Monthly Archives: November 2017

November 20, 2017 · 10:29 am

This is a week for friends and family as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday. Most of what’s being advertised, based on my narrow sample of one, are cars and drugs. Admittedly, my viewing tends towards news and live sports with a smattering of public TV shows and other entertainment. I scroll through the commercials in the latter category but I can still get a sense of what’s being marketed.

Photo by +Simple on Unsplash

Why I raise this is that it seems to me to be a missed opportunity. As I initially stated, this is a week where friends and family gather, and when they’re not stuffing their faces or yelling at football, they talk. Among other things, I’m sure they talk about services they’ve used, places they’ve eaten, and prodcuts they’ve bought. It makes total sense that research shows that nearly three times as many people said content from friends and family influences their purchase decisions compared to content from celebrities. You can imagine how powerful it is when that “content” is delivered in person at Thanksgiving.

The research – The 2017 Consumer Content Report: Influence in the Digital Age, by Stakla – also found that

  • On average, people are able to identify if an image was created by a professional or brand vs. generated by a consumer, 70% of the time.
  • Consumers are three times more likely to say that content created by a consumer is authentic compared to content created by a brand
  • On average, 60% of consumers say content from a friend or family member influences their purchases decisions, while just 23% of consumers say content from celebrities influenced their purchasing decisions
  • People want to see content from people they know or that they can relate to.

I’m not suggesting that some brand co-opt Aunt Sally into being a hidden spokesperson nor that some product unleashes an army of Aunt Sallys into every table. I do think, however, that there is an opportunity around this time of year to focus your brand and your marketing so that you’re top of mind as the conversations are taking place. If sharing is caring, your customers need to care enough to do so and this is the best time of year for that to happen. What are you doing to help them with that?

Leave a comment

Filed under digital media, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , ,

November 17, 2017 · 1:11 pm

What Restaurateurs And Founders Share

It’s Foodie Friday, and this week an article on a restaurant trade site caught my eye. It’s all about the things restaurant owners wished they’d known when they decided to open a place. Having spent a lot of time working with startups, what I find interesting is that many of their statements are not unique to the restaurant business. In fact, I’m willing to bet that you will nod your head in agreement with these if you’ve even started a business or worked with one in its early stages. You can read the entire piece by clicking through here.

Photo by Bank Phrom

First and foremost, the time involved. One owner said she wished she’d known “That I was going to spend the first couple months basically living in the store and two years married to the business. 86 my social life!” I’m often amused at the founders who still have side gigs, especially if those gigs are not consulting positions that are very flexible. One startup with which I’m working has two founders who don’t seem to be able to focus enough time on their company, and as a result, their progress is very slow. What should have taken them several months has taken them a couple of years. In part it’s a financial decision – the gigs help fund the startup – but I sometimes feel as if they don’t really get that you need to be married to the business, as this owner says.

Another owner wishes he’d known “To have enough money reserved to be able to wait to open the doors to the public.” There is something to be said for throwing a lot of tests out there and iterating, but I’m a believer in making sure you’re putting your best foot forward. That doesn’t mean every beta has to be perfect but it does mean, to paraphrase the words of the old Paul Masson commercial, not selling any product before its time. The world is too cluttered and I’m not sure any business gets multiple chances after a bad customer experience (think about how many apps you’ve deleted recently or a restaurant at which your first meal was your last).

Then there is the point never underestimate the value of private dining. As the owner put it, people wanted a place where it was quiet and personal. I think that makes it as much about the experience as it does the product. Personalization is key!

Finally, I love another owner’s point: “To build your squad. We always knew that having good people was important, but I’m not sure we realized how important.” As any business grows, the founders can only do so much and your success is in the hands of the people you’ve brought in and trained. Your job as a manager is to help your team to do their jobs, but it’s also to be sure that every person is carrying their load. Nothing will bring a business down faster than a weak link in the chain that causes resentment among the rest of the team. Hire well, don’t be afraid to admit you’ve made a mistake with a hire if you have, and do everything in your power to retain great talent.

Yes, the food service business is different in many ways (you probably don’t have the health department visiting nor do you deal with many cuts and burns), but as the piece demonstrates, every startup faces many of the same challenges, don’t they?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, food, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , , ,

November 15, 2017 · 10:59 am

Digital Graffiti

Suppose you own a building and someone sprays a message on the facade. Maybe the message is as benign as just the “artist’s” tag or maybe it’s hate speech or maybe it’s as simple as pasting a sticker promoting some commercial venture. Whether you might find the message offensive or not, you probably wouldn’t hold the building’s owner responsible for the message unless you notified them that the message was there and they didn’t remove it. In NY, it’s illegal for landlords to leave graffiti up and the city will come and remove it for you at no cost. Of course, the city will also fine you once they’ve been told your building is hosting graffiti and you’re doing nothing about it.

English: Graffiti tag on train station buildin...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You might be wondering what this has to do with your business since you probably don’t own a building. In my mind, the same principle applies when users post links to content on a particular platform or when a news site reports on content hosted elsewhere and links to it. This very notion is at the center of a lawsuit filed by Playboy against Boing Boing. The latter posted a story about someone aggregating all of the Playboy centerfolds. As  Techdirt reported:

it’s a blog post titled “Every Playboy Playmate Centerfold Ever.” There’s a very short paragraph that reads:

Some wonderful person uploaded scans of every Playboy Playmate centerfold to imgur. It’s an amazing collection, whether your interests are prurient or lofty. Kind of amazing to see how our standards of hotness, and the art of commercial erotic photography, have changed over time.

Boing Boing then linked to the images and a video, both of which were off-site (on Imgur and YouTube, respectively). Playboy is suing for copyright infringement even though it’s pretty obvious that Boing Boing didn’t create or host any of the material. They merely reported on it (fair use, kids). I’ll let the lawyers decide if this is what’s known as a SLAPP action (designed to intimidate and be costly) or whether it has any merit, but it’s not unique. Web hosting companies have been sued for hosting pirate sites that stream copyrighted material.

You might know that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Internet service providers (ISPs) may not be liable for copyright infringement from copyrighted material passing through their systems if they take certain steps to police infringement on their site(s). There are some requirements for you to claim this protection, but generally, if you didn’t post it and take it down when you’re told about it, you’re fine. It’s the equivalent of digital graffiti in NYC. Clean up the eyesore when you’re told about it and you’re not penalized.

I can pretty much guarantee that your business has a website. It might have a public-facing comments section or some other place where consumers can post things. You need to monitor and moderate it, and if you’re notified that someone is posting digital graffiti – whether it’s infringing materials or worse – you need to take action. Yes, fair use and the DCMA can protect you up to a point but ultimately you want all of your digital presences to reflect well on you and your brand. Being covered in graffiti doesn’t get you there, does it?

Leave a comment

Filed under digital media, Helpful Hints