The One Thing Your Company is Missing in Innovation

Proposed Retail. Thor Equities Building Wrap, New York City

Demographic data. Data, data, data.
Please. Wait. Don't run away.
I know, just the words 'demographic data' fill you with fear and loathing. You picture reams of data in boring spreadsheets. I can relate. In the course of my career, I have dug for data on Census.gov and requested trend data from countless other sources. I have sorted and analyzed it any number of ways. I can be the long and lonely work in vetting the viability of a company, a product or determining which markets to enter.

Now for the good news. Finding and sorting data has never been easier. Technology now allows us to have nearly limitless data points to pull from. Granted, you still have to have the skill (or hire the expertise) to identify what is valuable, and extrapolate how the information relates to your product or service. How you can use it to create positioning, naming and branding that will resonate. Determining where you will locate your restaurants or retail locations, and what sales you might expect.

Demographic data has also never been more important. In the hyper competitive marketplace of today, it is the smart products aligned with the smart marketers drawn to the right places that win.

That is why I wanted to highlight a site that offers some incredible data. I recently discovered it through and article in The Atlantic highlighting age distribution disparities between metro areas. But the data has much more depth than that.
The Urban Institute has long offered great data insights through their MetroTrends portal.
Now they have also launched a new Metropolitan Area Data Dashboard that offers a really great array of data from jobs to age distribution. It also offers maps of each metro area with the data shown on a simple map (see below).

I look forward to using this tool for clients to help them further understand their marketplace and the marketplace of the future. That is what we do and what all businesses should be doing.

I would like to hear from our readers as well.
Where do you go for relevant data?

The Best 15:37 of Your Day: Rob Forbes on Ways of Seeing

This TED talk delivered all the way back in 2006, is even more relevant today. Looking at the world and interpreting the patterns and designs around us becomes more difficult by the day.

Rob Forbes, the founder of Design Within Reach, and more recently PUBLIC, a design-based alternate transit business, takes us on a tour of how he views the world.

Mr. Forbes shares some great ideas in his TED talk. Here are a few more ideas to consider when working to spark your own creativity:
1. Walk the streets. Walking in places both familiar and new will bring new ideas and patterns to you. You will be able to experience them with all of your senses and consider how they function collectively.

2. Put down the phone. You can only experience the world when you are in it.

3. Pick up your phone, but as a camera. Archive your experiences. This can be accomplished by photos, notes, sketches or verbal notes. Whatever works for you. Organize them in different ways. Consider viewing your various collections by color, or subject. You might be surprised what ideas develop.

4. Small can be huge. The smallest vignette sometimes brings the biggest ideas. I like to call them the 'unexpected delight.' These can be a sidewalk pattern, a handwritten sign, most anything.

5. Be a consummate student. Ask questions. Read, read, read. Then read some more. Learn about the bridge you walk over daily. Find out why that sculpture you enjoy is there. Knowledge is truly power.

6. Don't view the world with a commercial mind. If you are seeking a specific product to develop or monetize, you won't get the full value of your experience. File away your specific challenges, but stay open to simply experiencing the world around you. Then overlay later how those ideas may be used to address your challenges.

7. Frequency equals success. The more often you can turn your mind to truly viewing the world, the more you will get out of it. Try an attempt it once a week on your walk to lunch. Then continue to increase the frequency.    
       
As we enter 2013, we should all take a fresh look at how we view the world. We are entering a time that Mr. Forbes saw forming years ago. An age that values fewer material goods, but ones that are quality and well-designed. An age of curation over our lives and our possessions. It is exciting, but will require that the innovators work hard to interpret our world and respond to it.

Enjoy. Then start really seeing your world.

Five Radical Ideas for Saving Hallmark Stores

Apple Store 

A critic of Apple's move to open bricks-and-mortar retail stores once famously said, "I give them two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake." Of course Apple proved the naysayers wrong and are now the most successful retail story of the last 20 years. Not only are their stores cult destinations for Apple fans, they are also the most profitable retail stores per square foot in America. Other retailers that blend great brand experiences with profit includes Coach and Lululemon Athletica. As Business Insider notes, four of the six most profitable retails stores are also on the fastest growing list. Their success certainly makes sense. But how did they accomplish it?


Let's use Apple as an example. First, they rightfully looked past their retail and technology competitors. They based none of their retail positioning or experience on Best Buy, Comp USA or others. Remember, the "prudent" plan would have been to compete with the big box stores that were the market leaders, and incredibly successful at the time.


Second, they looked not at the then current user of Apple products, but rather at the huge potential audience. They then reinforced their brand by modeling their experience after their product: clean, fresh and intuitive. 


Third, they kept the retail footprint small, allowing them to enter higher traffic, more "upscale" developments. 


Finally, they created the entire in-store experience to connect with their online experience. The Genius Bar is the human face of their online support.

Hallmark Gold Crown Store

This brings us to Hallmark, the grand dame of the greeting card industry. They are the industry leader and a near universally known brand. They are sporting a newly refreshed tagline, Life is a Special Occasion. Life is indeed a special occasion, but why does a visit to a Hallmark store make me feel decidedly not special? In fact, most Hallmark stores make me feel downright dreadful. Judging by the declining sales and changing demographic trends, I am certainly not alone. A November 2011 Los Angeles Times article explains away a lot of it as lost sales to online business. But to shore up that business while growing their specialty product business having a physical retail presence has never been more important. So, how can Hallmark use fresh retail thinking to salvage their eroding retail business? 


First a few facts. In a Retail Info Systems News article, Hallmark says that it has over 4,000 principle stores called Gold Crown, 500 of which are owned by the company and  the rest are franchise operations. The real revenue is generated from the 43,000 other outlets that sell their greeting cards and gifts, from Walmart to gas stations. This accounts for an estimated $4.1 billion in revenue annually. The greeting card industry is facing a monumental consumer shift as fewer cards are mailed and people move to more electronic and social media for celebrating major "life events." Hallmark has some very smart people tackling these issues around how to keep Hallmark relevant in the 21st Century. But as they innovate with product, they seem to be neglecting arguably the most important part of their brand experience, the store. 


As their retail experience has languished, it has reached a point where a fresh coat of paint or a new retail end cap will not do it. Hallmark retail needs a radical makeover. One that will reposition them for the future and highlight their product innovation in the proper way. 
Here are five ideas to kick start that process. 


1. Stores as Brand Tool: Recognize that the Gold Crown Stores, especially the company owned ones,  are primarily a brand marketing tool. Launch a "blue sky" rename and rebrand of these stores to  position the brand well beyond its current perception. Think uncluttered, fresh and contemporary. Let the product be the pop of color. Rethink the signage and overall look and feel and approach it from a fashion, art and design direction.


2. Smaller and Higher Profile: Move to smaller retail footprints in high traffic, urban and power centers. Open up the exteriors to be primarily glass and corner activated. This will compel the casual visit and generate a higher pass-through volume.  


3. Curate Product Content: The trend of "buy local" continues to grow and evolve. Hallmark should serve as the leader in providing the best in emotional messaging. This goes beyond their own creative materials. In fact, Hallmark already has an entire trend department dedicated to tracking and recording trends within their industry. Instead of identifying what products in the marketplace are competitors and then attempting to counter them, Hallmark experts should be hand-selecting cards, posters and gifts that are designed and made locally in each market to feature in their stores. This would allow them to bring the latest trends to the consumer faster and better reinforce their new tagline and campaign theme that "Life is a special occasion," challenging consumers to stop and enjoy life's perfectly imperfect, unplanned moments. 

4. Idea Think Tanks: As local bookstores continue to struggle, Hallmark has the ability to capture a portion of the "third place" for social gathering that is being lost. These newly minted Hallmark stores should work to host creative events that are in fitting with their brand promise. Become a place for writers and poets. Highlight their work and engage them in how their art directly ties to the Hallmark vision. Some stores should consider having a coffee shop as well.


5. Social Media Connectors: Each store should then activate a localized online "Genius Bar" of sorts by becoming the local hub via bricks-and-mortar and social media for celebrations. Both in the store and online, the staff of that store will be dedicated to proactive management of customer relationships. Guide customers to in-store product and various online product via Hallmark.


The above ideas are simply those of a brand and retail marketing expert who loves Hallmark. I am looking from the outside and crafting suggestions as an example of how a large retail brand could (and should) reshape how they operate in order to be more relevant in the future.


Feel free to share your feedback here or better yet, mail me a Hallmark card.


      

Curating is the Key to Social Media Success

Recently I wrote about the benefits of "curating your life" in the post Buy Less, Benefit More. The theory is that by simplifying your life, buying fewer but more meaningful things will improve your life. I also posit that retailers and business will benefit from more consumers leading smaller, more meaningful lives.

Today I want to talk briefly about your social media life. Well, your brands social media life. Most experts contend that you are doing your brand a disservice by not embracing the social media world fully. They will talk about multiple touch points and active and passive engagement. Indeed, it is true that you need to be available and accessible via social media. Geo-locating is also crucial for most retailers in this new world. A new study by JiWire that we referenced yesterday in the post Your Mom Buys More Online Than You, clearly shows that the majority of consumers research and find information about your products online. They study reviews and price compare, they geo-locate to find the nearest retailer and increasingly they buy online. But there is a problem with this.

When you build social media channels for your business, you are creating rooms for consumers to experience your products and services. Those virtual rooms must be branded, updated, staffed and managed. Just as you would not open a retail store and then ignore it for months, you must actively engage and manage your virtual store. A brand management plan must be created. Staff must be trained and customers responded to. ROI must be assessed. Investments must be made. That is where we get to the curated part.

I am not saying that any business should abandon a channel in social media. However, depending upon budget and ability you may have to consider converting some social media channels to sign posts. Feeder areas that direct people to an actively managed "room" where they can gain the contact and brand experience you want them to have. That does not mean that you still shouldn't actively monitor all of your social media channels. After all, you don't control your social media rooms fully. Others have the ability to influence for you. For effectively monitoring your online reputation and activity we have been excited to explore Datasift, a real-time data feed monitor. 

Finally, curating what you convey to your customers is vital. Mark Twain was once credited with saying "I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time." Just as in Mr. Twain's time, curating your message takes time and is hard work, but it is more valuable than ever. Clear and on-brand messaging will set you apart from the cluttered world of social media. Create a curated and managed social media life, align that with a curated offline presence that matches and then run both as you would a great retail store and you will be on the way to success.    

Your Mom Buys More Online Than You

There is some interesting findings in a new study of how consumers use mobile devices.

In a study by JiWire, a location-based online media company, we learn that more are using location-based content to find a business versus connect with others. Even fewer are checking in at locations. However, a majority are willing to reveal their location to gain more information about a business or to gain an offer. In a big leap from previous studies, a full 53% of those surveyed say that they plan to use their mobile device for their holiday shopping this season. All great trends for social media marketing and mobile marketing.

The most surprising statistics are when you look at the data by generations. The infographic below from JiWire summarizes the results well. Simply put, Generation X, and those up to age 54, are much more likely to make purchases via their mobile device. They are also almost twice as likely to research using their mobile device and then purchase in store. Granted the spending power of those aged 35-54 is greater than those 18-34, but the results seem to confirm the comfort level that older mobile users have has increased dramatically. This makes sense considering that most people over the age of 35 have been using mobile devices and shopping online for up to 20 years. 

As marketers, what does this mean for us?

1. Location-based information is a must for your business. Even if it is passive, businesses must have online location presence with details and links to their other social media and online presence.

2. Retailers must align their social media and online brand with their bricks-and-mortar presence. It is clear that consumers view your brand as your brand,. If one does not relate to the other you are in trouble and they will question their potential purchase.

3. Active engagement and response in social media is crucial. With a near majority researching items online before buying, having an active engagement and response protocol is crucial. View social media engagement as sales staff in your store.

4. Monitoring your third-party product reviews and earned media is vital. Tracking and reporting of online product evaluations, reviews and blog commentary is vital. Develop a plan for engagement as response.     

Ultimately, this simply reinforces the convergence of channels as it relates to your brand. You cannot neglect one outlet anymore.  

Rockhill Recommends: Googlization

I took the time last night to attend a lecture at the Linda Hall Library on Google's impact on the Internet and our culture. More on that in a second.

First a brief shout out to the Linda Hall Library. It is one of the leading science, engineering and technology libraries in the World. 

The information they have archived, and the role they are playing in current innovation cannot be underestimated.

I would also recommend that you visit their latest exhibit, This Time It's Personal: Innovation In Your Home. From Aspirin to the light switch to Pez Candy, it covers the research, discovery, development and intellectual property of things we use every day.  

The opening speaker in support of the new exhibit was Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media and law at the University of Virginia. His talk was in support of his current book, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry). He has a supporting website as well here. This post is not a review of the lecture or a commentary on the book. That will come later after I have had a chance to read the book and do some research. I would however, recommend that everyone take some time and check out a bit more about his thoughts on Google. 

Siva does a nice job of summarizing the incredible role that Google has played in our lives in the 13 years (yes, it has actually been that long) since its founding at Stanford in 1998. Early on the mission was simple, but oh so lofty...

Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

He raises the valid question of why we should trust Google with this and how they have delivered.
Why this task shouldn't be entrusted to the academic institutions and librarians of the World.
Google determines how important search results are via their algorithms and he provides examples of Google modifying results for various reasons in spite of their claim that they do not alter search results. Some are for generally altruistic reasons such as a racist website "gaming" the results to get higher placement. He questions why we, as consumers accept this. Generally, it is because we don't know.

It is comforting to know that Google doesn't remove information. In that respect they really do attempt to archive all of the World's information. However, as a writer and researcher, I do find that you need even sharper personal analytical skills when working online.

He also offers a few other tidbits of insight that are worth considering:

• We are not Google's customers. The advertisers are. Google only views us as customers so far as they need us to keep eyeballs on their site to sell to advertisers. 
• As technology consumers we generally are willing to accept technology as magic and not explore how a product or service works. Companies such as Apple and Google benefit from this. 
• Google fundamentally transformed the Internet for the better by working to filter out pornographic results that were served via spam or due to typographical error. This work to make the Internet safer for business and family use helped to also make the consumer feel safer about using the Internet for their financial needs.
• When you use Google you are seeing the world through their lense. It is filtered. 
• Google may be radically different in five years and may not even exist in ten. That is the type of technology world we live in.

Overall, Mr. Vaidhyanathan offered some great perspectives on the good and bad of Google. The questions that he poses are easily applicable to many other communications channels, social media et cetera. 

What he did not discuss is the rapidly expanding technology channels that Google is moving toward. For instance, I am typing this using Google Chrome browser. Google has mobile technology, hardware with Chrome Book and is developing a one-gigabyte Google Fiber technology in Kansas City. It is currently being installed outside my office window.

(Update) Google now has also opened a retail pop up store in London as reported by The London Evening Standard. This could be the direct assault on Apple that many have anticipated. The fundamental difference is, if Google is successful in hardware and retail sales, they will also possess an incredible wealth of content and the means of distribution.  

I look forward to exploring these more and sharing thoughts with my readers here. 

Possibly the most cogent and interesting comment was when he likened Google to Julius Caesar. A benevolent dictator who does indeed improve life for many but at what cost?    

The Best 16:17 of Your Day: The Origins of Pleasure

This one is a bit esoteric, yet incredibly relevant to marketing, branding and communications professionals. In short Mr. Bloom hypothesizes that our knowledge of the origins of an object is critical to our emotional response to it. He uses art and forgery as his primary example, but this is critical in our lives with brands and products.

In short, if we perceive a brand as an original, a brand of quality. One we have had positive experiences with before, we will respond to it with pleasure and enjoy it more.

I will leave it at that, and let Mr. Bloom explain the psychology of it. If you are in the marketing and branding world however, listen to this talk with an eye toward how you reach consumers. Is your brand, your story, reinforcing originality and trust... pleasure?

It is critically important to realize that the experience and perceptions of a consumer will determine your brand's fate with them, even if your product is identical to one they love. Think about that next time you decide to skip brand planning and go for a crowd sourced logo. The next time you consider skipping a review of your retail experience, your staff training.

Once you lose originality and the consumer loses that pleasure in your brand, it is gone.


Paul Bloom: The Origins of Pleasure

 

Update: The Post Office Doesn't Like Radical Ideas

Last week I discussed some radical ideas that might save the U.S. Postal Service.

Five Radical Ideas for Saving the U.S. Postal Service

As it turns out, they seem to think that worse service is the answer to their ills. 

According to a recent Washington Business Journal article, they feel that closing processing facilities is the way to balance their budget. Given the decline in mail, closing some facilities may actually be needed. However, here is the problem. According to the Postmaster General this would result in much slower delivery of First Class Mail. Having worse service for more cost doesn't seem like a way toward solving their problems. 

Your new Post Office

On the bright side, they are actually implementing one of the Radical Ideas... Sort of. 

I proposed that the USPS sign a massive co-location deal with places such as McDonald's. They are not doing that, but they are moving forward with what they call "Village Post Offices." According to this CNN article, up to 3,700 mostly rural Post Offices could be converted to this type. Basically, small general stores will pay for the right to have Post Office services in their store. That way they can sell stamps with their Lotto tickets, beer and fishing lures. 

This isn't quite the massive transformation or positive brand relationships I would like to see, but I guess it is a start.  

 

Putting Relationship Back in PR

Original Building Plan Courtesy of Highwoods

I recently was interviewed in The Kansas City Star about a public relations disaster on the venerable Country Club Plaza shopping district. For those of you not from Kansas City, "The Plaza" is an historic and iconic luxury open-air shopping district just south of the urban core. So what was this disaster you say? In short, Highwoods, the North Carolina-based owner of the center announced haphazardly last August that they would build a new office building for a local law firm on the north edge of the Plaza. They released a preliminary sketch and told of "only needing to demolish a small section of shops and an apartment building." They released it as a simple business development story. But almost overnight, a development project that they assumed would be met with open arms in these tough economic times turned into a media disaster that eventually forced them to withdraw the plan. It spawned lawsuits, public outcry and a very vocal, if not reasonable, "Save OUR Plaza" group. It also harmed the reputation of the shopping center and further distanced the ownership from their customers. they burned a great deal of good will and equity. Good will that would have come in handy as they dealt with recent teen riots, tenant snafus and the lingering perception of being too corporate.

Here is what I had to say, as well as the article from Kevin Collison in it's entirety. 

Protest Group Sign

Anyone involved with commercial real estate needs to be continually engaged with the community, said Jon Stephens, the former manager of the Power & Light District, who now runs his own marketing firm. 

Whether it should or not, the perception is, everybody should have a say, and a company that doesn't understand that is clearly doomed for problems, he said. 

Had Highwoods properly vetted its Polsinelli plan, Stephens said, it would have found that razing the Balcony Building was a nonstarter.  I believe if they came out with the final plan as opposed to the first one wouldn't have been received nearly as negatively. 

Kansas City Star: Lessons from the Balcony Building Mess

The lesson in all of this, is it public relations is not about announcing projects. It is rather about continual community engagement, message management and understanding the customer, the community and the perceptions of your district. It is as much about being engaged in the community, working with your company executives to get involved in the community as it is planning an announcement.

I am not trying to vilify Highwoods. They are by all indications a good steward of their properties and for the most part have improved The Plaza and maintained a nice assortment of high-quality tenants in very tough times. However, they are miserable in their public relations and seem to make the same mistakes time and again. This has harmed them in several ways including people not giving them credit for the great tenants they do bring in.

So, what should they do going forward?

• Identify a few select employees locally that can serve as the day-to-day voice and face of their company.
• Train the Highwoods execs to be on message but also allow them to show some personality. Less corporate, more neighbor.
• Look to a communications professional to assist them in guiding how they engage the community. Create an ongoing plan for reputation management.
• Engage daily on issues big and small. Build communication pathways.
• Realize that the citizens of Kansas City hold the area as part of their "public trust" and speak in that way when discussing the Plaza. 
• Create a program for the 150+ tenants to give them the tools to be pro-Plaza advocates. 
• Identify your true neighborhood and customer brand advocates and offer them previews and perks.
• Push more regional and national media that will build pride in the community that they have a jewel in their own backyard. 
• When big changes are considered, look to a few trusted experts for advice before going public. 

This entire mess may not have been avoided even with all of the above. However; if they had initially launched (with the revised plan that saved the historic building), had already built some equity in the community, and had a known local exec speaking out in a way that people could relate to, they just might have avoided the fight and harm they have done to their reputation.

Five Radical Ideas for Saving the U.S. Postal Service

The popular saying for the Post Office goes "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." However, it appears that changing consumer habits, poor management and a hesitancy over the years to close some of the now 32,000 postal facilities may doom the fabled institution. 

I am not going to discuss the politics, the structuring of the financing or any other of the more laborious and realistic next steps. 

Rather, I am going to look at a few ideas that could (or could have) been enacted within the retail and branding areas over the last few years to stem the tide of red ink and led to a more successful USPS for us and our children. 

1. The USPS should radically redesign itself and it's brand. No one has taken this issue to task better than FastCoDesign with their great summary last year on Radical Retro ReBrand. 

 

2. Rather than fighting to close existing Post Offices, the USPS should sign a long-term co-location deal with McDonald's. Move the vast majority of their retail outlets to cool new in-store kiosk facilities and even locate P.O. Boxes within McDonald's. The burger giant would always welcome the added traffic. Ideally they would have partnered with Blockbuster several years ago and also led in the mail order movie business that Netflix's move to streaming is now killing. Though that ship has sailed, it might not be too late for a radical retail overhaul.  

Your Neighborhood McPost Office

3. The USPS was once one of the most trusted brands globally. Why not trust your email security to the Post Office? Internet security is a real concern and a huge multi-billion dollar business. If you receive an email with an attachment that has been delivered and certified by the United States Postal Service you would trust it. A Norton-USPS partnership could generate a lot of revenue for both and embrace the one thing that is diverting the most mail.

4.  USPS Mail Carrier for rent. OK, so that is a bit much. However, with such a large employment base there are very few other employers that have that many feet on the ground in neighborhoods each day. Why not utilize them for services beyond letter delivery? 

Market them local to deliver door hangers. Generate revenue by selling limited sponsorship's on their uniforms and delivery vehicles. Local municipalities could save money by contracting with them for services such as meter reading. 

5. Don't get rid of Saturday delivery, but rather add Sunday delivery too. Make it weekend premium services and charge accordingly.

One more bonus idea:

6. Partner with Hallmark and others to create a unified campaign for special moment cards and deliveries. Demonstrate to people that while a Facebook Birthday is nice, people that really care about you will mail you a card. Make it a movement. Make it green and focus on the simpler more meaningful moments. 

So that is it. My thoughts on radically reshaping the USPS. Do I think any of these ideas will be adopted? No. Do I think we will see tens of thousands of employee layoffs and billions in loses? Sadly, yes. Should the Postmaster General think like a gutsy CEO of a new business start-up? Absolutely. 

Another great article that discusses the more mundane ideas:

NPR: Five Ways the Postal Service Could Reinvent Itself