Tag Archives: management

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?

Enhanced by Zemanta

1 Comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Music

Tagged as , , , ,

January 24, 2014 · 11:53 am

Can You Feel It?

It’s Foodie Friday and today I was inspired by something I saw last night on The Taste.

Healthy Berries are Good Food for Health

(Photo credit: epSos.de)

Yes, I do watch a lot of competitive cooking shows but I find it to be a great way to learn about technique and also how to think about blending flavors, textures, and foods into great dishes.   The guest judge was Roy Choi and he was giving one team a master class on making street food (of which he is a master!).  While serving them the food, he asked the contestants a lot of questions about how what they were eating made them feel.  Not how did it taste – how did it make them feel.

That resonated with me on a number of levels.  Maybe you’ve had the experience of eating something and having had a flood of memories hit you.  I certainly get that when I cook one of my grandmother’s recipes.  I’ve also had it happen sometimes when I eat a dish in one place that I’ve had in another and I am taken back to the place in which I first had it.  Food that makes you feel something is a great goal, one we can apply to our businesses too.

Part of many great brands’ success is that they make you feel something.  It can be nostalgia about our childhoods (Coke, Kraft, Campbell’s Soup) or being a part of a bigger cause (Apple, Prius), or maybe just safe and loved.  That emotional involvement, how we make people feel, is what helps differentiate great brands and great service businesses.  It’s not how the business “tastes” as much as it is how it feels.

Think about “cold” brands.  I’ve been to hotels where the place was clean and the service good but I’d have given up some efficiency for a little warmth.  I don’t think “warm and fuzzy” is for every business but I think every business does need to think about how their customers feel after interacting with them.  Those aren’t the kind of check box answers one gets on most surveys if the questions are even asked.  You need to dig deeper, maybe even become your own customer.  If you can’t feel anything, they probably can’t either, or at least not anything you’d want them to repeat. You with me?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, food

Tagged as , , , ,

January 14, 2014 · 10:24 am

King Harvest

Bob Dylan and The Band touring in Chicago, 197...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s TunesDay and I have The Band on my mind.

I’ve been a fan since “Big Pink” came out way back in 1968. I was surprised back then to find out that this quintessentially American band was, in fact, mostly Canadian (everyone but Levon Helm). While The Band originated playing behind Ronnie Hawkins, they made their reputation playing behind Bob Dylan as his “electric” band.  The list of great music they’ve written and played is lengthy and their portraits of American life (particularly Southern life) are phenomenal.  I was going to write about “Life Is A Carnival” today (an upbeat song with which to begin the year!) but another tune seems more appropriate to a business blog.

“King Harvest” is one of The Band’s finest and most interesting songs.  The video below was filmed as they recorded the song in 1970:

There is also an outstanding version of this recorded by Bruce Hornsby I urge you to seek out.  Why have I sought out the song today?   Putting aside the amazing music which is upbeat and funky, the story is one of business failure and desperation.  The narrator is a poor sharecropper whose crops have failed, barn burned down, and horse went mad.  You think YOU’VE got issues…

The way the farmer finds hope is by signing on with a union (history says this may have been one part of the Trade Union Unity League in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s).  He buys in to the union’s message:

I can’t remember things bein’ so bad.
Then there comes a man with a paper and a pen
Tellin’ us our hard times are about to end.
And then, if they don’t give us what we like
He said, “Men, that’s when you gotta go on strike.”

Which is the business point today.  No, not that we should all go on strike (and kind of self-defeating for those of us that are self-employed…).  If you listened to the sound of this song you’d think it was an upbeat happy tune.  It’s very dark.  If you listen to the words he’s saying you might think the farmer is happy.  If you listen to his meaning, he’s apologizing for abandoning who he is for a new pair of shoes and an external boss.

When we’re dealing with customers or employees, partners or co-workers we need to listen to the words and not just the music, and then we need to pay attention carefully to the words to get to the meaning.  Make sense?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Music

Tagged as , , , , ,