• Brand Autopsy: Tough Love For Starbucks
  Published: March 6, 2010
  Source: brandautopsy.typepad.com
  My Note: John Moore gets tough with Starbucks: I might still credit some of the ideas he discounts, but his point is still quite clear. Soliciting input implies you're going to use it, else it's a disingenuous false face to the customer. Bad Starbucks.
  It’s been almost two years since Starbucks jumped into the deep waters of social media with their MyStarbucksIdea.com program. This is a website where customers submit and discuss ideas on ways Starbucks can improve its business. Over 80,000 ideas have...
• Why I’ve Fallen in Love with the Nexus One
  Published: March 6, 2010
  Source: ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon
  My Note: Jonesing for the N1 Google phone.
  Last week, I was fortunate enough to be part of the large group of attendees at TED who received a free Nexus One Worldphone from Google. Being a loyal longtime iPhone user, I was excited, but skeptical. I’d spent some time with the Blackberry, Palm Pre and various cool Nokia products, only to run back to my iPhone’s open arms. All of these phones are great in their own way, but not...
• Using Twitter Search for Business
  Published: March 4, 2010
  Source: chrisbrogan.com
  I spend a lot of time in Twitter search. I do it for several purposes. One is for my client partners. For instance, if I’m thinking of ways to do things for MolsonCoors, I might start up searches on various beer brands to get some competitive analysis. I might start figuring out if there are location-specific tweets about Molson products. For instance, during the Vancouver Olympics, I...
• One Measure of Success
  Published: March 4, 2010
  Source: paulgillin.com
  My Note: I love irony.
  Guy Kawasaki writes “I was in a Barnes and Noble tonight and saw a shelf labeled “Success Library.” Look at the books on it: they’re all about social media, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Two years ago, this shelf would be filled with Good to Great, The Tipping Point, and the like. The world has sure changed. See second shelf middle, right next to Twitterville...
• Spolsky Blogicide Note Has Great Advice, And Bad
  Published: March 4, 2010
  Source: /message
  My Note: Joel vs. Kathy? Joel is right that most corporate blogs suck, but Kathy explains why. And I think maybe Joel is quitting for the wrong reasons. It'll be several years before he realizes what his lost opportunity cost is from this decision.
  Embedded in a deeply ambivalent post in which he announces the end of his blogging, Joel Spolsky distills great advice from Kathy Sierra on the topic of... blogging... which he is quitting to grow his business. Hmm. Well, first, let's look at the advice from the incomparable Sierra, as channeled by Spolsky: Let's Take This Offline So, what's the formula for a blog that actually generat...
• Meet 5 Entrepreneurs Who Run Circles Around Social Media Gurus
  Published: March 3, 2010
  Source: Conversation Agent
  "If you don't understand business and the whole idea of economics and ecology, and sociology, you cannot be an entrepreneur." [quote adapted from Hartmut Esslinger interview about design]You should pay attention to the backgrounds and stories of these 5 entrepreneurs. It's in the details that you learn the most -- and they give away quite a bit of detail, given how they make their income...
• One Measure of Success
  Published: March 4, 2010
  Source: paulgillin.com
  My Note: Picture worth 1,000 words on a social media path to success?
  Guy Kawasaki writes “I was in a Barnes and Noble tonight and saw a shelf labeled “Success Library.” Look at the books on it: they’re all about social media, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Two years ago, this shelf would be filled with Good to Great, The Tipping Point, and the like. The world has sure changed. See second shelf middle, right next to Twitterville...
• Why Size Matters & Smaller Is Better
  Published: March 4, 2010
  Source: Small Business Trends
  One frustration I hear from a lot of small business bloggers is that they feel like no one’s reading. They see the big subscription numbers of pros like Darren Rowse or Brian Clark and they’re discouraged that their numbers are just nearly breaking into the hundreds. And then they stop blogging completely. Because, if only 100 or so people are reading your blog, what’s the point?...
• Plugin by C. Murray Consulting

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  March 8, 2010
  

  Post: Recently Noted http://bit.ly/cEYCB0

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Everyone (well, almost) stops to read the first sign, standing outdoors, sometimes holding the door open as they read. Those who skip the first sign will usually do the same process at the second sign. And in case you ignored both of those, there’s one on the cash register.

Yes, I had to ask. I too thought cash was the one payment method not subject to technical difficulties. Silly me. It seems that their cash is locked up and they can’t get at it. I neglected to ask why, then, they couldn’t just accept exact change until they had enough of a float to operate normally.

I also failed to ask why the signs look so obnoxiously like something is very wrong, so customers feel apprehension as they stare at it trying to decide whether or not they can still purchase coffee on the proffered terms. And in the past hour, I’ve noticed a total of one person look at the sign outdoors and walk away. And I wonder if she actually read it.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  March 4, 2010
  

  Post: Reading the Signs http://bit.ly/9oEZkl

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth toderash (Brent Toderash):
  March 4, 2010
  Twitter Comment
  
  Post: Reading the Signs [link to post]
  
  - Posted using Chat Catcher

Nope… there’s no satisfaction to be found in that formula.

This is what I do: coup d’oeil. Strategic Intuition. I connect dots that may not have seemed to have any relationship before. Other experts like a good accountant or lawyer are equally important. Understand their contribution in terms of value, not price. Otherwise you’ll just get what you pay for and never realize the value for which you paid.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  February 22, 2010
  

  Post: Paying for Insight http://bit.ly/cyTFfB

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth Dan:
  February 22, 2010
  I used to live in a town that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. (great line, not mine) What if 'Talk' wasn't so cheap. Nice summation post.

You got more than you bargained for.

Ever notice that phrases like these mean something negative when on the face of it, they shouldn’t? You pay for something, and you get it. Naturally. You bargain for something, and get a little extra. Who wouldn’t be happy about that?

Yet these phrases don’t mean good things. These phrases mean there’s an unanticipated shortfall in the deal, and you’ve been shortchanged in one way or another.

Money-back guarantee. In other words, if you don’t get what you’re supposed to, you can return it for a refund. This is your bare-minimum: both sides of the ledger balance out, one way or the other. Dollar-for-dollar, equivalent value.

And it’s completely, entirely unremarkable. Even the buy-one, get-one-free or other discount offer is unremarkable. It’s as advertised: no more, no less. Not worth mentioning.

If you want to be remarkable, give the client something extra, something they weren’t expecting. Imbalance the ledger in their favour, go the extra mile. That’ll be memorable — and worthy of remarking upon. Much more than simply giving what you were paid for… that only gets you damned with faint praise.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  February 16, 2010
  

  Post: Are You Giving More than You Bargained For? http://bit.ly/9SvGqG

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth » Paying for Insight ::: Strategic Intuition // Coup d’Oeil:
  February 22, 2010
  [...] important. Understand their contribution in terms of value, not price. Otherwise you’ll just get what you pay for and never realize the value for which you [...]

• Paying for Insight

‘SixthSense’ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. By using a camera and a tiny projector mounted in a pendant like wearable device, ‘SixthSense’ sees what you see and visually augments any surfaces or objects we are interacting with. It projects information onto surfaces, walls, and physical objects around us, and lets us interact with the projected information through natural hand gestures, arm movements, or our interaction with the object itself. ‘SixthSense’ attempts to free information from its confines by seamlessly integrating it with reality, and thus making the entire world your computer.

Yeah. Just wait ’till you see the video.

This TED Talk is from Ted India and is part of TED’s “Under 30″ series, which includes people like Eva Vertes, who I’ve previously mentioned as part of my encouragement to Think Differently. Pranav Mistry is another great example of someone who is thinking differently, asking questions and attempting to answer them. This is where true innovation is found.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  February 9, 2010
  

  Post: TED: Pranav Mistry on The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology http://bit.ly/9wyWp5

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth toderash:
  February 12, 2010
  

  Post: Thinking Differently about the Virtual/Natural World Intersection (TED Talk by Pranav Mistry) http://bit.ly/9wyWp5

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Think Differently: Electrical Outlets
• Meeting Talk
• Think Differently

Business owners at that time were looking for metrics for their new website so they could calculate their ROI. Bottom line: how would it make them money, and how much? They might have some means of estimating how effective an advertisement might be. But a website is not an ad, though some still confuse the two and end up with media-mismatched brochureware. So ten years ago, I told business owners that they needed to invest in the site before they would see direct monetary returns from it. Once the platform — the website — is in place, it’ll take some effort to get the best return.

Content, I told them. “Content is king” was the mantra at the time, and I told business owners to offer it up for free. Show themselves to be the experts they are in their field and offer what they know online. Give away related content — advice on different ways to use their new widget or maps to where they can have fun with it. And of course, change it up with fresh content so people have a reason to come back.

Community is the result of allowing people to make comments on your content, and even post their own. Community is nurtured by responding to their comments and connecting with people. This is where your “true fans” lie, and where you can glean the most about what matters to them. You want to look after these people, so consider taking advice from them on your product.

Commerce is where people want to start, but the reality is that it’s most often deferred until the third step. Most businesses don’t get to make a straight jump to massive online sales despite what you may have been told elsewhere. Sales that come randomly in the early days of the site launch may well be a fickle client base. On the other hand, sales that come from within your community are solid and lead to repeat sales.

To sell your product online, begin with content, and use it to build community. Commerce will flow from there naturally, and based on trust you’ve acquired while putting out content and building community. Follow the three C’s: Content, Community, Commerce.

Ten years on, I tell clients the same thing: the difference is that now they’re more prepared to believe it, now that they’ve seen others do it. Variations of these general principles surface in The Cluetrain Manifesto, and are discussed in more recent books like Tara Hunt’s The Whuffie Factor and Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents. And now there are a number of fine examples of people who have done this, like Gary Vaynerchuk and many others.

But now I get to tell those clients from ten years ago: you heard it here first.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  February 10, 2010
  

  Post: The Three C’s of Web Strategy http://bit.ly/9bbQwU

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• On Strategy: An Interview With Michael Raynor
• The Strategy Paradox
• Web Content Quality: Pay Extra for the Cream

I printed up a batch of bookmarks for them to give away in the promotion of the site. The reverse shows the wordmark and url, and explains what the Collective is all about. On the front, I was trying to be clever. You know, ’cause they’re writers. And presumably readers as well.

And that reminds me that I don’t think I’ve mentioned the site that we did not long ago for a couple of former NHL players. Shoot to Score is the site for Jamie Leach and his dad, Reggie Leach, “The Riverton Rifle.” Together they’re doing good work running hockey schools, mainly among first nations communities. Again, this is another WebRiggers project. Smaller than the Writers’ Collective’s needs, but was also fun to do.

Come to think of it, many of these projecst are fun to do (or enjoyable, if you prefer) because of the exposure I get to a variety of people in an array of different businesses. I like hearing what people’s businesses are about and how they’re going about it — and I get to meet with a brand new one tomorrow. In the meantime, a wee bit of fanfare for these two new sites.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  February 4, 2010
  

  Post: A Wee Bit of Fanfare http://toderash.net/2010/02/a-wee-bit-of-fanfare/

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

Well, last week McNally emerged from bankruptcy protection and Paul McNally made some public comment on what went wrong, as he saw it. The biggest single factor he cites was the failure of their Don Mills store to meet the sales targets for which they had hoped. He speculated that their strategy of community involvement maybe didn’t play as well in T-Dot, but it has also been noted that the Don Mills mall in which they were located has been a disappointment to many of its retail tenants.

It wasn’t a good time to open the Don Mills and Polo Park locations, but apparently the commitments to do so had been made before the economic downturn. The big soundbyte from Paul McNally: “It was clear from the opening sales at Don Mills that we had entered into a death spiral.” Polo Park sales were characterized as being positive, but were evidently not stellar enough to warrant keeping the location open.

According to Quill & Quire, Ernst & Young estimates that “approximately $3.2 million in debts to unsecured creditors — most of whom are publishers — will go unpaid.” Their emergence from bankruptcy protection leaves Paul and Holly McNally with the flagship Grant Park and the Saskatoon store remaining under their control, as well as their wholesale division. (The New York store was unaffected.)

I’d say again that it was expansion at the wrong time, in the wrong way. They said wrong time, wrong location. Whatever. The McNallys have a tough row to hoe ahead of them. With the value of the company that’s left essentially eroded, they’ll be facing a difficult time buying books on credit from the publishers who bore some pretty heavy losses. Still, I suggest they sharpen up their strategy for dealing with competition from online sales, because those aren’t going away anytime soon. Expansion wasn’t the only factor here.

I’ve wondered since my earlier post if the bricks-and-mortar book trade won’t favour second-hand sellers from this point on. As I’ve said, books are almost a quintessential online purchase. By my observation, people who love books and vow most vehemently not to give up turning physical paper pages when they want to read are the same group of people who seem to most appreciate used bookstores. Perhaps there’s something to the idea of a trend toward online book sales where the product is then cycled through a used bookstore for those who like to browse and take special enjoyment in the smell of dusty paper.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  February 1, 2010
  

  Post: McNally Blames Expansion for Woes http://toderash.net/2010/02/mcnally-blames-expansion-for-woes/

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth Ron McMahon:
  February 1, 2010
  I believe that the exact same outcome is in store for the music (CDs) marketplace. The best CD stores in Calgary are now the used ones. They know this and the prices reflect that reality ($10-15 per CD), which dummies like me are willing to pay because the medium is physical. I expect that as DVDs (movies) move to a cost-effective and efficient electronic distribution model, the same type of 'used physical marketplace' will sprout up with even more strength than is seen today.

• McNally Robinson Misses the Plot Twist

J.K. Rowling:

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.
– full text of speech

The address runs about twenty minutes.

What did you learn from your last — or your greatest — failure? From your last (or greatest) success? Now, which lesson has been more valuable to you?

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  January 31, 2010
  

  Post: The Benefit of Failure http://toderash.net/2010/01/the-benefit-of-failure/

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth Ron McMahon:
  February 1, 2010
  Not to put too fine a point on this, but failure is ONLY seen as something worthwhile or as something to celebrate when it is followed by success. Had Rowling or even Edison continued in failure without ever achieving overwhelming success, we wouldn't know who they are and Harvard certainly wouldn't want either them to be addressing graduates no matter how profound, insightful or helpful the lessons of and from failure would be.
• Quoth Brent Toderash:
  February 1, 2010
  You've got a good point there, Ron, as the following success is the proof that the lesson was learned. What would be most unfortunate is if the failure disqualifies someone from later putting into practice what they've learned and generating success. The old "keep-trying" advice applies, I guess -- of which Edison is an excellent example.

For those not in Winnipeg, it’s worth mentioning that the independent bookseller is a local success story, having started here in 1981 and grown to have stores not only in Winnipeg, but also in Saskatoon, Toronto, and New York as well as online. Many Winnipeggers have a “feel-good” sense about supporting this local option for their book purchases, and it’s a popular spot for book launches as well. Most locations also feature a (non-Starbucks) café/restaurant of some sort, the Prairie Ink Café. To be clear, I like McNally Robinson as a bookstore. The locations I’ve been in are all large with a good selection of titles and special promotion for local authors.

But.

One has to ask what forces them into a restructuring mode at the edge of bankruptcy, with 175 jobs being cut with the two site closures. Pundits have been tossing out ideas — the rising popularity of the eBook, the recession, and similar “obvious” ills. Yes, I think they may have expanded in the wrong way at the wrong time, but the eBook is has not yet become popular enough to have that kind of impact, if it ever will. The recession will likely have had an impact, but I doubt it was that major. Books are not a big-ticket item, and those who cut books from their entertainment budget are likely to be replaced by those who have reduced their entertainment budget to now include books.

Primarily I see a different story, one that has to do not with how we read, but how we shop. The major issue is in my mind McNally’s failure to appreciate the extent to which the Internet has change book-buying habits on average. There will always be a loyal group of supporters who will buy from a local bricks-and-mortar bookstore, or those who mistrust the Internet for financial transactions, or those who prefer to browse, then purchase “in the moment.” But I strongly suspect these are not the bread-and-butter of the bookbuying crowd.

The book is one of the best physical products you can find for online sales, and was one of the first to be sold successfully online. Amazon is associated foremost with books for this reason, despite the fact that they have branched out to a myriad of other products. Books don’t require sizing or colour selection… at most you pick the hardcover or the paperback, and either way you know exactly what you’ll get. Even those who are going to confirm their purchase by reading the cover blurbs are easily accommodated — often along with reviews, which you don’t get at most bricks-and-mortar retailers.

Book retailers nowadays are competing with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indigo, and perhaps a few others. McNally’s competition in Canada is primarily Amazon.ca and Indigo Books. Avid readers who know what they’re planning to buy and are able to plan a few days ahead to allow for shipping will purchase online for the price discount everyone knows and expects will be available. And this is the problem with the McNally’s online strategy — the website serves the audience most likely to buy from McNally Robinson, in their stores. The problem is that these audiences are quite distinct, and are not served in quite the same way. The online purchase needs to be cheaper and convenient, and not in any way “homey.” Make the product easy to find and purchase — exactly what Amazon excels at.

When I’ve been in the McNally Robinson store and asked for a title that wasn’t in stock, they’ve offered to order it in for me. But I’m used to buying online, which means I’m not about to make two trips to the same store in order to complete a purchase. I’ll order it online and it’ll show up on my doorstep in less time, and this is the experience that online shoppers have come to expect… and they expect to save money in the process. McNally’s website pricing is, whenever I have checked, too close to the pricing in the store and too far from the pricing at Amazon and Indigo. As the market of people who make the extra effort to buy books in a bricks-and-mortar shop decreases in size, it becomes increasingly important to understand how best to serve the still-growing market of people who buy online.

The bottom line is what’s at stake for the retailer, and I begin to wonder if the days of the big-box bookstore are numbered, unless that bookstore is backed by an effective strategy for online sales. And in my mind, this is where McNally Robinson has failed, and needs to make the greatest investment in order to get back on track. They founded their mini-chain in 1981 and built it with a solid strategy for a bricks-and-mortar crowd. Sadly, they missed the major plot twist that is the Internet, and have failed to adapt sufficiently. I’m sincerely hoping they’re able to make the depth of change necessary to thrive in the post-plot-twist business environment.

Comments

• Quoth toderash:
  December 29, 2009
  

  Post: McNally Robinson Misses the Plot Twist http://toderash.net/2009/12/mcnally-robinson-misses-the-plot-twist/

  This comment was originally posted on Twitter

• Quoth Ron McMahon:
  December 30, 2009
  There used to be a McNally Robinson in Calgary, too. They closed down in the summer of 2008. Great place to go with a wonderful restaurant on the top floor. They had what seemed to be an excellent location, on the downtown pedestrian street mall called Stephens Avenue, which is flooded by tens of thousands of office workers every lunch hour on warm days. The C-Train was only a block away, but parking was non-existent for that store. I think that you've hit the nail on the head with your analysis of the cause of this company's failure. While they may not have been the first to succumb to the challenge of online retailers, they are (sadly) one of the last simply due to the lack of alternatives in the Canadian market. Coles, Chapters and Indigo Books are all owned by Heather Reisman. I don't know of any other national bookseller chains in Canada. If it wasn't for Amazon.ca keeping Heather honest, the prices and service in Canada would surely falter. As it is one wonders if Ms. Reisman's operations are turning any sort of profit because it is true that the world has changed and continues to change in how we purchase books. With all of Amazon.ca's cross-subsidization and incredible capacity to undercut any new competitor, one wonders what the future holds for current or new domestic book retailers. I've read in a number of places the Amazon is reporting that it sold more ebooks than physical books this last Christmas season. If that is indeed true, I'd suggest that this is a watershed event, marking the beginning of the end of the primary format for publishing being physical books. We will also surely see the end of paper-based newspapers in favour of an electronic version once a decent eNewspaper reader is developed in the next decade. I must be getting old because this type of change to our world is something that I'm not looking forward to. Physical books and newspapers are something that I'm surely going to miss.
• Quoth Brent Toderash:
  December 30, 2009
  Good thoughts, Ron. I'm still of the opinion that printed books aren't going away, though sales will certainly be impacted by the eBook. I wonder if the Amazon sales report is due to the fact that the medium is still fairly new and will level off... but it's probably here to stay. I do wonder as well if used bookstores will become more common in similar models to Aqua Books in Winnipeg, which somewhat breaks the mold for a used bookstore -- they hold author readings and events, have a restaurant on-site, and features well-organized shelves of books. I could see people purchasing books online and recycling them into used shops, which have another type of clientelle again: those who enjoy books and collecting books. It'll be interesting to see how this all develops in the next five years.
• Quoth Paul Marcino:
  December 30, 2009
  A couple of points for your consideration: 1) Books being sold by the big box stores - the Wal-marts and the Costcos. These stores have an excellent selection of the recent best sellers in fiction and non-fiction. If the family unit can pick up the occassional book while replenishing the larder, there is less incentive for the special trip to the dedicated bookstore. 2) Less people reading books. There is a growing percentage of people, who instead of reaching for a book; will now reach for... Youtube, a blog, Facebook, MSDN, an online game (World of Warcraft and/or Poker).
• Quoth Brent Toderash:
  December 30, 2009
  Definitely right about the big-box stores, Paul. Costco et al don't keep a large number of titles, but what they have are the latest and best-selling ones and they're priced around what you'd pay to buy online, i.e., about 30% off the cover price. That's gonna have a big impact. I really hope people aren't replacing reading with YouTube, Facebook, and gaming, but I fear you may be right... these online activities are sucking up a lot of time for some people. Perhaps instead of six books a year they're now down to four, which would be a really sad average.

• McNally Blames Expansion for Woes