Kwikshop, originally uploaded by jeannie_chan.

Recently, I took a trip to Australia. There, many gas stations were partnered with the local grocery stores, making gas stations great one-stop shops. Now, we don’t have to go all the way to the other side of the world to see this. We observe this right here in the States with the recent KwikShop renovations.

These KwikShops are not only gas stations. They are pharmacies. They are your convenient take-out kitchens. They are true convenient stores!

This is just another step in the store format revolution. The line between different retail environments are blurring.

(Editor’s Note: I have taken a hiatus from this blog because other parts of my life took over. However, these parts have given me great inspirations for blog topics. Stay tuned!)

Successful branding takes a lot of work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Fortune 500 powerhouse, or if you’re a Main Street Store, or if you’re just you. Overnight success doesn’t happen. If you want success in the future, plant that seed today. In fact, that success should be based on one thing: performance. Take social media for example. It’s the latest hype. However, social media wouldn’t help you much if your store doesn’t carry what your shopper is looking for. Today’s breakthroughs are still built on yesterday’s fundamentals. Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, all those extra things that you do would make it that much better. Social media could be a great thing.

However, everything good can still be lost in just a moment. Think Toyota. The key lesson here is to not avoid the problems. Don’t think they will go away. They never do. Face them head on, and face them fast. Brands could be defined by a single disaster, or the response thereof. Johnson & Johnson taught us that lesson with the Tylenol incident.

At the end of the day, everything you do comes down to the closing. Could you close that sale? Could you close that job interview? Sometimes, you’re just bested by your competitors. But, with enough hard work, and perhaps a little luck, you could win.

Photo Credit: Megan Cole

Related articles online

• Toyota’s Tylenol moment (money.cnn.com)

Today, there is a good celebrity example to look at.

Few of us have the opportunities to address “People of Earth” and have them actually pay attention.

Conan O’Brien has a very strong personal brand, through his own talents and his association with very other strong brands like the Tonight Show. His “People of Earth” release only enhanced that brand. It is easy for anyone to pick up his enormous passion for his job from this release.

We can all learn a lesson from that.

If you survey your workplace, would others know what your passion is? What have you done lately to demonstrate your passion?

Photo credit: vtdainfo

Related articles online

• Conan O’Brien’s manager says statement not about points or strategy (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Conan tells NBC he won’t wait up for them (thestar.com)
• Conan Won’t Do A Later Tonight Show (cinemablend.com)
• Conan O’Brien Leaving the Tonight Show (defamer.gawker.com)
• Conan O’Brien Says No To 12:05 (popdose.com)
• Conan Makes An Official Statement (perezhilton.com)
• Local viewers sympathize with Conan’s no-change stance (pbpulse.com)

Seth Godin recently release an e-book WHAT MATTERS NOW, in which he asked a few of his friends to discuss what matters now. May it be Change, may it be Sleep, may it be Productivity.

To me, two things matter most: Passion and Curiosity. Passion had been wonderfully covered by Derek Sivers, an entrepreneur and programmer, within the e-book. But Curiosity was curiously missing! Allow me this opportunity to express what I believe matters now:

Curiosity

It is an emotion.

It allows us to grow.

Seth’s full e-book available for download via this link.

Photo credit: hapal

One of the major lessons I have learned from reading great marketers like Al Ries and Jay Conrad Levinson was that if it was something worth doing, it was something that’d be worth doing NOW.

You shouldn’t wait till it was perfect.

You shouldn’t wait for the perfect debut opportunity.

You shouldn’t wait.

Perfection may never come, and you may just miss the opportunity altogether!

Allow me to illustrate. This weekend, I met a blogger. Her blog was not the money making machine she’d like it to be, and she decided to go the shelf-publishing route. She is currently in the process of writing the book, and I wish her the best of luck. She had some interesting ideas, for her book and for her marketing.

One of such interest ideas was that she would make bookmarks when her book comes out.

However, she did not have any promotional materials for her blog.

Why wait for the book?

Why not promote the blog now, and use the blog as another platform to promote the book?

A guerrilla marketer needs to get skippy in today’s economy. Don’t wait for your big idea before putting yourself out there. Think about what you could do today! Speed to market, in this and in always, is the key to success. 

photo credit:moo.com business cards, originally uploaded by bargainmoose.

Editor’s note: Finally fixed this post. Sorry for the formatting problems earlier.

Stuffs are made and then sold.

Sometime, one person / organization takes care of this entire equation. Though, more often than not, someone makes the stuff and someone else sells the stuff.

I am on the making stuff side of the equation, and sometimes I forget how hard it is to be on the selling stuff side. However, this weekend, I got a good reminder of the fact that buyers are only as finicky as their end consumers. They say no to you because their end consumers have said no to them.

If you ever want a quick lesson for yourself, go sell a piece of clothing at one of those resale shops. This weekend, I decided to sell some old clothes that are now too big (small yay me!). It was an interesting experience. You could see the buyer right there evaluating the clothes. There was no sales pitch. The buyers decided what they would take and what they wouldn’t take right then and there. Of course, they had guidelines. For example, they memorized the labels, so they could quickly tell how old that piece of clothing is. They had a length requirement on tube tops. But, in general, it was fascinating to watch.

Bear in mind, they are not Wal-Mart. They could not just shoo you away if your clothes were crappy. You could be their next customer. So, even if they did not take the clothes, they would break the news to you gently. “They were just not styles that sell well for us here.” It was not a judgment on your clothes. It was a simple statement about their shop and their consumers.

It was a lesson on buying and selling, and it was a lesson on customer service all rolled into one.

Photo Credit: clothes, originally uploaded by Sean’s Camera.

Scene (In conference room C at approximately 9am):
In-house Creative Designer: What?!?! That wasn’t approved?
Me: No…
In-house Creative Designer: But, we’ve been moving forward with this already…
Me: Um… why?
In-house Creative Designer: Because I was told to! You should have told us that this design wasn’t approved!
My inner monologue: Um… I told your boss… and I would think that your boss would have told you…
Me: Well… I’m sorry about the confusion. But the design isn’t approved. I’ll keep you updated after we talk with the big boss later today… I’m hoping to get approval this afternoon…
In-house Creative Designer: Uh. Fine. Just keep me updated.
Me: Will do!

Everyday I learn something. On some days, it’s about marketing. On other days, it’s just about life. Today, I discovered a recurring theme in my meetings… people vent to me on matters over which I have absolutely no control.

I decided that this is when I should just don’t care. Why? Because caring takes energy, and I have limited amount of energy at the end of the day. In these cases, I have no or very little control over the matter the person was venting about. Therefore, a quick cost and benefit analysis would tell me that I could not exert enough energy to actually make a material change. Therefore, in these cases, I should just don’t care. I just need to let these comments roll right off of me, and focus my energy on something that would actually make a bigger change!

Photo credit: Dilbert tag, originally uploaded by Ol.v!er [H2vPk].

Today’s lesson: Don’t ignore them. Or do, but know that they will just get to be more of a pain in the butt.

Jack meows when he wants something. This is not so different from your consumers wanting something from you. They ask for it. They complain about it. But it’s often too easy to just ignore them, while you focus on something else that you thought would be more important at the time. You may think that it’s not a big deal to fix a minor issue on a current model when you’re getting ready to launch a new model anyway.

However, Jack wouldn’t stop meowing just because I ignored him. He would just get louder, which really would just distract me more from my task at hand at the time. He would start jumping onto my keyboard to make sure that he got my full attention. In all honesty, it would probably have been easier, faster, and less disruptive if I would just address his wants when he first meowed about it.

Same thing happens with consumers. They get louder. They gather more force. They get more disruptive. Before your new model is ready for the market, everyone everywhere are screaming how bad your current model is. Do you think that people would then be lining up for your new model? Often, it’s easier, cheaper, and faster to address their concern when they first voice them, before it turns itself into a real issue.

This lesson actually is applicable to many kind of relationships. It’s applicable to the relationship between you and your consumers. It’s applicable to the relationship between you and your co-workers. While I can’t claim first hand knowledge, I think it’s even applicable to the relationship between man and wife.

And that’s a lesson I’ve learned from Jack the Cat.

Very early in my career, I was introduced to the local paper headline test. Other knows this as the Wall Street Journal headline test, or NY Times headline test. Pick a newspaper of your choosing really. But the point was, if your action became public knowledge, could you live with it? Would you be ashamed of it?

In today’s competitive and confusing world, perhaps this simple test is not enough.

DDB Brasil made a very controversial ad in an attempt to win business with the Brazil chapter of WWF, World Wildlife Fund. This ad was submitted to WWF, and was rejected. If you haven’t seen it, it is an ad that has countless planes heading toward a Manhattan that still had the World Trade Center standing. The tagline was the Tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. This was meant to highlight the power of planet earth and the need to preserve it.

This ad made DDB the worst person in the world by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. In fact, Mr. Olbermann listed individual’s names from the DDB roster on the WWF account responsible for this ad.

Does this mean that the ad went too far?

Hold on just one minute.

DDB also submitted this ad for an advertising competition. In fact, this ad won a best of 2009 award from the One Club.

I would think that they are quite pleased with that headline.

So, the new benchmark in this world full of controversial points of views… You may win big with some audience. You may at the same time lose big with others. Would the win be worth it?

And really, what kind of question is that? What kind of benchmark is that?

If DDB says yes, this generated more buzz for our business than ever. Are they immoral / insensitive / wrong or just pragmatic? Is being pragmatic wrong?

Such is the confusing world we live in…

The unauthorized ad, that was condemned by the WWF.

Related articles

• WWF ad causes a Tsunami for DDB Brasil (brandstrategy.wordpress.com)
• Updated Statement: WWF Strongly Condemns Brazilian Ad and Apologizes To 9-11 Victims and Families (prweb.com)

I met my human four years ago. I wasn’t so sure about her then. She tried to introduce me to all sort of stuffs, like brushing my teeth! What was she thinking?!? I barely knew her then, and she wanted to stick something in my mouth?!?

But I guess over the years, she has sorta proven herself. She gives me food consistently. She gives me water consistently. She cleans my litter box consistently. Over the past four years, she has taken care of me consistently. So, I think I trust her now. Today, when she introduces me to new things, I would at least give it a try before I run off.

Also, I know what to expect from her now… Treats! She usually gives me a treat after trying something new! So, after careful considerations, I let her brush my teeth every now and then. ‘Cuz I know there is a treat coming! Which makes it not so bad. It’s all about consistence, trust, and meeting my expectations!