Category Archives: Helpful Hints

February 11, 2014 · 9:53 am

B.B. And Your Business

TunesDay, and today it’s a visit from the King Of The Blues, Mr. B.B. King.  Anyone who has picked up a guitar in the last 60 years that has been influenced by his playing, even if indirectly. Number 6 on Rolling Stones’ 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time, B.B. King would be cited by each of the 5 ahead of him as critical in their learning. A member of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame (1987), he is one of the most influential musicians of all time.  Having seen him dozens of times I can also tell you he puts on a great show.  Today, we’re going to learn a little bit about business from him.

In 1969, he recorded an old (1931!) song called “The Thrill Is Gone“.  It was his biggest hit and remains his signature tune.  I’ll get to this in a second, but first I want to focus on the title track of an album he released in 1972 called “Guess Who.”  It’s a perfect marketing lesson in under a minute and a half:

This is exactly the message brands and businesses need to convey:

Someone really loves you
Guess who, guess who
Someone really cares
Guess who

So open your heart
Oh, then surely you’ll see
That the someone who really cares is me

We need to be asking ourselves if that’s the message we’re putting out there or is it all “buy this”?  Contrast that lyric with the message B.B. reminds us is on every customer’s mind:

The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away
You know you done me wrong baby
And you’ll be sorry someday

Yes indeed.  Consumers have never had so many choices – and so many brands competing for their attention and dollars – as they do now.  As long as we keep those two songs in our minds, those choices will be made in our favor.  Ignore them and it’s you who’ll be singing the blues.  You with me?

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February 4, 2014 · 9:46 am

Yeah Yeah Yeah

It’s TunesDay, and today’s story has been a half century in the making.  It was 50 years ago this week that The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show and the world changed.  For those of you who were watching that night (as I was), you know that’s not hyperbole.  It seems kind of quaint now, but here is how that change began:

We’d lost a president a few months before.  America was sort of depressed.  Four young men from Liverpool brought us out of our funk and showed the world that performers could also write their own material (something not very common in pop music to that point).  They were just as impactful off the stage.  Their press conferences were filled with laughs but also with pointed jabs at authority, setting the tone for the tumult of the next decade.  50 years ago, the revolution began with pointy boots and a smiling drummer.  Which is, of course something we need to remember in business.

Everything began to change that February night and yet very few businesses were prepared.  How would you like to have been a barber shop and seen those haircuts (or lack thereof)? The record business was one of singles.  Albums were a couple of hit singles and a LOT of filler material.  The Beatles made the entirety of an album important.  Putting aside that almost every cut became a hit, three years later Sgt. Pepper set a new artistic standard that changed the business.   The cultural changes came faster.  Everyone knows someone who saw that broadcast and picked up a guitar – you’re reading someone who did so now.  Their talent was enormous but subtle and it was easy to think “I can do that.”  Sort of how digital business is 50 years later.

As business people our radar needs to be extremely sensitive to change.  When that radar goes off we need to ask a great number of “what if” questions and pay attention to how things are progressing.  The first PC’s were met with shrugged shoulders.  25 years later the PC in our pocket is more powerful than the computers that took man to the moon.  Facebook is 10 years old and there wasn’t a “social media marketing” requirement many businesses are just learning to fulfill now.

I know – the only constant is change.  True enough, and it’s rare when that change happens very loudly and clearly on a winter’s night with drums and guitars.  It hasn’t been quite as obvious since then and won’t be the next time either.  Are you listening closely enough to hear it?

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January 20, 2014 · 11:09 am

The Content That Matters

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deuts...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has been a lot written about content marketing.

Some seers have even proclaimed 2014 as the year of content marketing, and as Google adjusts their search algorithms to make content more important in determining search rank, one can understand why “content” is on everyone’s lips here in digital business land.  Since I’m never one to miss a large bandwagon, let me jump right on to talk about the only content that matters.  I have a particular reason for doing so today.

We celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday today.  As I’ve written in past years on this occasion, I remember him and his struggles well from my childhood.  The quote that stuck is from the “I Have A Dream” speech about the importance of judging people by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.  That is the content that matters – the ONLY content that really matters – as we do business.

What, for example, does it say about the character of those retailers who run sales tied to “the MLK event.”  What it says to me is that they are tone-deaf, as was the cognac brand that sent out an email with drink recipes “MLK Jr. would be proud of.”  Really?  This is not about Dr. King or his principles or his legacy.  It’s about a brand trying to sell something and is, in the word Dr. King’s daughter used to describe similar activities, “appalling.”  That describes the character of their content just as it does the content of their character.

I don’t know about you, but I try to do business with people, not brands.  There are restaurants and other businesses I frequent almost solely because I like and trust the people with whom I deal.  I hope that many of my clients have hired me not just for what and who I know but also because they have a sense of the business person I try to be.  You can be sure that many of the people with whom you do business are looking at you and your company in the same way.

A business’ success or customer service isn’t about the store; it’s about the person on the other side of the counter or the desk or who answers the phone.  The content of their character will determine the brand’s success or failure.  You can choose those people wisely and support them as they let the content of that character show.  You can choose to market as did the brands above which also reveals a lot about the content of brand’s character.  It’s the only content that matters.  What’s your choice?

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