Influence" posts.  I wanted to create a really simple visual to capture that process.  Essentially the "process" went something like this.

Friday: Had a e-mail conversation with Mack Collier about the “A-lister” phenomenon.
Friday Night: Posted visual to blog with idea for future presentation.
Saturday: Idea gets commented on, discussed, parts validated, parts invalidated on this blog and other blogs.
Saturday Night: Post revised idea based off of ongoing discussions of original idea.
Sunday: Revised idea gets commented on, discussed, parts validated, parts invalidated on this blog and other blogs.

In the end, I’m using my judgment to make the final call that best fits my needs—but the takeaway is that I received valuable feedback from an engaged and qualified body of people which helped me take an idea and make it better.  This is something that companies need to be thinking seriously about.  “R&D” does not have to be a huge expensive undertaking that only happens in labs.  With the use of a Social Network tool like Typepad (or for something more robust, like Basecamp) you can publish in seconds and harness the strength of virtual communities (or even your employees) to discuss, validate and improve upon ideas.  E-mail cannot do this.  Neither can surveys.  Food for thought.

Organic: Where's the Blogroll?

I've been a big fan of Organic's Three Minds blog since back from the early days, about 2 years ago.  As a matter of fact—Three Minds was a major influence on L+E and why I started blogging in the first place.  Organic was one of the first agencies I can think of that started blogging and provided excellent content relevant to next generation marketing, design and user experience.

They recently re-designed their blog—which is a little cleaner and more "on brand"—meaning directly associated with Organic itself.  And they announced a new blog called All Hands—which looks like it's meant to give readers a perspective into the workings of the agency.

But I miss their blogroll which was one of the best in the industry.  When I was just getting up to speed in the Social Network, the Three Minds blogroll served as an initial compass to me—helping me find my way and get started.

Dear Organic, 
Please bring back the blogroll.

From Three Minds:

"If you are a regular reader, you will notice that ThreeMinds has a new look.  We hope you like it.  Either way we'd like to hear from you, so please share your comments.  A big shout out to Conor and Max who designed and launched the new and improved ThreeMinds.  Shortly, we'll be launching a new blog called AllHands which will give you a peek inside Organic -- our people, what we do, how we work, etc.  Stay tuned. 

Mark Kingdon"

"If you are a regular reader, you will notice that ThreeMinds has a new look.  We hope you like it.  Either way we'd like to hear from you, so please share your comments.  A big shout out to Conor and Max who designed and launched the new and improved ThreeMinds.  Shortly, we'll be launching a new blog called AllHands which will give you a peek inside Organic -- our people, what we do, how we work, etc.  Stay tuned. 

Mark Kingdon"

Influence Ripples

An update to "Levels of Influence" Inspired by:

"- but is there a place for circles in this sphere? Using a worn analogy - like ripples from a pebble dropped in the stream."
Bob

"The ripple concept is a great one ... especially when you start to see these as a number of conversations happening simultaneously. As the waves overlap and hit each other, we get extra flavour added to the story, we open paths to new audiences and also allow the sphere of influence to expand or contract according to its relevance to the audience. -- like rain drops hitting the surface of a lake."
Gavin

Comments welcome.

Update I:
From Caffiene Marketing

"This ripple concept is amazing and brings back thoughts I had about the sphere of influence in the blogging community. About a month I was discussing how best selling author Seth Godin of such books as “Purple Cow” and “Free Prize Inside” can post a thought in his blog and have thousands of other bloggers responding and paraphrasing his work. His “sphere of incluence” puts him at the top of the charts when it comes to the online world of bloggers.

Surely being a best selling author automatically puts his ’sphere of influence’ towards the top. But how can a common blogger just starting without amazing credentials reach a higher sphere of influence? Producing high quality content and resourceful tools is a start. Unique content or tools can have a ripple effect. One person might find your tool useful and tell another person and so on.

The link-back popularity of your tool or article will directly have an effect on your search engine rankings as well. Those bloggers with pre-exposure, such as acclaimed authors and heads of corporate agencies will often automatically get a large scale of exposure. The key to achieving a greater sphere of influence over the blogging community and therefore your blog’s traffic is to create the unique. To create what others are not talking about. Simply put, to be yourself."

...And a great thought from Stephen Downes in relation to the previous "Levels" post:

"Influence is a function of four properties (and people who have read my work before will be very familiar with these properties):

1. Diversity - a person who communicates with a diverse audience will be more influential than a person who communicates with a unifo0rm audience.

2. Autonomy - a person who is free to speak his or her own mind, and is not merely parroting some 'official view', will have more influence.

3. Openness - a person who writes in multiple languages, or who can be read on multiple platforms, or who is not limited to a single communications channel, will have more influence.

4. Connectivity - a person you can communicate with, and who will listen to your point of view, will have more influence than a person who does not."

 

Levels of Influence

I’m working on a blog presentation I’ll be giving to our NY and Boston office in late Sept. (more on that later), and I wanted to visualize the idea of the blogger “A List”, B, C lists and so on.  But I thought I could take a slightly different angle on it. Rather then view bloggers as "micro celebrities" with an "A list" etc. I view bloggers as influencers not just in pop culture as celebrities often do but as influencers in somewhat specialized areas.  It could be technology, art, marketing, design, PR, advertising, business, parenthood—or multiple combinations of these areas with cross overs.

The bigger point that I want to make is that bloggers at each level command a “sphere of influence”.  The higher the “level”, the more people are exposed to a blogger’s influence.  The degree of influence is mainly related to the quantity (and quality) of the blogs and sites that link back to them.  And of course a blogger who is well known before they even start a blog has a better chance of reaching the top levels of influence vs. one starting from scratch (though it’s very possible to start at level 4 and work your way up).

What’s interesting about this is that in a way, it does represent a “human pyramid”.  As much as the social media network acts as a great equalizer—you can only influence as many people as you have access to.

Keep in mind that this is more complex than I am making it, but I wanted to communicate this in a very simple way that folks not familiar with the lingo will grasp.  And besides, I don’t think the “A-lister” analogy does it justice.

Like this visual?  More here.

Picture of the Day

Took this pic from the office window.  The little yellow "blob" in the corner by the bridge is a bunch of rubber duckies that were "racing" across the Chicago river.  It was all part of the Rubber Ducky Derby to benefit the Special Olympics.  Each duck cost five dollars.  And there were a lot of ducks in that river.  Cool stuff for a great cause.

Thought of the Day

Via Gapingvoid

Attack of the Summer Blogs

I didn't really get a chance to catch up on reading the books I wanted to.  And Summer is almost over.  But on the bright side, I did get a chance to catch up on some blogs that were new to me.  They're worth checking out if you haven't done so already.

Escape From Cubicle Nation
Pamela Slim's musings on going from a corporate prisoner to thriving entrepreneur.  Pamela shares all her knowledge + experience in being liberated from the corporate world and she keeps it entertaining.

Ideavault
A nice collection of ideas, thoughts, techniques and planning fodder.

Presentation Zen
A MUST READ for anyone who gives presentations and wrestles with the PowerPoint.  This blog does a great job of blending visual design with communication strategies.  Perfect for the "A-Lister in the making".

Bad Language
Matthew Stibbe is a Pilot.  And he's a writer.  Apparently he's pretty good at both.  Matthew provides some really valuable nuggets on good and bad writing for the Web among other things.  His 25 reasons for why he loves writing is a keeper.

Living Brands
If you like Russell Davies, then you may like Jon Howard's collection of thoughts on brands, life, "comms" and stuff.  A good read before heading out to the beach.  :)

Diablogue
Creative Directors and Planners blogging together... the end times are upon us.  Diablogue serves up a healthy dose of digital culture and agency related happenings.  And they keep it pithy.

Summer's not over yet, so if you haven't checked out any of these—then bust out the wireless, your favorite lawn chair and camp out in the back yard for as long as your battery lets you.  (Dell owners, do so at your own risk)

A Simple Philosophy

I am creatively agnostic. It’s not about me.  It’s about attracting consumers, engaging customers and meeting user’s needs.  It’s about people.

I believe that logic + emotion are a winning combination.  When useful and useable meet delight—great things happen.  It’s about balance.














I believe in big ideas + big execution.  My philosophies don’t mean a thing if I can’t execute against them.  It’s about the end result.

Thought of the Day

    ~Andy Rutledge

It's-Not-You-It's-Me.COM

Agency.com have removed themselves from the Subway Pitch.

Via Adweek:

"Agency.com, which sparked an industry-wide debate by posting its Subway pitch video on YouTube late last month, has pulled out of the review for the restaurant chain's interactive assignment, the shop confirmed.

A representative of the Omnicom Group agency here said it withdrew from consideration when it reached the finals of a pitch for a conflicting account, which he declined to name. Subway's account selection process was taking longer than anticipated, and Agency.com decided to take itself out of the running, he said.

A Subway representative confirmed Agency.com's withdrawal and said the company hoped to pare its list of undisclosed contenders in the next week.

Agency.com stirred up controversy with its nearly 10-minute video treatment of its response to Subway's request for information"

And thus the saga ends.  There will be no Part 2 of the infamous Viral Video.  I still maintain that the industry comes out as the true winners here.  We benefited by having some quality discussion and debate around a topic that was in the end much bigger than agency.com and Subway put together. 

Advertising: Innovate or Die. Vol. 1

I thought I had found my dream candidate.  Someone who understood the language of both design and business.  Someone who could think in pictures and express concepts with prototypes.  A creative problem solver.  An individual with a firm grasp on “Web 2.0”.  Someone who saw the potential of emerging technology as enabling us humans to make the connections we've always desired.  I brought him in for an interview.  I showed him some of our own concepts.  Our prototypes and visualizations of better, more fluid interactive experiences.  He was impressed.  He didn’t think that marketing firms did this kind of thing.  He was curious to hear more.  So I did my best to articulate the role of the digitally-integrated agency in creating brand experiences.  The kinds of experiences that people reward with their time, attention and participation.

I knew he was being sought after.  He had just graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology, but he had that aspect about him—like a lot of people were in the process of pursuing him.  I sensed that I probably would not be successful in recruiting him—but it was still worth a shot.  He possessed a blend of skills that I was looking for.  Analytical.  Expressive.  Curious.  Empathetic.  He understood technology, but more importantly he understood why people behave the way they do.

In the end, he went to go work for Google.

Why am I sharing this tale of love and loss?  I’m sharing it because I think it’s time for Advertising to get serious about innovation.  Rumor has it that the Ad Industry is in it’s death throes.  I don’t think that’s completely true—but if Advertising doesn’t start innovating for real—they will be dead as a doornail.  Max Kalehoff of Nielsen BuzzMetrics recently featured a post that made the case for how the Advertising  industry model isn’t equipped to handle R&D.  In it, he cited the following reasons:

“1. The Deliverable. Advertising agencies produce content for a living; specifically, memorable stories in print ads and broadcast spots. Moreover, these stories are to be one-of-a-kind. Storytelling does not require R&D, nor does originality in storytelling.

2. The Value Proposition. Like all professional-services firms, agencies sell expertise, which by definition reflects what has worked in the past. R&D reflects an intention to try what hasn’t been tried before.

3. The Culture. Like all vendors, ad agencies are risk-averse. Proposing the untried to results-oriented clients is a risk with long odds, an unknowable payoff and a steep downside.

And more recent contributing factors include:

4. The Ownership. The big agencies that have the requisite resources are all publicly owned these days, and Wall Street has little patience with company spending that cannot be tied to short-term results.

5. The Environment. There’s been general erosion in R&D spending by U.S. businesses recently.”

Then I thought about my dream candidate.  The one that went to work for Google.  Google does R&D.  They experiment with new products, features and services.  They certainly innovate (though the case can be made that this is overstated).

Traditional Advertising at the core is still about telling stories.  T-E-L-L-I-N-G.  Not experiencing for yourself.  Hearing about it.  Reading about it.  Passively taking it in.  Now I’m all for good storytelling, but there has to be more in order to thrive in the world of creative, empowered, individualistic, fickle consumers who spend more time engaging the social network then they do watching TV.

OK, you heard me ramble on about my dream candidate.  The one that went to Google.  So what do I think the “Dream Agency” would look like? 

Hmmmm.  Well, right off the bat, it would need to stop acting like an agency.  That would mean replacing the Dog and Pony show with things like cultivating real customer insights and utilizing Ethnography.  My vision of a dream agency would be filled with people who think with both sides of their brains and visualize different solutions to the same problem.  The agency would need to have a toolbox of methodologies, but still be nimble enough to act quickly.  Maybe the dream agency will be part IDEO.

But it also has to be really creative.  It would need to know how to both tell stories and craft experiences.  It would need to be well versed in the multitude of digital channels and be able to execute in them.  It would need to be able to present brands in ways that are consistent with the lifestyles of the people who swear by these brands.  It would need to understand how to engage people as opposed to just telling stories to them.  So maybe the agency would be part R/GA.

But none of this is enough.  Sometimes you need more than creativity, strategy, design thinking, anthropology, and a good media plan.  Sometimes you just need some plain cooky, out of the box thinking that stops people in their tracks.  Sometimes you need to be one step ahead of the curve culturally to deliver something that’s never been seen before.  Sure, some of your efforts might be better then others, but you wouldn’t be afraid of taking risks and doing things like putting people in Chicken suits for all the Web to see (and interact with).  So maybe the dream agency is part Crispen Porter + Bogusky.

Food for thought.  I’ll be writing additional volumes about advertising + innovation.  In the meantime if you have ideas about this subject matter, please share them here.  Thanks.

One Stop Marketing

The popular Online Marketing Blog has recently announced the release of the Marketing and Advertising Blog Network which Logic + Emotion is a currently part of.  This is the Brainchild of the folks at Marketing FM.  Now you can get your marketing blog fix all in one place.

From the write-up:

"Marketing.FM has announced a new network of marketing and advertising blogs syndicated under one RSS feed called the Marketing and Advertising Blog Network. The initial group of blogs has over 50,000 subscribers and cover marketing, media, advertising agencies, PR, branding, television, radio, internet, new media, interactive advertising, and influential discussion. Online Marketing Blog is happy to be included with this project.

Current blog network members include:

Adrants
Advertising for Peanuts
Duct Tape Marketing
Entrepreneur’s Journey
Logic+Emotion
Marketing Headhunter.com
Marketing Pilgrim
Marketing.fm
MarketingVOX — The Voice of Online Marketing
Micro Persuasion
Online Marketing Blog
ProHipHop - Hip Hop Marketing
Small Business Branding
WonderBranding: Marketing to Women

You can subscribe to the combined RSS feed which is hosted by FeedBurner’s new network feature."

My guess is that some people will find this useful.  Others won't.  All depends on how you prefer to digest your Blogformation.

Never Forget Where You Come From

This will be the last of my "vacation postings" as I’m back in the office tomorrow.  I hope you find value in these thoughts.  They are what they are. 

I was born in Brooklyn, NY on July 28, 1971.  My parents had recently immigrated to the United States from Italy and my life began in a two bedroom railroad apartment as the youngest of three siblings.  My parents worked incredibly hard and moved us to Ozone Park Queens, to a neighborhood filled with people just like them.  At age seven, I moved to Bethpage Long Island—a mostly blue collar, small town located roughly 35 miles outside of Manhattan.  The town was built around Grumman, a manufacturer of defense aircraft and aerospace technology.

Bethpage is where I did most of my growing up.  I have no complaints.  I went to a decent school and had NYC accessible by train as well as beaches minutes away.  On the first night of my very recent vacation, we went to a local fair in the heart of Bethpage.  It wasn't glamorous.  The people there don't look like the cast of Desperate Housewives.  There were lots of tattoos, the smell of fried dough, and the sight of everyday people who look like they spend most of their time working, taking care of their families—and most likely neglecting themselves a little along the way.

I didn't think about the whole experience much at first other than I was happy to be "home" and my kids were having a great time.  But then several days later, I went to see World Trade Center directed by Oliver Stone.  Stone is a fairly powerful filmmaker and I thought the film was respectful and honorable.  There was one aspect of the film that connected the homecoming dots for me. 

The Faces.

The faces of the rescue workers, the Fireman, the Cops, the New Yorkers who suffered through that dreadful event and still suffer today.

I grew up with these tough faces framing deep, gentle, caring eyes.  The harsh accents and tender souls.  These are the people whom the urban elite say they admire, but wouldn't be caught dead with at a social event.  Ironically, it was these everyday people, the same ones who's company I shared at the fair—these are the people who we lean on in times of disaster.  It is their strong hands that we trust with our lives.

As I watched World Trade Center, I put myself in the shoes of the people who went off to work that day.  Some of them were well-educated.  Some were not.  When that terrible event unfolded, none of this mattered.  Not one bit. Then I thought about the responders.  People just like the ones I grew up with.  In fact some of them were. Bethpage took a hit just like every other community in NY and many people in Bethpage work for the NYPD or FDNY.

And again.  I saw the faces.  The same faces from the Bethpage fair.  The faces I see every time I go back.  As I relaxed and enjoyed my time with family, the reminders of my material "success" were subtle but present.  Comments on this blog.  E-mails from folks.  Even a referral from Gapingvoid no less.  But every time I'm tempted to believe that I'm as "smart" as some people think I am—I would see those faces.  The ones from the movie.  Just like the ones from my hometown.

You see, there was a time when I took pride in "making something of myself".  In leaving my hometown for bigger and better things.  Not anymore.  Now when I go back, I cherish walking around my old neighborhood.  Attending the fairs.  Greeting familiar faces.  I know that if something disastrous were to happen (God forbid), it would be these faces I would see running to my aid.  And all the "talent" and “smarts” in the world could not save me.  But they could.  I know they would give up their lives trying.

I don't want to forget where I come from. I'm the son of an Italian immigrant who came here looking for a better life. Together with his wife—they did the best they could.  I grew up in a town that celebrates simple pleasures and doesn’t try to be more than it is.  I'm honored to have the upbringing I had—and it doesn't surprise me one bit that the first responders during 9/11 did what they did.  I like to think that I would do the same.

The DMV Experience

I'm in the middle of doing what millions of us do each year (or every couple of years). Enduring a visit to the local Department of Motor Vehicles (or DMV). But I've been noticing something different about it each time I come. Mainly, that it keeps getting easier. I know. Hard to believe. But the branch that I go to in Chicago must have had an experience design professional consult with them or something. While sitting waiting for your number, you also get clear audio cues when called. Plus, once your number is called--it stays up on the display for a bit so if you didn't hear it beaing called you still have a chance. All of the signs were clearly displayed and provided visual cues so you knew where to go next. The flow was intuitive and natural.

Each time I completed a step, I had to move to the next station located over to the right. The lighting was appropriate and the employees were relatively friendly (yes. I actually wrote that). What's happening here? Though it's a smart move, the city of Chicago really doesn't have a ton of incentive to improve the DMV experience right? I mean, people still HAVE to go to the DMV. It's not like we have a choice. And think about the crappy experiences we all have at the DMV. I mean, it's like we expect it to be bad. The reason why I think it's smart to have a good DMV experience is because the city of Chicago realizes that people associate interactions like this with the city itself. Chicago is one of the hardest working towns around because it feels like it has to compete with the coasts.

Mayor Daley is constantly pumping money into the lakefront, park programs, airports and other areas that people have "first contact" experiences when visiting. Think about it. One of the first places you need to go when you move into a town is the DMV. You'll eventually need to update license, registration ect. So a good experience here says a little something about the town you chose to move to. So if this DMV can get it right, how much more are we tasked to? Are your Websites usable? Do your marketing strategies make people feel good about the time they chose to spend with you? Do your brand initiatives make people say "this is why I stay with this brand. They get it right".

So are you providing great experiences that put other brands to shame? I don't live in Chicago because they have an effective DMV. But I do live here because the city offers culture, business, a stellar waterfront, and my family enjoys good schools and neighborhoods. Think of these as "touch points". Each touch point matters. Each experience influences my decision to stay or move. Brands, agencies, businesses and everyone else. Make sure you take care of even your smallest touchpoints. They matter. And we remember them. Each and every one.

Kids on a Plane

Wanna see a REAL campy horror flick? Try taking two boys between the ages of 3 and 5 on a flight.  Alone. Samuel J. aint got nothin' on me. Ugh. :)

Please Pass The Shampoo

My Dad is, well--erm, how shall I say this? Unique. Right. He's unique. One of my Dad's hallmarks is his fondness for rigging things around the house. Each time I come to visit, I never know what I'm going to see. Usually it involves caulk, duct tape or some type of wire. On this trip he hasn't let me down. My first observation was noticing that every wireless phone in the house had a homemade "hook" attached to the back of it using a healthy dose of silicone adhesive. Of course I thought the function of this was to hook the phone to the nearest stationary object. But I failed to see the dual functionality. My father quickly did a demonstration for me to show me that the device was meant to slip your fingers through, thus "cradling" the phone in your hand. Of course. Why didn't I think of that? :)

My next discovery was in the shower. Now, I think I can safely make the claim that the Armano household is one of the few to boast the use of Diner-style condiment dispensers utilized as shampoo and conditioner containers. Can you guess which was which? Well the shampoo was in the "Ketchup" dispenser of course--while the conditioner was the "Mustard". I have to say, it did add a new dimension to the shower experience. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have some new examples next year. In the meantime, could you please be so kind as to pass the Shampoo?

Go East Young Man

I'm relaxing in Montauk, Long Island and reflecting upon this pic I just took of one of my boys (Max). It instantly takes me back to my own childhood memories of growing up out east. Living in Chicago, one of the things that I miss most about the east coast, is the coast itself. Montauk is one of the places we used to vacation as a family. We'd stay in cheap motel rooms-- whatever we could get our hands on. It didn't matter. What mattered was that we were away from home and at the beach. I can still remember my Dad taking me on a fishing boat and minutes later watching him lean over the rusty rail--sick from the choppy open water.

My Dad, like many Dads around the world has a special gift for being a source of embarrassment. More on that later. Right now, I'm enjoying the familiar scent of saltwater and the fact that I'm away from home and at the beach. Funny how being away from home can feel so much like you never left.

Turning On The Idle Switch

"I'd recommend taking a break from blogging as well - make a nice OUT OF OFFICE illustration and hit the road!"
~Asi

"DA unless you can come up with a 'name' for your process of commenting while exhausted, I mean what's the point?"
~Mack

Mack + Asi, this one's for you.  I hope the illustration says it all.  I call it "Turning On The Idle Switch".  No industry posts here for the next week or so.  Maybe an occasional pic from the mobile phone.  If you are a new visitor here and want some reading material, here are some of L+E's best sellers:

Got Juice? (Podcast with Joseph Jaffe)

Updated Manifesto

Creativity 2.E

Sharing Ideas In Flat Vs. Round Worlds

8 Degrees of Jakob Nielsen

Adver-Marketing Take a Deep Look INside

Human Hierarchy + Creative Collaboration

HP is blogging. Why aren't YOU?

Ad Leaders Struggling to Capitalize on New "Golden Age"

Delight = Brand + Experience

See y'all later.

I'll Take That One

Years ago, I came across a poster with a picture of this hammer on it.  The poster called out some of the features of the hammer in a similar way that I am doing here.  Some of the features were both practical and inventive like rubber nodules on the top of the hammer which prevents it from making marks on the wall when removing nails.  Other parts of the design, like the orange strip were for pure style—no practical reason behind it at all.  The hammer was also both affordable and durable.

And this image stuck with me ever since.  Whenever I lead my teams in the design of a Website, I think of this simplistic example.  You don't get much more basic than a hammer.  But the designers here made improvements upon the original hammer convention.

Sites, like the hammer are often times meant to accomplish something.  To "pound" in a nail so to speak.  But they are also experiences which help differentiate you from the competition.  The Internet is the great equalizer, so if your hammer looks, feels, and works better than someone else's, then you have a good chance of stealing  that customer away from their brand to yours.

I showed this hammer to my brother-in-law who is a residential contractor and he practically drooled over it.  He talked about how he wanted to go out to the store and hold one in his hand so he could feel the weight and grip.  He liked what he saw and wanted to experience it in an even more tactile fashion.  And whenever I design a site, I always remember this example.  Will my site design entice the user to go out and do something—to take action?  To experience the brand first hand?  To engage on a deeper level?  Will it make the user drool?

How often do we do this?  How often do we design things which both gets the job done and rises above the sea of sameness?

Thought of the Day

"The very nerdiness of the name "AJAX" gives me hope that it will be used for causes more worthwhile than those now characteristic of Flash. Doomed by its own name, Flash had similar potential but was so grossly abused for "flashy" design that it never succeeded in adding much useful functionality to the Web."
~Jacob Nielsen

Buzz Marketing Won't Help Starbucks

Scott over at Experience Planner has a great write up on the reason Starbucks' stock price has taken a serious nose-dive.  Is it because they aren't doing enough marketing?  Not enough viral?  Or "WOM"?

The Starbucks stock plunge is a symptom of the other kind of "Word of Mouth".  You know, when people have a crappy experience and they tell others about it.  Or when they go to your competitor because you have let them down.  From Scott's post:

"Here’s what CEO, Jim Donald has to say about it (c/o Guardian):

“We have recognised the opportunity to refine and improve our cold beverage station to make drink preparation more efficient and improve service over time but, in retrospect, we did not move aggressively enough.”

In a completely unrelated entry, Bruce Nussbaum explains why Starbucks is losing him:"

Now in contrast, take a look at Motorola's stock performance in the past 5years.  The upward trend nearly aligns with the release of the wildly popoular RAZR:



It's all a reminder that we need to focus on BOTH innovation + execution (and customer service).  We need to concentrate on our "products".  The things that we produce, even if they are considered a service.  In other words, provide a good experience so people will say good things about us.  After all, the average customer is your most effective marketer.

thankyou dot com

I just wanted to extend a sincere thank you note to agency.com for their willingness to take a risk.  I stand by my criticism of the video itself, which I feel is an example of terrible execution and what not to do to impress a marketing audience, but I applaud their energy and enthusiasm.

The reason why I am personally thanking them is because I have benefited from their effort in the following ways:

• This has inspired me to think deeply about the role of the interactive agency.

• I have had engaging conversations with many fascinating people and have made new friends over this.

• The effort has gotten me to seriously consider the differences between good and bad buzz.

• I am re-thinking how I present myself to clients and how I work with my teams.

• The video has proven the immense power of the social media network and how it influences and compliments the mainstream media.

I could go on.  But I genuinely want to extend a thanks to agency.com for being the ones in the arena.  In this whole escapade, it was us—the spectators who benefited the most.  The very least we can do is acknowledge that they put on a show, stuck out their necks and actually DID something.  And agency.com, I hope you come out of this with some lessons learned that will make your future efforts all that much better.  Personally, I'm rooting for you.  Thank you for having guts.  I’ll end this with one of my favorite quotes from Teddy Roosevelt.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." 

Is This Thing On?

Oh oh... the people at Typepad have made it too easy for me.  I'm
testing out the moblogging feature and it works like a charm.

What you're looking at is a photo of my motorbike (The W) taken on my phone as I'm typing this on the biggest mobile QWERTY on the market (T-Mobile Sidekick).

Perfect timing as I'm taking my yearly trip to my hometown in NY next
week (Long Island).  So if you see a few posts that are a little more
"recreational" than normal, it's because I'll be in "vacation mode".

Don't worry.  I usually get some great inspiration while I'm out of the
office.  Just think of it as having a front row seat to the whole
process.

Plus I come from a profoundly dysfunctional Italian family and I'll
probably blog about  it.

6 Months + 20 Visuals Later

Well, it's been a little over six months since the launch of Logic + Emotion.  In that time, I've learned a great deal about how the Social Media Network functions.  I've made a bunch of new friends, and I've been featured on some Podcasts while steadily climbing up a list or two.  And hey, I might have even gotten a little addicted along the way, but as Advergirl says, "what's a little addiction among friends"?

It's been a fun ride so far.  And I look forward to new bloggy adventures on the horizon.  As a very small token of appreciation, I've put together all the visualizations that have been created thus far, in one place.  Feel free to download, snag and use on your next powerpoint.  It's all open source as they say.  Credit is appreciated, but not required.  Thanks for reading.  And an even bigger thanks for participating.

Paths To Experience Design
From Information Architects to Art Directors and everything in between.

Experience Map
As seen on Businessweek.

Visualizing The Social Media Network
Information exchange between community clusters.

Interaction Design Made Simple
Interaction Design de-mystified.

Customer Logic + Emotion
Satisfying the rational and emoitonal.

T-Shaped Creativity
Creativity to a "T".

In Around and Outside The Sandbox
Blurring the agency lines.

Holy Trinity of Digital Experience Design
Three essentials truths.

Sharing Ideas in Flat Vs. Round worlds
It's a Flat world after all.

The 4C's of Blogging
Community, Consitancy, Content, Clarity.

Brand Love
A Holistic Marketing love affair.

People.  People Who Need Lables.
It's the custoconsumuser, silly.

Creativity 2.E
The New Creative Mind meets T-Shaped creativity.  Very dangerous.

Power Consumer is the New PC
That's right.  Power Consumers.  You heard it here first.

Visualizing The Tipping Point
Connectors, Mavens and Salespeople make up the Social Media Network.

Human Hierarchy + Creative Collaboration in the workplace.
Traditional and non traditional team stuctures.

People Respond: The New PR
PR and the Social Media Network.

Navigators, Explorers + Engaged Participants
Multiple mindests for multiple personality users.

Silos + Overlaps
Traditional silos and overlapping disciplines.

Brand Affinity Through Stories + Experience
Experience People +Storytellers working together.

Agency.Poll

Advertising Age is running a poll regarding the agency.com/Subway viral thingy.  Think it was awesome?  Then get out there and vote because the Poll is dishing the effort a significant beating.  And does it even matter what our vote is?  How will Subway vote?

Regardless of how this ends, we all have part 2 to look forward to.

What’s Your Creative Brand?

I created this illustration eight years ago.  I was at a very different stage of creativity that I’m in now.  If you asked me then to define my creative brand, I might have talked about my desire to get my work noticed.  Take a look at this illustration.  It’s all about being noticed.  The hand-drawn lines and distinct treatments, the mixed media montage... Look at all the effort I put into making something that had my fingerprints all over it.  There was a reason behind this—I was a little disappointed with my move to work on the Web at that time.  Sure—at first I was excited, but the Web was a different place back then and the lack of broadband and technology advances limited what you could do online.  So in an effort to keep my creative juices flowing, I dabbled in illustration with the intent of creating a style that would get me recognized.  I wanted to be “creatively unique”.

Today if you ask me what my creative brand is, you’ll get a very different answer.  I sometimes describe my approach as being “creatively agnostic”.  What I mean by this is that unlike the illustration, my goal is to not have a style.  Why? Well part of it is because when you work at an agency where you shift gears on different brands, you can’t do brands justice if you are always trying to push your own personal creative bias.  But it goes even deeper.  I embrace creative agnosticism because I am not creating experiences for myself.  I am creating experiences for individuals who have tasks to complete, goals to achieve and desires to be fulfilled.  So I lose myself in their world.  I forget about me and what I want.  Everything I do reinforces the delicate dance that occurs between customer and brand.  They need to forget that I’m even there.  To put it in movie terms, the brand and customer become actors and my effort becomes almost like a set producer/designer.  If I do my job right—they engage in the environment that's been created for them in a way that's comfortable, natural and authentic.

What got me thinking about my own creativity was Mike Wagner’s Draw A Picture post.  I thought about what happens once the average person realizes that they are in fact creative beings.  But what happens next?  Once you figure out that you are indeed creative—what form does your creativity take?  Are you a big ideas person?  Do you develop a sense of cultural aesthetics?  Do you become visual?  Do you express yourself using words?  Like the great art movements (expressionism, minimalism, post modernism) creativity takes on different forms based off of what currently influences us.

So once you embrace your creativity what comes next?  As I eluded to earlier, I practice a different brand of creativity than I did years ago.  It works for the initiatives that I currently undertake.  But just like ourselves, our creativity changes over time.  It changes based off what influences us and what’s needed from our being creative.

And like brands, your own personal style of creativity can be unique and should say something about who you are and what you stand for.  That said, what is your creative brand right now?

CBS: What Is Viral Video?

Timing as they say is everything.  Agency.com asks the advermarketing community What is Viral Marketing?  CBS asks the question: What is Viral video?  So here is an interesting case study.  On one hand, you have the example of an interactive agency testing the waters by creating their own viral experiment.  On the other, you have the Mainstream Media which surprisingly does a decent job providing a 30,0000 foot view of what Viral Video means to the masses.

Here are a few choice bits from the CBS piece:

“Average people talking about products they like—the ultimate word of mouth”

“You can’t just create a viral video—it needs to be organic.  It needs to be grassroots. It needs to be real. The user will realize what’s real and what’s fake.”   

“It’s really more of an art than a science”

“Sometimes they are going to laugh with you.  Other times they’re going to laugh at you”

So do you agree or disagree with the examples on the CBS piece?  Any thoughts about the Logitech case study and how it actually increased sales without Logitech lifting a finger?  What about the Converse example vs. Coke?

And where does the agency.com example fit into this?  Instead of raw, real, messy user generated content—the agency.com execution went with a more produced approach complete with editing effects, music, and it was branded Subway.  The stars of the video were the employees.

A lot of questions here and I certainly don’t claim to have the answers.  One thing is for sure, the viral video movement is big.  It has an impact.  And when you roll—big or small, brace yourselves for that impact.

Huge tip of the hat to Joseph Jaffe who is arguably the most well dressed man in our business.  Nice going Joe.  Now my wife thinks your look matches the voice that she fell in love with.  *Sigh.

Innovation + Execution = Profit

P&G recently announced a profit increase of 36% with sales being 25% higher.  If you read Businessweek or F@st Company, you know that P&G has undertaken both serious business and cultural changes to embrace innovation over corporate tradition.

But I especially like how A.G. Lafley, P&G's Chairman and chief executive explains the reason for the growth:

"Demand for P&G's brands is strong," said A.G. Lafley, chairman and chief executive, in a news release. "We're continuing to drive P&G's business with breakthrough innovations and excellent in-market execution. This, combined with the great progress on integrating Gillette, positions P&G to deliver its growth objectives in fiscal year 2007 and beyond."

Two words stick out for me here.  "Innovations" and "Execution".    If you want measurable success and growth, you need both.

We Roll Big Too

Gabby and Tristen activate their "viral wonder powers" in the corner office.  Note: nobody was fired and nobody got hurt.

Agency.Me

My only question is:  Was this all about the client?  Or was it all about the agency?
Full disclosure: I spent six years at agency.com , though not in that office.

Update I: Coudal Partners launches their version.  Tip of the hat to Scott.  And a bigger tip of the hat to Coudal, who just made me laugh my ass right off of my Aeron.  This is Larry David funny.

Update II: You watched the now infamous "viral video".  Now you can buy the T-Shirt.  Tip of the hat to Fresh Glue

Update III: Now you can watch the video while wearing your T-Shirt as you comment on the official blog.  Tip of hat to Adam C.   

New Photogs. New PR.

Getty Images has some new photographers they want you to check out: 

"With input from art directors and industry peers around the globe, Getty Images selected photographers from a variety of backgrounds. It’s a hypothetical, hopeful and perhaps even controversial list... Some are local stars meriting a larger stage; some have achieved success on the editorial side but employ techniques that could also enliven advertising; and others are just plain provocative."

OK.  Fair enough.  I checked out some of the photographers on the site and there is some interesting stuff to look through.  Now here is what’s even more interesting to me.  Know how I found out about it?  That’s right.  A personalized e-mail from Getty’s PR agency, Edelman. 

“Hi David,
After reading your blog, I thought you might be interested in learning about a recent newsworthy announcement from Getty Images.”

Well good for you Edelman and Getty.  Since I am a Getty customer and have not had any bad experiences with the service, I would be happy to call attention to your new photographers.  Have a nice day.

Photo Credit: Bela Bordosi

Draw A Picture

By Mike Wagner

David has invited me to be a guest blogger. Thanks, Dave for this opportunity and your encouragement. You can learn a bit more about me at www.OwnYourBrand.com.

She started crying. You don’t see that much in business seminars, but when I ask people in the marketplace to “draw a picture” it sometimes happens.

I have conducted this lesson with thousands of participants in settings ranging from 300 employees in the power industry to 35 CEOs in Palm Springs - who would rather have been golfing.

The exercise is a simple one and not original with me: I hand out a standard sheet of paper, on which is a large square, and the simple instruction, “Draw a picture.” After everyone has finished their drawing, one of the questions I always ask is, “What was your internal dialog? What did you say to yourself or mutter under your breath?”

It’s interesting as people “come clean” about what they thought and said. I want participants to see that in most cases they were self-censoring their creative ability. Many have significant “Aha!” moments as they realize how they’ve been building barriers between themselves and creative thinking.

Typical responses include…

“What does he want me to draw?” Translation: “What’s the ‘right answer’? What does it take to get an ‘A’ in this class?” It isn’t easy to find innovative solutions if there is only one right answer to a challenge.

“This is silly.” Translation: “I don’t want to look foolish. Since I don’t know what he wants from me, I’m going to look dumb and I can’t let that happen.” Conformity is a false sense of safety; assuring that no one looks the fool. Yet some of the most workable solutions start out as some of the wackiest.

“I’m not creative. I can’t do this. I can’t draw!”

The young woman sitting in front had said it loud enough for me to hear, “I’m not creative… My sister is the creative one… not me!”

I challenged her contention by asking her to do a little imagining with me, “Imagine you are a little girl again. You’re playing by yourself in the yard or living room. The adults in your life, mom, dad…guardians, are watching you as you play. Can you imagine them saying to each other, ‘Look at her. That’s so sad. Our little girl was born without creativity!’”

In a light-hearted way I was trying to show her it wasn’t true - she was, and is, creative, like all human beings. Instead it became a moment of self-awareness in which this accomplished professional discovered she had been telling herself a lie for a very long time. She began to weep at the realization.

We live everyday with the passive effects of the “I’m not creative” lie. It affects our business, our brands and our customers:

• Colleagues reluctant to appear foolish, add nothing to meetings and projects
• Customers leave without a word of feedback
• Co-workers settling for safe “sameness” rather than expressing “wild and crazy” ideas that just might work

There will never be a shortage of people willing to call creativity a “crock” and embracing your “bohemian self-expression” as a waste of time and money.

Don’t ratify their censorship of your creativity by telling yourself a lie. Sing your song, build your business, re-invent your industry… draw your picture.

Dell Ditches Segments (sort of)

Dell has re-designed their homepage.  With much less emphasis on marketing/business segmentation.  And it’s a good thing (although the segmentation is still present upon rollovers).  Here is what they set out to do according to the Dell blog:

1) Simplicity. It was too cluttered; too many choices.  Home page was overwhelming.

2) Show me the products. There were no products on the home page. None.

3) Avoid segmentation. Don't force me to segment myself.

And Here’s a few select quotes from Dell customers:

"The removal of enforced segmentation high up in the buying path is the first step, it's 10 years overdue frankly. It is not however gone, but that is a larger internal organizational problem that Dell has to overcome."

“Make it easy for me to define systems by my work profile and give me more guidance on what technologies could benefit me more than others. If I'm building it, I'm then likely to buy more"

Look, we marketers like our segments.  We love packaging people into neat and tidy little nuggets with a bow on top.  And frankly, we run the same risk with how we treat Personas if we’re not careful to focus on core behaviors and mindsets.  So what are behaviors and mindsets?  Well, in short it’s getting into the heads and emotions of your customers.  But I’ll define it a little more specifically:

Behaviors: The types of things your customers want to DO .  The way they might actually behave on your site.  This means thinking about how they behave before even coming to your site and after leaving it.  It’s less about what they THINK and more about how they ACT.

Mindsets: This is the context of where your customer is from.  Are they logging on from a computer at work, at home, are there kids crying in the background?  Are they in “browse mode”? Or do they have laser like focus and just want to complete a task.  Getting the customer mindset right is incredibly important to an interactive experience.  Much more so than the traditional marketing segment like how much they make annually and what kind of car they drive.

Now, I can go on and on about things like Personas, or coming up with stuff like a behavior grids, which explore all the possibilities of how a user may act.  I'm leaving a lot out here.  You can write a whitepaper on all of this material and trust me, I’ve worked through this kind of thing many times with clients who want customers to “pick who they are” at the beginning of a site experience and chart a course based on that segment.

This post is intentionally light as I wanted to capture the Dell change and some of the reaction to their new homepage.  At some point I’ll do something else about segments from my perspective.  So back to the Dell site, they are looking for more feedback on this change.  If you are a customer, I suggest you speak up now.