It's All About the Mud :: American Express OPEN Forum

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Courtesy of Tom Peters over at the American Express OPEN forum:

...branding is, well, about … Everything. On the one hand, that’s not very helpful or operational. On the other hand, it reminds us that nothing, absolutely nothing, is irrelevant...

 

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Success and Value in the Client Relationship: Are You a Mosquito or a Firefly?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, success is defined as favorable or desired outcome; where value is a relative worth, utility, or importance— though not always monetary in nature. It struck me the other night while thinking about the comparison between success and value that a  business often falls into one of two categories: mosquitoes and fireflies. While it might be oversimplistic to limit all companies to just two categories, read on and see if you agree with my conclusions.

Some mosquitoes feed on nectars, while others feed on proteins and iron in blood. Companies with short-sighted business models that are based solely on sales can be lumped into this category. Since they aren't expending any effort to get to know their clients (or their clients needs), they are free to spend their time following the sweet smells of short-term success just as the mosquito follows carbon dioxide and alcohol signatures of potential feeding targets . In many cases they offer solutions that put their own profitability above the needs of the customer. In short, their "success" is often at the expense of someone else.

Fireflies make a contribution to their surroundings. They have the ability to create an internal chemical reaction called bioluminescence which causes an area of the firefly's abdomen to glow; this light source is used to court potential mates. By emitting a light source in their environment, they are able to find partners to help them achieve success (in this case, by procreating and prolonging the species). When used as a metaphor for business, companies in this category seek to add value to all customer relationships, finding success themselves (which is not always monetary) when others succeed. In some instances, the best example of this success is when the fruits of these efforts yield a productive result for a third party.

Do you seek to contribute and add value to your customer relationships? If so, does that value extend beyond your own bottom line? If we asked five of your customers/clients, what would they say?

Thanks for reading. We invite your feedback in the comments below.

—Jason@Ideavise

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Combining the Strengths of Social Media and E-Mail Marketing- eMarketer

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We completely agree with the conclusion of this article. And unfortunately a lot of small businesses have moved away from email marketing campaigns to instead focus on social media outreach. There is room—scratch that—there is a NEED for both in a healthy small business marketing strategy.

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Social Fans More Likely to Buy - eMarketer

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Spot Problems Early Using The Brown M&M Clause

My business partner and I try to "check" ourselves reguarly when it comes to the operational side of our business. Are we, as one author put it, "owning the job or owning the business"? It's easy to own the job; getting lost in the minutia of accounting, advertising, materials, office supplies, etc. One of the keys to success is recognizing early signals that something is amiss. You need to recognize the problem before you can solve the problem. This requires the power of observation, but it also takes some advance planning.

Consider the story below. I'd originally heard it many years ago, but found it worth passing along after Dan and Chip Heath used it in a recent article for Fast Company.

[Referring to the data that forwarns the collapse of a process] Your source of data doesn't need to be high tech. In fact, it doesn't even need to be numerical. Consider Van Halen. (We have been waiting years for a chance to write that sentence.) In its 1980s heyday, the band became notorious for a clause in its touring contract that demanded a bowl of M&Ms backstage, but with all the brown ones removed. The story is true -- confirmed by former lead singer David Lee Roth himself -- and it became the perfect, appalling symbol of rock-star-diva behavior.

Get ready to reverse your perception. Van Halen did dozens of shows every year, and at each venue, the band would show up with nine 18-wheelers full of gear. Because of the technical complexity, the band's standard contract with venues was thick and convoluted -- Roth, in his inimitable way, said in his autobiography that it read "like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages." A typical "article" in the contract might say, "There will be 15 amperage voltage sockets at 20-foot spaces, evenly, providing 19 amperes."

Van Halen buried a special clause in the middle of the contract. It was called Article 126. It read, "There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation." So when Roth would arrive at a new venue, he'd walk backstage and glance at the M&M bowl. If he saw a brown M&M, he'd demand a line check of the entire production. "Guaranteed you're going to arrive at a technical error," he wrote. "They didn't read the contract.... Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show."

In other words, Roth was no diva. He was an operations expert. He couldn't spend hours every night checking the amperage of each socket. He needed a way to assess quickly whether the stagehands at each venue were paying attention -- whether they had read every word of the contract and taken it seriously. In Roth's world, a brown M&M was the canary in the coal mine.

I'll finish by asking the same question that the Heath's asked: Where's the brown M&M in your business?

Thanks for reading.

—Jason @ Ideavise

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