The Burris Blog

The Burris Blog has moved...

2006-01-15T18:33:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for posts since January 15, 2006, go here. I packed up my various blogs and moved them to a site that allows me to place all three in a single menu.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Now click the link and come over to the other side...

Newspapers - part 2

2006-01-14T08:01:00.000-05:00

Rick Hall's comments to my earlier post were right: years, decades from now we'll still want to hold much of what we read in our hands. (Thanks, Rick.) The NY Times, the Journal, maybe the Post ... these aren't local papers, and I believe there will always be a place for them, as there will for magazines.

But back to local papers...

I came across this from an interview in TIME with Dave Barry:

TIME: Newspapers have changed since you started [writing a column more than thirty years ago].
BARRY: They're less edgy.... When we had more space, more money and less obsession with losing readers, editors were quicker to print what they thought was funny just because they thought it was funny. Now they're more likely to wonder, Is it really funny? Will it annoy people? Maybe we should show a focus group.

Local newspapers

2006-01-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

"The boss walks into your office and shuts the door. Sits down. Looks you solemnly in the eye. 'We're buying a bunch of newspapers from Knight Ridder,' he says. Tilts back in his chair. 'We know there's something to be done with them, but we don't know what. Your new job is to figure that out. Which functions can go, which stay, what must be expanded, where the new revenue is. We - well, you - will remake the local newspaper for this century.'"

Thus opens Jon Fine's January 9, 2005, "MediaCentric" column in BusinessWeek.

I read Fine's column, "The Daily Paper of Tomorrow," one day after sitting in a presentation by Bernie Mann, owner and publisher of Our State magazine. Bernie made a strong case about his magazine's phenomenal circulation gains, and he couldn't resist (rightfully, I think) comparing it to daily newspapers in North Carolina, which are, of course, losing circulation almost every day.

Back to Fine's column. It seems virtually everything a local or regional newspaper does, he says - with the exception of local news - is done better by someone else...online.

Classifieds? Craigslist is free.

Sports? Since TV is moving more games into primetime, many of the big games finish too late to be covered in the morning papers. Might as well check ESPN or CNN, online or on-air.

Local advertising? Google and Yahoo! target better and produce measurable results.

The (Greensboro) News & Record for the last year has carried on a noble experiment in local blogging, wondering if the paper of tomorrow isn't more a citizens' broadsheet. One of the best things I've read on this topic is Lex Alexander's manifesto, posted just over a year ago.

Oddly enough, as down as I am on newspapers' future, I'd love the job described in Fine's opening paragraph. If only I thought someone would care what I think...

Memories of My Melancholy Whores

2005-12-31T07:04:00.000-05:00

The last of my holiday reading was Gabriel Garcia Marquez' latest little book, the beautiful "Memories of My Melancholy Whores."

In translation (by Edith Grossman) it's beautiful to read (I wish I could appreciate the loving language of Marquez' original), a feast for the senses. It's the story of an old man's 90th birthday and the year that follows.

Here are four passages I marked:
"In plain language, I am the end of a line, without merit or brilliance, who would have nothing to leave his descendants if not for the events I am prepared to recount, to the best of my ability, in these memories of my great love." (7)

"In my fifth decade I had begun to imagine what old age was like when I noticed the first lapses of memory. I would turn the house upside down looking for my glasses until I discovered that I had them on, or I'd wear them into the shower, or I'd put on my reading glasses over the ones I used for distance." (9)

"It occurred to me that among the charms of old age are the provocations our young female friends permit themselves because they think we are out of commission." (45)

"The decade of my fifties had been decisive because I became aware that almost everybody was younger than I. The decade of my sixties was the most intense because of the suspicion that I no longer had the time to make mistakes. My seventies were frightening because of a certain possibility that the decade might be my last. Still, when I woke alive on the first morning of my nineties in the happy bed of Delgadina, I was transfixed by the agreeable idea that life was not something that passes by like Heraclitus' ever-changing river but a unique opportunity to turn over the grill and keep broiling on the other side for another ninety years." (109)

Do yourself a favor. Pick up a copy of this book and revel in the joys that can come with growing old.

What will give your brand a kick in the pants?

2005-12-31T06:19:00.000-05:00

Somewhere in my holiday reading I came across a phrase that stuck with me for its simplicity and its power. It sums up better than almost anything else what it is that I do, what my company does when we're doing what we do best.

We look for "ideas that motivate the work."

Now, if I'd said "ideas that motivate the brand," that would be powerful, and it's tempting to go there. "Ideas that motivate the brand" is, perhaps, another way of talking about brand identity or positioning. But I believe we go further than that. BURRIS has always been at its best when we implement our innovations, when we execute the ideas we come up with with in good, strong marketing communications.

So when we look for the "ideas that motivate the work," we are thinking ahead in terms of execution. Not just dreaming stuff up, but extending the idea to its motivating conclusions.

Ideas will give a brand a kick in the pants, but what moves a brand in the right direction is putting the power of an idea into the work itself.

"Ideas that motivate the work." I like it.

Welcome, New Year!

2005-12-30T06:26:00.000-05:00

Good morning.

A new day, a new week, a new month, a new year.

I don't want to belabor it, but, geez, I'm ready for 2006. I've made two resolutions (which I'll keep to myself, thank you), and I'm anxious to live up to them.

What do you want, what do you need from 2006?

"The Beatles," by Bob Spitz

2005-12-27T07:25:00.000-05:00

This is the book I thought I would one day write. For probably two decades I've been quietly amassing information and opinions that would one day allow me to write about The Beatles as more than a band, as a timeless musical entity, still influential not only for their songs and their albums but for their lives as well. Now it's been written, and for the most part, to paraphrase, I know I should be glad. Ooooo.

"The Beatles" is as serious a biography as one you might read about a major historical figure, full of references, footnotes and all that. Better, however, it provides insight into the lives of the four Beatles, their families and friends, and also their songs, how they came about, their musical and lyrical values and more.

In short, it's a big book of Beatles information, for the most part chronilogically told, with reviews and biographical narrative. And, fortunately, it's neither dogmatic nor pedantic about the sixties and the band's cultural influence on an era. (There are plenty of other places to go for that.)

I won't attempt a review of the book here. For the most part, "The Beatles" is a biography of the band, and Bob Spitz is knowledgeable and thorough ... and a fan. It ends when Paul finally says, "That's it. I'm gone" and cuts off his communication with both his mates and their manager, Allen Klein. It's comprehensive in almost every way, especially good on "Sgt. Pepper," if a little light on "Abbey Road." I recommend it to anyone who sings along with "Can't Buy Me Love" or "Drive My Car," and is surprised by how good "I Should Have Known Better" or "No Reply" is, not having heard it in, maybe, years.

And to anyone who believes Yoko does, indeed, suck.

The book makes me want to go back to "A Hard Day's Night," the Richard Lester movie, see parts (but not all) of "Anthology" again, even watch for another rerun of Ed Sullivan. Maybe now I'll give up jotting notes on scraps of paper and shoving them in notebooks. But I won't give up the music.

Read an excerpt here.

Happy Holidays!

2005-12-24T07:05:00.000-05:00

It's time for me to put away the keyboard and concentrate on a few other things for a couple of days.

During the holidays, I like to relax, leave the car parked, the phone unanswered, the email in the inbox - you get the idea. There'll be DVD's in the player, mp3's blasting from the computer, books to read, magazines to catch up on.... Shrimp with garlic and lemon, a few brewskis, champagne and a good Chianti. It all sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

I hope all of you, dear readers, have a wonderful holiday and look forward - as I do - to a happy new year. Thanks for dropping by.

Beverly Flichman

2005-12-20T07:01:00.000-05:00

It's our loss, but all of us at BURRIS have benefited from working with Beverly Flichman since November 2001. Beverly's moving on, heading west to Denver, CO, to work on bigger - but not better, she says - brands.

Here's the way she described her new challenge:

"I will start my job at Integer (www.integerdenver.com) on 1/17. I'll be working on the Iams/Eukanuba account, premium pet food brands owned by P&G. Integer is a promotions agency that is part of the Omnicom group.
My role will be as an Account Supervisor, working on developing shopper insights and driving activity at retail. In the process I'll have the chance to work with the other agencies on the brand's roster--Saatchi (brand), Targetbase (interactive) and Tequila (CRM).

"It will be an interesting new challenge for me to be in an organization that is so large and dedicated to one specific portion of the marketing arsenal. I'm sure I'll break a few eggs along the way."

Yes, Beverly, you will. But your clients will benefit from the breakage, as ours have. Congratulations.

Ricky Gervais Podcast

2005-12-18T17:08:00.000-05:00

My friend Michael Scott (he'll be horrified to learn that I think of him as "my friend") suggested I try out Ricky Gervais's new podcast (two episodes so far). I listened to the first on a long walk today, and I found myself laughing out loud.

Good thing no one passed me as I chuckled.

If you're interested, I recommend you listen to one or two of the podcasts (available from iTunes as well as Ricky G's website) before reading too much about what's going on behind the microphones. You'll be introduced to Karl Pilkington , who must be one of the funniest deadpans I've ever heard.

The March - E.L. Doctorow

2005-12-18T10:40:00.000-05:00

I read this gripping novel immediately after finishing Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals," her biography of Abraham Lincoln. It was a fascinating addendum to the Lincoln story, and it was fun tying some of the events outlined in the Lincoln bio to Sherman's march through Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

I've only dabbled in Doctorow's fiction since "Ragtime," but this will likely send me back to other works of his. The story of The March, of course, is historical, but the characters he creates are wonderful and full-bodied...complex, not one-dimensionally "good" or "bad."

The final scene in the book, presenting a representative (or symbolic?), personified sample of all the cultures that struggled together and with each other in the period, offers a hopeful conclusion to what could have been the dark, sometimes hopeless reality of 19th Century American history.

CEOs who blog

2005-12-18T09:58:00.000-05:00

According to a study by Burson-Marsteller and PRWeek magazine, only 7% of CEOs say they are currently blogging. Optimists that they are, however, 18% of those CEOs surveyed say they expect to host a company Web log within two years.

Who cares?

And how many of us believe that the CEOs themselves will actually be doing the posting?

Sunset over the Gulf

2005-12-17T17:47:00.000-05:00

Sunset over the Gulf
Originally uploaded by mburris.

For much of December we live on Sanibel Island (FL), where it's warmer, certainly, where we still work too much, read (not enough), and have the opportunity to see sights like this one.

To see more of my photos, click on the link and go to my flickr page.

Jon Fine on "Modern (Sigh) Media Maturity"

2005-12-17T11:34:00.000-05:00

It's difficult for me to add anything to this column about mature media and their fictional lament over days gone by. "You remember when you were the Next Big Thing," Jon Fine writes in the December 12 issue of BusinessWeek, taking the persona of a newspaper or magazine owner/publisher/editor type.

"Near as you can tell, MySpace [and its like] is just a bulletin board where teens and twentysomethings get their bands signed and get themselves hooked up. A place where users create the content looks more and more like the best way to reach young people. You can't imagine how this happened. You can't imagine letting people leave comments about you for everyone to see. You can't imagine rank amateurs' content being more attractive than that produced by a Mature Medium."

"You're saying I have to lose control of my medium to gain it? Get outta here!" Indeed.

Reading - Catching up

2005-12-17T09:46:00.000-05:00

Saturdays are great because for the most part you're able to catch up. It's rare, fortunately, that someone adds to my pile on Saturday, so I'm able to reply, read...do some of the things I don't seem to have (or take) the time to do during the week. Add to "Saturday" that's it's drizzling here, and for all the gloominess and darkness, well, you have a real catch-up day.

No matter how many issues behind I get, I almost always save unread copies of BusinessWeek. The December 12 issue offered up two excellent articles.

The first, "The Easiest Commute of All", is an interesting and detailed study of "remote workers." I think the entire article is available online (at the link above), but one or two parts especially caught my eye.

It appears that some residential developers are creating ideal environments for remote workers. One such is called "Mesa del Sol," and it's just outside Albuquerque. "When ground broke in October, the unspoiled scrub began giving way to what will eventually become one of the largest planned - and technologically tricked out - communities in the nation.... Or so the pitch for this broadband nirvana will go.... They'll feature home offices sequestered from family foot traffic and fully wired for transnational connections. Business centers strewn throughout the community - all within a short walk or electric-cart ride - will offer rent-by-the-hour support and staff plus state-of-the-art meeting rooms and seamless videoconference hookups to China and India. With the Albuquerque airport only six minutes and one stoplight away, a former regular of the big-city airport crush can leave for meetings in other cities after breakfast and still be home for dinner."

A bit more: "The builder is clearly on to something. More and more, the creative class is becoming post-geographic. Location-independent. Office-agnostic."

Lots of buzzwords, but, I think, right on.

The other article I flagged is actually the December 12 issue's cover story, "The MySpace Generation". No long quotes from this one; you need to read the entire thing, especially if you're over 25 years old and have anything to do with marketing or communications. MySpace is an online community populated primarily by 14-25 year-olds (if you haven't seen it, go here). It's not an elegant site, that's for sure. But it's popular, extremely so. MySpace has 40 million members, quadrupling in size since January. And the company was acquired in November by Rupert Murdoch's FOX.

IM is more popular than email with this crowd, but the more interesting thing - to me, at least - is that this demographic juggle communication media so adeptly, managing instant messaging, cell phone calls, email, TV, web viewing - managing all of these with the skill of an air traffic controller.

There's more for me to do today than blog, but, yes, that's part of catching up too. Hope your Saturday is a good one.

I don't always complain, but...

2005-12-17T07:49:00.000-05:00

Dear readers,

Many of my posts here on the Burris Blog are rants, such as this one from last week about United Healthcare and my company's health insurance. One anonymous reader told me I should send the link to 1,000 friends. (I guess she knows how small my blogging audience is.)

I rant on others' sites, too, including answering a call for feedback on VoIP services. Go here to see what I told BusinessWeek about Vonage. Actually, I like my Vonage service. I appreciate the record of all incoming and outgoing phone calls. I have grown addicted to receiving voice mail files via email. I like being able to call forward, and Vonage's "SimulRing" feature, which allows me to have a call ring at up to five different phones, is especially helpful.

Most of our VoIP issues seem to come from sharing an internet connection. In the office, whenever more than two people are using their Vonage phones, there's a risk a call will be dropped. And at home when our DSL-based connection is stretched with a normal phone call and internet usage AND a Vonage call, the DSL router's status light goes green to orange, and that's a sure sign that an expletive will be uttered or screamed somewhere in the house.

Here's the other side of the coin, however. Not too long ago, we had 12 or more different phone numbers at work, one for each employee and work station (conference room, kitchen), and each of them had a voice mail box, a second line for incoming while making an outgoing...all of that stuff. Those were the bad old days when phone numbers were attached to places, not people. And the phone company, by the way, was getting rich.

Now our phone numbers are attached to people, not places (kind of makes sense, doesn't it?), and the phone companies, well, they're getting theirs.

Abraham Lincoln

2005-12-15T18:49:00.000-05:00

I've just completed Doris Kearns Goodwin's outstanding biography of the 16th president, Team of Rivals. Of the books I brought south with me this year, it was the first in my stack.

Over the last several years, it seems, big biographies about presidents have been very popular. For me too. John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, these two are especially memorable for me now due to my reading of David McCullough's (Adams) and Edmund Morris's (2 volumes on Roosevelt, especially Theodore Rex) work.

I had never concentrated on Lincoln. Sure, I've read about extensively about the Civil War (some of my friends insist on calling it still "The War of Northern Aggression"...but it wasn't), especially Shelby Foote's 3-volume history, so I looked forward to Goodwin's book if for no other reason than to gain an appreciation of the president many consider our greatest.

Some of my favorite moments were when Goodwin draws the picture of Lincoln in the military camps, getting out of Washingtonto be with the troops just before or after battle, looking beyond or over the corpses or mountains of lost limbs and offering hope and thanks to those doing the actual fighting. He was a man of the people, a "rail-splitter," more adept at telling a story or anecdote to illustrate a point than pedantically recalling a passage from Herodotus or Cicero.

Lincoln's story is many-faceted, but this book focuses primarily on his leadership. Think: someone as moral as Carter, as innately intelligent as LBJ, and politically savvy as Reagan ... and you have a fraction of Lincoln's skills. Charismatic he was not, but in an era when newspapers were practically the only media, the telegenic requirement just wasn't there.

Above all, Lincoln led not by consensus but rather by seeking input and then mandating through a strong, consistent will and deft timing. He intended his Cabinet - and this book is often as much about his Cabinet as it is about Lincoln; in fact, Goodwin uses his Cabinet to help define the President... He used his Cabinet as a sounding board, never a punching bag. On many occasions he forgave them of their ambitious reachings or administrative mis-steps in order to preserve them as a unified group and preserve a delicate balance of political power.

Leadership requires strength and courage. Lincoln's life in the American political arena displayed plenty of both.

I'm frustrated with United Healthcare

2005-12-14T07:56:00.000-05:00

Those of you who know me well are probably tired of hearing it's been a tough year, blah, blah, blah. It has been. My group at BURRIS and I have gone through a transformation for the business that has at once been optimistically conceived and realistically implemented. In other words, we work hard to be what we think we need to be to be successful, but there have been times when we've actually been what we HAD to be in order to make payroll.

Anyway, no more on that. I promise. I'll save it for the history book ... or for the eulogies someone else can deliver.

When you're going through the daily slog, however, sometimes trying just to get it to the next day, the last thing you need is to get bogged down by something you count on working smoothly. Yesterday was one of those days when - well, geez, I just can't believe what happened.

Apparently it began last week. Our own Lyn "I do it all" Rollins was on vacation, apparently doing what we all do when we're on vacation: she was in the drive-thru line at her local pharmacy picking up a prescription. The attendant on the other side of the metal drawer informed her that her - our - insurance had been cancelled, and Lyn would have to supplement with more than her share of the co-pay.

Now, fortunately, Lyn is also the person responsible in our little company for the relationship with UHC, United Healthcare, our healthcare insurance provider. So after getting over the shock of learning we've been cancelled, she pulls her car to the side and dials up her contact to ask what's up.

A bit more background...

Faced with a 20%+ increase in premiums and the de rigueur reduction in services, we cobbled together a different employee health insurance plan this past Fall. The new program (I don't recall the reason, but it probably didn't make sense then either) could not be enabled 'til the beginning of the calendar year, so what we had to do was offer a kind of amalgam of the old and new from October through December, then transition to the new program on January 1. (Stay with me a second; this really is relevant.)

So for three months, Lyn (who also, by the way, pays the bills) would send a check to UHC, and they were to apply one portion of the payment to one program, another to the, uh, other program. Sounds confusing, but this is what UHC required.

Well, apparently, what UHC's accounting department was doing was applying one portion, but not the other. So come premium-due-day recently, with an eye for folderol and armed with a bureaucratic, "this is how we do it" policy, some QWERTY-striker at UHC double-lined us from the rolls of active premium payers, incorrectly considered us policy non-paying deadbeats, and - this is the kicker - cancelled one of the key parts of our "amalgam" coverage.

No call, no registered letter, no email, no visit ... nothing. Poof! Cancelled.

Doomsday scenarios are everywhere in this kind of thing, but, fortunately, the worst thing that happened (we think) is that Lyn was denied co-pay at the pharmacy.

But there have been plenty of the "can you believe?" questions in the last few hours.

For instance, can you believe that UHC still hasn't straightened out their accounting mess? Can you believe we had to wire ("Wire!") a partial payment yesterday to cover the account? (They couldn't just move the overpayment for the one they credited to the one they didn't.) Can you believe that it takes 48 hours before our prescriptions policy can kick back in? And can you believe that no one with whom Lyn has spoken from UHC can explain why this happened, why they didn't contact us BEFORE cancelling our policy? Much less apologized for the inconvenience.

We all have (and continue to) read about the problems, the crisis in healthcare this country faces. It's just too much for me when I compound that with the combination of hubris and ineptitude that we have faced on more than one occasion with United Healthcare.

There's no way these people could survive if they had to perform the way a normal business does.

How one blog post came about - 1

2005-12-09T11:07:00.000-05:00

This week we moved the BURRIS's portable, international HQ to Sanibel Island, FL, where the command post can function in a bit, uh, warmer climate. (Apparently just in time.)

Work goes pretty much the same as it does in North Carolina or South Carolina. I travel with my internet phone router, so I receive calls the same way. We have a DSL connection here and a wireless AirPort Extreme, so with a couple of refresher programming minutes of help from Jeff Satterwhite of Softwired Systems, I'm ready to go.

In a later post I'll probably wax on about the environment here, maybe even the weather, but this time I wanted to write about how the Internet impacts some of what we do. This is long-winded, a bit circuitous, but, well, you'll get the idea.

For instance, there's no TiVo in this little house. Now, if you have TiVo, you know what I'm talking about. A VCR doesn't quite do the job that a TiVo does. A VCR requires more programming, it's less intuitive, and it doesn't give you the same "watch while you record" flexibility. Nevertheless, we did manage to record - and later watch - the two weekly shows we try to catch: "Commander-in-Chief" and "Boston Legal."

Boston Legal is a tightly-written, more-than-slightly absurd legal "dramedy" by David E. Kelley. And it has extended the career (once again) of William Shatner, who on the show - and, apparently, in life - is a shameless promoter of all things William Shatner.

But this post isn't a promotion for TiVo either.

Actually, it's proof of how the Internet moves me around in ways that only a blogger can appreciate.

I was doing an iTunes search today. My nephew and friend Jack Burris sent me a song he wanted me to listen to ("California," by Low). As I navigated through the search feature - and I don't recall how - I came across this: It's a playlist of songs chosen by William Shatner, or, as he's known on "Boston Legal," Denny Crane. I figured out that most of the songs are from Shatner's own cd's (I told you: "shameless self-promoter").

So here's the sequence of activity (as best I recall):
- Jack Burris sends me an email suggesting I listen to a song.
- I go to iTunes, search the "Music Store," and find the song.
- Somewhere along the way, I find Shatner's "Playlist."
- I capture the image of Shatner's playlist, send it to Gus Bright and Rick Hall, two other fans of "Boston Legal."
- I decide to write about it in this blog.
- I Google "Boston Legal" to see if there's a web site I can link to in this post.
- I spend a couple of minutes tooling around the "Boston Legal" site.
- I download a photo of "Denny Crane" to include in this post.
- I write/edit/proof this post.
- I publish this post - POOF!

Hey, location isn't important. I can waste time wherever.

If I Were King...

2005-12-03T17:45:00.000-05:00

A column in the November 21 (weekly) issue of Furniture/Today by Jay McIntosh (you can find it here) lays out what the author would do "If I were the next ruler of the High Point market..."

This is a particularly popular parlor game for me as well. My colleagues often hear me tell them what I would do if CEO of a particular company or head of some brand, and I often ask them and others what they would do in similar situations.

I like McIntosh's approach. After all, the High Point (NC) furniture expo's "Market Authority" is looking for a new CEO, and with the threat from Las Vegas as well as the increased pressure from the city and the furniture companies, it's an important time in the history of, perhaps, the last of the area's legacy industries. So it's not only a good time to be asking these questions; it's a critical time to get some answers.

But I can't help but think most of his questions - and answers - are superficial, issues dealing with hotel costs and parking and the like. I much more like the final comments of Cheminne Taylor-Smith's column in the November 14 (monthly) issue of InFurniture, where she says, "Maybe this should be the end of High Point, and the birth of a new one. One that's more streamlined, that puts the emphasis back on the buyer where it should be. One where we all work together to make High Point a good experience - for visitors and for those of us who are here year-round."

In the face of dramatic change, I've always felt the best tactic is your own dramatic change. For High Point - as well as, perhaps, for the furniture industry - it's a good time to start over.

There's a new CMO in the house...

2005-12-03T12:52:00.000-05:00

... and when there is, there's usually a new marketing company following right behind.

Sometimes it's a new CEO, other times the chief marketing person. Doesn't matter. This is one of the reasons I'm convinced we're unlikely to see many of the trans-generational relationships we used to see a lot in the brand management business.

David Kiley writes about this in his BusinessWeek blog, "Brand New Day":

"Why do new marketing chiefs ... feel the need to put a bullet in an ad agency that is obviously doing a good job after they ascend to a new position?"

I've been one who has put a lot of value on "relationships," so on the one hand, a new executive might be commended for wanting to support his mandate with a marketing partner he knows and trusts. But on the other hand, when the incumbent - and the work they have been doing - has been wildly successful (as Fallon, for instance, was with BMW)? Are you sure you want to make that change? A good relationship isn't always a good enough reason.

"The Best Year of My Life"

2005-12-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

I read a story by one of my favorite authors on Wednesday as I drove from SC to NC.

It's in the November 14 issue of The New Yorker: "The Best Year of My Life," by Paul Theroux. As the title suggests, it's a kind of reminiscence, but for most of the story the year in question is considered the storyteller's "worst," not "best." Only in retrospect does he see the full picture of his experiences, and with the passage of time he understands what a shaping influence those events had on who he became, who he is.

The experience in question is his relationship with a lover who is pregnant, and his agreeing to "see her through" the time until she can hand the child over to an adoption agency. It changes their situations, their status in university, their individual experiences. And, certainly, it was difficult. Here's the passage that caught my eye: "Much worse than being thirty, with a wife and two small children and no money and recently fired from my teaching job in Singapore, struggling to find a house to live in; worse than being fucked up and far from home in India, or lost in China, or hard up and buried alive in London; worse than being cuckolded; worse than hearing 'I'm leaving you and I've found someone else' in a stifling and pissy phone booth on a crackling receiver stinking of cigareetes; worse than the miserable litigation of (so it seemed) the death sentence of divorce, or losting that house I had struggled to find earlier in this paragraph; worse still than the loss of my father, for an old man's death is a natural process, even if it has been hastened by a nagging wife and a quarrelling family - worse than anything I was ever to know...."

As I read and reflected on the story, I thought back on my own life and all of my own "worst" years. This year, 2005, has certainly been a difficult year for me professionally. BURRIS has morphed into a project house, and the uncertainty that has brought has, well, been an adjustment. Our banking relationship went to hell; there have been times when I'd have to make a call or two to cover payroll; I've paid much closer attention to cash flow, done a few projects some haven't been particularly proud of. I won't catalogue my own list of "worst" years and experiences here, but I will say that at times, I thought this year may be the worst in my life. But now that 2005 is coming to a close, nah, it's not close. In fact, it may turn out to be "the best year of my life."

All that retrospection aside, get your hands on Theroux's story. It's great reading. (Sorry, not on The New Yorker's web site.)

Another music renaissance

2005-11-27T08:23:00.000-05:00

Last night I said to someone that this is a great time to love music.

I'm not sure that it's because the music being created is so creative or innovative, not like it was during the mid-to-late sixties, anyway. It's just that we have so many options for listening, so many ways to collect, so many places to go to hear music these days.

When I work from home I usually have an internet radio station streaming from the computer. I listen to Radio Paradise, "eclectic online rock radio," though what plays is usually what the industry calls "alternative." RP is commercial free (if you ignore the online reminders that it's commercial free and dependent on viewer contributions), and I've added bands as diverse as Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, Sun Kil Moon and Doves to my own preferences as a result of airplay on the "station."

Speaking of ... RP's programmer has a knack for the well-put-together playlist. I just heard two classics I hadn't thought of in years - The Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and Bruce Cockburn's "Wondering Where the Lions Are" - and chuckled to myself at the imagination. Earlier this morning there was this line-up:
- Roxy Music, "While My Heart Is Still Beating"
- BT, "Dark Heart Dawning"
- Morphine - "Buena"
- Traffic - "Glad"
Four songs with much in common, but four bands that have probably never been played so near each other before.

Between internet radio, the ubiquitous iPod, satellite radio, podcasts, online music stores, concert DVD's - with all these, believe me, it would be difficult to stay in a bad mood with so much music - old and new - so accessible so easily.

Peter Drucker 2

2005-11-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

The holiday (Thanksgiving) weekend is a good one for me to catch up on my reading. Yesterday, while Betty prepared a small bird by applying a cool "coffee rub" and I diced and sliced onions and herbs for a mmmmm, mmmmm tasty oyster stuffing, I read John Byrne's long appreciation piece in BusinessWeek on Peter Drucker. (My earlier post about Drucker's passing is here.)

Rereading some of Drucker's most memorable "isms," I was reminded that people are what make an organization special, and I'm fortunate enough to have surrounded myself with a particularly talented and interesting group of people at BURRIS. It hasn't always been that way, but not for lack of trying. Chemistry is incredibly important among knowledge workers, and we have that. Don't confuse "chemistry," however, with peace, love and understanding. We don't always have those things. But our group is working incredibly well right now, both in terms of the quality of the ideas and - just as important - and the implementation of the communications that comes from the ideas.

Something else for me to remember this Thanksgiving...

I don't know: it must be a very good time for a customer to be working with us. What do you think about that?

Request for feedback - This Old House

2005-11-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

We're working behind the scenes (and, given the readership of this blog, we'll stay there) to put together a recommendation for updating the This Old House brand. Unlike most magazines in the "shelter" category, TOH is predominantly male (more than 60%) and it has several other properties falling under the same umbrella, including the once-famous TV show.

We will do a more formal survey to key targets, but if you have an opinion about anything relating to the magazine, the TV show, web site - or the overall "shelter" category - I'm all ears. Please post a comment on the blog or send me an email.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Video and demand - 2

2005-11-16T16:24:00.000-05:00

Following up my post a couple of days ago (click here), there's a great article in this week's BusinessWeek - right up front in the News Analysis & Commentary section (here).

And among the info in the article is this graphic:

To Rick Hall's point, there are options. Plenty of them. We just don't know which are going to take hold. Yet.

New Rules of Branding

2005-11-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

In the "Chief Marketer" email newsletter today, there's this piece by Simon Williams on the "new rules of branding."

I'm usually dubious of such lists, but this one was sensible and thought-provoking. My favorite? They're all good, and spot-on, but brand experience has been a push-point for me for some time:

"5) Forget the transaction, just give me an experience; the mandate is simple: Wow them every day, every way.
Apple and Coach, Williams points out, found that the best way to give consumers a brand experience wasn't just to sell product in store but to control the entire experience. 'This is why they build stores in major cities. Looking for the other brands to soon be involved in the "experience".'"

BMW chooses GSD&M

2005-11-15T08:09:00.000-05:00

One of the most watched client/agency reviews has been BMW's, which yesterday, we learned, resulted in the company's choosing GSD&M.

Among the reasons this was a compelling sweepstakes was that (a) BMW's previous agency, Fallon of Minneapolis, chose not to participate; and (b) BMW by all rights was already a successful brand, on a roll, beating up on its competitor behind (Mercedes) and gaining on its competitor ahead (Lexus).

BusinessWeek managed to get a look at the brand brief that BMW gave the participating agencies. Here, in part, is the challenge the company gave them:

“BMW wants to bring the excitement back to the brand and restore the equilibrium between their products and their marketing communications. Remember, your challenge is not to reinvent the brand but to evolve the marketing from its current one-dimensional focus on performance…

"Ideally, this new platform will be sustainable over time, yet offer the flexibility to encompass not only where the company is currently headed—but where they might be headed in the future given the unpredictable nature of the automotive business. Think alternative fuel sources and growing sales volume with a successful but polarizing brand. In essence, redefine performance so that it is more than windy roads with fast music….How can BMW expand the current customer base? How do you get the people who admire BMW, who possess BMW values, who possess the BMW gene—but don't place BMW on their shopping list—to place BMW in their consideration set? In sum, how do you get them to want something they don’t consciously want to own? How do you arouse that latent desire? In addition, how will you convince those who purposely choose not to buy BMW because they think the brand is 'too cold,' 'not luxurious,' or 'not relevant'?"

A good brief, a worthy challenge, and I look forward to GSD&M's work.

But I want to return to (a), the fact that Fallon chose not to participate. The brand has been successful of late, and Fallon's work - including the edgy and successful BMW films series available on the web, the same series that helped make Clive Owen a box office draw - has been at least partially reponsible. I'm not aware why Fallon chose not to participate in the review, but my guess is that they knew that with a new VP of Marketing in charge, their chances - at best - weren't very good. Every new executive wants his own team surrounding him, wants his authority firmly in place among his resources. A BBDO with GE since the early part of the 1900's...that just can't happen today. So companies like Fallon have to move on, ply their trade elsewhere, and continuity, consistency, intimacy with a company and its brand - these are all lost.

The point is not whether GSD&M will do good work for BMW. They will. After all, they won out over some other outstanding agencies, and we can presume they all tried very hard to win the business. But now that all is said and done, here's my prediction: For all the investment the competitors made in this pitch - not to mention the fact that only one of them won the prize - GSD&M may have the account two, possibly four years before some other executive - maybe this time a CEO - wants to make a change. So the winner, ironically, may turn out to be Fallon.

Video and demand

2005-11-13T09:45:00.000-05:00

The media world is changing.

Duh!

Such a fatuous remark hardly deserves a word, sentence or paragraph as follow-up, but I know no better way to introduce these comments on what's happening in video.

This link to a BusinessWeek blog poses the question that seems most relevant: Will content creators merely distribute their own rather than relying on media distributors (networks, cable)? Increasingly they can.

This morning I watched several movie trailers, listened to an interview by Jim Lehrer with John McCain (from a News Hour last week), viewed several CNBC stories on The Wall Street Journal's site, and watched David Letterman and Steve Martin on a Late Night from Thursday night's show. All on my computer.

Who needs a TV?

Peter Drucker

2005-11-12T11:39:00.000-05:00

The New York Times brought news this morning of Peter Drucker's death yesterday at age 95. A classic business theoretician and thinker, Drucker was an inspiration. I still open "The Essential Drucker" from time to time to a random page and soak up something worthwhile.

Click on the link to read the Times's obit and learn more about the master's work.

From the Times article: "Among the sayings of Chairman Peter"...
¶"Marketing is a fashionable term. The sales manager becomes a marketing vice president. But a gravedigger is still a gravedigger even when it is called a mortician - only the price of the burial goes up."

¶"One either meets or one works."

¶"The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction and malperformance."

¶"Stock option plans reward the executive for doing the wrong thing. Instead of asking, 'Are we making the right decision?' he asks, 'How did we close today?' It is encouragement to loot the corporation."

TV Salaries

2005-11-08T06:58:00.000-05:00

One of my consulting customers asked me recently to comment and advise on his and his partner's compensation, whether they were paying themselves appropriately as they worked to bring on new staff and manage all expenses. Then I came across a chart in The Atlantic Monthly (October 2005 issue, p. 46) listing key "Television Dads" and their equivalent 2005 salaries. Here are a few of the entries:

J.R. Ewing (Dallas), a CEO: $636,094
Jed Bartlet (The West Wing), U.S. president: $400,000
Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show), Obstetrician: $239,028
Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke Show), TV writer: $85,192
Homer Simpson (The Simpsons), Nuclear safety inspector: $65,346
Ricky Ricardo (I Love Lucy), Bandleader: $52,155
Fred Flintstone (The Flintstones), Quarry crane operator: $37,518

My advice to my customer? Make it worthwhile to be king.

Saturday Morning

2005-11-05T11:04:00.000-05:00

Decided to take a day off today from real work, especially after seeing this view of the "back yard." A creepy fog on this Fall morning. I have a few chores around the house I want to get to, I'll take a long walk through the 'hood, and I plan to catch up on some reading.

Have a good Saturday, folks.

Squawk Box

2005-11-01T16:19:00.000-05:00

I don't watch a lot of TV (how many say that...but actually mean it?). Well, I probably watch more than you think.

Here's a list of what I TiVo for viewing later:
- The West Wing - It's pretty good again, and the upcoming "Live" debate between Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits will likely be one we wish we could see from the actual presidential candidates in the '08 election.
- Rome - On HBO Sundays. Decadent, historical, surprising every episode. My favorite among HBO's Sunday night dramas is "Deadwood," but "The Sopranos" and "Rome" are close behind.
- Commander In Chief - Very, very good. Another fantasy president, but sometimes fantasy is better than realism (especially if we're talking about elected officials).
- Over There - Outstanding, film-quality program about the Iraq conflict (war) and its impact on individual lives.

In addition, I try to watch CNBC's Squawk Box several mornings from 7 to 10. It's on in the background, and every once in a while I'll look up and catch a story, especially breaking news. Here's Rebecca Quick and the program's host, Mark Haines. Ms. Quick is worth watching all by herself.

So often now, the Internet is where we (I) get our (my) news. I find that CNBC can give me all I need in the mornings.

A fitting end to a Sunday of catching up...

2005-10-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

A week ends, another about to begin...and these guys I see just outside my home office window. They'll be eating whatever they want from our yard in just a few minutes....

The year of my discontent...

2005-10-29T17:06:00.000-04:00

It's been sobering this year. For BURRIS, so much of what I do now is prospect, "funnel filling," I call it. And now I've learned my blog is worth just a bit more than $2,200.

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

I found this cool little fact while catching up on Tom Peters's blog. (His is worth more than $500k, by the way.)

A Force More Powerful

2005-10-29T11:40:00.000-04:00

Several short posts today from me, as I catch up on my reading after a few days out of the office...

Click on the title of this post to see a column by Fortune's David Kirkpatrick about a new-style video game in development from a company called BreakAway Games. The game is called "A Force More Powerful," and, presumably, the "force" is violence.

I'm not a gamer - I lost patience years ago trying to play "The Sims" - but this one interests me. It's non-violent, but it deals with ways to combat evil political or military leadership. Here's Kirkpatrick's summary:

"[The game] attempts to replicate the complexity of issues facing would-be activists going up against a repressive regime. [According to the game's creator], it aims 'to help people make and refine strategies to change their own societies.' To achieve this immodest goal, it simulates 10 different 'scenarios.' The player's goal can be anything from protesting an environmental disaster to overthrowing a regime. The player is a nonviolent strategist, controlling 'the movement' as it faces its adversary, 'the regime. A special feature enables players to import information from other sources, including maps, and details of a city's infrastructure, to give it more of a real-life feel."

Thomas Wolfe

2005-10-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

I was in Asheville for a couple of days assisting in the production mix for a customer's DVD presentation.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel downtown, right next door to this classic from American literature. It's the home of Thomas Wolfe, the great Southern author of the 1920's and 30's. "Look Homeward, Angel" is a classic coming of age novel, and seeing his boyhood home makes me want to go back to the story of Eugene Gant and the thinly-veiled autobiography of author Wolfe.

Great stuff.

Saturn and the brand experience

2005-10-29T08:36:00.000-04:00

I'm reacting to a post on BusinessWeek's "Innovate" blog (click on the title at the top for a link) by Diego Rodriguez: "Saturn's Rust-Proof Brand."

I won't repeat Rodriguez' comments here, except for this: "A good brand, then, is one for which every expression has been consciously designed from the customer's point of view."

This is a primer for building a strong brand in today's marketingscape. Read it, bookmark it, and pass it along.

Notes on pricing

2005-10-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

I was reading a column by researcher James Koppenhaver in the October 7 issue of SuperNews (you can find the original article here), and I was reminded of some notes I made recently for myself after losing a prospect project due to price:

I wrote:
Price is the wrong part of the equation to focus on. If one bases his marketing and communications decisions on price, he should do either or both of these things:

1. If price is the primary factor, cut out marketing or advertising altogether. Just save the money. Maybe you're not selling quality in the first place and are better off in the commodity category.

2. Change resources - all types of resources - ever more frequently. After all, the traditional advertising agency or creative resource builds her model on giving you a lot up front, banking on downstream revenues. So keep firing the old and hiring new "marketing partners" and get more for free.

Examples worthy of discussion:
- Vonage vs. Cell phones. The Vonage VoIP model forces no contracts, no minimums. Their logic, I think, is the product is good enough, you'll stay around 'til there's something better, in which case, they'd better have it. Cell phones on the other hand ... can you imagine not having to sign a 12- or 24-month contract? And don't you think the price you pay will be lower later? That's a contract based on the wrong reasons.

- We used to work with Club Car, the golf car company. They worked hard to win over customers who had E-Z-GO fleets. And E-Z-GO did the same to Club Car. They'd be most aggressive on pricing when they could "steal" a customer from the competition. Time was, they could make up for their pain winning the first time by keeping the new customer next time. This approach worked 'til the customer began to think of golf cars as a commoditized category, that one brand was as good as the other. So they began just ping-ponging from one brand of fleet to another...at increasingly aggressive prices.

Moral to the story:
If you're interested in saving money on your marketing, just save the money. Don't spend at all. Your costs will be lower, your margins better.

But if you're investing in growth, in revenues, your margins, don't think in terms of cost; think in terms of yield. How can we make marketing an asset instead of an expense?

What do we do about bad advertising?

2005-10-16T10:46:00.000-04:00

In an ADWEEK survey, consumers from 18 to 65+ years old with a wide range of household incomes were asked a series of questions about the advertising they see. Two questions - and their answers - struck me as particularly noteworthy, so here they are, without comment from me (and none needed):

Do you believe most advertising is _____?
- Dishonest (They'll say anything to sell a product) - 34%
- Unrealistic (Sure, I dance around while doing the dishes) - 30%
- Who cares? (Business is business) - 24%
- Honest (A product must do what marketers say it will do) - 10%

If you don't like an ad from a particular marketer, would you ever ______?
- Boycott the company - 27%
- Bad-mouth the brand to your friends and family - 24%
- Contact the company to complain - 21%
- Begrudgingly continue to buy the brand - 7%
- Do nothing - 45%

Bank of America changes my mind

2005-10-08T09:37:00.000-04:00

I can't believe this post.

I cannot remember when I had something positive to say about a bank, any bank. My professional experience with them has been spotty, in fact, because they are tigers that usually change their spots all too frequently.

But this is not a rant; it's a rave.

While on a photo shoot near Kiawah Island recently, I needed to transfer some funds from one account to another. I went online, found the nearest Bank of America branch, and drove right over. Here's what I found:

This is the lobby of the new banking center in the Freshfields Retail Village just outside the gates of Kiawah. As you can see, it's beautiful inside, inviting, comfortable. But the decor is only the beginning.

Take a look at this:

This young lady stands at a "welcome desk" just inside the main entrance. She greeted me, asked if she could help, and within seconds she was typing my info into her computer and taking care of my transaction. When she finished, she sent me over to the teller line to complete my business. Here's the teller line:

If there had been a line, I could have whiled away my time watching CNN or CNBC or The Weather Channel on more plasma screens.

Bank of America's president said in Fortune recently that one of the company's focuses is now on "retail banking" and bringing service back to its "consumer" customers. And according to the greeter in the Freshfields banking center, this is the prototype direction for all new banking centers. There's fresh copies of popular magazines and daily newspapers, fresher coffee, TV screens tuned to news and finance programs, even a self-service, punch in your own access code gateway to the safe-deposit boxes.

It's cool, I was impressed, but I've seen "prototypes" before, and too often there's a vast gulf between the future and everywhere else. So imagine my surprise when I walked into a B of A branch in High Point recently. No clean, well-lighted lobby, no greeter, not one plasma TV. But behind the counter on the teller line, moving with alacrity behind the two or three busy young ladies - there is a gentlemen named Luis Ochoa. While I stand on line, Luis nods at me, says hello, assures me they'll be with me in a minute. Then - this is amazing - he opened a new teller line himself and invites me to him. He reaches out to shake my hand, introduces himself - "Hola, I'm Luis Ochoa, the manager of this bank" - and asks what he can do to help me.

I was becoming a reluctant believer - at least for now - in what Ken Lewis, B of A's chief, says about his focus on retail banking. Then I went into a branch at the foot of the Isle of Palms Connector in Mt. Pleasant, SC, on Friday, October 7. It was raining gangbusters outside, the drive-up teller lines were full, so I thought I'd take my chances inside. There I found no greeter, but one plasma screen (tuned to CNBC) on the teller line, a helpful teller who acted as though she wanted to help me, and in no time I was on my way.

This may really work.

Beer Truisms

2005-10-03T12:15:00.000-04:00

I rarely pass along humor I receive via email, many of them what I call "lazy forwards" (you know, the kind that have been forwarded from tens of people with nothing added). But my brother Brad sent this to me because he thought it would help me explain to others my love for a cold one every now and then. Slightly edited, here are a few of the better comments someone collected about beer:

Sometimes when I reflect on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. I think, "It's better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
-- Babe Ruth

24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not.
-- H. L. Mencken

To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a "support group."
-- Leo Durocher

One night at Cheers, Cliff Clavin explained the "Buffalo Theory" to his buddy, Norm: "Well, ya see, Norm, it's like this: A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Catching up on BlackBerry's redundancies

2005-09-30T12:33:00.000-04:00

Recently I added a BlackBerry to my communications repertoire so that when I'm out and about, I still have access to critical emails. My BlackBerry is a phone as well as an email reader, so it can be a pretty helpful device. I have three frustrations with its operation, however, which I'll outline here:

(1) The spam filter isn't as sensitive as that with my normal Apple email program. So the sheer quantity of emails I receive on my BlackBerry is sometimes daunting.

(2) Unless I'm missing something in the instructions, I can delete only one message at a time on my BlackBerry. So as I scroll through a hundred or more emails, unless I'm willing to keep them on the machine for the time being, I'm individually deleting. Takes time.

(3) Even when I delete, of course, they're still in my regular computer email box, so I'll see them again. I knew this would be the case, and, fortunately, because of the spam filter on the computer, there aren't as many to deal with in my inbox as there was on the BlackBerry the first time.

Many of the non-critical emails I first see on the BlackBerry I postpone for action when I return to my computer. I'm a 10-finger typist, so "thumbing" on the BlackBerry is comparatively slow for me. And many of the emails I receive have attachments and/or links to web sites that are better viewed from the computer.

That means when I return - as I did today - having been away from my computer, I have a bit of a backlog.

I spent much of the day today catching up on email and phone calls that piled in during two days on a photo shoot. Maybe how busy I've been clouds my sense of irony - and my sense of humor - but a couple of things friends and colleagues have sent me had me shaking my head at the wonder of just how much time some have on their hands.

First example: Doug Brisotti sent along this website for a bogus company called "Huh"! I remember seeing it a year or more ago, but I hadn't thought of it since. Clever, sure, in an ironic sort of way. But the gag doesn't ring so harmoniously as we at BURRIS try to overcome a customer's concern over costs in the wake of being burned by his previous agency.

Next example comes from Beverly Flichman, who said this is a good reason for us to be happy not to be part of the New York ad scene. Go here to see "The Ad Conceptor," a kind of "Subservient Chicken" take-off for the creative industry.

Check out Huh! and The Ad Conceptor and let me know what YOU think.

Starting Over - 2

2005-09-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

After meeting with my friend and customer regarding a fresh start in his hospitality business (click here for Part 1), I'd have to say that "starting over" isn't in his plans.

It's not that he's not intrigued with the idea. It's more that he can't get beyond the legacy of his situation, "the way we've always done it."

If it were up to me, if I were CEO for six weeks (or months) - a favorite refrain of mine - here's what I would do:
- Specialize the properties I offer, preferably those that might fit neatly into a "luxury" or "best on the beach" category.
- Elevate my service approach, offering concierge service, kitchen stocking options, and other luxe services that my customers would appreciate...and pay for.
- Limit my reservation services to encourage internet booking. The capability is there, the customer increasingly prefers self-service, and it's clearly more efficient. Put the people hours into service, not here.
- Have the same in-house contact who works with the property owners work with the renters as well. Who better to be accountable?
- Check-ins should be at the property, not in an office. That way the reservations agent will see the condition as the customer does and address anything that needs it right away.
- Ask owners how much they really want their place to rent. Many don't want the wear and tear week after week of rentals can bring. The right model might allow me to rent for shorter than full weeks, still make money for the owner and for me, and keep the place in better condition.
- Have a set of standards for decorating, linens, features such as cable, DVD, wireless, etc. If you're renting from me, each property is different in terms of layout and location, but all are the same in terms of what you can expect to find there.

There's a short list. Next time I'll outline a marketing plan.

Starting Over - Part 1

2005-09-22T08:28:00.000-04:00

If you were going to start your business today, what would you do differently from the way you currently operate?

Let me get you started.

I'm working with a customer in the hospitality business. It's not a hotel; rather it's a business that manages privately owned properties and rents them on behalf of the owners. Guests book the properties - some are houses, some condos - pay the rental fee, check in and check out. The owners receive a percentage (usually 55%) of the revenue; my customer retains the balance.

Virtually all of the property management firms in the area operate the same way. During the high season, they offer Saturday-to-Saturday stays. Guests check-out by 11a on Saturday; new guests check-in after 4p on Saturday. In the other seasons, they rent the properties whenever they can, some for short term stays, others for longer terms (preferably for months).

You make your money - whether you're the owner or the property management company - in the high season. You hold on and make whatever you can the rest of the year.

That's the way it works now. The competition works against you in several ways:
- Everyone is fighting to manage more properties. The more inventory you have, the more renters you can serve, and, thus, the more income you can generate.
- Everyone is fighting for quality cleaning crews...one day - for five hours - per week. The entire geographic area is turning over its inventory between 11a and 4p on Saturday.
- The key to your business is repeats - from one year to the next - but everyone is also trying to attract new renters to fill up the excess and cover for attrition.

In a nutshell that's how it's working.

If you were buying into the market, or if you were starting-up a new business, how would you look at the paradigm, how would you approach your offering, how would you establish your distinctiveness, build your brand?

"We want to go from being a logical choice to a brand that's loved."

2005-09-18T08:33:00.000-04:00

A quote from a brand management exec at Marriott, reported in BusinessWeek's 9/26/05 issue. (Subscription required.)

Reminds me of a discussion I had with Beverly Flichman (bflichman@burris.com) on Friday last. Beverly believes that some strong brands actually evidence a power over customers who may not even buy them. Starbucks, for example, can be admired even by those who don't drink coffee. eBay has strength even for those who have never bought or sold in online auction. Part of the beauty of iPod for Apple is how it has introduced a corporate brand and some of its values to lifelong Windows users.

We - Beverly and I - riffed for a minute or two on the phenomenon, her referring to it as a "brand democracy." So we dubbed it - for now - "brandocracy," and promised to think about it some more.

The quote at the head of this post captures part of it. For many, a brand choice comes from a logical approach. But in a brandocracy, increasingly more decisions come out of an emotional attachment, almost to the extent that the true brand image is now determined by consumers, not by brand managers.

Starting over - Introduction

2005-09-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

I have an upcoming meeting with a friend and prospect whom I'll try to convince to totally rebuild his business model.

It's just not working for his company to keep doing what they do the way they've been doing it. They're losing money, struggling with negative momentum, and not standing for anything that really matters to their better customers. And I believe the solution for them is to start over...or get out of the business altogether.

What would you do if you were starting your business now, starting fresh in today's marketplace, against today's competitors, with today's technology?

What market would you serve? What level of service would you offer? How would you price your offering? What guarantee would you offer? How would you insure customer satisfaction?

In my friend's case, his primary business concentrates on high income, high asset targets, and he enjoys a considerable loyalty from past customers. They come back to sell and buy again, again and again.

In the coming weeks I'll tell you more. If this prospect becomes a customer, I'll take you through their transformation. If I can't close the deal, then I'll let you know what I would have done if I were running his business.

Stay tuned.

Airworld

2005-09-14T06:18:00.000-04:00

Advertising Age is featuring a daily review of what it's like to travel by air in "Airworld," by Greg Lindsay. (Click on the title of this post for the first installment. You'll need to register with Advertising Age, but it's free.)

The culture of the air (my phrase, not his) is unique to the travel industry (well, maybe healthcare). It's where cost and value, price and benefits have little to do with one another, and information to customers is as rare as uncut diamonds. Lindsay examines air travel from a customer and brand perspective.

Amidst the wreckage, he finds Jet Blue as a brand that stands out largely for its consumer acceptance, even loyalty. I've never flown the airline; Jet Blue doesn't serve any of my regular airports and cities. But I'm reminded of my little hometown, High Point, as we anxiously awaited our first McDonald's around 1960. We couldn't wait.

If you travel - or if you are a student of brands, their successes and failures - check out this series.

"The Only Question That Matters"

2005-09-08T18:07:00.000-04:00

As some of you know, I've been on a research kick lately, especially as it relates to customer satisfaction. I came across an article in the September Business 2.0, the title of which I've taken at the title for this post.

(Click above and you'll link to the article.)

Bottom line: the best chances for increased product acceptance and growth are in building word-of-mouth, positive viral referrals from existing customers. "This year," the article by Damon Darlin begins, "12.5 million people used Intuit's TurboTax software to prepare their tax returns. Next year the company wants the number to be even larger. So what's the best way to make that happen? Easy. Intuit asks customers one simple question: Would you recommend this product to friends and family?"

Of course the answer presents just a beginning. If "no," then you need to drill into the why's and why nots. Then you fix them. So it's really not so simple. But it is a start.

Delivering the message wherever

2005-09-06T09:53:00.000-04:00

I recently returned from my first visit to Pebble Beach, the Lodge and the Golf Links. If you love golf, Pebble is one of the places you have to play. Along with The Old Course and Pinehurst No. 2, it's probably one of the great golf experiences in the world. And anyone can play there, as long as you've got the dough to pay for it.

At Pebble Beach I was reminded that marketing messages to consumers can be delivered almost anywhere. Seems Pebble has gotten a reputation as a place where golf is played v e r y s l o w l y. A round of six hours isn't unheard of. Golfers of all stripes play there, photos are taken all over the place, and the result is, well, a backed-up classic.

Some resorts deal with this problem in different ways, but they have to deal with it. Not only does it affect the experience; it also affects revenues. If it takes 5-6 hours to play, they can sell fewer tee times, and few tee times means less revenue.

Pebble delivers their "pace of play" message in several ways, but none more interesting to me than this:

On the practice balls at the driving range is the message "4:30" - for "four hours and thirty minutes" - the ideal time in which they'd like you to play your round.

Again, the reason is economic. We stayed at Pebble Beach in a beautiful lodge room. Staying there gets you access and a break in the green fee on the great old course. How much of a break? Well, here's the receipt I kept from check-in:

Two people, $425 each, $850 total.

"4:30" indeed.

Sponsorships

2005-08-29T08:40:00.000-04:00

Ours is a sponsorship society. Brands attach themselves to events, among other things, and pay for the opportunity. And the events use the funds for their purposes. In golf there's the AT&T Championship - what used to be called the Bing Crosby Pro-Am and Clambake - held at Pebble Beach and several surrounding courses in the Monterey area. NASCAR has Nextel and the Coca-Cola 500. And so on.

Pebble Beach is one of America's most famous and beautiful places, and it's often a site for a competition, an outing or event. For instance, this coming weekend there's a Senior, er, "Champion's Tour" event here benefiting The First Tee, the PGA Tour's and others' junior golf initiative. The name sponsor is Wal-Mart. The name of the event is the "Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach" (that's a mouthful). The problem comes when the Tour adds its sponsors. Let me show you:

So what you have is an event benefiting junior golf, and brought to you, in part, by a drug that corrects erectile disfunction. Oh, well.

I marvel at the WWW

2005-08-21T12:34:00.000-04:00

Storm Williams sent me an article from WIRED recently that accounted for the dramatic growth of the web. It's exponential, really, and what's further amazing is how diverse it is.

Mine is virtually a web-based society. My data are uploaded, virtually all of my journal thoughts (including my blogs) are there. I have a Yahoo! 360 site I use for family communications (still in its infancy).

The web is critical to marketing too, and not just for research.... For our customers we look first at how their site is working, what it's doing for them, how it interacts with their selling, their marketing communications, their customers and employees. In many cases - most recently for Stanley Furniture's YoungAmerica - we recommend web mini-sites designed to perform specific functions, specific duties in their marketing scheme.

One of the cool things about some companies' use of the web is that it has become an end, a destination for their "traditional advertising." I opened Esquire this morning, and the first ad I saw was a sparse, photo-driven gatefold with the copy "Find the Art in the Everyday.com" (just like that, with the spaces between the words; it wasn't clear that it was a web address). When I pasted the address into my browser ... well, go there yourself and see what I found: LINK

It's a short film set to a tune by an unknown (to me) artist doing an old Tears for Fears song, "Mad World." There's no overt commercial purpose, just the "do-better" theme that there's art everywhere if we'll just look for it.

In our work for a private golf retreat featuring real estate, we're just about to embark on re-building what is currently a beautiful, but unworkable web site. We're approaching the web as the second best destination we can imagine a prospect coming to, after an actual site visit, of course. So the new site must - and it will - reflect and communicate the experience our member and/or real estate prospect will find there. I'm sure we'll employ the use of mini-sites that do specific duty. Stay tuned; I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Love comes ... and goes ... for the lovelorn

2005-08-19T15:19:00.000-04:00

From my rip and report file, another (here's the first) blurb from the September 2005 Atlantic Monthly.

Seems John Hinckley, the guy who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has an upcoming hearing (September 19) to determine if he may now venture "beyond Washington, D.C., for the first time since he entered a mental hospital after the shooting...

"He would now like to visit [his parents'] home in Virginia. The judge in the case is concerned that because Hinckley - who shot Reagan in the throes of a romantic obsession with the actress Jodie Foster - recently ended his relationship with a fellow mental patient (who killed her ten-year-old daughter but was found not guilty by reason of insanity), this may not be the best time for him to be out and about."

Seems love is, truly, a many splendored thing when it comes to the insane.

More on Marketing ROI

2005-08-10T18:27:00.000-04:00

This post in INC magazine does a better job than I have outlining the case for MROI and how it's getting easier to do.

Here's the basic pitch:

"Advertising has long been a sort of black art with a murky ROI, and for a simple reason: Clients rarely know for sure who sees their ads, let alone whether the ads influence anyone. Even though companies spend a third of a trillion dollars a year on advertising, those ads often end up being irrelevant to the people who see them. On average, Americans are subject to some 3,000 essentially random pitches per day. Two-thirds of people surveyed in a Yankelovich Partners study said they feel "constantly bombarded" by ads, and 59% said the ads they see have little or no relevance to them. No wonder so many people dislike and ignore advertising, and so many business owners feel gun-shy about investing in serious campaigns."

That's the case; there's much more in the article about what is being done by some smart marketers.

If your marketing spending can't be tracked for productivity and effectiveness - at least on some level - you need some help. (That's not so much a pitch for you to call me as just good advice, but if I can help, well...)

Today's "Huh?" Moment

2005-08-10T17:34:00.000-04:00

Today's AAF Marketing Brief newsletter (you can subscribe for yourself here) brought to my attention a piece in The Wall Street Journal about Gap's new viral web/marketing campaign.

Created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky (the friendly folks who brought us Burger King's "Subservient Chicken"), an animated web site takes us inside, presumably, a Gap dressing room. It's cool, but as far as I can tell, pointless. (You'll waste 30 minutes there, so be careful if you visit the site.)

In fact, when I went there myself, one of our Burrisites happened to be in the neighborhood of my desk and stuck around to see what in the heck was going on. Later in the day - as I was preparing for this post - here's what I told her about my experience:

"Your question regarding www.watchmechange.com for The Gap - 'What's the point?' - is right on. Unlike the 'Subservient Chicken,' which drove home the BK 'have it your way' message about something other than a burger, this site, though cool, doesn't do anything, I guess, but try to convince someone that The Gap is cooler than he or she may think."

According to the article in The Wall Street Journal: "Early reviews are mixed. Comments circulating on the Internet show that some people find it a great way to waste time at the office; others are uncomfortable watching it. 'My immediate reaction is definitely negative,' says Lauren Schmidt, a 28-year-old account director at a technology public-relations firm in New York City. While it won't stop her from buying the chain's clothes, she says, 'I have always regarded Gap as more tactful than that.'

"Gap's Web characters are definitely saucier than those used by other clothing retailers, such as L.L. Bean and Sears Holdings Corp.'s Lands' End. Figures at those company sites aim to replicate shoppers' measurements, or body shapes, in order to help ensure a proper garment fit.

"The watchmechange site also sets a very different tone from Gap's current advertising campaign in stores and on television, which features a parade of musicians such as Joss Stone, Liz Phair and Jason Mraz. In the TV commercials, developed by the retailer's creative agency, Laird+Partners, the singers wear Gap jeans and perform remakes of their favorite songs."

What's the point, indeed! Can you help me on this?

Trout weighs in

2005-08-09T17:40:00.000-04:00

On several occasions I've quoted or linked to columns by Al Ries, part of the former duo who wrote and published the classic book about branding, Positioning, more than 20 years ago.

Now Ries's former partner, Jack Trout, weighs in here on what's ailing traditional advertising agencies. They have lost their way because they're not focused on their true mission and calling.

The article is good. (Thanks to Jack Burris for sending it to me.) Here's an excerpt:

"Forget about emotion, bonding, borrowed interest or show business, agencies have to rebuild their reputations around being able to help top management figure out the right competitive strategy for a brand.... Consider the famous Oprah giveaway of 200 Pontiac G-6s.... The result was great press but lousy sales, which are 30% below expectations. What was missing was the story about why I should buy one if I didn't get one for free."

The dialogue continues...

What America offers - Peter Jennings' comments

2005-08-08T08:32:00.000-04:00

This morning's news headlines brought word of Peter Jennings' death yesterday.

I was struck by this passage in the New York Times obituary (source of the photo as well):

"Mr. Jennings was conscious of having been imbued, during his Canadian boyhood, with a skepticism about American behavior; at least partly as a result, he often delighted in presenting the opinions of those in the minority, whatever the situation.

"And yet he simultaneously carried on an elaborate love affair with America, one that reached its apex in the summer of 2003, when he announced that he had become an American citizen, scoring, he said proudly, 100 percent on his citizenship test.

"In a toast around that time that he gave at the new National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he described his adopted home as 'this brash and noble container of dreams, this muse to artists and inventors and entrepreneurs, this beacon of optimism, this dynamo of energy, this trumpet blare of liberty.'"

This is the kind of patriotism in far too short of supply these days. What makes our way of life so great is, I think, our optimism, our hope, our potential. What a great description of life in America!

The New York Taxi - redesigned

2005-08-04T10:36:00.000-04:00

Several days ago I singled out BusinessWeek for its "Get Creative!" special issue. (Here's the link.)

The web site the magazine launched at the same time continues to explore the issue of innovation. Here's a fascinating study of the taxi cab of the future. (Click here.)

Ideas and innovation come out of fresh thinking and, sometimes, a disciplined process. This review of a simple, take-it-for-granted concept is a sterling example.

"Inside Golf Travel"

2005-07-31T17:14:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but one of the blogs I visit regularly to see if there's been a new post is that of my friend, Gordon Dalgleish.

Gordon's latest post (see it here) involves what he calls the "3 golden rules" for a service business. What are they?

(1) Set the customer's expectations clearly and thoroughly.
(2) Avoid the possibility for surprises.
(3) Respond swiftly when mistakes occur.

It's interesting that PerryGolf, Gordon's company, has codified these principles, but there's no question that this kind of thing - and that all service businesses - work better when the entire staff knows the rules when dealing with a customer.

It's no wonder PerryGolf is a leader - and command, I'm sure, some of the best margins - in the golf travel business.

The lonely "Inspirator"

2005-07-27T08:18:00.000-04:00

Several months ago our own Dean Wagner invented in his workshop a device - a very simple contraption - that when switched on stimulates creative thinking. A true Eureka! moment.

Dean also made me a mini-version of the same, one small enough to fit in my briefcase. There it rests, along with my cables and digital camera, ready to be called to duty.

We - the Inspirator and BURRIS - are working on a branding project with a Greensboro-based accounting and business and personal services firm. The Inspirator is in use now, but the mini- is still available for one-on-one consultations.

Talk about creativity unleashed! You should see this baby in action!

"Get Creative!"

2005-07-27T08:01:00.000-04:00

A quick post to alert you to a fascinating study of innovation in business, 2005-style, in the current (August 1, 2005) issue of BusinessWeek. As I told the people with whom I work: this is one of the best end-to-end special reports I've ever read.

BusinessWeek is particular about access to its content on the web, but if you don't want to pick up your own copy, you may have some luck at www.businessweek.com. Plus, BW put up its own, ongoing study on the topic of innovation at this special site.

Do yourself a favor - do your business a favor: Pick up this issue.

Why not an advertising agency?

2005-07-26T17:36:00.000-04:00

I don't agree with everything in it, but this article from Chief Executive kicks sand in the face of the traditional advertising agency.

"Your company and its advertising agency are like ships passing in the night," Mark Stevens, the article's writer, says. "The agency is after awards ... [and] you are in the pursuit of the only goal that truly matters in a corporate entity: profits."

A lot of vitriol here, but some truth...like most of the opinions we read. But to me, enough truth for BURRIS to be "an idea cooperative."

Mind your manners, please

2005-07-26T11:58:00.000-04:00

This week, among other stops, I'm headed to Pinehurst as a guest of The Golf Channel for their second Viewers' Cup. In spite of anticipated 100+ degree temps, I expect it to be a grand time: an opportunity to play two very good golf courses (Nos. 2 and 4), meet and network with some interesting people (their really big clients), and watch an underachieving brand interact with some of its more zealous supporters.

I'll save the "underachieving" comment for another post...coming soon.

No, today's missive picks up on a thread of conversation I had yesterday with a friend about this particular event, The Golf Channel's Viewers' Cup. He told me that the scheduled tee times had shifted a bit from the original plan, falling victim to a few last-minute cancellations from several of their RSVP'd guests.

"How do you cancel this late?" I asked, somewhat incredulous. "We've known about this for months."

"They just do," he said. "Happens all the time."

Got me thinking about manners, common courtesy and those kinds of things.

Apparently many people put into action a different set of courtesy standards according to the situation they're in. Some who think nothing of showing up late for an appointment with a sales rep wouldn't dream of doing the same for their Saturday morning tee time. Others write thank-you notes to business customers, but it never crosses their minds to express gratitude for a birthday bottle of wine from a sister.

The most genuine and considerate people I've ever met have unwavering standards for their own behavior, and those standards seem to be based on general principles of courtesy. Hold a door for someone, wait behind to make sure a colleague's car starts, stand up when someone reaches out a hand to shake, take off your hat when entering a room. Don't call after 9:00 PM, make eye contact when saying "Hello," say "thank you" whenever anyone does something for you, let a customer know you appreciate his business.

It's too confusing to have different courtesy standards for business, friends and family. Why not treat them all the same?

It seems to me that the person who will cheat in golf will cheat his customer, maybe not every time, but it's there - you know it is - waiting to come out. And the person who cancels her appearance at a business function she has committed to will also fail to show for the kid's baseball game or recital.

The same friend who told me about his customers cancelling for this week once said to me that I should write a book about a certain business philosophy I once espoused. The key to treating a customer well, I said, is to treat him the same way you treat your mother. And vice versa.

My advice (to myself, mostly): Be the same person everywhere.

Marketing metrics

2005-07-21T08:54:00.000-04:00

Those who know me well - and those who have labored through my correspondence since way back in the BURRIS Newsletter days - know I've ranted time and again about measuring marketing effectiveness. I've written about "marketing return on investment" (MROI), cost per inquiry (CPI), and much more over the years, but I can name only a few actual cases where we helped a customer implement and monitor an effectiveness measurement program.

It's part of the three-link chain I talk about when describing "what we do." I talk about (a) brand identity (or "brand clarity" where necessary), (b) implementing marketing communincations, and (c) marketing metrics. "C" gets the most interest early on, but rarely do we actually find a customer with the discipline and commitment to implement a full-bodied program for measuring return on advertising investment.

It is a discipline, and it's not easy. A solid metrics program includes setting clear, measureable objectives, benchmarking, research - before, during and after - reporting, fine tuning and tweaking...it's a lot of work. You need thick skin on top of confidence.

Stuart Elliott reported in yesterday's (July 20) New York Times that a new study will be released this week that measures how uncomfortable marketers are with the gap between the desire to measure and the actual data they receive. See that story here, or click on the title of this post.

Today business measures practically everything except marketing return. It's time to change that, but there's no simple formula. It has to be done one initiative at a time.

How to make a meeting

2005-07-20T16:15:00.000-04:00

I've worked with some companies who meet a lot. Some people say, for instance, "I didn't get anything done today. One meeting after another." Others actually believe they get most of their work done in meetings.

What makes the difference?

Does any of this sound familiar?

No agenda is sent around before the meeting.
Or, no one reads the agenda prior to the meeting.

No briefing documents are prepared and distributed.
Or, no one reads the briefing docs prior to the meeting.

There's no clear objective for the meeting.
There's no one leading the meeting.
One or more of the participants contributes nothing to the discussion.

At our little company we rely on meetings to move something from one point to the next. Sometimes a BURRIS meeting takes place online, sometimes on the phone, and sometimes, of course, face-to-face in a traditional conference setting. (These are usually the most productive, but also the longest.)

After one particularly unproductive meeting the other day, I made some notes to myself in hopes of trying to understand what went wrong. (Seems every few years - out of frustration - I do this very thing.)

Here are my latest thoughts about meetings:

1. Meetings should be scheduled in time for everyone you need to be able to attend. Coming into the office today thinking you can have 100% attendance at the time you wish later on the same day...it probably won't happen.

2. Meetings, of course, need a start time, but they also need an end time. How else can you plan around it?

3. There should always be an agenda, and it needs to be distributed in plenty of time for meeting members to review it, think about it, even make suggestions or ask questions, add to it or suggest something be eliminated.

4. Everyone invited to the meeting should know why he or she is there...and what his or her role is during and after the meeting. If you're in a meeting and you don't play a part, it's your own fault. If you don't know why you're there, ask the person who called the meeting.

5. Don't ever assume someone else is taking the notes you'll want or need later. He or she may be assuming the same thing.

6. It's okay to allow yourself to be distracted, okay to read email or do other things when you're not needed. (Seems there are always tangents one or more get off on.) But keep up with the action well enough to know when things are getting back on path.

7. Speaking of distractions, if you're going to bring your laptop, your digital camera, your voice recorder - all the little tools we love to carry about - make sure there's at least a possibility that your tools help add value and/or benefit the group. Visit a website relevant to the discussion. Take a digital photo of a white board before it's erased. (You get the idea.)

8. It's always good to summarize not only what's been decided, but also what needs to be done next. If it appears everyone might slip away before this happens, STOP THEM! Maybe it's not really your job to do the summary, but be prepared to do it if no one else steps up. And before the meeting closes, make sure you've actually finished. If items on the agenda haven't been discussed, decide what to do about them.

(This won't surprise those who know me:)
9. Start on time, and, if at all possible, end early. (Some of us have other meetings to get to.) It's more than courteous (but it is that too); it's more productive for all involved.

10. Finally, don't allow meetings to become one- or two-way conversations. The best meetings are opportunities for collaboration, festivals for expression. Not an expert on the luxury market yourself? That's okay, as long as you have a few thoughts you can share, maybe as a consumer, maybe an observation about friends or relatives.

Marketing professional golf

2005-07-12T16:35:00.000-04:00

I came across a timely piece in an email newsletter I receive about how easy the LPGA Tour is to work with for sponsors. (Click on the title of this post for the actual article.)

"Timely" because Neil MacKenzie and I have been talking lately about the PGA Tour and Greensboro's own Chrysler Classic. Many of you may know that the Tour is making a lot of noise lately about cutting back the number of events per year in the future. Some of the players feel the season is too long, and some of the sponsors, writers and others complain that a second or third tier field is too often the case at tournaments that aren't one of the four majors or A-listers like Bay Hill or the Memorial.

Greensboro's Tour event would be a possible candidate for being dropped or for reassignment; few would argue that. Despite its 68-year history, the fall dates, the end of season feeling - these are the things that could likely spell doom for the tournament. So what should Greensboro's movers and shakers be doing?

One idea Neil and I discussed: Court the LPGA Tour...now, before possibly being spurned by the PGA Tour. Jockey to be a top 10 event on the LPGA schedule by (a) getting a large, local sponsor involved (VF, Furnitureland South, Jefferson Pilot, et al.), and (b) aggressively promoting the "new" professional golf event as a way of revitalizing the community overall.

I think the LPGA Tour is on the verge of being a very hot property. If we're going to do it, now is the time.

Working from home

2005-07-05T09:26:00.000-04:00

Most days now, when I'm not traveling to visit with a customer, I work from home. I'm typing this post from my desk.

When we built the house, we set up a kind of quasi-guest room, but the only bed in here is a sofa bed, so it's a rare occasion we have an overnight guest. That's good, because I work at odd hours.

There's a DSL with a wireless modem, two Macs, both running Tiger, a small bookcase holding reference materials and supplies, one of those HP All-in-One printer/scanner/copier/fax machines, and a long, custom desktop outfitted for two.

We have two phone systems. Our local, BellSouth phone is a two-line rig with our local number, digits we've had since the late '80's. On my end of the desk, I use an internet phone, Vonage, VoIP they call it, a hands-free set with a 336 area code. And the mobile is somewhere, probably under some papers.

Here's what it looks like.

The desktop Mac I use for IM sessions, for Skype communications, for access to my online calendar - it's kind of running in the background...while most of the correspondence and other work are done on my laptop. The two are connected wirelessly by AirPort, and there's a multi-connection port for printer access.

All in all it's a pretty good set-up, and I am convinced I'm at least 50% more productive here than in our office in Greensboro. Don't get me wrong: I love to be in the office in GSO. You can't replace the value of face-to-face interaction, especially when you're interacting with the bright and good people at BURRIS. But here there's just better opportunities to concentrate, the phone isn't as intrusive, and as long as I set the appropriate status messages on iChat (our Instant Message service) and Skype, I can rock along pretty well.

Typically I listen to music in the deep background. Radio Paradise (www.radioparadise.com, also on the iTunes Radio button under "Eclectic") usually. (Roxy Music's "More than This" is playing as I type this.) Plus, most mornings, also in the background is CNBC's "Squawk Box." Neither really has the chance to distract. But if too much gets to be going on, I'll switch 'em off.

For most of the weekend and into today, I'm also burning cd's, "ripping," as the new age parlance refers to it. I'm trying to get our cd collection into iTunes. Takes a lot less space, and gives me freedom to put together mix cd's for driving. (I'm ripping Ella Fitzgerald's "Best of Song Book" as I type this.)

So, amidst all these apparent, potential distractions, I'm still productive? Yes, I think so. Outside the window the birds are feeding, the tide is coming in, the sun is about to hit the window (forcing me to pull the shade a bit), and I'm in here, wrapping up this post and heading into cyberspace with a few questions for active customers.

Hope you're having a great day too.

Happy 4th of July

2005-07-03T17:19:00.000-04:00

I'm reading Thomas Friedman's collection of columns just before and for the months after September 11, 2001, "Longitudes and Attitudes." A Friedman newspaper column of 740 words is like a Robert L. Parker (Spenser series of novels) chapter: it's short, but a lot is happening.

These columns, almost four years removed from the event that inspired them, serve to remind me of the special meaning the July 4 holiday should have. We are so fortunate to have the freedoms we enjoy. Tomorrow, to celebrate, I think I'll go here , read a few hundred pages of something stimulating, and enjoy not thinking about outstanding proposals or project challenges ... in short, take a holiday.

Happy Independence Day to all.

What if you were going to die today?

2005-06-25T15:01:00.000-04:00

Click on the headline (or here) and you'll go to Steve Jobs's commencement address to Stanford's grads last month. One part really hit home for me (though it does look a bit sensationalist in this post's headline).

"If today were the last of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"

Great way to start the day. Really.

Decisions, decisions...

2005-06-24T10:33:00.000-04:00

"If there's one thing we humans abhor," says Jerry Useem in the June 27, 2005, issue of Fortune, "it's uncertainty."

(To see the article, click on the title of this post.)

"For modern decidophobes, business is a bad hiding place. Strategies, careers, companies - they're all made of decisions the way glass is made of sand. The quality of your decisions is what makes you valuable. And the hardest ones roll uphill: A CEO's job, it's been said, is to make the decisions that can't be delegated."

For all of you out there sitting on your hands, read this piece. And remember what Napoleon (apparently) said (Useem opens his article with it): "Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."

Recruiting, searches, and finding the right person

2005-06-23T08:35:00.000-04:00

The LPGA has hired its new commissioner, Carolyn Bivens, formerly the CEO of a media company (Initiative), before that one of the top people at USA Today.

Here's Golf Digest.com's story.

There have been (and remain) several high profile searches in golf. Besides the LPGA commissioner's job, Jim Awtrey's position, for instance, at the PGA of America is open. Before that, the U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy (which went to Tom Lehman). Not to mention that all those candidates whose names are mentioned - or "floated" - for these types of jobs ... where are they going to go?

I've just finished DisneyWar by James Stewart, which is basically a story about dysfunctional management at the Walt Disney Company and ABC. Made me think: how can we be sure we're hiring the right person, that so-and-so is the right fit? [I doubt that she is, but...] What if Carolyn Bivens is a crook?

I posed this question to Andrew Mackay, founder of On Course Recruiting, the only golf-specific recruiting company I know (and a recent customer). (You can see his new website here.)

"Shoe leather," he answered. "Or, cauliflower ear, anyway."

Seems nothing replaces beating the streets - or the phone lines - he says. "I call everyone I know, go through the whole six degrees of Kevin Bacon," he says, referring to the parlor game popularized by the book (and movie) about degrees of separation between the people you don't and the people you do know. "I try to present not one, but two candidates as my 'picks.' That way, my client chooses the one who's likely to fit not just the company's culture, but his or her personality as well."

Another friend, Andy Brusman, of Westham Capital Partners in Richmond, says the final litmus test for him is a round of golf. "I can learn everything I need to know about a person's character by playing a round of golf with her."

What if the candidate doesn't play golf?

I say, "Then why would you want to hire him?"

Branding and positioning

2005-06-21T13:33:00.000-04:00

I came across a insightful piece today in Advertising Age. (You can find it here.)

Al Ries, the author, makes a considered plea for more brands to carve out their distinctive territories based on being "first," and he gives loads of good examples. "First" doesn't have to mean, literally, the first. In other words, the iPod wasn't really the first MP3 player; the Wright brothers weren't really the first to fly; and Henry Ford wasn't the maker of the first auto. But their positions were those of pioneers - the "first" - because they were the first to go to market that way.

Softspikes captured the first position in plastic cleats, and they never let go. Those guys used to worry about becoming the generic name for the category. We at BURRIS argued that's exactly where they wanted to be.

First in the mind of the customer. That's a great place to be.

Hurry up and wait...

2005-06-15T16:09:00.000-04:00

Last week, bored and online in a meeting at a customer location, I received two urgent emails from different top execs at the same company. Could I meet with them as soon as possible? They wanted to produce a project and it had to be done by the end of the month.

The meeting the next day at their headquarters lasted for two hours, and they briefed me on what they wanted and wanted to communicate.

I hustled to work up my notes and get a brief pricing proposal out to them first thing the next day, got ready to ask several helpful suppliers to scramble their jets, and then the waiting began.

On the next day there were a couple of emails and voice mails back and forth, mostly clarifications. No green light.

On the next day - the fourth day - we received a new budget number, lower. "Can you do it for that?"

"No we can't. But we can do it for this," I said.

"Okay, I'll see about that." No green light.

To make a long story short, today, a week after this fuse was lit, they shelved the project out of budgetary concerns, in spite of the fact that our cost estimate was actually under the budget maximum they told me about in our first meeting.

False alarm.

At BURRIS we currently have four proposals pending, all of which had fast turnarounds when they were requested. We took less than a week to turn around each of them, and now, as I write this, all of them are gathering dust and have been for more than 20 business days. Another three proposals are less than 7 days old, and I can only hope they don't end up in irons too.

I write a good proposal, I think. I put a fair amount of energy into defining the project, the objectives, and I work at pricing to win. It's not that someone else is being awarded these projects. It's that the urgency at the beginning isn't still there when it's time to actually begin.

A result of knee-jerking? Second thoughts? I honestly don't know.

Hurry up and wait.

Projects vs. Clients

2005-06-12T13:33:00.000-04:00

In this space I have on several occasions mentioned that I'm much more focused today on bringing BURRIS projects rather than clients.

"Clients" suggests longer term relationships, and having been in the business of thinking that every customer would likely work with us forever, I thought there was little need for us to have a planned new business effot. I told others that the best new business program we could have would be to grow our clients' businesses 15-20% per year; then, theoretically, we would grow 15-20% per year.

But that was a theoretical world, and it just doesn't work that way any longer - for BURRIS or for anyone in our business, maybe in any business.

I bring this up again because last week I was in front of a significant new business prospect, and I went through the distinction I make between the terms in the title of this post. You know what a "client" is, but a "project," I told him, has a beginning and an end. It is likely to have its own marketing objectives and maybe even a budget for execution.

I told this prospect that we strive now for projects, not clients, because the illusion of "forever" isn't, well, an illusion any longer.

"But we're looking for a long term relationship," he said, "not a project relationship." What did I have to say about that?

I stood by my comments, but I added something that went like this:

"Nothing would make me happier than to work with your company for a long, long time. But if we do, it will be because we execute every project, meeting your objectives, schedule and budget. So I prefer to think that you'll continue to work with us as long as we do a good job for you on every project."

No illusions there.

I haven't heard yet if we're hired. But I'm looking forward to the first project.

Who owns an idea?

2005-06-06T17:19:00.000-04:00

This lead paragraph from a page 6 story in the May 30 ADWEEK caught my eye:

"Hilton Hotels' insistence that agencies sign away ownership of their pitch materials in order to participate in its review has reignited the longtime industry debate about the value that clients place on creative ideas and the lengths agencies will go to win a piece of new business."

For months we've been trying to move our compensation back near the beginning of the customer relationship, where the "ideas" flow, rather than continue with the more traditional "advertising agency" approach, where you give away the ideas in order to win the implementation work.

Implementation is important. In fact, one of the best books I've read in the last several years was Larry Bossidy's and Ram Charan's "Execution." But implementing marketing plans based on faulty or incomplete thinking is no fun, it's not profitable, and we certainly add little value.

Pay for the ideas. Bid out the implementation.

Here's another way of looking at it. I really don't blame the Hilton folks for asking; it's the companies who agree to terms like this that deserve our disgust.

"The World Is Flat" 2 - the "self-directed consumer"

2005-06-05T16:53:00.000-04:00

I wrapped up my reading of this powerful "brief history of the twenty-first century"; there's just so much I could report to you. But one thought from Thomas L. Friedman is on my mind today, largely because so much of our current work is web-related.

In the Part 2 section, the chapter "How Companies Cope," Friedman identifies his "Rule #3: And the big shall act small... One way that big companies learn to flourish in the flat world is by learning how to act really small by enabling their customers to act really big."

Companies that collaborate with their customers - Friedman identifies Starbucks, E*Trade and others - compete better because they make "their busienss, as much as possible into a buffet. These companies create a platform that allows individual customers to serve themselves in their own way, at their own pace, in their own time, according to their own tastes. They are actually making their customers their employees and having them pay the company for that pleasure at the same time!"

This is my favorite: "Companies that were paying attention understood they were witnessing the birth of the 'self-directed consumer,' because the Internet...[has] created a means for every consumer to customize exactly the price, experience, and service he or she wanted."

I'm thinking of PerryGolf and the way PG's "Plan Your Own Tour" allows the customer to do his own trip, from courses to hotels to pricing. Cool. In fact, I noticed that Gordon Dalgleish, one of the PerryGolf founders, also wrote about Friedman's book on his latest blog. Gordon writes about his company's lack of legacy systems, which might have kept Perry from doing all it does now in the area of customer service.

Drop your legacy systems. Read this book.

Customer Satisfaction - 2

2005-05-30T11:54:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been shopping around this idea I have to conduct an industry-wide survey for golf resorts. A lot of people seem interested, virtually everyone agrees it would be beneficial - for golfers who travel as well as for the golf resorts who want them - but so far no sponsors.

Imagine: the equivalent of what JD Power does for autos, airlines and, now, even healthcare (!). Measuring delivery on the service promise, customer satisfaction and intent - man, it's the Mother Lode!

Why am I interested in doing this?
- BURRIS no longer works with a golf resort, and in addition to the fact that I believe we should be, we have quite a bit of knowledge and experience that could be put to good use in leading such a study.
- I am a golf traveler myself (you can tell that on my "other" blog, "Golfography"), and over the years my experience tells me that golf resorts don't pay enough attention to their customers: what they want and what they think.
- I believe such a survey has ongoing value, that ultimately there's a research subscription model here, one where the very same resorts we'll be surveying pay a fee to see the results, verbatims, and comparisons with their competitive set.
- And, finally, perhaps it may lead to what I refer to as "hire the inspector" business. (When the Terminix guy finds evidence of termites, who do you hire to get rid of the little buggers?) The natural question at Wild Dunes or Sea Island after learning that their guests aren't likely to return or recommend the resort to their friends is to drill into the problem areas and develop marketing (and other) solutions.

Let's face it: this is an increasingly transparent consumer society; the web has made it so. Customers can find out the real factory invoice cost for a new car before going to the dealer; we can check special sites such as Epinions.com to see what others have said about a camera or vacation we're considering. And at eBay and Amazon virtually every transaction, every product and every seller is rated by the buyers. Netflix asks me to rate the movies I rent; now they even ask if I want to recommend what I watch to a friend.

So if resorts fear their guests or prospects might react negatively - that is, not come, stay and play - then all I can tell them is that genie's already out of the bottle.

Look! More than 75% of golf travelers take at least one golf trip per year. If they come to your place, you'd better deliver them satisfaction, and if you don't, you'd better know how you failed...so you can fix it. Why? Because they won't come back, and they won't recommend you to their friends, family or associates.

This is a small market, these "affluent avids." Just how many there are, we're going to find out. What they think about where they go, where they want to go next - we're going to find that out too.

"Advertising is a stepping stone"

2005-05-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

Rob Bodle sent along an excellent article by Stuart Elliot in the New York Times (you can find it here).

I'm telling you: "Advertising" as we know it is dying. That's not to say traditional media advertising doesn't work. It can. But increasingly it's a pointer, a stepping stone to something else (or more): a web site, downloadable messaging, an introduction or invitation to participate, to play, to get involved.

"The World Is Flat"

2005-05-23T07:57:00.000-04:00

I'm reading a fascinating book by Thomas L. Friedman, an editorial correspondent for The New York Times.

The World Is Flat does a marvelous job of recounting the political, economic, cultural and technological forces that have equalized the world - first, second and third worlds, all included. Information and bandwidth have set free skills and ambition all over the planet, and this helps explain why India, China, Korea, Romania and other heretofore small players in the world economy are having a big impact today, perhaps especially on the U.S.

Friedman's premise is that such a convergence of factors has created a flattening of opportunity, that the advantages of geography have been minimized. It's a powerful book, one that is basically divided into two sections. The first part recounts what's gotten us to this point. The second is a more sobering look at why this is especially difficult for the U.S. and what will have to change in order for us to remain a leader, a force in the world economy.

According to Friedman, there are four categories of employee in the U.S. who can survive, among them those who can remain flexible, who can adapt their skills and add education to stay one or more steps ahead of being outsourcing or offshoring victims. He tells the story of his friend Bill Greer, formerly an illustrator/artist. "If he was doing an illustration for a newspaper or a magazine, or proposing a new logo for a product, he would actually create a piece of art - sketch it, color it, mount it on an illustration board, cover it with tissue, put it in a package that was opened with two flaps, and have it delivered by messenger or FedEx." Well, we all know what happened to that kind of work: it went the way of the typesetter and the color separator. So Greer had to either adopt new skills (Photoshop or Quark or Illustrator, working on a computer instead of an easel) or develop and market a new competency. Friedman quotes him:

"'It was unconscious,' said Greer. 'I had to look for work that not everyone else could do, and that young artists couldn't do with technology for a fraction of what I was being paid. So I started getting offers where people would say to me, "Can you do this and just give us the big idea?" They would give me a concept, and they would just want sketches, ideas, and not a finished piece of art. I still use the basic skill of drawing, but just to convey an idea - quick sketches, not finished artwork.... It is more like being a consultant rather than a JAFA (Just Another F--king Artist).'"

I've been saying for months: that the execution of marketing communications is being commoditized. "Good enough" is much less expensive, and we have to find a way to offer something more ... and something more valuable.

"Ideas" are what we need to sell.

Healthcare shame

2005-05-13T09:10:00.000-04:00

"Given the politics [of healthcare in the U.S.], what's striking is how substantial medical payments have continued to be. Physicians in the United States today remain better compensated than physicians anywhere else in the world. Our earnings are more than seven times those of the average American employee, and that gap has grown over time. (In most industrialized countries, the ratio is under three.) This has allowed American medicine to attract enormous talent to its ranks, and kept doctors willing to work harder than members of almost any other profession. At the same time, the politics of health care has shown little concern for the uninsured. One in seven Americans has no coverage, and one in three younger than sixty-five will lose coverage at some point in the next two years. These are people who aren't poor or old enough to qualify for government programs but whose jobs aren't good enough to provide benefits, either. Our byzantine insurance system leaves gaps at every turn." - From the April 4, 2005, New Yorker, an article whose name and author I don't recall. (I ripped the page out of the magazine in order to remember this paragraph.)

I wish I had written it. And I wish I could do something about it.

"Big Ideas"

2005-05-11T06:25:00.000-04:00

What clients want most from their agencies is "the power of the big idea," said the president of Volvo Cars North America (and quoted in a column in The New York Times). (Click on the title of this post to go to the article.)

Many of the pooh-bahs of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA, or "4A's," as we know it), meeting in Bermuda, of all places, repeated what I've been writing (and we at BURRIS have been talking) about for months. Consumers ignoring advertising messages, full-service agency functions fracturing among specialty resources, the primacy of ideas over developing mere creative - these are the issues the venerable 4A's are discussing among their own, as though they - and not consumers and clients - are really setting the agenda.

I'll tell you this: my thinking on these topics originates from my consumer sensibilities and then ripples out to my life as a professional marketer. Paying scant attention to the consumer - and marketers' neglect of him and her - got out-of-favor brands into the quagmire they're in. And focusing on the consumer is exactly what will get them out. That, and "big ideas."

What's on my mind today? Two big things and how we can put our thinking to work on them:
- Customer service and guest satisfaction, especially in the golf travel business.
- Leveraging loyalty and intent to enhance a brand's relationship with its customers.

I'm happy to be where I am ... instead of in Bermuda this week.

"Melding strategy and design"

2005-05-08T18:57:00.000-04:00

Interesting article in the current Communication Arts, a tony professional magazine for communication professionals, about Stone Yamashita Partners in San Francisco.

(The article, "Designing Change," isn't available online, but you can learn more by going to the magazine's website at commarts.com, or visit the company's site here.)

"...For firms looking to accelerate out of a slump, reinvent themselves, or simply get ahead of the curve, the ability to meld strategy and design to help revolutionize corporate culture is a set of skills worth acquiring."

I thought I was reading our own - BURRIS's - playbook. What the article's author, Marty Neumeier, calls "new conceptual territory" is a description or promise I wish I had written about us: "The possibility of a new type of business in which design and strategy co-mingle to do what neither can do separately - help CEOs do what Peter Drucker has called Job One, finding the future of the organization."

Customer Satisfaction

2005-05-08T09:48:00.000-04:00

Jeff Foster at The Golf Channel says that I'm at my best when identifying problems I can then help solve. I think he's right.

My latest obsession is golf and travel. Although the numbers may be just a tad off, here's the way I frame it up:

There are 6.3 million "avid" golfers in the U.S. (An "avid" is defined as one who plays at least 25 rounds per year.) And there are approximately 1.5 million "affluent avid" golfers (avids with more than $125k in HHI). Affluent avids take three golf trips per year.

So if you're running or marketing a golf destination - especially an upscale property - your primary opportunity is sitting right there in paragraph 3: affluent avid golfers taking golf trips.

Where do they go? Where do they want to go?

They are twice as likely to choose their next destination based on a referral than due to a mailer they receive or an ad they read. They are more likely to go where they go because someone they know tells them they should consider it.

Golf professionals, avid golfers, writers we enjoy and trust - these are the true influencers in golf travel.

So, there are, let's say, 1.5 million candidates for visiting your golf resort. Some have been there before. Will they return? Will they bring a group with them? Will they recommend that their friends visit?

What? You don't know? You don't know if they had a good trip, what they liked, what they didn't like?

That 1.5 million opportunity gets pretty small if you're not delivering customer satisfaction.

And how do you know if you're delivering or not if you're not measuring it?

I am obsessed with developing a customer satisfaction measurement model that can transcend performance from one resort to the other, capture the data, help the resorts compare their deliveries to others in their competitive set, and, most important, with this knowledge improve in key areas so that they can grow and perpetuate a kind of "virtuous circle" of excellence.

New BURRIS web site

2005-05-05T06:55:00.000-04:00

In many of the entries to the Burris Blogspot, I've walked, sometimes crawled through the process of our "evolution" into an idea company. At the same time we have been on a parallel course rebuilding our web site to help us explain it more graphically and in more powerful language.

Our new web site is now up and running at www.burris.com.

First, a tip of the hat to Beverly Flichman and Troy Martin, who led the project with their energy and ideas, bringing our thoughts to life in cyberspace. The rest of us contributed - a lot - but my view is these two did most of the heavy lifting. It's safe to say that if you love or hate your visit to burris.com, the kudos or blame should start with them.

That said, I am confident that the site demonstrates what we say we do on both sides of our business:

(1) The "Dream It Up" side, our process of inspirating ideation solutions to marketing problems. And
(2) The "Make It Happen" side, our talents, abilities and experience in creating marketing communications that meet the needs of our customers.

BURRIS has been at this for 20 years. This is the best I've felt about what we do and how we do it.

Why don't you sample this iteration of our company? Click on the title and enter the "new" world of BURRIS.

Evolution 9 - "Out with the Old..."

2005-04-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

In this space I've been writing about the evolution our company has undergone, essentially from BURRIS as "advertising agency" (we haven't been a true ad agency for years), to what we're calling an "idea cooperative," a company that solves marketing problems through ideation and innovation.

During this time we have led a kind of double life; that is, we had several legacy projects and customers, those who were just as likely to ask us to tweak a logo or reformat an ad - TODAY - as they were to require some type of brand reinvigoration.

No more. On Friday, April 22, we were relieved of our working relationship with our last legacy "client," PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. The resort has new management, and they wanted to go in a different direction, primarily because they wish to work with resources a little closer to their location in South Florida. It wasn't a surprise - we knew it was coming, just weren't sure when - and as I told our Burrisites, it represents most our ability to commit ourselves now to creating ideas first, then communications.

At some point, I guess, the "evolving" entity looks at itself and no longer recognizes what it was, only what it has become. Most or all of our reminders of BURRIS as an ad agency are gone.

And, so, the evolution from our past is complete.

We no longer seek "clients"; we want customers, brands that want to leverage their potential, or create some potential.

We don't describe ourselves as an "agency" or "full service" or any of those other catch-alls for creative resources; we're a group of "ideators" on a mission to innovate through marketing.

We are not in the business to DO "creative"; we're in the business to BE creative: in our approach, in our methods, in our thinking, in our measuring - we will be "creative" throughout.

As far as I'm concerned, with the passing of PGA National from our roster, we truly get away from "The Burris Agency," and we become - with all our corporate being - BURRIS, the idea company.

What can we dream up for you?

Golfography

2005-04-21T13:30:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to say I followed Walt Mossberg's advice in today's Wall Street Journal that Microsoft's new blogspace site was worth a try. I went through a quick menu, and a new blog ("What, another?", you might ask) came out the other end.

I call it "Golfography," and I plan to share the geo-side of my golf experiences.

I'll try not to confuse you as you (I hope) move from one blog to the other.

Thanks for reading.

Note on 4/30/05: I moved the blog from MSN Spaces to www.golfography.blogspot.com. You can find it by going here

Evolution 7 Revisited - "Value, again"

2005-04-21T13:13:00.000-04:00

Click on the title and you'll return to my April 9 post on value, a discussion of what things are worth.

Then I came across a piece in the April 4 issue of The New Yorker - "Piecework," an article by Atul Gawande about "Medicine's money problem - that made me think I'm not the only one who studies on this issue. In fact, Gawande outlines the story about a Harvard economist, William Hsiao, who was "commissioned to measure the exact work involved in each of the tasks doctors perform."

"It must have seemed a quixotic assignment, something like being asked to measure the exact amount of anger in the world. But Hsiao came up with a formula. Work, he decided, was a function of time spent, mental effort and judgment, technical skill and physical effort, and stress. He put together a large team that interviewed and surveyed thousands of physicans from almost two dozen specialties. They analyzed what was involved in everything from forty-five minutes of psychtherapy for a patient with panic attacks to a hysterectomy for a woman with cervical cancer."

Just a bit more...

"They determined that the hysterectomy takes about twice as much time as the session of psychotherapy, 3.8 times as much mental effort, 4.47 times as much technical skill and physical effort, and 4.24 times as much risk. The total calculation: 4.99 times as much work.... Eventually Hsiao and his team arrived at a relative value for every single thing doctors do. Some specialists were outratged by particular estimates. But Congress set a multiplier to convert the relative value into dollars, the new fee schedule was signed into law, and in 1992 Medicare started paying doctors accordingly."

I haven't gone to this much trouble to decide how to price our services. But the key is the formulas we use; they need to be based on a logic that can be made to make sense - at least made acceptable - to our customers.

Is your pricing logical?

Evolution 8 - "Frame it up and let's go!"

2005-04-20T13:57:00.000-04:00

Years ago, during a visit to one of my favorite places in the world to play golf, The Honors Course in Ooltewah, TN, I picked up a new phrase.

Now, most of you dear readers know I'm one to enjoy putting together a game among the several golfers going out in my group(s). Get the game set, and let's get balls in the air!

At The Honors Course, our friends John Turley, Larry White and others had their own phrase for getting it organized. Turley would say to someone, anyone (he isn't the type to do it himself), "Frame it up." Then someone would turn over a paper place mat, draw a couple of vertical lines, a couple of horizontals, and divide up the players.

There would be 2-balls playing each other, 4-balls playing each other and pairings made up on the back of that place mat, then the framer would fold it up, put it into his pocket or his golf bag, and off we'd go.

The phrase lives on for me both on and off the course. In fact, the first step of our Project 1 process at BURRIS is what we call the "Framework." You're putting things in context, setting your coordinates and axes, getting the project and assignment framed up before digging into the details. The "Framework" comes before the "Free-For-All," which is our all-hands brainstorming exercise.

Maybe it's my nature, maybe it's because I'm the guy who is usually framing up the golf game, but the "Framework" phase is my favorite among the four phases of our Project 1 process. I like setting the thing up, then watching it run.

We're just about to begin framing up a new project for High Point University. I'll keep you posted if you're interested.

"There are no advertising problems."

2005-04-11T12:03:00.000-04:00

I came across a very good essay by Al Ries in Advertising Age (available online; just click the title of this post).

Ries takes GM's marketing to task. The brands don't stand for anything ... or they stand for too much. GM and Ford sell more cars than others in the U.S., he says, because they have more cars on the road (a kind of inertia), because they have more dealers (though they are only half as efficient as Toyota dealers) and because they give more, much more, in incentives.

GM also spends more on advertising. In fact, Ries reminds us, for the last seven years, GM has been the largest advertiser of all companies - not just auto companies - in the U.S, more than $3.4 billion last year.

"When GM had half of the U.S. automobile market," Ries writes, "it also had a finely tuned branding strategy. Chevrolet was their entry level car," and from there you moved through Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile and up to Cadillac. "Except for Cadillac, today's GM branding ladder goes nowhere. Moving from Chevrolet to Pontiac to Buick is essentially a sideways move."

I won't spoil Ries's argument any more. Just go there and read it for yourself. (http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=44738)

But I'll close as he did with his final statement on the subject: "What's wrong with General Motors? It's not an advertising problem. As a matter of fact, there are no advertising problems. There are only marketing problems, some of which can be solved by advertising."

Evolution 7: "What is value?"

2005-04-09T08:48:00.000-04:00

Every customer's interpretation of "value" is different.

In some cases value is driven by the need to generate new approaches, new ways of doing same old things.

In other cases it may be seeking something new altogether: a new product, developing a new distribution channel, that kind of thing.

At times it's about getting something done quickly. "I need this yesterday, and no one else I know can do it right now."

Sometimes value is about "time"; in other cases it's about talent or experience or expertise. And if you think about it, it's always - one way or another - about that age-old economics system we call supply and demand.

I'm reminded of something Beverly Flichman said to a publisher's rep about his proposal that if we answered within the hour we could have an ad on the fourth cover of his magazine for an unbelievable price. A one time offer, but hurry.

I'm paraphrasing Beverly's response: "Don't confuse for a minute that your need to sell this to me right now matches my need to buy it."

Isn't that what "value" is all about: What you'll pay vs. my price for selling (or creating)?

Maybe "ideas" aren't that difficult to price after all.

Evolution 6 - "Who owns an idea?"

2005-04-09T08:33:00.000-04:00

No one owns an idea once it exists. Everyone does.

At least that's what Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco seems to think.

Tweedy is quoted in an article in today's New York Times (you can see the entire article here).

Here's the gist of the matter: "'Once you create something, it doesn't exist in the consciousness of the creator,' Mr. Tweedy said, telling [his] audience that they had an investment in a song just by the act of listening."

If no one owns it, who gets paid for it? And how?

Your friends at BURRIS used to be compensated for the work we did based on time. Time, I said, is our currency, and our rate was determined by the business's overhead plus the illusion of profit divided by the number of work hours in a week/month/year. The last time I filled in the answer on an RFP about our rate, it was $137.

But a rate based on time bears no resemblance to how productively we perform a task, how efficiently we deliver the goods. And it certainly has nothing to do with the quality of the work we complete.

Today our primary currency, I say, is "ideas." If no one, however - or if "everyone" - owns an idea, how do you charge for that? By bidding, of course. We write a proposal for a project, put a price on our deliverable(s), and await acceptance from our customer. If it's a value for the customer, we will win the project.

But what's "value"? I'm glad you asked.

"Just showing up"

2005-04-05T08:34:00.000-04:00

According to a Conference Board study reported in BusinessWeek (March 28, 2005), 25% of workers surveyed in 5,000 households say they show up at work only to collect a paycheck. And, "only 14% say they are very satisfied with their job."

What's up with that?

We spend 40, 50, 60 hours a week at work, and we're just getting by? Sad, wouldn't you say?

Why do you figure this is the case?

Blue Elephants

2005-04-04T15:02:00.000-04:00

I spent much of the weekend playing golf with the Blue Elephants. Now...before I tell you about the BEGS (Blue Elephants Golf Society), let me tell you that we traditionally play on this festive weekend every year. Festive? It's the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, of course.

Anyway, back to the "Blues." The BEGS is the man-child of Michael Scott, Rick Hall, and Blair Leburn. Blair's father, John, a member of Royal Troon, is a member - perhaps a "charter member" - of the Pink Elephants Golf Society. John suggested to Blair that he get a group of his golf pals together, form a society, and host an event or two each year. Michael, Rick and Blair have hosted several over the last few years, including our visit to Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, SC, this past "holiday" weekend.

This time we were joined by four members of the PEGS, four fine gentlemen from Scotland: Michael Johnston, Mark Curley, Roy "Money" Penny, and John "Slaughter" Morrison. Here's a photo of "Slaughter."

I single him out for something he said not ten minutes after I met him. You see, eight of us BEGS will be going over to Troon to play the PEGS in July. And it was John Morrison who asked me - again, not ten minutes after he ordered his first burger and lager - "Mark, will you be joining the others for the slaughter this summer?"

I suppose in this era of European dominance of The Ryder Cup we should be prepared for a shellacking. But I'm not so sure. Anyway, we'll know come July, when we'll see if we're truly in for a "slaughter."

The Blue Elephants Golf Society is a wonderful way to enjoy competitive golf. We play 18 on Thursday afternoon, 36 holes on Friday, and then 18 again on Saturday morning before going our separate ways. We share all of our meals with one another, and there are more than a couple of beverages consumed. Rick, Michael and Blair do a great job preparing for the events, and the competitions (I'm usually responsible for those) are always lively.

This year at Bulls Bay we were faced with 40 mph winds on Saturday, a wild day on a first wet, then windswept course. "Money" Penny was the overall winner, but the secret handicap committee is meeting to review his index.

"Slaughter" indeed.

Evolution 5 - ProjectOne

2005-04-04T08:43:00.000-04:00

As we further develop our model for delivering ideas created to overcome specific marketing problems, we find that we also benefit from on-the-job-training, such as with a project we're doing for a company in Charlotte called On Course Recruiting.

Andrew Mackay is the lead partner. He has considerable experience in the recruiting business, having conducted more than 400 successful searches, most in the IT industry. But he loves golf. And he saw a niche in the golf business that he believed he could fill, essentially bringing professional service to an industry reliant on word-of-mouth networking and what I think of as "50/50" measures (basically a willingness to accept success half the time rather than hone the process to increase your chances).

With On Course Recruiting, we're learning something about our own process evolution, what we're now calling "ProjectOne." Namely, we're learning that the web and interviews and discussion and research and all the stuff we do to get smarter is valuable, extremely valuable. But it's a preface, not the book itself. The big ideas come out of filtration, the step where we sift through it all, put our sensibilities to it, grind it into workable shapes.

Sort of like the search business. Andrew and On Course Recruiting can review hundreds of files, resumes, and contacts. But his real value - what he does best for his customers - comes when he sifts through them all and finds the nuggets they're likely looking for.

Andrew's customers - ours too - could do this on their own. It's not that they don't know how. What they lack is time, discipline and objectivity. Sure, they know the culture, as our customers know their companies and their industries. But that's not enough.

Interested in knowing more about ProjectOne? Our web site (www.burris.com) will soon explain our process more fully. Interested in knowing more about On Course Recruiting? You can contact Andrew Mackay at andrew@oncourserecruiting.com.

Evolution 4 - "Strategy and Positioning Platform"

2005-03-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

I learn a lot from a lot of people. Mary Sicard from iGenuity posted a comment to my first "Evolution" piece and included a quote from someone named Darwin John. The quote intrigued me, I followed it to the url she provided, and I found an eloquent review of what businesses should look for when considering growth. Here's the real meat of what Darwin John wrote:

"Traditionally, businesspeople have thought of growth as entering an expanding market or adding a new product in hopes of increasing revenues. But that's only one of four dimensions of growth, and it is not the most important. What does growth really mean? Successful growth starts with being clear on what our purpose is, and on what we want to accomplish as a corporation. This is the most important dimension. The second most important is being clear on what strengths we have that we can leverage to that end. Without purpose, growth is meaningless and chaotic; without strengths, successful growth is impossible. Only when we've determined the first two should we turn to the third: what we might add in terms of new product lines, acquisitions or capabilities. The fourth dimension of growth is determining what products, product lines or companies we need to shed because they lie outside our corporate purpose or strengths." (Click on the title of this post for a link to the entire article.)

The first of John's "dimensions of growth" seems clearly descriptive of the "Strategy and Positioning Platform" we offer as the key deliverable in our ideation, or "ProjectOne," process. It is the foundation of and for a business, but you'd be amazed how few business leaders can communicate theirs.

The most interesting stuff we do is help people clarify and then communicate their company's SPP. What's yours? Need some help? It's the foundation not only of growth but also for survival.

Do you shuffle?

2005-03-25T10:05:00.000-05:00

A break from the "Evolution" series to share a piece I read from David Kirkpatrick of FORTUNE. (Click on the title of this post - "Do you shuffle?" - to read Kirkpatrick's entire column.)

According to Kirkpatrick, the new iPod Shuffle has made it easier for him to live in a world of music. So right. I have one of the larger iPods, and I take it with me everywhere. It's my default player in the car; I listen to either NPR (usually the news programs) or my iPod. I try to walk each morning, and I always listen to music when I do. When I fly, I'm often plugged in.

I haven't listened to so much music since my teenage years. And 33 1/3 LP's were hardly portable.

But what is remarkable about Kirkpatrick's insight isn't what he writes about his iPod and music. It's this:

Why, he asks, "do I, and so many others want to cocoon ourselves off into our little music bubbles...? I think one reason has to do with the other technologies around us: cellphones, PCs, BlackBerries, laptops, etc.... For me, email is particularly annoying. Every day, I'm finding it more and more debilitating. There's just too much coming in, and it takes me way too much time to manage it all.... I never come close to catching up."

I'm a huge user (but, I hope, not an abuser) of email. Yet I've come to realize that email can be a curse as much as a boon. So I've lately tried to split my communications into a hierarchy of priority ranging from "immediate" (instant message, phone, Skype); "get it in writing, but conveniently" (email and email with attachments); and "formal and/or sincere," which is good ol' fashioned snail mail.

So many people use email now for everything, and you can sense their frustration when they don't receive an email reply in minutes. "Did you receive my email?" Maybe, but perhaps I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Possibly, but I'm traveling and haven't logged on since this morning. Yes, but I haven't yet replied. No, perhaps my email program catalogued it as spam.

I suggest we all consider the various communications tools we have and try harder to choose the one that is best fit to each task.

Evolution 3 - An "idea cooperative"

2005-03-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

We're pushing this thing forward.

Over the weekend, I took Friday and Monday off to play in an event called the Heritage Non-Classic. Seventy-two players, all of them golf lovers, and 71 of them wanted to know what we do at BURRIS. (What can I say? It's a friendly group.)

We're an "idea cooperative," I'd say. They would scratch their heads, work up their best quizzical looks, and say something like, "Come again?"

BURRIS is an idea company, I'd tell them, and we do our best thinking, our best work, when we work in cooperation with our customers and for their brands.

For instance, it's not the advertising we created for Softspikes that made that product perhaps the most powerful new brand in golf in the 1990's. It was getting golfers - good golfers, the ones who influence other golfers - to try them. It was getting superintendents to endorse the use of plastic cleats on their greens. It was getting exclusive private golf courses to ban on metal spikes...so everyone could see the benefit of smooth putting surfaces. And if we still worked with the company (Softspikes was acquired by Pride Tees in 2002), we would innovate ways to encourage golfers to change their cleats at least as often as they change their golf gloves.

The power of the "idea cooperative" is the strength behind the brand we call BURRIS. And we're absolutely focused on our golf and home furnishings practices to grow our business in an environment where ideas can have so much more impact than merely the next ad or direct mail or brochure.

Evolution 2 - "We are an 'idea farm.'"

2005-03-13T10:42:00.000-05:00

I don't know yet what to call BURRIS in this new iteration, but I can tell you what we aim to be.

BURRIS is an idea farm, a place that creates, germinates, nurtures, manages and harvests the kind of big, inspirational thinking that solves companies' marketing problems.

We have two areas of particular and extensive experience, two "idea practices" where we are so comfortable we believe we can step right into a situation and work from an elaborate knowledge base and expertise:

1. Golf Business
2. Home Furnishings

There's no question we have a range of opinions and offer an experience and perspective that can be valuable to almost any company or brand participating in these industry categories. We are centering our communications and prospecting specifically in these businesses or industries. Perhaps righteously, if double negatively, there's no one we believe we cannot help.

Evolution 1: "What we're not."

2005-03-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

As I've written here several times lately, BURRIS is attempting to move up the branding chain, from the creator of communications to a contributor to the idea itself.

What's the idea that motivates your brand communications?

So often, marketers can't answer even that basic question. It's clear to me that they need help earlier and earlier in their own processes, and I believe we're actually very good there.

We try to challenge customers to think fresh, think big, think about the problem before suggesting a solution.

It's fun. It's rewarding. It's why I still enjoy what I do. But describing it, getting prospects and customers to understand what they need and what we can do to help ... that's not so easy.

And it's proved to be not so easy for members of our own organization to grasp either. Why? Two reasons, I think:

1. As a company, we're still learning to survive. The loss of several major clients in 2003 forced us to work very hard on both ends of the business, costs and revenue. Simultaneously, we've significantly reduced overhead and kicked up new business opportunities. In the process - and in an attempt to keep cash flowing and debt outside the door - we've done a lot of things that resemble communications and advertising more than early-stage ideation.

2. It's not where we've been. For twenty years (come June) ours has been a company we most often described as an "advertising agency." But we're not an advertising agency, not by any true definition. We don't place media. We don't have account executives. We don't even have a lord-over-the-creative director. Our customers, our vendors, friends, even we sometimes resort to the default term, probably because we haven't come up with a better one.

What we are not is an "advertising agency." That's clear. But what we are is not so clear.

Some attempts at a description:
- We're brand consultants.
- We work in marketing and communications.
- We're a "laboratory for marketing inspiration."
- Ours is an "idea house," a "creative, collaborative sanctuary," a "refuge for lost brands."

See what I mean? It's tough, isn't it?

Evolution - Introduction

2005-03-13T10:10:00.000-05:00

Over the next several posts, I hope you'll indulge me as I lay out my thinking - and our thinking at BURRIS - about a transformation we are going through, one that gets us closer not only to what we really love doing, but also what we've found brands and companies need from us now. (It's more than they've asked for in the past.)

One of the questions I often ask now of my friends in corporate environments is "how": "How amidst all the travel and the meetings and the other demands on you, how do you ever get anything really substantive done?"

The answer is, most often, "I don't."

They don't have time to execute. They don't have time to monitor, to measure or to manage. They don't have time to brainstorm, innovate or collaborate. They don't have time to think.

(If I'm overstating the case, I apologize. If this doesn't describe you and your company, that's good.)

What BURRIS does more and more of - and what I truly enjoy - is help to identify the thorny marketing problems a company or brand faces, then facilitate and participate in a process that generates the kind of big ideas that can overcome those marketing problems.

That's what we "say" anyway, and in many, many cases that has been what we "do." Yet an effective transformation from being perceived as an "agency" (of "advertising" or "marketing") to a welcome and valuable resource for ideas, for rich thinking, well, that's not been so easy to effect.

Over the course of the next few posts, I'll address the evolution BURRIS is going through now. Your comments - your ideas - are welcome.