Monthly Archives: June 2012

June 18, 2012 · 9:29 am

Translators

It was a big sports weekend in the wide world of sports, even if you’re not a fan.

Wide World of Sports (U.S. TV series)

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A major golf championship, a major soccer competition, the biggest name in Motorsports finally won, and the NBA continued to crown a champion. Oh yeah – there was a lot of regular season stuff going on as well.

As I took in a lot of this, I realized that after a lifetime of immersion in just about every sport known to the world I had a pretty good idea about the nuances of what I was watching. As I sat with various people over the course of the weekend, I realized that while they sort of understood the basics of what was on the screen, they weren’t fully understanding what they were watching. The announcers didn’t often do a good job of explaining it either – why is a downhill lie a bad thing and what they heck is a “loose” car anyway?  At various points, it was clear that they had no clue why what they were seeing was significant.  Which is, of course, the business point.

I spent a fair amount of time translating for them.  Not from English to some other language, but from the technical language of sport into something they could understand.  Each of us at some point might be guilty of the same kind of jargon-filled exposition which totally baffles our intended audience.  More importantly, it often denies a newer audience admission into the clan.  We’re not speaking the language of the customer, and definitely not the language of the prospective customer.

A lot of what makes us good marketers (and executives, come to think of it) is that ability to translate.  We need to take something that might be highly technical and make it simple (Apple software vs. Microsoft, for example) and do so in a way that resonates with our customers (“it just works”).   If you can’t explain it to a fifth grader, you probably need to rethink the message.

Does that make sense?

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June 15, 2012 · 8:43 am

Anchovies

Let’s discuss the little fish that’s often the subject of big disagreements for our Foodie Friday Fun. Of course I mean the anchovy.

Northern anchovies are important prey for mari...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They’ve been used in cooking for centuries despite the fact that many people wrinkle their noses are the very idea of the bony things. “Caesar salad but no anchovies” is a familiar refrain to servers everywhere.  Yet every culture employs them as a part of their native cuisine so they must be doing something right!

I’m bringing them up today because there’s a business thought I have as I think about them and it’s tied to a cooking secret:  you’ve probably eaten more anchovies than you realize.  They aren’t always visible as they might be atop a pizza or on a salad.  They’re like duck fat – an ingredient in many dishes that makes everything else more delicious.  Many pasta sauces – puttanesca, Norma, and others – as well as Worcestershire sauce contain anchovies.  They’re not really noticeable as a salty fish taste as we expect – they’re a subtle note we’d notice is missing if they weren’t used.

The business point is this:  in every business there are anchovies – quiet, semi-hidden elements that mustn’t be left out or the overall effort suffers.  The problem is that we often ignore them or choose to omit them as we become conscious of their existence.  They might be best practices or they might even be people.  You might not like tight financial controls, for example, but you’ll notice when they’re missing.

Personally, I’m a fan of anchovies of all sorts.  They help make me better both in and out of the kitchen.  How about you?

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June 14, 2012 · 8:55 am

Changing Media Dynamics

A couple of pieces of research this morning that confirm and clarify what many folks have been observing independently but which also made me a bit more confused.  In this case, it has to do with how our media habits are changing with respect to television.

Google TV

Google TV (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Frankly, I’m not even sure what TV is any more despite many years working in the industry.  A “TV” is a screen, and we’re surrounded by screens of that sort and many others, the use of which is reflected in the research.  In any event, the data are interesting and even more so when one considers the changes that are happening to the businesses behind the screens.

Let’s start with information from a TV industry group – CIMM.  The released a study which you can access here about How Multi-Screen Consumers Are Changing Media Dynamics:

Studying 10 broadcast network and cable brands over a five-week period, the research found that an average of 90% of consumers who engaged with brand did so on TV, and 25% did so online, and 12% via online video. In addition, comScore and CIMM found that 60% of a media brand’s consumers accessed both TV and the web during simultaneous 30-minute increments, and 29% accessed Facebook while watching TV. To the researchers, this suggests that digital platforms may be used to support the TV-viewing experience and drive multi platform engagement.

So multi platform is here.  What I think is lost a bit is that it may not necessarily mean multi-screen:

21% of consumers now have their TVs hooked up to the internet, a 5% increase from last year’s levels.The Magid Media Futures report says gaming consoles (Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360) are currently the “primary means” of connecting a TV to the internet, followed by “smart-TVs,” Blu-ray players, and then OTT devices like Roku, AppleTV or GoogleTV. The firm says early adopters skew toward men, as 56% of male respondents between the ages of 18-44 say they have their TVs connected to the web vs. 44% of females.

There’s also research from The NPD Group which finds that 66% of all big screen (50+inches) HDTVs are made with the ability to connect to the internet without a separate device, while only 1% of TVs smaller than 32 inches have the same technology.  Yes, we’re watching a mash-up of difference sources, brands, and technologies but no, it might not be through a TV, an iPad, and a phone.

So what’s it called?  TV?  Enhanced video?  A mess?  Let’s hear your thoughts.

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