Part 1 of a 3 part series.
About one month ago I received a call from a Nigeria speakers bureau, inquiring about me addressing a journalists meeting in Lagos, Nigeria. He also mentioned, he had worked with one of my fellow branding peers Martin Lindstrom. Martin is a global branding expert too and author of Buyology and Brandsence, both excellent books.  So I reached out to Martin to inquire about his experience. Martin explained, you will be safe, it will be a memorable experience. He was right on both accounts.

Several weeks went by and the meeting was not booked. Then one week before the event TO, my rep from the speaker bureau, phoned me back up. They want you, please get your Visa and passport in order and they want you to address branding in government.

So the hoop jumping starts. I was actually still in NY city at the time and my lame AT&T phone had no service, so most of my communication was via email. Even though Martin said I’d be safe, traveling to a country with a questionable reputation and that I’d never been to by myself was not an option. Sure, I wanted the opportunity to visit Nigeria, but I also wanted to contain my risk and American Express travel does not offer a travel escort service, but they do offer a companion ticket with the purchase of a business class ticket. So now my goal was who could I get to travel with me and provide some value beyond being my body guard. I called Litewavemedia. They are a local company that produced my speaker video. I contacted Christian, the owner and explained the situation. Christian was booked on a big commercial shoot, but said one of his colleagues would be happy to do it. His name was Andrew, a UT film grad and well rounded, light, sound and video guy. Perfect! The trip planning could begin. Having Andrew with me was one of the smarter investments I’ve made, ever! He not only is a great video dude (taped me speaking and other event highlights), but took lots of still shots and was by my side every minute. His dedication to his craft and my safety was priceless. Thank you Andrew!! In the picture below is Andrew to the right and Paul our guide to the left. Paul works in Imo State government office in investment development. The hospitality he showed us and his friendship were awesome.

Here are a portion of my top lessons from my African adventure. See next couple blogs for more.
1) When you get an opportunity to do business in a country that is new to you, get personal references and get paid upfront.

2) Knowing the time and travel preparation needed for an event of this magnitude, I will not commit to anything with less than 2 weeks advance notice, full payment and contracts signed. Even though I pulled this off, it was a lot crazier than it should have been, unless they are paying me $100,000, which they did not, never again am I doing an event like this with that kind of short notice.  Immunization shots only take two weeks to get in your system.

3) Even though I am a seasoned traveler, I would not travel to Lagos by myself. PERIOD.

4) Tightly enforce contracts and terms and stick with them. I got lax on this and paid consequences that I should have prevented. Specifically — Only when all 100% of funds and contracts are received, will program prep start. I spent too much time chasing down money. There is a clause in my contract that states “Client must get all promo materials approved before printing” or the contract is void. The client published items not consistent with my brand, a very old photo of me and inaccurate bio info. Include in contract all extra requests like press conferences, timing and details. PLUS, specify that your traveling companion must be in the same building as you are and internet fees are covered by client.

5) Always carry an extra few copies of your bio for press conferences and at the event. My agent had provided this bio, intro to the organizing group, but 4 minutes before I was to go on stage the MC had nothing and was asking me for my intro through a screaming crowd of 500 people.

6)Don’t count on the same kind of technology when traveling to emerging countries. My phone did not work and my internet was a daily mess.

This shot is of Neta Nwosu who was the chairman of the event for the Brand Journalists of Nigeria.
She also is an editor with the top newspaper (DailySun) in Lagos.

See next blog posts for remainder of trip.

For more global branding adventures, view:
Making history in Saudi and 5 lessons from the experience.

Today I paid my property taxes. I never enjoy paying this cost. To me it’s like buying tires or a new air conditioning unit. It’s not quit the same as investing a Hermes handbag, that cost about the same thing. Now that gives me a lot of joy and pleasure.

My point today is: over and above my tax bill, I was charged 2.5% of the total to use my American Express credit card.

I’ve had experiences like this in the past, where retailers will do this. They make you pay extra for using a credit card. Which I find annoying. I felt like I was being nicked and dimed by the store and they were a loser business, struggling so much that they added this petty fee, which in my mind should be build in to the price.

Today was different. I wasn’t peeved at all. Why? Because the fee was framed as a convenience fee. I value convenience and had no problem with the 2.5%. It really boiled down to how they presented it to me.

Next time you charge your customer some fee, think about how you package it. This one word made a big difference in how I felt about the cost and vendor charging  me.

For more on pricing and why we pay what we do, check out a previous blog and a book I found very insightful.

For more tips, also check out:
3 productivity tips to prevent eye strain
How I earned the #1 spot on Google

Recently, they’ve produced some polarized opinions.

Miracle Whip has launched a “Love Us or Hate Us” campaign complete with a YouTube channel which has a place for people to take a side and sound off, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. The ads feature people stating how they feel really about Miracle Whip. Reviews range from, “I love it!” to, “it tastes like lotion.”  Not one person thinks it’s “just OK.” Spots also include celebrities that elicit strong reactions from people, the love ‘em or hate ‘em:  “Pauly D” from MTV’s Jersey Shore and James Carville, democratic strategist. The ads seem scripted, but you get the idea and the feedback on the social network supports the campaign’s theme.

Cate Blanchett boldly stepped out on the red carpet at the 83^rd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday in a Givenchy Haute Couture gown.  The internet was abuzz as journalists, bloggers and Twitter users weighed in. Opinions were extreme as people either raved about the dress or declared it awful. In her photos, she appears as a glamorous, fashion-forward woman who is not fazed by negative reviews. She could have easily selected a ho-hum gown thereby avoiding being placed on some worst dressed lists. However, she would have stayed off some best dressed lists, too.

The reactions that these two stirred up is what you want for your brand, company, product, service, book, art, etc. It may be difficult to hear the criticism, but your fans will be as loyal and enthusiastic as your detractors are harsh. When you conjure up these types of reviews, you know that you have clearly defined your brand. There is no question as to what you (or your company, product or service) are all about and you are building your awareness.

The worst thing you can do is to try to be all things to all people. While this strategy may spare you some criticism, it will probably also render you unremarkable and off the radar. A strong brand is authentic, fearless, full of conviction and self-confident.

Need some help differentiating your brand? Our Differentiate your Business Ta-Do List provides you with over 80 ways to be unique and create powerful distinction with products, service and how you market. Or, as always, feel free to email us your questions.

For more on how to define your brand, view:
Can a strong brand make a visit to the dentist less painful?
Blending in is so yesterday: Stand-up, Brand-up!

I’ve been doing TV interviews for many years, Bloomberg, CBS’s The early Show and lots of FOX TV, just to name a few.

They can be a frightening experiences (live, no editing, no script) or they can be powerful opportunities (SEO, website content, exposure) to add credibility to your brand.

Last week I did a 30-minute, live segment on the upcoming Super Bowl commercials. So how did I pull this off – answer questions on the spot, with poise, and share a good amount of branding insight?

Check out the 2-part interview here:  Part 1 |  Part 2

Remember this interview was a soft news angle with no controversy, I was not on the hot seat. If I was, I would have a different set of steps for that type of situation.

9 steps to smooth live, 30-minute TV interview.
1.) After the interview is booked, start doing your homework on the topic and think about the audience. I’m fortunate to have an awesome assistant, Lauren, who sourced three pages of stats, trends and history on the Super Bowl subject.

2.) Then send the producer, or your contact, a list of suggested questions with some key points from your research.

3.) The day before, review your key messages – out load.

4.) Before you go to the station, mentally get in the zone, run through your questions again.

5.) Always wear solid colors, not prints or tweedy fabrics.

6.) Women, where three times as much make-up as normal. Guys, wear powder, shiny face is not a good look.

7.) Arrive early, review your notes again. Breathe full breaths from your stomach.

8.) Write out your notes on index cards. Bring them with you.

9.) During the interview, pretend you are talking to your best friend, look at them. Relax.

10.) After the interview, get a copy. Watch it and learn from the experience. What can you do better next time?

For more Fox news interviews, view:
Can a Victoria’s Secret bag make you feel sexier?
Are you ready if your brand explodes? 4 important brand saving action items.

This sediment is shared by millions of young baby boomers everywhere. While official boomers (over 76 million of us) were born between 1946-1964, I’m so not ready to hear that term, if fact it really freaks me out.

I know I’m not alone. And smart marketers understand that there is a brand new generation of boomers, just like me.

Don’t call me a senior, and don’t even remind me that I’m aging, even if I am like a nice bottle of Merlot.

I prefer something more like a middle-aged person or how about no reference to age at all, that’s even better. That’s not a lie, 51 is the middle of 100. A lot of people live that long.

So why a blog about this?

My birthday is next week. On Feb. 12th I will be 51. Yes I’m crossing the mark of the other side of the game. Ole Abe and I share the day, although he is a real senior at 201.

I don’t feel 51 and I live a young lifestyle, I play tennis 4 times a week, I watch music videos, love Linken Park, Train and Katy Perry, shop at Forever 21 and occasionally drink really cheap wine.

Today, the Wall Street Journal did a story on retooling boomer marketing and it caught my attention. The story covers everything from how small type faces can hurt sales  to colors that won’t help you market either. But the big point is, don’t tell any of that to the young boomers.

Seniors like my mom, are cool with that Senior marketing stuff. I suppose when you hit 75, it’s like a merit badge and senior discounts are a bonus. But for people like me, marketers better be very sensitive with how they speak to me, or I’m not buying their products.

As a young boomer, I’m famously demanding, independent and rebellious. I’m health-conscious, I text daily, tweet sometimes hourly, don’t have gray hair (thank you Clairol®) and my eyes were bad when I was 30.

So marketers, please don’t use models that look like my parents to get my attention, don’t assume I won’t try new things and do know that I’m fit, not fat and child proof containers always pissed me off.

And AARP, I have enough magazines, so why not save a tree and your postage and just chill for a few years.

For more on aging, check out: Who said interns have to be young?

This week, Taco Bell experienced a greasy brand bump by some hungry law firm.

A lawsuit was filed claiming that Taco Bell was falsely advertising its beef tacos, and allegedly the 99 cents delicacies only had 30% or so beef in them, which is not enough to be defined as beef by the USDA.

The late night comedians, social media channels and journalists have been having a meaty joke and news fest. Taco Bell fired back on Friday with a news statement and full page ads claiming they are grateful in a “Thank you for suing us” campaign and welcomed the opportunity to talk taco with all of their loyal customers and anyone else who is starving for the truth. Additionally since the lawsuit broke, Taco Bell has furthered it’s position by posting ‘The Real Beef Facts’ and a quirky video touting the Super Delicious Ingredients Force, a Saturday Night Live parody that’s worth checking out.

Taco Bell says its beef is 100 percent USDA inspected, and that its recipe is 88 percent beef, 12 percent “secret recipe.”

So did Taco Bell do the right thing, by playing a bold brand defense card after a very public attack?

I’d bet my next tacos on it. When a company is a well known brand like Taco Bell with lots of good, beefy brand equity, sitting back and not saying any thing is not an option. I like that they responded quickly and took a very confident stance on the issue with provable facts. As for the law firm, maybe they need to think outside the goofy, greed gene.

Also, check out: Miracle Whip and Cate Blancett. What do these two have in common?

Is my timing good or what? NYC got hit with a major snow storm today. I left 24 hours ago.

Have you ever wondered why a business opens up in the center of lots of direct competition. Are they crazy or smart? I think they are smart if they play their cards right. Brick and mortar ventures understand that physically locating your business surrounded by like businesses has many advantages – it makes it easy for customers to find your category (restaurants, art galleries etc.) and they can easily stumble upon you, you can jointly promote the area with a common theme of offerings and you can network and refer business to each other.

That’s what I experienced in NYC last week. I was in the market for a new coat. I had two old ones that I enjoyed for years, but was ready to trade up. I headed to 29th and Broadway, the fur district in the city. I started with the place I purchased the older coats, since I had done business with them in the past. They suggested I go to Madison Avenue Furs, sell my old coats and then come back and shop. Apparently, this shop they were referring was known for paying a fair price for coats. I headed to the cash opportunity store, stopped in four other stores to do a little more research and see if they would give me any thing for my old coats. Two of them also suggested selling my old ones and coming back.
It was really cold and windy in New York and I was ready to get a warmer, new coat and couldn’t find the place that everyone was speaking about. Yikes, so I popped back in one of the stores and asked for more directions. They were so nice and walked me down to the store; knowing that they could potentially lose a sale to this store they were taking me to.

I entered the store and was greeted by a friendly sales associate. I explained what I was looking to do. She said no problem. I needed to see the owner and in the mean time, was I interest their collection? I said “sure”. She showed me all kinds, price points and different styles. I never felt pressure to select one or did I feel intimidated, which I have felt when I was making a purchase of this magnitude in the past.

Larry the owner of the store came over and introduced himself. He toured me through the store explaining that he was a third generation furrier. Most of the merchants in this cluster of retailers were all family businesses that have been around for decades. Again, no pressure from Larry, he was knowledgeable and helpful. After finding a coat that I really loved, Larry gave me the options, the amount of straight cash I could get and go, and what the trade in amount was that he would take off the coat that I liked. I thought about it, consulted with my shopping buddy, Jill and decided to take the money off and buy the coat from Larry’s store.

After a morning of shopping, Larry had a new customer. Why? I really loved the coat, I trusted him, we had chemistry, I related to him as he was my age, not my grandfather’s, I believed the price was fair for the purchase and I was buying what I wanted and was not being hard sold.

So how can this swarm of competition theory work for your business?

1) Be confident in your business and embrace an attitude that there is plenty of business for all.

2) Develop relationship with your competitors, let them know of any special services or products that you offer that can help them look good in the eyes of their customers.

3) When you can’t help a customer, send them the referral to your network of competitors.

This concept is not limited to retail or brick and mortar businesses. If you have an online business and write a blog, compliment your competition, share links and even consider bundling an offer with some of your competition. And if you have a strong feeling of trust with one of your competitors explore a joint venture opportunity. I realize this will not work for every business model, but it will for many.

I sure hope so. Many other cool companies like TED, MTV and Vera Wang like the hairy, cute MailChimp guy.

Switching email services is always a bear even if it’s named after a monkey. We’ve been using Feedblitz for the past year and while I’ve been happy with the process of sending out the bi-weekly mail, I’ve felt it was hard to make changes and user-friendly-ness was more stress than I, or my team, could stomach.

This week we made the jump. There are still some fleas here, but know we are working on them. For example, the ezine won’t always be this long and next time you will see abstracts and then click through button.

Before we changed, we researched several options and my design and IT team recommended MailChimp for a few of reasons.

1) We could create an ezine from our weekly blog posts feed.

2) It allows a lot more design features. We like pretty mail.

3) But most of all it did not require our community, which has gotten pretty big, to have to re opt-in. I was concerned that this would loose folks because of the hassle and did not want that.

4) The cost was about the same as Feedblitz, under $50 bucks a month.

5) The platform works well with social media sites and apps.

On the downside, we also learned that programming know how is needed to break the standard feed formats.

We hope you like the new look and welcome your feedback. We’ve also made some changes to the site which I will be reporting back on whether they were worth the time and expense.

Thanks for your continued support!

In January, I decided to make 2010 my fittest year ever. So far, so good. I made a plan, stuck to it and have seen results. I have been hitting the gym, running, logging one hundred plus miles on my bike every week and I have been participating in road races. I will be thinking about goals for 2011 soon. A scenario that played out during my fitness quest made me think about marketing planning for the coming year.

I recently won a $100 gift certificate to a local merchant who sponsored one of the events I’d entered. I had frequented this establishment once or twice, but, I was loyal to a competitor. I was looking forward to picking up some new workout gear and, perhaps, being convinced to change my loyalty. If I had a good buying experience, I might have been swayed since this store is walking distance from my house and my “favorite” store is a twenty minute drive. Here’s what happened.

I walked into the store and started to browse. An employee, or was it the owner? approached and asked if I needed any help. I smiled and said, “no thanks. I am just looking. I came by to use the $100 certificate I won in the raffle at the race that you sponsored!” He looked at me with an expression of disdain, groaned and went back to another part of the store.

Did I feel compelled to spend more than the $100? No. Did I feel welcomed? No. Did I want to grab a bunch of stuff and leave as quickly as possible and tell a bunch of people how obnoxious I though the salespeople were? Yes.

I collected my $97 worth of merchandise, checked out and left wondering why they bothered to offer the gift certificate. Clearly, they did not want to gain a new customer, or they would have acted like it once they got the new customer in the door. Perhaps they hoped that most would not be cashed in since the bulk of participants for this race came from out of town, but they would get some name recognition as a sponsor? Only they know.

Anyone who is in business would always like more customers, and there are lots of ways to achieve that goal. The last quarter of the year is usually the time when we review how we did this year and start thinking about our marketing plan for next year. While you are putting together your strategies and tactics, ask yourself the following questions.

1.      Do I really know my brand? If you were to describe your brand to a complete stranger, would you be able to express the core of your business in a sentence? Would it be memorable and unique or would it sound like you were describing one of your competitors? You need to have a laser focused, crystal clear vision of your brand before you can engage in any marketing activity.

2.     Do I know my customers? Do you have a good customer database? Do you know who your best customers are and why they decide to buy from you? Do you know their buying habits? Do you know enough about them to be able to provide them with a solution to a problem before they come to you with it? The only way to build deep relationships and a solid repeat customer base is to be able to have answers to these questions.

3.     Do I know what I am selling? This is similar to your overarching brand strategy, but specifically, what are you offering to the market place. Do you know the practical, as well as emotional benefits of your product or service?

4.     Do I know what my customers are buying? Similar to the preceding question. Do you know both the practical and emotional benefits your customers are seeking? Are they aligned, or is there a gap? Make sure that they are one in the same before you start any marketing communications. This will require some customer research which you can conduct on your own. You can have conversations with your customers, you can use free polling software on your website or you can start a discussion on your blog or your Facebook page. You can also monitor conversations on line, search Twitter and find out what people are saying. Be creative in your data collection. Also, be transparent. People will be willing to talk to you if you tell them why you are seeking information.

5.     Do I know my customers buying habits? Where do they interact with your company? At a store? At your store? Online? You need to know the where they are and how they buy in order to get the most impact from your marketing efforts.

6.     Do I know who my competition is? Once you know thyself, you need to be aware of all the other firms that will be vying for your customers’ attention and dollars. You should be aware of their market positioning and marketing and sales strategies, as well as how they are perceived in the marketplace. Knowing this will help you differentiate yourself. See number 1.

7.     Am I aware of my growth? Are you keeping tabs on things such as sales and market share so that you can measure results? You can’t measure that which you don’t track. It doesn’t require sophisticated software. You can build a simple excel worksheet and keep track of a few metrics. If you have a website, Google Analytics has a heap of free tools that you can use to track traffic, referrals, time spent by visitors, and which pages are the most captivating.

8.      Do all of my employees know what our brand is? You can do all the brilliant marketing in the world, but if one of your touchpoints is off, you’ve lost credibility. Marketing may be a department, but everyone in the organization needs to know, live and breathe the brand.

9.     What are my goals for marketing dollars spent? As in the example I cited above, the sporting goods shop might not have thought through their promotion. Did they just want their name on an event? Were they interested in new customers? They got a new customer in the store, but they certainly didn’t retain them. They should have had some sort of informal plan as to how to treat that new customer, or any new customer. Essentially, it all goes back to branding. If that company had made customer service a core brand value, I would likely still be shopping there. Do you know the difference between actions that will cause a splash or temporary spike versus those that will create customer retention and loyalty?

10.  Do I know what it costs to get a new customer? To retain an old one? Every marketing text book will tell you that it is cheaper to retain customers than to get new ones. Do you know the costs? Do you do things to retain the group that is cheaper to keep? There are some banks and other businesses that offer discounted rates to new customers. As an established customer, those kinds of tactics irk me since all I seem to get are mystery charges every month that I have to spend time on the phone getting resolved and removed from my bill.

11.  Have I kept track of what works? Looking back over the year(s), do you know what has worked? Do you know what has been a real stink bomb. Can you build off successful tactics in the past while developing new, creative strategies?

12.  Am I willing to take some risks? That answer has to be yes. Carve out part of your marketing budget and your brain space to allow yourself to try something new and different.  The only thing you are allowed to do if it doesn’t work is say, “that didn’t work, we won’t do that again, but we will take another risk.”

If you need help nailing down #1 on this list, you might find the Differentiate Your Product or Service Ta-Do List helpful. http://tools.oddpodz.com/ebooks-and-downloadable-tools/ta-do-lists/differentiate-your-business-product-or-services/

I sometimes twitch my eyes, baseballs and golf balls scare me, my spelling totally sucks and that I once lead a company down a toilet and lost a ton of money.

I recently opened a big speech with 5 pieces of self-deprecating information.

Crazy?
Nope. Self-deprecation and being honest about your list of imperfections can actually help build trust and credibility. It does not matter if you speak on stage, like me or not. You can use this strategy in a new biz presentations, recruiting a business partners and or team member.

Here’s how it worked.
1) It showed my audience that I’m willing to break rules and I’m not perfect. Prior to my flaw dump, the sponsor read my bio which is filled with great milestones. As I entered the stage, I threw out the question, “What’s up with all these speaker intros, as preachers of truth and messengers of real world best practices, and then all you here is half their story?”

2) This common ground served as a trust builder. Many in the group had some of the same flaws as I did. We connected.

3) This off the wall content added instant humor, which is often the key to message transfer with an audience, especially at 7:30 AM.

4) I flipped the most dramatic flaw (the business in the toilet one) into PROOF that, bouncing back is reachable, no matter how low your situation is and because of that unfortunate experience, I am 330% smarter. The audience knew my program content and knowledge was not academic BS, but true, authentic battlefield insight.

I was amazed at how many people came up to me afterwards and thanked my for my honesty and courage.

So what so wrong with you? And how can you make it work for you too?