You no doubt saw the new Apple TV commercials during the London Olympics. The ads focus on Apple Genius employees and how they quickly resolve user problems with the built in software tools of Mac computers. If you were able to ask Apple founder Steve Jobs what he would do about the commercials, he would have likely said that, “they are sh__!” and would have first fired Apple’s marketing team and their agency.

There are two main problems with Apple after the Jobs era. First, innovation in new products have slowed so that the focus on new, innovative products can no longer be the subject of the company’s advertising. Secondly, the Genius commercials appear to be a defensive strategy against Android and PC-based products that are now catching up to Apple’s own breakthroughs in built-in software tools such as iMovie for video editing. Steve never played defense. His quarterbacking skills always kept Apple on the offense.

Siri, the voice-activated help software built into the iPhone was the last technology Steve touched before his death last year and had he been up to it he no doubt would have cancelled or delayed its launch. Siri is a disappointment and Steve would never disappoint his customers. I fear that Apple may be slipping in both it’s product development and certainly in its marketing without Steve at the helm.

I share this post as a lesson in two things. The importance of customer service and competent hands-on management of a retail operation and the power of social media in destroying your business.

On a recent trip to Hilton Head Island I had the misfortune of a hungry car full of teenage boys as I drove to and from the island on I-26 near the small town of Chapin, SC. On the way down at around 9:30 a.m. I spotted a gleaming new Bojangle’s just off the exit ramp. Believing that this shiny new restaurant would be the best bet for some quick biscuits and coffee I parked and entered a nightmare.

With at least four female workers back in the kitchen and a lone teenage male at the counter, there was a decided lack of interest in us as customers or the business of selling food. The females were engaged in conversation that was of greater interest than us and the lone female who could have helped speed our service was more interested in stocking a cubby with all of the styrofoam cups that restaurant would need for the next month. This was an absolutely pathetic example of how a franchisee’s lack of attention to detail and training can not only hurt his or her business but destroy the corporate brand. It was without a doubt the worst experience I have every had in a Bojangles and took a total of 40 minutes to order our food, receive the food and get out of Chapin.

While we were being treated rudely and with total disregard to customer service of any kind, I was posting to Foursquare.com that any one on I-26 who was interested in fast food should not ever come to that Bojangles. Within minutes, I was receiving replies that they would certainly avoid that restaurant and that Bojangles was known for poor service so they were not surprised.

On the way back home, the boys were hungry for McDonald’s and yes, I gave in to their rants at the Chapin, SC exit. When I pulled off the exit ramp I spied the Bojangles that had caused so much angst a week prior and everyone in the car commented on the terrible experience there. Several said we would have a better experience at the McDonald’s. They were wrong.

It was the worst McDonald’s experience I every had. It is 11:40 a.m. on a Saturday and the parking lot was packed. The McDonald’s staff was absolutely caught flat footed with only one female at the counter and a comedy (if you were not in a hurry or hungry) in the kitchen. Employees were bumping into each other, spilling fries and getting orders completely wrong. All customers were looking at each other and amazed at the bozos behind the counter. Every customer was pissed and the staff completely clueless. Yeap, 40 minutes later we got the hell out of Chapin with the belief that Chapin, SC IS the world capital of lousy fast food service. Oh, by the way, I posted again to Foursquare about the dilemma and laid a negative bomb online about those restaurants.

Maybe the Bojangles workers were fired during the week and all got jobs at McDonald’s. Come on franchisees. If you are going to invest a million bucks in a restaurant, train your staff. Take an interest in your business and please don’t destroy your corporate partner’s reputation. Bojangles and McDonald’s. Get your regional supervisors to Chapin, SC and fire your franchisees.

Just a year ago, I would have been like the other customers in both restaurants and bore the burden of spending money with amateur fast food workers. This time, armed with an iPhone, I was able to warn hundreds of travelers in the future to not stop in Chapin. I will be interested if the two fast food chains monitor these new social media tools that arm consumers with a way to combat lousy service.

Just finished listening to the book, Toy Monster by Jerry Oppenheimer, and all I have to say is, “It’s a business. Get over it.”

The book chronicles the rise-again-and-fall-again history of Mattel, currently the world’s largest toy company. It reads more like multiple case studies of what not to do when it comes to human resource management,corporate responsibility, public relations, accounting, hiring and business acquisition.

True to the tell-all nature of this book, it glories in the failures of the toy giant and discusses the rather contentious creation of the world’s most popular doll, Barbie.

There are some interesting tidbits here. Such as Demi Moore supposedly basing her character in the movie, Disclosure, on Mattel’s CEO at the time. Also, there is Barbie originally being a copy of a Bild Lilli, a German doll based on a female cartoon character for mature audiences—a character with a rather active and varied “social life” that would have made even the Bratz blush.

The book chronicles infidelity, titanic egos, disreputable accounting, drug over doses, stock manipulation, disturbing design insights, product recalls, insider trading, copyright lawsuits and, to top it all off, a heaping helping of lead and magnetic poisoning. To which, I say,  “And.”

Just because it’s a toy company, doesn’t mean that Mattel is a play school. However, the author seems dead set to prove that Mattel is more maniacal than other multi-billion dollar conglomerations because it’s not all lollipops, sunshine and rainbows.

The author discounts nearly every success as either incredible strokes of luck or the efforts of people with poor personal priorities. Yet, no one is that lucky and hard work is not demonstration of poor priorities!

Mattel has climbed to the top of perhaps one of the toughest markets in the world, toys. The toy market faces one of the greatest challenges in marketing, where the end customer does not in fact have direct access to funds.

Mattel and all toy manufacturers must constantly serve two masters, the child and the parent. Considering that most companies have a hard enough time just trying to serve one master, Mattel is a triumph. Any tell-all that misses the opportunity to explore this triumph is cheating the reader.

I have to admit when I started listening to this book I was hoping for a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly of Mattel’s history. In the end, I could have done with much less prurient material and more on how the daughter of a shop owner and the son of a house painter, both second generation immigrants, with the help of a former missile designer, turned a little garage-bound frame making venture into the world’s single largest toy company.

In other words, the bad and the ugly are here, but the good really never shows up. Which is a shame, since it’s the good that we have the most from which to learn.

How many times have you had a bad date, been with a boring relative or a long-winded neighbor and wished that you could have timed a phone call that would innocently interrupt the slow death by a thousand knives? Yeap. I know that you have thought of a chance phone call from a long-lost friend, or your mother that understandably would end the conversation so that you could run away. It’s here and it’s called Rescu.me

Text a message to Rescu.me and get a phone call or text in a pre-set number of minutes that will rescue you from the conversation. Here’s a tip: Save the number to your contacts to make it look like it’s legit. You only get a few rescues per month so use it only when you must….sorry – gotta go, my phone is ringing.

When it comes to hiring your next business associate, the gym might not be such a bad place to look. This is just one of the many insights based upon the findings presented in Think Smart: A Neuroscientist’s Prescription for Improving Your Brain’s Performance by Dr. Richard Restak. A leading neuroscientist, Dr. Restak has created an interesting book presenting some key insights.

Being in the creativity business, maintaining and improving mental performance are fascinating subjects for me. Dr. Restak’s presentation of diverse findings are compelling and more than a little surprising.

Though not listed as such in his book, and because I am a die-hard Spinal Tap fan, here are eleven recommendations based on the book’s findings.
1. Action Video Games are Better than Video Brain Games. – Though also proven to be potentially addictive if abused, action-oriented video games are proven to offer an opportunity for multiple brain centers to work together while maintaining the user’s interest and enhance the brain’s performance. Unlike such action-oriented games, there is no conclusive evidence supporting so-called brain training computer games. The author suggests the lack of compelling elements of simulated reality in such brain games might be the reason for the difference.

2. Calories Count. – Though I always enjoyed the detective adventures of Nero Wolfe, the rotund detective who never leaves his house, girth and mental prowess apparently do not go hand-in-hand. In fact, deliberate caloric reduction has been proven to improve mental performance.

3, Win Your Heart and Mind. – Not surprisingly, the brain’s performance is directly related to the heart’s performance. Hence, watching your cholesterol intact won’t just make you feel better, but think better as well.

4. There are Brain Foods. – Fish, blueberries, strawberries and walnuts are just a few of the foods shown to have a positive impact on mental performance.

5. Supplements are No Substitutes. – Don’t just reach for those Omega 3 tablets because you prefer steak over fish. If you want the health benefits of a food, eat that food. The lack of standardization and regulation in supplement industry and differences in the way your body absorbs such substances make eating the right food a far superior option.

6. Jocks aren’t So Dumb. - A healthy mind and body are connected; hence regular exercise is key to keeping your mind in good condition as well. This is particularly important when it comes to maintaining mental performance as one goes up in years. You might be brilliant today without exercise, but staying brilliant means getting on that treadmill!

7. Cat Naps are Your Friend. – Learning, productivity and mental performance are all proven to be enhanced by an hour nap each day. In fact, after multiple hours of practicing mentally complex tasks, a one-hour nap was proven more beneficial to mental performance than continuing to practice for that hour. However, napping more than an hour is likely to disturb your sleep pattern and be detrimental in the long run.

8. New Tricks could be Just the Trick! – Taking a class that interests you, learning a new skill or just forcing yourself to face a new situation has a way of kick starting your brain. As long as the topic interests you, the activity will likely both vitalize your short-term memory and improve your recall from long term memory.

9. Practice Makes Good—Experimentation Makes Perfect. – While a novice or skilled amateur is likely to do the same activity over and over again, true mastery is born of experimentation. For example, a skilled amateur piano player is likely to play the same favorites the same way; master performers are known for experimentation as they practice. This testing of limits doesn’t just make for a richer performance; it serves to create new synapses and neural pathways.

10. Get social. – Contrary to the stereotype of the genius who never leaves his room, for the long-term health of the brain and enhancement of mental performance, socialization is key.  In short, while you may want to retreat to think of your best ideas, if you want to keep thinking up those great ideas, it pays to get out once and a while.

11. It’s Not the Size of Your Brain. It’s What You Do with It. – Okay, pardon the ribald pun, but it actually does apply. While much has been made over steadily losing brain cells as we go past our teen years, brain cells, neurons, are not nearly as important to creativity and other forms of mental performance as synapses, the chemical and electrical connections between these cells. Fortunately, we have the ability to encourage the production and maintenance of synapses throughout our lives using these and other suggestions you’ll find in the book. Hence, mental ability truly is a question of use it or lose it.

In closing, as with all areas of science, some of these finding might be questioned in years to come. Until then however, my family can look forward to regular breakfasts of blueberry and walnut croissants… because every little bit counts.

If there is one consistent message in most social media books its the importance of cultivating your authenticity and authority through the use of a blog related to your field. This blog is not supposed to be a continuous pitch for your own products and services, but a thoughtful perspective on what’s going on in your industry. This might sound counter intuitive to most hardcore marketers, but based on the logic that no one likes to be continuously sold to, this makes sense.

The book, Inbound Marketing, by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah does advocate this no-pitch approach. In fact it advocates it almost as often as it directs you yet again to Hubspot owned-and-operated websites, namely twittergrader.com, bloggrader.com and websitegrader.com.  Which is no coincidence, since in addition to being coauthors of Inbound Marketing, Brian and Dharmesh are also cofounders of Hubspot.com, a major online marketing firm. True, these Hubspot websites are free, but the effect, especially in audio is distracting to say the least.

Imagine for a moment attending an hour-long business presentation that’s supposed to be an objective presentation on some issue, not a sales pitch. You’re seated and comfortable, and the five minutes into the presentation, the speaker discusses the importance of measuring effectiveness. On cue, a team of the speakers assistants descend upon the audience and hands out a free ruler covered with the speakers logo. Cool, a free ruler you think.

Five more minutes and the same thing happens. Five more minutes and this happens again. After, the fourth time, it’s clear that this is going to keep on happening EVERY FIVE MINUTES. By about the 10^th time, much of the audience is likely to have an opinion of what to do with these rulers. Yes, the rulers are free, but as yet another is delivered each is less welcomed and more a demonstration that the speaker is pitching his services to you unrelentingly.

It’s always been my opinion that it would be unethical to review any book without completing it. Hence, for me, the scenario above went on for more than five hours.

To be absolutely fair, this book does contain much valuable material, even some unique information pertaining to LinkedIn, DIGG and StumbleUpon, not covered in other leading social media books. However, the vast majority of the information here could be learned from Trust Agents, Crush It or the New Rules of Marketing and PR… and without the constant self reference to websites that the authors have vested interests in promoting.

In conclusion, I recommend reading Trust Agents, Crush It or the New Rules of Marketing and PR and then doing your own online research into LinkedIn, DIGG and StumbleUpon over reading or listening to this book. After all, when authors fail to walk their own walk, why should any reader bother to follow?

When it comes to the issue of short selling, my mind often drifts to Noah. I wonder how Noah’s neighbors thought of him when the flood came? Did they appreciate the error of their ways? Did they find a sense of admiration for his forethought as they watch the water rise? Or did they try to pass legislation to outlaw arks?

After having listened to both Michael Lewis’ The Big Short and Andrew Ross Sorkin’s Too Big To Fail, somehow I’m willing to bet that at least one of Noah’s neighbors was decrying the evils of arks to all who would listen. He would have probably blamed the ark for creating the storm and claiming the visibility of the ark undermined the confidence of others. This just goes to show when the world is collapsing, it’s tempting and easy to blame those who have found ways to not only survive, but come out ahead… too easy.

– continue

Talk about an author who drinks his own Kool Aid! Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, truly lives up to the premise of his work by setting the price of the audible.com edition of his work, FREE: The Future of a Radical Price, at zero. That’s right zero, zippo, zilch, nada, not-a-sausage! In fact, the only price tag is time, but it’s time well spent.

FREE provides an excellent and informative history of how the zero price point has been used effectively to generate business and decimate competitors. More than a history lesson, these are legitimate cases of how different business models have leveraged free offers and created profitable and lasting competitive advantages.

It’s understandable how some critics of the book could point out that the author is not introducing anything “new” here. Far from the promise of the title, which was probably cooked up by the publisher, Chris is not pulling forth a crystal ball and making questionable predictions based on one or two barely-understood trends and a flawed business model.

If you want that kind of flawed prestidigitation, may I suggest you read any book by Faith Popcorn, especially EVEolution, where she details Streamline.com, the success that was only successful in taking investors’ money. For more details on that see the blog I did last week.

Rather, this author is doing something far, far more useful. He is presenting past examples of how free business tactics have created lasting strategic victories and demonstrating how to implement them in the future across multiple markets and generations. At the close of the book he presents literally fifty different business models where free tactics have and will continue to achieve success.

In short, Chris Anderson is not a business Nostradamus. Instead, he is a Sun Tzu and this is the book you want to have when competition gets nasty and you reach for perhaps the sharpest weapon of all—FREE!

I think the surest way to become history is to forget about it. Of course, others have been far more eloquent. Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, said, “Those who forget about the past are doomed to repeat it.”

The thing is, as human beings, we are all creatures of habit who yearn for both the opportunities created by breakthroughs and the security of familiarity.  We see a new creation and many of us look back to the old with a yearning for a bridge.

For example, the first automobile resembled horse drawn carriages just lacking horses. They were even called, “horseless carriages.” In fact, running boards, one of the key holdover features from the days of carriages didn’t disappear as a popular feature, until after WWII.

There’s also the case of Microsoft Office. Anyone who works in an office can tell you that the  versions of popular Microsofts business suite produced after 2007 default to file formats that are not reverse compatible with previous versions of the software. Hence, if you don’t have a version of the software produced after 2007 and aren’t willing to plunge into the headache-filled world of plug-ins, you are pretty much out of the conversation.

The result was the kind of confusion and frustration that gave the Mac vs PC advertising campaign such resonance.  In fact, for many Mac users, it became a good reason to give Apple’s office suite, iWork, a whirl. Instead of fumbling with often-buggy plug-ins or spending hundreds of dollars to upgrade their Microsoft Office, Mac users found that they could get a complete office suite of tools for a total of $80 or less per machine. Ironically, though iWork offered a few functional improvements over Microsoft Office, it was iWork’s ability to deal so easily with both Microsoft Office file formats that became a major selling point. Hence, one of Apple iWork’s major appeals wasn’t an innovation, but simply cost-effectively bridging the reverse-compatibility challenge created by the Microsoft Office upgrade.

Perhaps it’s also this yearning for a bridge that’s why, when faced with a brilliant touch screen device like the iPad, many entrepreneurs immediately developed keyboard accessories. Thus, the breakthrough touch screen tablet device becomes a laptop. For many who spend much of their online time typing, the comfort and convenience of an old-fashioned keyboard is just too alluring, even when faced with a touch screen interface.

I’m not mocking here. In fact, I’m the proud owner of a ZaggMate Keyboard accessory for the iPad. Of course, my internal dialogue of doubt was immediately voiced by a friend, when he saw my combination. He said, “If you’re going to do that, you might as well have gotten a laptop.”

However, had I done that, I would not have the flexibility that this combination affords me. Also, I would not be experiencing the technological possibilities the iPad represents. (No wonder Disney created a Tron iAD—advertising specifically aimed at this device.)

In conclusion, in a world that’s so oriented to plunging ahead and creating islands of exceptional innovation, often the greatest potential advantage is to be found in building bridges along the way.  After all, if bridges weren’t valuable, they could never get away with charging tolls.

Welcome to 2011! Isn’t it great. It’s a new year! Being a new year, there is no shortage of marketing futurists ready to trot out their crystal balls, poke through tea leaves and promote their latest books.

Take Faith Popcorn, the founder of BrainReserve, for example. She is perhaps the best known of the marketing futurists…and why not? After all she is the author of marketing trend best sellers like EVEolution, The Popcorn Report and Clicking.

This year her predictions are all about “EN-GEN.” This is her catchy name for the end of gender roles and how these changes in behavior are likely to impact society and business.

However, before you run out and convert all your bathrooms to uni-sex facilities, let’s consider the track record of past predictions, for example the university study, Burned Popcorn and Broken Crystal Balls, performed by St. Norbert College. This study found that only 50% of the predictions made in The Popcorn Report actually came to fruition during the 90’s as predicted.

Years ago, professional debunker and entertainer, James Randi, did a pretty great job showing that a fortuneteller only needs to be right 30% of the time to impress most people. It all boils down to the fact that people want to believe and 30% gives them just enough to hold onto to say, “See they were right, and I wasn’t an idiot to pay to listen.”

By this 30% standard to reach credulity, Faith Popcorn’s 50% is an outstanding achievement. True, 50% does sound impressive… unless you bet on the wrong half…unless you say ask anyone who invested in Streamline.com.

Based in Boston, Streamline.com was the wave of the future, a company that would deliver groceries to your home. In fact, much of the fifth chapter of Faith Popcorn’s book, EVEolution, is devoted to praising the concept and execution of this business of the future. Far more than just an advocate, Faith herself was on the board of directors beginning in June of 1997, as is reflected on page 50 of these NASDAQ IPO papers.

Launching with a reasonable 4.5 million shares at $10 a share in June 1999, Streamline.com eventually climbed to $14.69 a share. Unfortunately for investors, the stock had fallen to 16¢ a share by November 2000, when the venture closed its doors. It’s kind of hard to have a bright future, when the firm closes its doors less than two years after its IPO. (By the way, the URL, Streamline.com, has since come into the possession of an European credit card processing firm.)

All of this is not to say that one should disregard trends or necessarily those who claim to forecast them. However, in a business culture so focused upon cutting to the bottom line without necessarily reviewing the processes used to arrive at such conclusions, well it might be time to rethink, especially in regard to such forecasts.

When it comes to forecasting and implementing trends analysis, the key is to work with an informed marketing partner. Such a firm should have a proven track record of insights into your field and offer the transparency to show you how its conclusions are reached.

In other words, they should deliver the sausage and, if asked, have no hesitancy whatsoever when it comes to showing you how it was made. After all a streamlined decision making process is not necessarily a good one.