Category Archives: Helpful Hints

August 14, 2015 · 9:34 am

Bad Choices

A little science for our Foodie Friday Fun this week, and a business point to boot.  I read about a study conducted by some Swedish scientists.  They were trying to understand why people make bad food choices.  You know what those are – the candy bar instead of the apple when we want a snack or the quart of soda when we’re thirsty.  Turns out that there is a scientific reason why we do so, and it’s not just the sugar high:

Scientists believe they have evidence that stressful situations really do affect the self-control mechanisms in our brain, making us more prone to unhealthy choices. In a small study, Swiss researchers at the University of Zurich found that people who were exposed to an unpleasant experience prior to making a food choice were more likely to go for the unhealthy, but tastier option. Scientists also analysed the brain patterns of people in the study and saw that exposure to stress altered connections between brain regions in a way that may have affected capacity for self-control.

That is from The Independent’s report on the study.  So stressful situations really do make us more likely to eat unhealthy food, but it appears that they cause bad decision-making overall as well.  That’s kind of scary when you think about it.  After all, how many of us lead completely stress-free lives when we’re at work?  There is always a deadline or a revenue goal looming on the horizon.  How does that affect our ability to make good choices?

There are some things we can try that might help.  First, stop beating yourself up.  No one dies when most of us fail.  I hate to get all Stuart Smalley on you, but we ARE good and smart enough.  Next, allow yourself more time – get to bed a little earlier, have more time in the morning to ease into the day, get to the office when it’s quiet and use the time to plan ahead.  Get up from your desk and stretch.  Walk around. Breathe, and remind yourself that this storm will pass.

You may think that maintaining a high level of stress keeps you energized, but you’re wrong.  It’s clouding your judgement and hurting your success.  Choosing the wrong snack is bad and it might hurt you in the long run.  Making bad business choices is worse and could hurt many more people than just you.

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August 12, 2015 · 10:36 am

The Problem, Not The Product

You’ve probably invested a lot of time in developing your business’ product or service. You might have spent a lot of money researching things such as packaging, color, price, and the best marketing tactics. After all, back in the day before digital, consumers usually had to get in the car and drive to a competitor if they were unhappy with your offer. At a minimum, they had to pick up the phonebook and let their fingers do the walking. So not true today, where your biggest competitor is just a click away. Is all of that investment in product or service design and marketing worth it?

Maybe not. Marketing today is about one thing: explaining to potential customers how you are solving their problem. That means you need, first and foremost, to understand what that problem is. In other words, it means listening. Once you’ve done that, it means speaking to the consumer in words that mean something to them, and not in jargon. Explain your approach to solving their problem. That can reflect your brand persona, whatever you’ve chosen it to be.

You’ll notice none of what I’ve said so far requires the gathering of any personal information about your customer. In my mind, that’s asking them to marry you on the first date. Once they’ve bought in, demonstrating to them why they should share their personal information with you (and how you will guard it with your life) can only make the marketing better. After all, a customized solution to their problems is better than the generic one you already have.

The point today is that developing a pretty product or an appealing service is fine but it’s step 3.  First comes identifying the problem and then the customers who have that issue.  It’s the problem, not the product. How you solve it – and  how you present the solution – is the game from that point forward.  Have you done that? Does this make sense?

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August 6, 2015 · 11:32 am

No News Isn’t Good News

I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Here at the World Headquarters, we step away from the computer screen at lunch time, usually to watch the big screen.  Generally it’s a whip around through the various news channels to make sure that it’s worth continuing to work the rest of the day.  After all, if the world is going to end, I’d rather try to sneak in one last round of golf than write a few more emails.

One thing I’ve noticed lately as I watch CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews during lunch is how little actual content I see.  Mostly I see ads.  After many years in the TV business I understand why, but when you factor in national breaks, promotional spots, and the local cable affiliate breaks, a viewer can leave the set for 5+ minutes at a time and not miss a thing.  Entertainment programming doesn’t seem much better. Then again, maybe I’m just old and cranky and wrong.

It turns out I’m not.  As Business Insider reported:

Almost every major TV network in the US is stuffing more ads into their commercial breaks in a “desperate” attempt to prop up ad revenues as ratings across the industry decline, according to a report from investment research and management company Sanford C. Bernstein. The report shows that prime-time TV audiences (as determined by Nielsen C3 measurements: TV watched both live and three days after the show was first aired on catch-up services) are down 9% year on year, yet ad loads on some networks are up as much as 10% on last year.

The chart I’ve embedded shows how commercial hours have changed in the last year across major cable network groups.  3% or 4% may not sound like a lot, but when you’re running over 10,000 seconds of commercials a day, that’s several minutes more each day.  Times 7.  Times 365.  The problem with that is that in the process of maintaining revenues you’re exacerbating the problem of viewer abandonment.  In particular, viewers are going to streaming, where commercials loads are way smaller if they exist at all.  What I find nice about the commercials on Hulu, for example, is that you know exactly how long they will last.  I have no clue as I’m taking my short lunch break if I’m ever going back to the news.  In this case, no news is very bad news since it means yet more of what I definitely did not tune in to see.

We can’t alter our products to preserve an income statement when that alteration provides a lesser experience for the consumer.  It’s a short-term fix that will have very bad long-term ramifications.  Cheaper ingredients, lesser workmanship, or ad cramming are all part of the same mindset.  It’s one we should avoid, don’t you think?

 

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