Just how many times a day do we think or say "What the......." and just what can we do about it? Well I just like to share my thoughts on those thoughts and just about everything......
I don't have any political bias and don't normally comment on politics but the latest gaffe by Gordon Brown just days out from the next election is farcical.
What really gets me is not the blunder in calling the elderly pensioner bigoted but that his damage control campaign has him flip flopping and going and apologising to her in person.
"The Fatal Comment"
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to their own opinions and prejudices which this old lady clearly is. Why pander to her and make an even greater fool of yourself when you can make a clear stand, go on the offensive and make it a positive. I would much rather see a strong leader back himself and his own comments than a fluffing fumbling weakling any day.
His PR team are thinking like losers already and although they will most likely be out of a job by the end of next week anyway their tactics are making him look like he is running scared - not the best days out from the election.
17/04/2010
Know anyone looking for a great 4+ bedroom home in Remuera or Meadowbank?
One of our greatest ever players and only captain to ever hold the William Webb Ellis trophy as a winner thinks the Allblacks may not be quite ready to go all the way yet again.
Vidcom NZ were delighted to host a table of guests at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Rugby World Cup 2011 Speaker Series today with David Kirk as the guest speaker.
The theme was preparing for the world cup and lookig at things from both a business and rugby perspective both of which David Kirk is incredibly well qualified to speak on. The Rhodes scholar, captain of the 1987 World Cup winning team and ex head of Fairfax Media is a rare hero achieving great success in both the business and sporting worlds.
Interestingly David thought the jury was still out as to wether the Allblacks were capable of winning the 2011 World cup with the current crop of talent. While hard to swallow he did have a few good points and it was refreshing to hear and ex Allblack being honest and not just sticking to the party line of drivel coming from the NZRFU.
His speech focussed on three key points:
1. Planning: Being prepared for the event. Do the research, get yourself and your business ready to capitalise on the event and do it wisely.
2. People: Get the right people in the right positions as you can do all the planning in the world but if you have the wrong team you are never going to succeed. - The 1987 team had awful preparation an a heap of new players but they were the right players!
The sweet taste of success in 1987
3. Poise & personality: A further empahis on point two really where you need to have that little bit extra to rise to the top. The sheer determination and self belief in success (something we as New Zealanders struggle with at times). See things through when the going gets tough and celebrate our succecsses.
He opened his speech with commentary on society and business highlighting that for a nation to truly grow and its people to benefit the growth is driven by businesses. The health care system, education social welfare all benefit from the tax dollar generated by business so we need to champion business success and drive for busines growth first and foremost. Something that many people fail to see especially when times are tough and businesses have to make hard decisions to keep afloat let alone make profit. In the long run if businesses in NZ are out there growing and making profits we all benefit.
The wise business great also put a special emphasis on using the event to not only have a profitable 2011 but to utilise those profits wisely and rather than tkaing the soft option of using the extra profits to reward ourselves by an extra overseas holiday or a new boat, look to reinvest in our businesses to ensure prolonged growth and stability.
For the rugby diehards I have added a clip from a RWC interview with David Kirk on next years events and his take the historic 1987 victory a very good watch!
Naked staff swearing and having a laugh on planes!
This bloopers reel from the "Bare Essentials of Safety" inflight video is a great laugh and hats off to the Air New Zealand marketing team.
Air New Zealand have embraced the web 2.0 community and in social marketing (like most things they do) are streets ahead of the competition.
One great example out of their "nothing to hide" bodypainted campaign is the bloopers reel below which they released from their highly acclaimed "Bare Essentials of Safety" on board safety demonstration video.
The willingness to share and vision behind the strategy is fantastic. It opens the door for the public (and potential customer base) to connect with the brand on an personal level and humanises the airline even more than the in-flight safety briefing does itself.
Air New Zealand's Grabaseat site and great use of twitter,facebook and their own Youtube channel have transformed their image when it comes to the on line community.
Not only should we be proud of having the ATW Airline of the Year 2010 (announced in January) for its superb commitment to safety and operational excellence but also for their on line vision and willingness to explore new ideas and push the boundaries like in the controversial "cougar" grabaseat campaign.
Although I avoid referring to myself as a vegetarian because of the elitist implications that go with the label just like I avoid telling anyone I'm earning a master's degree with hopes of eventually moving on to earn a PhD, I've been avoiding meat since the start of 2010.
I don't know about you but after watching the ad a number of times over the last few days I just don't get the strategy behind the new Tiger Woods Ad for Nike.
I have serious issues with it. I think it is in poor taste to use his late fathers voice and comments as part of a campaign that is clearly about rebuilding Tigers image and personal credibility with the fan and customer base. Especially considering the circumstances and that his father was long dead prior to the news of his affairs came out.
Tiger must have agreed to the advert and to have this released just as he was returning to competitive golf reeks of insincerity and a totally orchestrated campaign.
Why did he agree to it? I suppose that is one of the things that bugs me the most as like most golf fans I have always put Tiger on a pedestal as a golfing great. Yes his personal image has taken a bashing but I didn't really care about his off course activities as they were his own business and made public by those wanting to profit from the circumstances. I was actually looking forward to his return and following his progress at the masters but now rather than hoping for a magical comeback I just don't care. For me the advert has given more credibility to the mistresses and critics who have been slamming Tigers morals and ethics. By choosing to do something in such poor taste his own personal brand surely must suffer further with the publics opinion of his ethics.
Try not to vomit at the staging and unashamed insincerity!
Am I being a little naive?
Yes I know Tigers discretions have been huge news and the huge profits for companies & masses employed purely by the huge revenue he generates requires some form of orchestrated comeback but come on! You don't go capitalizing on dead family members credibility and no matter what the context the comments were originally made in it is just bad taste and a little bit sick to go down that path!
It does take a lot to get me excited sometimes but I have just come from a meeting with a new strategic partner for our business Vidcom NZ and I am pumped!
Sometimes it really sucks when you are an exhibitor. You, along with every other exhibitor are fighting for a point of difference to entice the throng of people into your stand and get a return on the substantial cost of just being there let alone grow your business!
What I was shown was proximity (location based) marketing services that we could offer to event, exhibition, trade show and conference organisers.
This premium service utilises blue-tooth technology to send messages, advertisements or video files to blue-tooth enabled devices such as mobile phones in the proximity. Effectively what this will mean is that people with mobile phones entering an exhibition can receive messages driving them to particular areas, or exhibitors.
Imagine being able to directly target every person attending an event via blue-tooth message as they get out of their cars or enter the building promoting an event specific special or giveaway to drive them to your stand. What would the response rate be? How about the ROI for the show? Personally I think this is one of the biggest innovations in attracting prospective clients at shows for years!
With Vidcom being a leader in the audio visual rental market we can see the technology will give exhibition organizers an additional revenue stream in what is a very tight market and will appeal to many exhibitors. The technology will most likely be its own biggest form of advertising as exhibitors will want to get in on the action when they see the messages come out especially if they see the exhibitors stands that utilize the service have increased traffic.
The technology does have huge potential internationally as well - imagine walking down the street and as you approach a cafe receiving a message with a discount code for a coffee or todays lunchtime special. In New Zealand this particular strategy may be in breach of the unsolicited electronic messages act (anti spam legislation) so a tough break for those looking at using it here. However there have been a number of leaps forward with GPS based technology in mobile devices and proximity marketing such as Placecast in the US using location marketing software in an "opt in" situation for mobile users and it is only a matter of time before this type of service is available here.
I don't profess to be a guru in this area but boy it excites me and would be keen to learn more on it if anyone has info on location based or proximity marketing technology and strategies I would love to hear from them.
Two things were reinforced for me over the Easter holidays.
1. Some people should never run a business!
2. Dale Carnegie was a genius.
While on holiday my partner who is a well respected interior designer (and very shrewd business woman) and I went on the hunt for some retro furniture to restore for our new house. The local "antique" and second hand goods store was a bit of goldmine and the owner sent us down to the warehouse to look through at excess stock in storage with someone else.
We ended up negotiating a great deal on a set of six dining chairs and five various other seats that could either be restored for us or on sold to my partners clients. The deposit was paid list of goods drawn up and delivery arranged on the spot.
Come delivery day no one turned up and no calls were received. We went down to the store and the owner said she wasn't going to sell the goods to us now as they were sold far too cheap and offered our money back. Needless to say her approach was not well received and I took a back seat while my partner and the store owner went hammer and tongs each escalating the threats against each other until apparently we were going to court over the matter as well as being trespassed from the premises.
Not being one to want to waste too much time and energy on this now it had got completely out of hand I tried a different approach from Dale Carnegie's world famous book "How to win friends and influence people". One of the pieces of advice from his book I have found most valuable is in part three "Win people to your way of thinking" the first two chapters relate to winning people over in arguments and the first things to do is acknowledge their point of view.
With a leap of faith from my belief in the philosophies from the book I spoke to the owner and told her how I completely understood how she felt about the matter. Having two demanding, irrational out of towner's coming in and negotiating a price on goods with someone and her not getting the chance to sign off on the deal before it was done must have been infuriating & if it was me I would have most likely fired the person who made the deal. I went on to say she must really hate us coming in and spending our money all around town like we do. Before I even finished that sentence she cut me off saying how much she actually relied on out of town business and we weren't really that bad. She then went on to talk about how she had just had and operation and really wasn't in the best of moods and apologised to me before organising for someone to meet at the storage facility to hand our furniture over.
If the business owner had maybe read the same book and had phoned us as soon as she had heard what her assistant had sold the furniture for apologising in advance and explaining her situation while saying that she would have completely understood if we wanted to hold her to the price we would have quite happily discussed the matter paid about 15% more than the original agreed price.
I am sure there are worse horror stories out there of terrible customer service it just still astounds me that people can stay in business despite their horrific attitudes and business acumen.