Ultimate Work-Life Survey Results Document

by Jared on May 26th, 2006

The topline results for the ultimate worklife survey!

Click Here To Download It!

The Friday Line - It’s the berries, stupid!

by Jared on May 26th, 2006

So, I’ll make this a short one this week…

The big picture is something every marketer is concerned with. Though we sometimes take a microscopic view of our various messages, ultimately we want them to add up to one large picture that our audience has in their minds.

When work gets rough, we tend to over-manage those messages and drive our audience crazy. In the spirit of Memorial Day Weekend (thank g-d!), the Friday line is this; relax and see what taking your foot off the gas does every once in a while

In the words of Ethel Merman:

You work,
You save,
You worry so
But you can’t take your dough
When you go, go, go

So keep repeating “It’s the berries.”
The strongest oak must fall
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose
What you’ve never owned

Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh,
Laugh and love
Live and laugh at it all!

So keep repeating “It’s the berries.”
The strongest oak must fall
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose
What you’ve never owned

Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh, aha!
Laugh and love
Live and laugh,
Laugh and love,
Live and laugh at it all

posted in Marketing Comments

20SMF Episode #39 - The State of the 20-Something (Part II)

by Jared on May 25th, 2006

Show Description:
The work-life survey results are in! Part II of the State of the 20-Something finds us picking up with the quantitative analysis of 20-somethings including what they look for in a boss, what drives them, and the lessons they say they learned in life!

Show Notes:
I) Recap of Part I
II) Analysis of Work-Life Survey Respondents
III) Lifestyle - Work Hard; Play Hard
IV) Working Styles & What We Look For In Bosses
V) Game Plan: What we learned in the first year or so of our jobs

Referenced Links:
TalentZoo.com – Our New Career & Broadcast Partner
20SMF Listener Survey –Take Our Listener Survey

Podsafe Music:
Daniel Link - 4 AM Slam Over Coffee
Podcast:

Right Click And ‘Save As’ To Download Full Show

or…send to your mobile phone:

Office Politics: Mind The Crossfire

by Jared on May 24th, 2006

There’s nothing like a hot cup of coffee and some office politics to get the day off right, isn’t there?

To paraphrase Al Pacino in City Hall; if there is one thing as a marketer I will never get over, it’s the suppression of good ideas. If there is one thing as a 20-something I will never get over, it’s the suppression of good people. This week, I have witnessed both reminding me that every day can be a battle to live up to your full potential if you’re working in this 20-something environment.

There is no doubt that being on the lower end of the totem pole with little or no credible voice is fun. In fact, the tendency of the boomer generation has been to discount the contributions of underlings, thanks in part to the stereotyping of the Gen X set. Combine this with the uppity, go-at-it drive of the 20-something “sandwiched generation” (see Ep. 37) and you’ve got yourself a regular horse race.

20-somethings want, and deserve, to get ahead. The boomers want to maintain their status and feel threatened by the overtures of those less experienced than them. This creates an environment where the boomers have the power and they are not afraid to use it. How do you stand up for yourself and your ideas in this environment?

The truth is that every situation is going to be different, requiring a deft touch and knowing when to speak up and when to peruse other avenues. However, here are three things I have learned from experience that might help you to navigate your own situations:

1) Be Open To Compromise On Everything But Your Principles

It’s true that in order to gain the power to enact or influence change, you have to look for compromise. However, if you see something that’s wrong and you know its contrary to your own principles, don’t let it go - just keep remembering that that patience and innovation can be played just as easily as heat-of-the-moment rage, and usually won’t end up getting you fired.

2) By All Means, Cover Your Ass

Once at a previous job, I started a conversation with a pompous supervisor over a very mundane task that she wanted me to do instead of doing herself. I made several suggestions about how she could get the job done using alternate resources and so she switched tactics, claiming to another supervisor that I had rejected the task on account of its merits.

I immediately tried to catch her in her own lie but thanks to the new rules on deleting e-mail to save server space, I didn’t have any hard evidence to prove it. It’s a minor detail but when you smell something a-miss and it’s in paper or e-mail format, document EVERYTHING and file it away in a CYA file. Mine has gotten me out of quite a few traps after that mess and thankfully, it’s re-enforced my own credibility. Think of it as an insurance policy that only works if you file stuff away as premiums though as it only works and err on the side of keeping too much rather than too little.

3) Know When (And How) To Get Involved

By far, this is the most difficult suggestion I have. You want to stand up for your friends when they’re wronged but sometimes playing Superman draws you into the crossfire of a fight you shouldn’t be in.

If it’s not your fight, find ways of personally supporting the person you think is right but avoid confronting the problem for them. Voice your personal stake if you have one but getting into the fight only subjects you to circumstances you may not have the full story on.

Try the tactic of playing worse case scenario. If you shared the fate of the person you’re supporting, which could include being fired, would it benefit you as much as if you perused other avenues of expressing your displeasure and lived to fight another day?

It’s tempting to play office politics avenger, especially when the villain is right out of a comic book. However, we live in our generation full of potential, playing by the rules of a generation that essentially created the game. So don’t be afraid to maintain the fight; just don’t go down as a martyr-by-association.

The Friday Line - Marketing Ethics?

by Jared on May 19th, 2006

There is something you should know; I hate Starbucks!

I hate the overpriced coffee that tastes like scorched clay, I hate their retail strategy that essentially prices out smaller, privately owned coffee shops from prime locations and I hate the yuppie culture it inspires. The only thing I even remotely “like” about Starbucks is that provides so much fodder for this marketing blog!

So, given my polarizing views of the coffee giant, imagine my dismay when I wandered into the office break room to see the McPaper (otherwise known as USA Today)featuring Starbuck’s transformation of American culture as its cover story!

Beyond java and the occasional baked good, the story explains, Starbucks is trying to branch into every facet of the entertainment industry. Well that’s just great. Starbucks has found its niche as the purveyor of high class for the masses! Beyond the obvious implications of diversifying a product line, though Starbucks may be able to do this, should they?

I assume that at some point, some columnist wrote about this type of conundrum during the rise of TV and TV Ads, but where does marketing stop playing off of culture and start replacing it?

With its massive retail distribution strategy, Starbucks can essentially dictate trends and influence consumer entertainment just by promoting one artist or medium over another. The sad thing is that by virtue of the  “Starbucks Lifestyle” marketing tactic, many people will accept these dictated trends, without question.

This illustrates the rising power of marketing and raises some serious questions about how far we should go in trying to influence our audience.

Personally, I tend to try to focus on the individual in my marketing. I try to understand and promote their own vision of themselves through copy and imagery that asks questions and lets them fill in their own image of themselves.

Starbucks forces upon people a clean, no-fuss culture of coffee, style…and now art. Should we let Starbucks now replace our art galleries and other venues of cultural collaboration or should we start to ask some serious questions of marketing and the application of ethics?

20SMF Episode #38 - The Creative Breakdown Episode

by Jared on May 18th, 2006

Show Description:
Thrown about by the undertow of my manic schedule, I’m forced into a creative breakdown….and I’m taking the show with me. Topics include Top Chef, wedging the Gen X/Mellanial Gap and why creativity doesn’t always run in the family.

Show Notes:
I) State of the 20-Something (Part II) to come next week
II) Top Chef, Kennmore

Referenced Links:

Podcast:

Right Click And ‘Save As’ To Download Full Show

or…send to your mobile phone:

An interesting ride, no doubt

by Jared on May 17th, 2006

Once in a long while, I will have a bout of restlessness where I can’t sleep and I can’t seem to keep my mind from running at about 120 mph. Usually, this neurotic behavior comes at the confluence of some major project and too many cups of coffee but I regard these times as a fertile ground to get a couple of ideas on cyber-paper. Luckily enough, my most recent mania has hit just as I was contemplating NOT doing a show this week.

To make a long story short, I had a 20-something’s worst nightmare; where the idiot down the hall gets a promotion and I don’t. Not too big of a deal in the huge scheme of things because it was just a dream – wasn’t it?

This week’s show is going to be the second part of the examination of the 20-something psyche and what we are currently facing. The basis of this show will be the results of the survey about 100 people took a couple of weeks back on work, life and 20-something behavior. Its resulted in some interesting data and I know that if I can keep my voice up long enough to record the episode, it’ll be one for the archives.

My main conclusion is that there is a slight crack in the Gen X/Millennialas theory. That crack is a result of the current 20-somethings who are hitting the workplace just as society is realizing that the Ritalin-abused Millennialas might be a bigger handful than anyone might have thought.

The resulting situation is one where we have a highly charged generation, reaping the technology boom of the Gen Xer’s but still roughly confined by the perception that the younger working set should be seen, abused but not heard. The data yields some interesting perspectives on what this latest working class is experiencing and gives us some clues what we might be doing right not to mention what we might not be doing so well.

It’s going to be an interesting ride, no doubt. Tune in and hear what the entire buzz is about tomorrow morning for Episode #38.

“The world’s most entertaining live billboard”

by Jared on May 16th, 2006

In the hotel industry, competition for business travelers has been fierce. The battleground has been primarily reserved in super-chick hotel concepts such as the “W” hotel chain by Starwood and through what I can only describe as a “mine is bigger” premium bedding competition (i.e. Westin’s Heavenly Bed and The Sleep Number Bed at Radisson Hotels). No matter where you go, every hotel chain is trying to outdo each other with promises of a peaceful night sleep.

Personally, give me a clean room, an old, classic hotel with classic service and I will be in heaven.

I digress though…enter the Heavyweight; Marriott Hotels and Resorts. Not only have these guys designed their own bed, but they are also making a major marketing play for the young professional market.

Marriott is indeed going MUCH farther with an entire room designed around the needs of the younger, more technology and ergonomically aware consumer.

The way their doing this is through the mSpot, a mobile hotel room complete with a stage on top. It’s currently touring the country and introducing itself to corporate expense accounts everywhere by way of massive block parties and VIP tours. I caught up with the mSpot in New Orleans where it had lined up a host of local talent including Kermit Ruffins, Jeremy Davenport and Ingrid Lucia for a massive Canal Street party coinciding with JazzFest.

When I toured the room, John ‘Spud’ McConnell (a local celebrity and character actor most remembered for his “Stay out the Woolworth” line in O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?) was there chilling out in what I can only describe as one of the most comfortable looking club chairs imaginable. It was a great touch given that around New Orleans, this guy’s popularity and likeability is somewhere up there around grits and gravy. So, as Spud made classic New Orleans quips and showed us around the room, I couldn’t help but notice that the room had every cool amenity known to mankind.

First the electronics…Appealing to massive techno-geeks like myself, the room has a full desk console complete with widescreen TV. Now, you might say that is par-for-the-course these days but what hotel do you know of that has a handy, arms-length series of connector ports where you can use it as your monitor. The room also has a touchpad safe built into your desk drawer to stash the laptop, which is a nice touch.

Completing the room is stylish decor, ergonomic lights, a swivel desk and a bathroom Caesar could die for (or so I am told, the show version of the mSpot comes sans royal throne).

Now, at this point I have to direct your attention to the fact that the mSpot New Orleans may have fallen short of its intended audience. The block party itself was incredible but I didn’t really see that many press outside. In fact, I may have been the only person that could even mildly pass as press which is a big concern given I am a bit bias towards Marriott in this case.

Something tells me though with the line of VIP’s waiting to take a tour, there wasn’t much of a need for press. Besides, when’s the last time the AP put up for a premium suite?