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A historical perspective on how to verb yourself

October 15th, 2009

If you eat beef, then you’ll relate to this article.

Let me explain.  When one sits at the dinner table, we take the time to eat beef and not cow (or pork and not pig).

A little thing called history comes into play.  Back in the day, there was a lot of fighting.  And, I mean a lot of fighting.  Plundering, if you will.

With that, the victor was often left to rewrite history and culture.

Hence, cultures changed based on hierarchies.  Forced hierarchies.

Peasants who referred to cow as their meal were just that, peasants.  Whereas, people in higher classes such as the French, after they invaded England, were left to eat the same animal with a fancier name: beef (du boeuf).

Want another example?

The Arabs who were in Spain for over 800 years left their mark in politics (alcalde), science (algebra), and manufacturing (alfombra).

Why? Because with every forced takeover of a country, comes forced takeover of a language based on the expertise the victors bring.

The French won food and partying (RSVP, anyone?).  The Arabs were nerdy.  And, America won just about everything else.

Well, forced takeovers are still there.  But, far more powerful are the industries that have the influence.  This, in turn, leads to language transformation.  Google it.

Here are my tips on how to verb yourself:

  1. Don’t verb yourself!
  2. Give people a stake in what you do.
  3. Be innovative.  Coke did it. (In Texas, we ask for a coke. Then, the waitress asks, “What kind?”)
  4. Don’t verb yourself!

Full disclosure: I don’t eat beef and I still relate to this article.

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Podcast: Why all the warfare in marketing?

September 7th, 2009

Terms in marketing have a war-like connotation and there are reasons for that:

Click to listen: Why all the warfare in marketing?

History

  • Pre-rennaissance (Dark Ages)
  • Merchant class
  • Perceived competition from aristocracy
  • Charters were set up for corporations
  • Marriage between kings and corporations began a conquest that has not ended

Terms

  • Targets (extracts value from the people)
  • Forces (sales)
  • Revolutions (astroturfing)
  • Capture (attention)
  • Competition (closed source)

Business is better achieved not by warfare but by diplomatic tactics.

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Why cool can’t be bought (or faked)

August 28th, 2009

Ever been to a shindig and the popular, Nickelback-lovin’ rock ‘n roller dude walks in and tries to fit in with the cool kids, only to make himself look like a fool because his fashion is about 2 years old and probably got his coach to negotiate his grades?

Yeah, that guy.

Sorry, Ashton. You're somewhat cool now.

I really don’t mean to sound pretentious, but hear me out.

Southwest Airlines isn’t cool because it bought its way there.  They didn’t pay for a report to tell them “X percent of people enjoy listening to safety rules before a flight in a lighthearted fashion.”  At least I hope they didn’t.

And, being on Twitter and Facebook doesn’t make them cool.  Even if you coached your client on how to effectively use these tools, they could still hopelessly fail.

Why?

Because you can’t buy luv (I sure am giving SWA a lot of attention here, but I’m a huge fan).  Who wants statistics written about what is cool? I’d rather tell my clients how to enable “cool” and then let them figure it out themselves.

Here are some of my tips:

  1. Be an owner who knows your industry and is actually passionate about it. Don’t be this guy.
  2. Innovation should be your business model. Not the type that comes from reports entirely (not discounting them), but the type that comes from the experts, your employees (yes, even on the assembly line) and your customers.
  3. Intuition.  If you know that hurting the environment is bad and your product is a contributor to this problem, then fix it! It’s as simple as that.  Sure, it costs money, but “in the long run” investments are now instantaneous thanks to the tools of transparency online.
  4. Design matters.
  5. And, lastly, have some fun. Life is too damn short to worry about TPS reports.

And, no, I wasn’t beat up by jocks growing up (in case you’re wondering).

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The Hacker Generation

August 10th, 2009

In order to understand how we got here, we’ve got to understand where we’ve been.

While Generation X was the Slacker Generation, I’ve deemed ours the Hacker Generation

Below is a algebraic representation of how the controllers (the elite) beckoned new media capabilities to the masses.

Put simply, if all you could do is believe, then the controller (the God[s]), as it was dogmatically accepted, could only hear about the good, the bad, and the ugly happening below.

Once priests/monks knew how to read, then all the masses could do is listen. And so on…

Social control as a function of media

Social control as a function of media by Douglas Rushkoff

So, now we are at a point where we can (and have) become the programmers.

The Hacker Generation

With open APIs abundant in several applications, this is the new wave of business and entrepreneurship, on a highly localized level.

With a cooperative, collaborative model set to benefit applications and its community, business has changed from a top-down, scarce (closed) model to an bottom-up, open source (abundant) one. And, it benefits the whole.

This doesn’t just apply to online applications, offline hacking can occur too.

My advice to small businesses: allow all of your workers to learn every single part of your business (yes, even your janitors). But, the only way to achieve this is if there is an open incentive for them to do this (you can figure this out on your own). You want all of your employees to care about your organization.

Ideas are abundant, don’t let them be scarce.

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Individualism is an out of touch PR term

July 27th, 2009

It usually goes like this:

X&Y brand is bringing you the latest [insert contest or promotion here] for you to express your individualism and creativity.

I’ve been forced to write this false sense of a term in a press release before, even after I persistently fought against using it, especially because of the demographic.

First introduced by political economist Adam Smith, he argued the economy should be based on greed without much regard “to any overarching scheme of goodness or justice.”

zapposceo

Example of why Adam Smith was wrong

Rushkoff, on the Media Squat, even went so far as to say that Game Theory, and, in particular, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, is a misnomer and has been proven wrong. Human beings, he argues, are set apart by rational thought.

The digital age and its influence on business just goes to show that collaboration trumps this false sense of competition (and scarcity).

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known. – Chuck Palahniuk

Success is only achieved by the purpose.

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