spritual goodness

stole this from a friend's blog but wanted to share it with readers of mine. most of you will be surprised to learn this exists in the state of Arkansas...yeah, really.

It's called the Thorncrown Chapel. Check it out here.

good service: happy customers

had one of thee best customer-service interactions EVER this morning (getting my hair done, so males, you might not understand this). what made it so special?

Communication. she listened. i was the customer and she listened to me explain in a very roundabout way "the process" i have accumulatively put together to make my hair what it is. I am not just a highlight or a lowlight or an all-over-color customer, I'm a this is sort of what i want and do you see the same thing in your head? type.

In a service industry, they're working for tips and as much as it's built into the American psyche that you naturally leave a tip, but it's also something to be used when the service goes above and beyond your original intentions or expectations. Define "above & beyond"

• she was enthusiastic about the process
• she listened to my suggestions and tried to work with them
• she did not act rushed or hussied when it took longer than originally booked
  
• she provided un-solicited feedback on "how good it looks" throughout

and she got a 20% tip and i would have left more if I'd had more. It will receive the most gratitude in the form of WOM.
I think this is the customer-service we should propagate and tip big for. and fyi, if i ever have my own agency, i'm going to work tips into the mix, like if someone brings me my mail or does something more service-oriented... Tips are grrreat! :)

do you know your Meyers-Briggs typology?

I was asked this at an interview in New York and quite frankly, off the top of my head, No i don't.

I've taken a number of online quizzes, Meyers-Briggs being one of them, but damnit, it's not on my resume. thinking now...maybe it should be. I took the test when I got home. I am an "ENFJ."

Extraverted is an attitude. I draw energy from action. If I'm inactive, then my level of energy and motivation tends to decline.
Intuitive is an irrational/perceiving function. I trust information in a more abstract or theoretical sense, whether or not I can associate it with other information I have.
Feeling is a decision-making function. I prefer to come to decisions by associating or empathizing with the situation (i.e. putting myself in the other person's shoes).
Judging describes how I like to get things done. I prefer to have clear plans and do not like to be distracted.


The personality test I could recall I had taken was my personalDNA. From an earlier post, I am an Animated Creator and that's pretty cool.

Belbin (first name Meredith) has 9 team-playing roles you want want to be familiar with as well:

• 3 Action oriented team roles – Shaper, Implementer and Completer Finisher
• 3 People oriented team roles – Co-ordinator, Teamworker and Resource Investigator
• 3 Cerebral oriented team roles – Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist.

knowing who you are and what personality you bring to the table will benefit YOU and the company you're interviewing with. good luck!

interactive planners, where are you?

Interactive planning, throw it in the growing mix of "types of planners" along with connections planners, insights planners, communications planners, engagement planners, etc. It's here to stay. It seems to be a lot about the consumer's experience.

this blog's title came from a search led by john keehler (he blogs) with Click Here the interactive division of the Richards Group in Dallas. he posted his search on the plannersphere > one would guess (at least i did) that the response would be ginormous/endless/exhaustive...nope.

what's going on with the digital sphere? and why aren't more people grabbing at these opportunities? this is the future and if you can get yourself in, i say DO IT!

I talked with R/GA in New York and found that their planning department is only two years old. Wow, young blood with immense potential. "It's about showing people the value of planning and re-defining new places," said Anne Benvenuto. I was extremely impressed with their vision and energy for the future.

just reading the iPhone's latest press (thanks greg)- "a new media frenzy" needs planners to navigate virtual worlds, viral videos, content aggregation sites, blogs, changing search engines, etc.
Advice: educate yourself on digital strategy, have ideas, get your foot in the door. The future is now.

feedback: to give or not to give

I've been working on some freelance projects here in Portland > great to get my hands on some "problems" and put to use some of the tools in my planning bag. It's appealing because it puts more experience on my resume; and mind you, when I was in New York spreading my brand, it was nice to say I was doing freelance work in Portland on the side.

After four completed projects, I would like some constructive criticism moving forward. I admire the nature of feedback > to make your work stronger. Feedback is to provide useful information for future decisions/development. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like a necessary part of the process that has been deemed "not a priority."

My roommate Alana says I should feel confident enough in my work and not to worry. She says most people will only give you feedback if it sucked. (Really?) I think that if it was good work, a short email saying "good work" is an easy thing to do. Hmmm....I'm left wondering...
i need a consultant.

moving to New York

yeah, sorry for the long pause > i was gone for a week to walk the streets of NYC and talk to people about planning. it was super cool! Now I'm moving because I was "high on good conversations" there and i want more. :) Crossing my fingers that it's the right place to be with the passion and enthusiasm i've got. It's a costly move but I feel it needs to be done.

will post more info about the trip soon. I've got a lot of new information to share with you all about "getting a job" and "networking." But due to travel, i am sick! it totally sux. i hate being sick, yeah i used the word hate (which i never feel good about). if any of you are sick, maybe other people being sick with you will make it better...maybe not. but i know community helps when you feel low. :)

talking with a screenwriter...

about telling a [brand] story. Michael Hauge is super great and took time out of his busy L.A. life to tell me the art of a good story.

• A story has three elements: a character (Hero); desire; and conflict. "You have someone who wants something and have to overcome certain obstacles."
  
• A good story creates empathy with the Hero so then we (the audience) are experiencing the same emotion because it's happening to us. "You become the character."
• There are five key ways to be relevant with an emotional/psychological connection.
  

1. sympathy
   
2. jeopardy
   
3. humor
   
4. power
   
5. likability
   

Michael said they talk about ads all the time in their business; "they're like little movies. But, ads are different from a movie because the way to your goal is always through the use of the product." ok ok.

• In every Nike ad, there is a character we identify with. The ad positions the product as helping the character achieve their goal. In this case, the product is Hero.
• We identify with the goals of the character in the ad, and if we want to be like them, we need that product.

Ads offer empathy (this is where knowledge of the human condition comes in); they need to be relevant to the consumers' condition. This is where strategy and planning come in. It's all about knowing what's really going on with your audience so you can make a product pitch that they're likely to pick up on by making it relevant. So go find your emotion and then start telling a story.

assignments on the web

if you surf, you will find.

Over at Influx just now, I found a sweet new way to get involved, network AND add some work to your portfolio along the way. It's by Wired (good job guys!) and it's called Assignment Zero, check out the newsroom for what's going on. This is a little bit about how it works:

• "Once you've picked out the work you'd like to do, simply visit the assignment's reporting page by clicking on the assignment. The reporting page is your temporary workspace. There you'll find everything you need, including a way to save your draft or file your reporting; a collection of others' reporting; the option to check in with the editor; and a discussion thread about the assignment."

Another option for work online can be found at Russell Davies' blogsite. It's called the Account Planning School of the Web. He posts assignments and then gives feedback. Awesome! It's great because it's work that makes you think, and you get feedback to make it better AND you get to network via blog-style. With all-in-one you can't go wrong.

does sex still sell?

or rather, is a nude model really the ideal way to express a song via vh1? i think he could have done a lot more with this song than a naked woman.

an earlier post touched on where we'd come from with the notion of a cowboy selling cigarettes. so i ask now, does sex still sell product, aside from condoms, viagra, lubricant, and various other products that are actually used for the act?

smart design

In an article titled Design for the unwealthiest 90%, so named because of an exhibit opening up at the Cooper-Hewitt in NYC, Alice Rawsthorn asks "Why are designers so focussed on designing for the wealthiest 10 percent? ...because that's where the money is. dar!

• "It's a call to action," Cynthia Smith, the show's curator, explained. "There's a big interest among design students and design professionals in finding socially responsible design solutions to the underpinnings of poverty.
• "I was stunned by how simple, simple solutions could have a direct impact on people's lives," said Smith.

here are some category names of design movements happening worldwide:

• humanitarian design
• socially responsible design - pioneer touted as Victor Papanek
  
• sustainable design

spread the word: sustainable is here to stay. be smart about it.

Americana

is the cowboy still considered the antithesis of our modern, go go go, slightly materialistic society? In an NPR (great station) story that covered breakaway advertising, the Marlboro Man was described as "his own man in a world he owned, a man whose environment was simplistic and relatively pressure-free."

my latest and greatest campaign for cigarettes goes something like this: Got the hiccups? Smoke a cigarette. came up with that one this weekend at a party. hiccups are a damn party ruiner...there's no pill, no exercise, no solution. Couldn't we change the image of cigarettes to a more solution-based positioning statement? i'm kidding.

the title of this blog is Americana. to my roomie, Americana means all things relating to our culture in very white-bread american terms: homecoming, BBQ, drinking beer, watching a game, etc. She brought this up after i told her about an endearing window onto human life i'd had: Picture a garage filled to the brim with tractor parts, a small tv screen in the back playing the latest, interesting sports-replay, and three men sitting with their beers/coffee mugs in hand. there's a girl, about 9, tap dancing, practicing her routine, showing off a little but concentrating like there's no tomorrow. the men share time watching her and watching the game. it's silent. it's genuine.

it was a moment i enjoyed for what it was. thank you.

Fad v. Trend

just curious how these two words are used in different situations...somebody already tackled this topic at wisegeek. This is my interpretation.

A fad refers to a fashion that becomes popular in a culture relatively quickly, but loses popularity dramatically. Some examples are: beanie babies (1990s), pet rocks (1970s), Rubik's cubes (1980s), and Pokemon (1998-2000). Fads tend to be short-term. For more fads, check out http://www.crazyfads.com/

A trend is a general direction in which something tends to move. Trends carry out over a longer period of time and have a greater influence on the future of a given market. This is what planners need to pay attention to in long-term brand development planning.

Fads seem more gimmicky -more product (not lifestyle/mindset) based. We can take advantage of these to gain and peak current interest, but need to watch trends to see where we can go with a particular movement of message.

just found flip.com and this search-worthy archive for "what is a trend at your school."
Go frolic and play, it's the weekend!

harnessing your chi

this post is inspired by Scott Goodson's Feng Shui Marketing. this would be considered a strand maybe...off of that information. would the techys out there concur?

he emphasizes the essential balance between marketing elements so that energy flow is accentuated. This flow affects consumers and ultimately, he says, to engage in a full dialogue, consumers need to be rewarded with this energy.

i would like to add on to that with the notion of chi. Shoot, just checked wikipedia and i've been mis-spelling 'chi'. it's Qi for cryin out loud. :P Qi is a good term to use when describing how elements come together to produce a positive outcome. In a marketing/advertising sense it means that all the elements should work together > harmonize them.

1st - it's good to know what elements you need in the mix, just throwing random stuff in isn't going to help you organize how they should all interact. Focus.
2nd - prioritize. i think this is where media planning might come in...if a message needs more emphasis or play then make sure it's in the right medium.
3rd - think about the outcome; the feel; the big picture. what should the result of our efforts be? align the elements.

maybe this sounds hokey pokey (and it does, a little bit) but as i'm typing it, my chaotic brain is already feeling more relaxed about putting ideas into action. and isn't that what PLANNING is all about? oh yeah, and a little classical music now and then doesn't hurt. :)
for some more in-depth help harnessing your qi > whatever it be: more energy, desire to be happy, time management, etc > check out Steve Pavlina's blog and website. For a warm-up, ponder what he has to say about productivity:

• The sad truth is that most people are so incredibly bad at managing their time that rock-bottom personal productivity is simply accepted as normal. (so is half-ass, bad advertising) So anyone who can consistently invest 80% of their time each day in intelligent, productive activities is going to look like an overachiever by comparison. The average college student in particular is probably operating at only 20-30% of their capacity.

consumer analysis Part 1

This is my bathroom line-up sort of clumped into stations. I'm not really sure what this says about me as a person, but thought it would be a neat brand/ethnographic experiment.







What do these brands mean to me?
Gucci - high-end, i like that it's in my product line-up, but the quality of eau de parfum is not as strong as others. This particular Gucci product seems like they're reaching into territory that maybe they shouldn't be. (my roomie's cat's name is Gucci)
Origins - knowledgable beauty, it seems very natural. I like that i have an origins product. Shopping for an Origins product is a neat experience. They seem to do a lot with in-store atmosphere.
Ponds - feels sort of old-school and 'by the book' but it's a moisturizer that works with my skin, so why mess with it? My sister who has tossed around working for PETA doesn't like that I use a Proctor & Gamble product.
AVEDA - love this! I think this is a great brand with smart business practices. they do a lot with brand experience --buying up a whole salon AND the products all smell awesome in a natural essence sort of way. Although, they're on the high-end, it's worth it for the fragrance and feel.
Tom's of Maine - feels hippie-ish to me, but I prefer neutral to artificial when it comes to raising my arms. Plus, the company seems compassionate for the earth and that's cool.
Johnson + Johnson - floss is an interesting product. There's a lot of variety out there and if you're going to do it, it should be enjoyable. I like this product. But the brand does nothing for me...well I guess it reminds me of when I was little, i can trust this name.
Arm & Hammer - this is a diversion for me in the circle of friends & family I have. I tried it one year and loved how it made my mouth feel. I grew up on Crest (dad still uses it) and feel that A&H gives me a less sugary experience. Plus, the kind with baking soda and peroxide foams in your mouth which is sorta fun.
Oral-B - a little like floss, you should enjoy holding and using your toothbrush BUT i also think the toothbrush category is saturated with choice. My dentist once said 'don't go for hard bristles,' so i try to buy soft when i do, but... i feel like i'm missing all the information i need to make an educated toothbrush decision, so i shop around.
ProActiv - i don't really have to say much here, because if you're tried it, you know it works. I've been using this product for 2 years now and i'm hooked - i trust this brand. And they worked hard to make it into people's lives. This is a true infomercial & mall kiosk success story.
Vaseline - i'm not really sure what categories this brand dabbles in, but i bought the lotion because it was cheaper than other AND i liked the neutral fragrance it has. The lotion category seems to have high-grade (really does moisturize) and low-grade (put it on but evaporates or something). Vaseline if pretty good quality for the price: I think we call this value. :)
Sinclair & Valentine - i didn't even know this was the brand until i looked today! what a weird name, maybe wants to be another Johnson + Johnson... i bought this on a mission one day. it was winter and my feet needed some love. i found this product sort of hiding on a bottom shelf in the "shower isle"? It seems this place in stores can be related to the hair accessories/products isle where choice is plenty and everything's fun to look at and touch. It seems underplayed though in general.

National Yogurt Association

was checking out my Activa container this morning and saw "meets national yogurt association criteria for live and active culture yogurt." Who knew there was such an organization?! crazy!

anyway, decided to investigate a bit, and apparently they have a whole website About Yogurt. i don't have any other cool stuff to say about yogurt right now, other than I enjoyed my little cup thoroughly this morning for breakfast.

just an FYI post.

thinking different

"i wasn't pushing you away, i was pulling me toward myself."




i stole the quote above from someone's myspace page. i like it. the problem with it though (dar, problems) is that even though the person speaking says she isn't trying to offend the other involved character, that's what they took from it. the lesson here is to think different but make your thought process accessible to others. make your thought process juicy and engaging and interesting...so that others want to get involved. that sounds fun...doesn't it?

now, searching for a job, i'm looking for the right fit, not looking for a job, but looking for a situation.

David Terry with BBH said "planners should be a little off." Quirky is ok, but what (i think) he means is 'think different.' I wonder what Apple meant by this tag...

*picture from Jennifer Coates: 'master of the incidental moment' (pretty neato, says me.)

congratulations fellow planners

High fives go out to:

David - took a planner position with Publicis-West, working with Steve Le Neveu. Awesome!

Julie - took a position as a strategist with Another Anomaly in NYC. This is a branch agency from Anomaly, which is doing bomb creative, experiential stuff with brands like Coke, Enviga, and soontobe Virgin America.

Elisabeth - accepted a position (several weeks ago) with Interbrand in their verbal identity department; an interesting take on what branding's role is when it comes to changing names and product features, packages, etc.

Go team!

paying someone to think

is essentially what planning is. Yeah, we spend a lot of time harvesting information, talking to people, watching people, noticing trends, etc. But the majority of our time is spent synthesizing it all, breaking it down to the super smart ideas that lay on the surface.

so why should a client pay to have someone think? Well, my angle is that it will pay off when it's done right; that a client's ad budget will be wiser spent if a planner has put their good sense into pulling out the best possible direction based on all of the evidence.

i wish I had a lawyer friend so that i could argue/negotiate my point a bit better than this, but i'm at a loss for words. I believe in planning an effective strategy and there are a ton of agencies out there (none exist in Portland, fyi) that have whole strategy departments for the sake & beauty of thinking. dar!

Miranda July

love her! she just came out with a book and check out her f'n cool website. It sparks curiosity and engages the user in a completely innovative way.

if you recognize her name, maybe you remember "Me and You and Everyone we know" that came out in 2005. Brilliant movie! and if you don't remember the movie, maybe you remember the symbol is made famous: >>--<< "back and forth forever" i was reminded of this funny movie moment by a security-protected wireless connection today in Portland that went by the same name.

miranda july is a new type of artist. i welcome her talents and am in aw of her originality.

bring back the love

planners we have our job cut out for us and the word i took away from this was "dialogue" - it goes both ways. Enjoy!