Monthly Archives: October 2012

October 23, 2012 · 9:34 am

When Is A Medium Not A Medium?

An interesting piece of research from the folks at Borrell Associates this morning that concerns how small and medium businesses are using digital channels.  Given that nearly every local business seems to have a website, I wasn’t surprised to read that over half of SMB online marketing dollars are spent supporting what the survey calls “web presence.”  This is their site design and maintenance, hosting, as well as their social media management.  What I hadn’t thought about was the study’s conclusions as summed up in this post:

Digital advertising is yielding the spotlight to digital services. The emerging lesson, concludes the study, is that the Internet is actually not much of an advertising medium after all.

That was an “ah-ha!” moment for me.  Then again, I can’t remember the last time I clicked on a web banner and unless I’m searching with an intent to buy immediately (as opposed to just conducting research), I generally ignore the PPC ads that seem to surround everything.  As it turns out the average U.S. small/medium business spends $17,000 on online services, compared with $6,800 on online advertising, hence the conclusion about it not being a medium.  Then again, there is a big division even within this group since those with fewer than 50 employees will spend less than $500 a year, while a mid-size business with more than 50 employees will spend an average of $63,000.  The little guys spend a higher percentage of their budgets on web hosting and their site (make sense since this is the one indispensable element in my opinion) as well as email and SEO (getting found is always important!).  Once the budgets grow the companies can afford to branch out into other areas (blog management, analytics, etc.).

The report concludes by noting that, as the web becomes more of a basic marketing tool for business, the importance of online support services will grow as well. The midsize and larger companies are likely to internalize services that they once contracted out. Those larger companies will either assign SEO and social media management tasks to existing staff, or hire fulltime experts in digital marketing

I’ve seen that occur with some companies for which I’ve worked.  Here on the screed we probably don’t think about the interwebs as a service-driven space and probably spend too much time on it as a medium   I’m going to rethink that based on this study since many of the folks who contact me fit the small and medium business category.  What do you think?

Enhanced by Zemanta

1 Comment

Filed under Consulting, digital media

Tagged as , , , , ,

October 22, 2012 · 11:06 am

The Missile Crisis

With a presidential debate on foreign policy tonight, it’s interesting that today is the 50th anniversary (boy do I feel old) of the start of the international incident known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.

English:

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you’re unfamiliar with this time, there is a great movie called Thirteen Days which captures that period in 1962 when the U.S. and the Soviet Union came very close to starting a nuclear war.  I vaguely remember the “duck and cover” drills in school but little else.  The basic facts are the we had deployed some missiles in Italy and Turkey; the Soviets retaliated by sending missiles to Cuba.  We implemented a naval blockade to stop the ships, the Soviets threatened to start a war if the blockade didn’t end.  Harsh words were exchanged and the  situation escalated into the unthinkable – a nuclear war that would wipe out 100,000,000 citizens of each country as well as create an environmental catastrophe for the entire planet.

What does this have to do with business (since that’s what we do here on the screed)?  Maybe you and a customer have a disagreement   Maybe your management team is aligned on goals but very far apart on how to achieve them.  Maybe you have a work team in which some folks do all the work while others get all the credit.  Those are just a few of the business situations which can escalate into the business equivalent of nuclear war.  Those situations usually involve lawyers, money, a lot of time, and most of your emotional energy.  They take away from the reasons you’re in business.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was solved by the parties realizing that they did share one goal – avoiding the mass casualties and planetary destruction that a nuclear war would bring.  Back-channel negotiations solved the problem in a way that accomplished that goal as well as each side’s own goals while saving face on both sides.  That’s how it gets done in business as well.  Obviously, the best situation is to anticipate things that could become problems and write careful agreements before the situations happen.  However, a lot of the time that’s not feasible  as in some of the cases above.  In those cases, the sides need to come together  identify the goals they DO share, and listen very carefully to the other side.  Avoid posturing – speak openly and honestly.  Think creatively.  Commit to solving the problem.

Few business issues (OK, none) are of the magnitude of those weeks 50 years ago but we can still learn from what occurred.  What thoughts do you have?  Ever gotten to “the brink” in your business life?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Reality checks, What's Going On

Tagged as , , , , , ,

October 19, 2012 · 10:02 am

Are You Making Art Or Commerce?

For our Foodie Friday Fun this week, let’s talk about a dilemma faced by many chefs.

Chefs in training in Paris, France (2005).

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That problem is the “art vs. commerce” equation.  What I mean is that unless a chef is cooking solely in competitions or to entertain guests in his/her home, they’re probably conscious of their food costs.  In fact, that’s the number one issue I think restaurants face because unlike rent and utilities it’s a highly variable cost.  In my mind it comes down to do we want to make art – some wonderful dish that has expensive ingredients and requires a lot of labor to produce – or are we making commerce – highly repeatable, high margin plates.  That’s something that affects your business too.

I’ve always found it interesting that culinary schools offer both culinary arts tracks as well as culinary management tracks.  The former is about food science –  nutrition, flavors and cooking techniques. They also spend time on presentation but mostly on creating great flavors and developing cooking skills.  The latter program is about running the business – hiring people, accounting, running the front-of-house (the non-kitchen part of the business).  Art vs. commerce.  One would think that to be successful in the food business you’d need a heavy dose of the other side.

These sorts of choices are made all the time in your business as well, I’ll bet.  Where do we put the ads on the web page?  Do we auto-start our audio or video without user initiation?   Do we provide our store staff with uniforms or let them wear whatever?  Are we PBS looking to make art or ABC looking to sell ads?  Should we have someone go get the goods from storage or just go floor to ceiling with boxes of inventory?  Obviously no one would confuse Nordstrom’s with Costco, but to a certain extent that’s the art vs. commerce equation at work.

Obviously it’s possible to pay attention to both elements.  There are high-end restaurants that charge $200 for a meal and fast food joints that charge $2.00.  The reality is that the high-end “art” places often don’t last long because they’re not paying enough attention to the commerce.  We need to run our businesses as businesses but do so with flair and as much style as our budgets will allow.

How do you deal with this dilemma?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , ,