Election Shows Lack of Trust and Respect

Back in 2000, I was at a meeting in Providence, RI when the news channels were live with showing post-election confrontations over the vote in Florida. I was horrified and said to the people I was with that our country was as divided as it was during the Civil War. Strong statement. The people I was with thought I was overstating things. After watching this campaign season and the aftermath of this election, we are certainly more divided as a country than we were sixteen years ago and we are heading down a dangerous path.

There is a complete breakdown in trust and respect. Start with our view of the news media. MSM (mainstream media) is the pejorative that is used by conservatives for the longstanding outlets of journalism, be they newspapers, radio or television, that are the longstanding reporters of news and information. Fox News, Newsmax, Breitbart and other organizations have grown out of this distain for traditional media and are looked down upon by liberals. All of these outlets need to be more transparent and show how they gather and edit news. All would be wise to follow the adage of Roger Kahn that journalists only have to follow one side of the story, the truth. That means not reporting false statements in the interest of fairness or simply going after ratings by airing the latest person to yell fire in a crowded theater.

This lack of trust and respect goes to a number of institutions as well. Ratings of congress are at an all time low. Both of the presidential finalists had high negative ratings. Our distrust of and disrespect of our opponents is so high that either candidate, including the President-elect, will have a hard time governing. We see protests in the cities from the opponents of the President-elect. Given all the talk about a "rigged election" system from the right in the days leading up to the election, had the result been different, I guarantee the losing side would be out in force protesting as well.

Frankly, the results of this election show that the system is not rigged. The chicken littles were proven wrong and need to go out to the public and say a huge mea culpa. This talk was dangerous and only added to the incineration of trust and respect in this country.

There is raw, visceral hate right now. We cannot survive this kind of strife as a nation. Waiting around for one person, some kind of savior, to lead us to the promised land is not going to heal this country.  Nobody, including any of the candidates for President or the currently elected congress, has the capacity to be the bigger person, acknowledge the deep divisions and reach out to opponents to fix the fissures.  That leaves the task to us.

What I mean is that, regardless of interest group or political slant, you are going to have to get outside your bubble, your interest group and state your case. You are going to have to do so by logically explaining your view, citing facts and sources and not defaulting to some amorphous "They say..."
You are going to have to do so to people who do not agree with you and who may be discourteous.  It means not "unfriending" people who do not share your political views on social media. Also, it means walking in the moccasins of your opponent. Trying, however difficult, to see their point of view. Don't wait around for someone to get elected president four years from now.

This breakdown in trust and respect is not just happening here, it is a world wide issue. Brexit, the defeat of the peace treaty with FARC in Colombia and the bombastic government of the Philippines are examples of how far the disease has spread. In the first two cases, the electorate did not feel leadership had the citizen's best interests at heart. Perhaps all of this is the unforeseen circumstance of the interactive era. Worldwide, we have all just built our own bubbles.

All of us, as citizens of a great country, have to do a lot less yelling, eye rolling and exclamations of "whatever." We need to get outside our comfort zone, understand that people do not take what we say at face value and build our cases. If we do not take personal responsibility for elevating the discourse in our country and building bridges of trust and respect, we will deserve our doomed fate.

Stop Celebrating the Rogue Mentality

We will remember the days after July 4th, 2016 for their jarring tragedies. Once again, we saw excessive force used against citizens and once again, we saw someone take the law and justice into their own hands. Both are wrong and both feed a cycle that can lead to a breakdown of society. It is up to all of us to step in and break that cycle and make our neighborhood, city, state and nation better places to live. But, there has to be a massive change going forward, we need to stop celebrating the lone hero.

Over the course of the last few years we have seen video of too many innocent people getting killed by police. At this point, a reasonable person inserts the sentence that "most police are good people and do their jobs." This is true. However, the destruction of trust that events such as the shootings in St. Paul, MN and Baton Rouge, LA hinder any effort to make the streets of our communities safer. In Chicago, past false confessions brought on by brutal police abuse and the video of an innocent victim, Laquan McDonald being murdered by a police officer, have severed any connection of trust  many residents have with the police.

Why did this happen? In almost all cases, a bad police officer wanted to be a hero, took procedure into their own hands and decided to be a rogue. In the aftermath, their colleagues are left dealing with the community relations problems and the citizens are dealing with the breakdown of order on their streets. In Chicago, we are seeing this manifest itself in a huge increase in shootings. Police morale is said to be at an all time low here and in other American cities. There are two sides to improving morale. We need to realize that police are citizens, like us, and not ostracize people in uniform. On the other hand, police forces across the country have to tackle and eliminate the glorification of the "Dirty Harry" lone officer. Policing is a team effort, not the purview of a lone dispenser of their view of justice.

Also, there are way too many guns on our streets. With too many people, with too many agendas using them. Vigilante justice is completely Un-American. We have glorified the myth of the Wild West. People taking the law and justice into their own hands is completely unacceptable. It was wrong of a person to take a rifle and start shooting police officers in Dallas, TX for the crimes of other officers in other cities. It is wrong for an individual to shoot another person on the streets of our major cities, because of the perceived injustice of getting "dissed" on social media. Yes, that is the reason many shootings take place in the United States.

Unfortunately, we hear the "dog whistle" of "it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun" as a defense of the right to own firearms in the United States. On CBS Face the Nation this weekend, the police chief of Dallas, TX gave this clear insight, "In the fog of a firefight, it is impossible to know the good guys from the bad guys." Having more guns on the streets of the United States, one for every man, woman and child has turned too many places into shooting galleries. We need to start getting guns off the streets and make them far less available. We have to stop merchandising the message that there was a better time and place when people took the law into their own hands with a gun. The history of the United States, particularly as we moved west is replete with lawlessness and injustice done at the point of the gun. It is not a mentality or a time that should receive esteem and glory.

In Chicago, there are citizens banding together to work with other neighbors such as Mother's Against Senseless Killing (MASK). While the founder of this group Tamar Manasseh is a hero, she realizes that peace is a team sport. We need to realize that our safety, and the future of our society is a team sport. Don't expect government to makes streets safe. Get to know your neighbors, hold events to build community. Do the peaceful outreach. Let's celebrate the pronouns of We, Us and Our and downplay the pronouns of I, Me and My. Law and order, justice and social justice cannot be achieved when a a rogue goes vigilante. Peace only happens when we act together.

Politics and Social Media Sunshine

Twenty-five years ago, when the shift hit the land in San Francisco and we suffered a the Loma Prieta Earthquake, I was working for Mayor Dianne Feinstein.  One of my co-workers was a smart, headstrong newly minted graduate of the University of California named Jill Osur.  An incident happened in her life yesterday that illustrates the differences in politics in the media then and now.

Minding her business, probably drinking her morning coffee, Jill witnessed a school board candidate named Aimee Moss taking the sign of opponent Sherri McGoff off of her lawn.  Appalled, Jill immediately took to Facebook and wrote about the incident.  Seven hours later, she had confronted candidate Moss, who was evasive but admitted to taking the sign.  Jill posted her account of the conversation on Facebook.  Two hours after that post, the Contra Costa Times picked up the story with the candidate admitting to the caper and blaming “the stress of the campaign.”

It happened at lightning speed one week before the election.

Back when Jill and I worked together, we didn’t have the internet, social media and all the rest. For news, one relied on print, radio and television.  News, particularly in local races for boards travelled slowly.  One newspaper reporter covering a school board race would have to cover multiple candidates at multiple events and would be overwhelmed. A week before the election, the citizen and the offended candidate would have to hammer this beat reporter and hope that they picked up the story.  Election week could have passed and this ethical and possible legal breach might not have seen the light of day.

In California political history this is illustrated by the famous race where an incumbent’s campaign manager was being investigated in a murder.  It took weeks for the opponent to get the story published in a newspaper.  Days after the story ran, a television station picked it up and the camera crew cornered the incumbent. His sound byte that ran on the evening news that night was “What my staff does on their own time is their business.” Glacial news cycle compared to today.

As we are all too aware newspapers have been gutted, most radio stations don’t have news broadcasts, much less a news department and local television stations are way too stretched.  There probably is not a reporter even covering this school board race.  In this instance, it took citizen Jill Osur to report it on her news feed, follow up and then see someone at the city desk report it.

Our democracy relies on informed citizens.  Too often, someone wins a school board race, then a city council race, then goes up the rung to state assembly or senate and then on to Congress while passing under the electorate’s radar in today’s news media vacuum. Citizens need to report what they see and need more outlets than social media to chronicle their interactions with candidates.  Established mainstream media has to be creative in finding ways to cover the local races that have such a huge impact on our lives;

Chef -- The Recipe for Success

As the father of a six month old, I don't get out to the movies much.  Have to catch up when they hit the movie channels or when I have the chance.  A couple of days ago, I caught the movie Chef on a flight out to the west coast.  There are a ton of life and business lessons in the movie.

To quote Shakespeare "To Thine Ownself Be True."

Jon Favreau plays a very talented, innovative, compulsively driven chef who is constantly trying to test himself.  He works at a restaurant where the owner, played by Dustin Hoffman, wants him to play it safe.  The prominent restaurant reviewer is coming in to review the place and owner and chef have different views on what should be served.

"Play your hits" says Hoffman.  He may as well as said "Rest on your laurels."  Always a mistake.  It ends up biting them in the caboose.  The staff and chef are uninspired and serve a meal that underwhelms the reviewer.  Essentially, the review asks "Where is the innovative chef I once knew?"

Social Media Lives Forever

Upset, the chef calls out the reviewer on social media. Favreau's character is a newbee to Twitter and is facing someone who is both agile in response and works for a huge media outlet.  Chef may be outgunned, but he is picking up thousands of followers.  He dares the reviewer to return. When the reviewer comes back, the owner again insists on the same uninspired menu, leading the chef to walk out.  Still steaming, in the critical scene, Favreau returning to the restaurant for a core nuclear meltdown at the table of the reviewer.  All of it caught on camera by smartphones.  Spreads like wildfire over Vine, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TMZ and million other sites.  A mistake you can never recover from?  Wrong.

Own Your Assets

Fine, the protagonist is out of a job at this point and he has a ton of negative baggage.  But, he has picked up a huge amount of followers.  While a publicist suggests going on a reality TV show, Favreau instead builds a food truck and takes off across the country.  His young son is a social media genius and Tweets, Instagrams and Vines about where they are going and what they are doing.  As they go across the country, father and son grow closer and teach each other about their worlds, cooking and social media. As a business, the chef is taking advantage of his huge following.

Ice the Cake

The triumphant return to Los Angeles finds the El Jefe food truck and Chef with gobs of followers and fans.  Who shows up to eat and loves the food, the aforementioned reviewer.  He loves it so much, that he offers to back the chef in opening a restaurant based on the truck cuisine.  Chef will be given full creative freedom.  Now, at this point pride might get the worst of most folks.  But, the chef accepts the offer, realizing there is an opportunity here and that there is huge weight in the unlikely story that two social media warriors unite to build an enterprise.

Pave Your Own Road

Any road to success is not smooth or straight. Granted, no business wants to take unnecessary risks.  Few could survive the embarrassing meltdown.  But, unless you are willing to take some risks, unless you are willing to turn every crisis into an opportunity, you cannot succeed.

If Users Ask for Text, They Want To Hear From You

A while ago, during one of those years that was supposed to be the “year of mobile”, there was such a fear of mobile spam that the industry set stringent guidelines about sms marketing.  Overall this is a attribute, we don’t want to turn off the consumer and we want to make the customer happy.  Because of the explosion of apps, mobile web sites and other uses of mobile, sms is just a fraction of the marketing effort.  Still, a sharing of best practices is lacking.

Last night, I saw a Target ad on television with a call to action of texting Toyland to TARGET (827438).  Argue the merits of vanity short codes amongst yourselves.  Where I found a flaw was in the message.  It asked me to go to a website, target.com/toyland, but the url was not a click through.  I had to type the link, or copy and paste, into my browser.  A small inconvenience.  Still, a barrier and it runs counter to the reason you do this kind of marketing, to shorten the impulse and make it easier for the customer to get to your e-commerce site.  By the way, Target does have a great mobile site and no, I did not buy any toys, there are no young ones in our house.

But the lack of communication and direct marketing does not stop there.  A few months ago, I saw a call to action at a Baskin Robbins with the promise that every couple of weeks a text would arrive with a special.  Yukon Cornelius.  Nothing.  Not a peep since the initial thanks for joining the mobile club.  Now, there are all sorts of reasons to text ice cream eaters, even in the winter.  About now a number of people might be interested in a holiday dessert or a lovely quart of egg nog.  

Qudoba is another where there has been no mobile follow through.  Saw the call to action.  Joined.  Got a message back thanking me and saying that I should show the register the message for a free order of chips, salsa and chili con queso.  Got the chips, never got a message.  Tis the season to cater the office party and various things around the home.  They are missing a opportunity.

So, who is doing it right?  Every couple of weeks I get a text from Bed, Bath and Beyond for 20% off of this or that.  Coke does a good job texting members of its rewards club.  Arby’s, even though I do not eat there and just wanted to see what they are doing, does great job of sending Buy One Get One Free or mobile combos on a weekly basis.  In the Chicago market, Value City Furniture has done a good job of leveraging a sports sponsorship to gain mobile members and sending specials. 

So the point here is if you are going to go through the trouble of building a mobile database via sms, then communicate with the customer.  While you may not get a immediate sale, if you don’t ask the question the answer is no.  Also, you are spending money on a tactic rather than investing in a strategy.  Think about your consumer, their experience and pay attention to the details as well.  Remember, if they don’t want to hear from you once a week, consumers can always opt out.

The Sun Rises On the Creative Catalyst

Oh, to live in this era of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)!  Old school marketers used to spew that “You need to spend money to make money.”  Now we live in a era where we say “You need to INVEST money to make money.”  Then we have to provide the data, KPIs, to prove that the investment worked.  What this has led to is a group of people more interested in staring at excel sheets and dashboards looking for numbers to move.  They justify their existence with the slightest upward movement of the numbers.

Except in Phoenix.

Last Friday, the Phoenix Suns announced that they were giving a “fun guarantee” for their upcoming game against the Dallas Mavericks.  If the goal is to sell tickets, must have worked.  The game is in three days and there are little more than a thousand tickets available.  For the season, their average is just over 15,000 a game, so they will beat that by a mile.

Of course they wanted to do more than sell tickets.  The Suns wanted to create buzz.  News outlets, such as ESPN, picked up on it and ran news stories.  That is tons of free publicity and thus advertising for the promotion.  They had advertising supporting their promotion and a special webpage suns.com/guaranteed. 

But they also gave their fans something to spread on all of the various social media networks.  They gave their fans, their brand evangelists, something to evangelize.  I am sure that from the time the promotion was started until now, the number of “likes” on Facebook and “follows” on Twitter increased.  Now, will the Suns follow through with unique specials (perhaps tickets with meal combo for a upcoming game) for people who check in on Foursquare and Facebook mobile.  Will they have a Instagram picture of the game of people who are having fun and getting their money’s worth at the Suns game?  Will they be grabbing the data of the people who are in the seats?  Will they be remarketing to them?

They also deserve kudos for getting the branding thing right.  Having fun at the game, being entertained is what any sporting event is about.  All of us take a rooting interest and have a passion, but it is important to not let this get out of control.  Sports is the original mini-staycation.  We go to the game, have a dog and a beer, and forget about our troubles for three hours. 

One more compliment to the marketing team at the Suns, you didn’t burn your money.  All teams, all brands produce marketing in various forms.  But, a lack of creativity can lead to money being burned.  Someone doesn’t click the banner ad, avoids the Facebook tab, clicks the radio button to another station, turns the television channel, ignores the newspaper ad your money just got burned.  You didn’t move one KPI.

Before first tip on Thursday, the Phoenix Suns marketing team already won the game.

All Talk No Action – The Sad State of Mobile Marketing

Over a year ago, prior to the 2011 holiday shopping season, a major advertising agency issued a white paper saying the mobile device was the new point of purchase at retail.  Outstanding insight.  Still, brands and agencies were caught flat-footed during the 2011 holiday shopping season.  A year later, there has been little or no progress.  The disease of ATNA (All Talk No Action) is in full force.

What leads me to this observation?  The hernia educing size of the Thanksgiving newspaper (it is an anachronism, I receive a daily newspaper) most of it was filled with advertising inserts.  They were neatly packaged in two plastic wrappers.

None of the ads had a special url, sms, qr calls to action.  Forget the fact that you might be able to gain the name and phone number of someone who might buy your product, you marketers just lost an opportunity to track the effectiveness of your spending.  On top of that, with bonded mobile couponing solutions available, such as Koupon Media, there was no way for the consumer to download the coupon on their mobile devices.

According to many sources, over a quarter of the billion dollars spent during the “Gray Thursday, Black Friday” shopping period was spent online.  Several large chains reported that consumers were comparing prices on mobile devices the wares on the shelves.  This happened last year.  Yet, I did not see anyone with a display saying got to “ourstore.com” or “Text ourstore to 1245” or “scan this code” to get a unique in store special.

By the way, you have to do all three.  The consumer makes the choice on where and how they use their mobile devices and you as a marketer need to have this redundancy.  It is something many in the mobile field have preached for years.  Start doing it.

As for all of the money and time you spent going over and vetting the editorial and artwork of these inserts, publishing them and paying for them to be included in the newspaper, wouldn’t it be wise to invest some of that money into a mechanism that gives you data and a direct relationship with the consumer – mobile?

Brands and agencies have to stop talking about how mobile is the future.  They have to stop talking about embracing mobile.  They have to start investing in the infrastructure and bake it into their overall strategies. 

This morning a study came out that was done by Forrester and paid for by Velti (full disclosure, a former employer) that showed that most marketers are being tactical in their use of mobile and that they are looking for customer acquisition.  The conclusion of the article states “The report takes this as further evidence that too many mobile advertisers are using desktop marketing tactics and haven’t yet adapted to the opportunities presented by mobile.  It recommends that marketers use mobile to deliver highly contextual, relevant information that directly engage individual consumers.”

Marketers it is time to kill ATNA.  Now, before you lose the 2013 holiday season.

  http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/11198-mobile-marketing-mainly-used-for-customer-acquisition-report?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed