Jacqueline @jacquelineod - Tumblr Blog

What marketing can contribute to national heritage week

What on earth could National Heritage Week have to do with marketing?

Most people would probably 'not much' but to me, marketing plays such a huge role in shaping our culture and it can either promote or diminish ideas about heritage. The government defines heritage as

"Heritage is about the places and stories that make Australia special. It includes our amazing natural places, our rich Indigenous heritage and the diverse historic sites that together reflect our development as a nation.

Our heritage contributes to our sense of place and to our community and personal wellbeing, it informs us about where we have come from and who we are, and is fundamental to our national identity."

One of the saddest changes I've seen in marketing in Australia over the past decade has been the shift to using 'international ads' without alteration. Many years ago, this was almost unheard of but changes local content laws have removed the need for voiceovers to be in an Australian voice. As such, many of the current ads have distinct American accents, terminology and phrasing, and even cultural or geographical references.

The images shown of cities, landscapes, buildings and homes rarely represent our Australian aesthetics.

And when Australian heritage is represented, it is often done in a very overt manner or in a nostalgic fashion, focusing on the rugged, pioneering, outback aspect or the white, suburban, nuclear family. While these are valid aspects of our heritage, they are also a very limited representation of modern Australia.

With more than 2/3 of our population living in urban centres, nuclear families becoming increasingly rare, and a hugely diverse and multicultural society, for marketing to continue to represent Australia in such a limit way - or to neglect to represent Australia at all and rely on imported advertising - can be very damaging.

It is time for marketing to play a more positive role in reflecting modern Australian culture - full of diversity, national shared values that are different to other Western states, and a thriving urban lifestyle that supplements our gorgeous natural heritage.

By focusing on what works in Australian culture and highlighting the uniqueness that we share as a community, marketing can help to create a cohesive, happy society and truly support the success of our country as a multicultural society. This includes showcasing our beautiful cities and the wonderful buildings, bridges and public spaces we have built (there is more to Australian architecture than one bridge and an opera house!) so that we are reminded of their significance and remember to protect them into the future. It also includes showcasing of our local talent, in visual arts, music, dance and theatre, so that we remember our unique heritage there too.

So, this national heritage week, let's ask our marketers and advertisers to step up!

What unique aspects of Australian heritage would you like to see reflected in marketing campaigns?

#marketing #national heritage week #positive marketing

Living with integrity

Some years ago, after a bad day at work in the corporate office filled with Dilbert-style cubicles, of which I was at that time a prisoner, I accidentally happened upon a small, soft-cover book that was heavily discounted in order to clear the few remaining copies from the store... and thus, serious life-change began!

We all have our stories, a turning point, where we had to do more. Strangely enough, I'd been firstly disenfranchised by working class parents who believed that if you fell below a certain socio-economic line your best was to put up and shut up - and work harder; and secondly by sufficient international commercial success based on my ability to adapt, and project capability and IQ, beyond my station (she says mockingly) to understand that it wasn't that simple.

I'd never wanted anything more than to make the world a fairer, happier and healthier place yet I had begun to lose all of my naive, stupidly optimistic, ridiculous hope.

And then I opened the covers of this book.

It had the simplicity of the self-help books I'd come to love - simple one-sentence summaries of hope, one after the other, all making sense. But it also had amazing real life examples of spiritual warriors (my words not his) who were actually living examples of people with integrity. Simple stories that seemed like they could have been achieved by anyone... and maybe they really were that simple :)

Each chapter was punctuated by Martin's beautiful nature photographs but that was simply the icing on the cake. The real gift of this book was, and is, the oxygen than hope needs to fuel its flame.

Living with integrity

#positive #positive messaging #positive marketing

Learning from Apple: why purpose isn't enough

A number of my dinner companions quickly jumped to the Simon Sinek talk that got everyone talking purpose-driven business a few years back. (If you’re not familiar with this TED talk, check it out here http://bit.ly/WmgEtT ) My point, supported by at least one other person at the table, was that purpose means very little if you don’t carefully construct how you are going to deliver it to ensure that your purpose doesn’t become simply marketing spin. Basically, I believe that ‘how matters’ – the ends don’t justify the means, as such. This is particularly important for social businesses and not-for-profits who may sometimes believe in their cause so much that they are willing to compromise on some things in order to achieve their mission – I’ll write more on that particular topic later, for now I want to focus specifically on purpose-driven approaches to for-profit businesses.

My major concern with the current focus on Purpose for businesses is that there seems to be an automatic assumption that if a company has sat down and worked out what its purpose is that it will include an aspect of social responsibility and environmental care. The term purpose-driven business has become synonymous with more authentic, transparent and ‘good’ business practices, with greater social integrity. Let’s be clear on this though, Simon Sinek never said his presentation was about changing business to a model of greater responsibility or sustainability – his presentation was positioned as an insight into why some brands or people inspire us and some don’t. He was simply pointing out that starting a conversation with ‘why’ – our passion, our vision, our values – is more engaging and inspiring than starting our conversation with what we do and how we do it. It was a model for better branding and better story telling. He does make the point that profit is not the purpose of business, that it is simply an outcome but this in itself does not exclude purposes that are detrimental or anti-social.

One of the shining examples Simon Sinek gives of a purpose-driven business that inspired people by focusing on the ‘why’ is Apple. Yet in recent years many of their business practices – from employment conditions in China to increasing rates of perceived obsolescence of products to contribution to growing e-waste worldwide – have come under question. Sinek notes that Apple’s ‘why’ is about challenging the status quo and thinking differently. Steve Jobs however described it as Apple, at its core, believing that people with passion can change the world ‘for the better’.

In 1997, in Jobs’ presentation on Apple Brand Purpose, highlighted that marketing is about values – ‘it’s a complicated world, a noisy world, we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.’ He noted that it was important not to talk about technical features, that customers want to know ‘who you are and what you stand for’. This is of course, one of the reasons that Apple is so frequently used as an example of a visionary business with a clear purpose. And it does actually include a social aspect, where real good could have been contributed to the world.

What went wrong?

My dinner companions and some other colleagues have put forward two suggestions. The first is that the purpose wasn’t well embedded into the organisation and thus couldn’t really be considered the purpose of the business, just of the leader at the time. The second is that the only businesses that maintain their purpose are those that remain owned and run by the person who set the purpose in the first place.

The first point speaks to my argument about stopping the conversation at ‘why’ and forgetting that ‘how matters’. Even Simon Sinek’s book was called ‘Start with why’ – he recognised it was only the beginning point! The truth is, if you get the ‘why’ clear and well-defined, it will guide you every step of the way on the how and the what providing that you don’t stop at ‘why’ and think your work is done. I believe that once you’ve worked through how you are going to deliver on your purpose in every part of your business (think every single aspect of your operations, product design and marketing), you can embed it so deeply that you don’t need the owner at the head of the business for the purpose to survive.

If you listen to the second half of Jobs’ presentation, it gets really interesting. It is clear that he had intuitively understood what Sinek was describing years later – that sharing your passion and values is more inspiring and creates greater loyalty than talking about the drier, more technical aspects of what you do. You see, his talk was about planning Apple’s first brand marketing campaign that was going to begin in the coming weeks. He was adamant that Apple’s core purpose needed to be at the heart of everything they presented to the world.

The campaign was focused on people who had changed the world – this was the famous ‘think different’ campaign. The TV ad spoke to this:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

You can watch the entire Steve Jobs presentation here: http://youtu.be/ugqcXqTEVMA

Jobs focused on the brilliance of the Nike brand as his inspiration – no discussion on product or comparison with competitors; everything focused on athletes so that the audience automatically associates the Nike brand with the feeling of athletic brilliance, success and glory. This was Jobs’ vision for Apple, to create an automatic emotional response to the Apple brand that was linked to visionary change-makers and innovative thinkers.

Maybe this is where the purpose got lost? Was it all built into the brand rather than being built into the operations? For my friends who believe that only the business’ original owner can hold a company on purpose, I think that is a very limited perspective but to those who believe that a clear vision and definition of your purpose is enough, I think Apple serves as brilliant lesson.

Around 4 years after Apple won the world’s hearts with its ‘Think Different’ campaign, Forbes asked the question ‘Where is Apple’s social purpose?’ If Steve Jobs’ original focus on people who change the world ‘for the better’ had been carefully engineered into Apple’s overall operations, there is no way that this question would have been necessary – and no way I would have been writing this article another 2 years on!

What can you learn from Apple about using purpose to inspire great customer loyalty and brand passion? I believe it is as simple as ensuring that your purpose includes clear social consideration (including environmental factors) and that the moment you have it clarified, you work at incorporating it into every aspect of your business. Be explicit about it – don’t leave it to chance! Build it into your procurement, distribution, recruitment, outsourcing, production etc And very importantly, be incredibly careful to build it into your marketing methodology and tactics, not just your marketing messages…

#purpose #purpose-driven #positive marketing #xx

My shades of grey

For the most part, I consider myself fairly lucky on this count - especially over the past few years when brunettes started making a comeback and were allowed to be the attractive girls in films not just the smart girls. I'm not saying I look anything like the girls they use in movies or advertising campaigns. Far from it! But I am a lot more similar than many people I know.

I've been talking about this topic with a lot of people lately, trying to get a better feel for how conscious or otherwise people are to this feeling of not being represented. During one of these conversations I had a really personal realisation: no matter how 'comfortable' I am with myself or much I accept my own physical appearance, I have never stopped dying my hair since it started going grey in my mid-20's.

Suddenly I started looking really closely at the women my age in the media and entertainment realm. I couldn't find a single one with grey hair. Hell even the women 30 years older than me usually presented with full-coloured hair! Each day for the next few weeks I looked at the women around me in the streets, on the train, in cafes... I could only find 2 or 3 under the age of 60 who were letting their natural grey be seen by the world. Strong, opinionated, boldly dressed women who were not at all afraid to show that they were not going to conform to the narrow definitions of beauty imposed upon them were still dying their hair.

I realised there was only one thing to do - challenge myself to go grey! Now, anyone who knows me well will know that I'm not afraid to experiment with my hair: I've permed it, Bali-braided it, dyed it, bleached it, streaked it, grown it, cut it and pretty much anything else you can think of... I've even gone natural every now and again :) Oh, and I took clippers to it once to make a point (only to discover that a buzz cut pretty much makes everyone assume you are either undergoing chemotherapy or a lesbian). But to be honest, even with only a couple of inches of grey starting to peak through, I'm really not sure if I'm going to be able to follow through on this completely.

I do have Helen Mirren and Jamie Lee Curtis to inspire me Maybe if there were just a few more female role models sporting natural grey locks, like there are men (think Patrick Dempsey, Pierce Brosnan and George Clooney) it would feel a little easier?

#grey hair #aging

Working with, not for

When I was working in large companies working with, not for, meant that I allowed others to have input into my work, answered their questions about why I had done things the way I had, and documenting my work processes in detail so that basically anyone could my work for me. Strangely enough, this approach is often seen as a weakness in many large corporations - holding knowledge that no one else does is a sign of power and accepting others inputs is often interpreted as being indecisive.

In my social science studies, I came across many instances of work that was being done 'for' people - in particular, outsiders (mostly Westerners) going into poorer communities and 'fixing' things. But I've also seen - and been involved in - work where the local community decided what was needed and the 'outsiders' were there to work with them as an extra pair of hands, a knowledge bank to be drawn on as required, and for morale (there is nothing like knowing a complete stranger wants to give up everything to help you out for a while to make you feel empowered).

Teams that develop skills within - even if the overall work is still to be outsourced - provide greater resilience to the organisation, able to respond to opportunities or threats quickly and with confidence. Strategies and plans are more likely to be well implemented if the team has understood the process and contributed from their own experience and skill base. Understanding different skills also helps team members to have a greater appreciation of each other and reduces the ranking of skill sets based on perceived difficulty, creating an awareness that everyone's work requires a unique knowledge base that is valuable. This approach sometimes comes at the cost of some efficiency initially but the payoff in the longer term is too significant to be sacrificed.

Ensuring everyone feels able to contribute and participate does require some different skills and methods to our work. I'll write more about these in other posts. In the meantime, do you have a personal experience to share of a time you saw a deliberate decision to work with, not for get results?

#positive marketing #marketing knowledge

Do positive messages make audiences more receptive?

I am a huge believer in positive messaging - it is a core technique for our Positive Marketing model. I don't have scientific research to specifically back my perspective but there are certainly plenty of fringe studies on the effects of fear and negativity in keeping people compliant. My observations of the world, and significant reading in some of these fringe areas, has me convinced that negative and positive messages produce very different mindsets and behaviours.

#positive marketing #Donnie Maclurcan #Positive messaging

The Responsible Business

The Responsible Business by Carol Sanford (@CarolSanford) is one of the most inspiring business books I have ever read. Working with some of the world's big name, old-market businesses, Carol Sanford has been able to establish a business methodology for a brave new future.

(Click on the picture above to go directly to its listing on Fishpond* if you'd like to buy this book.)

#responsible business #marketing #positive marketing #book review

Do you know how strong you are?

Imagine if you discovered that your team was full of people with hidden skills that were really useful to what you were trying to achieve. Or if it turned out that some of your team members had a strong desire and motivation to learn skills quite disparate to the skills you hired them for, and these new skills were something you really needed!

#asset based thinking #donnie maclurcan #positive marketing

Think community, not conversation on social media

I’ve noticed a lot of people lately talking about shifting from “broadcast” to “conversation” for social media. I understand where they are coming from – as a business, it is a new mindset that our customers can easily talk back to us and engaging with them to build a trusting relationship makes sense. But the reality is, if you are only viewing social media as a conversation, you are missing some of the best opportunities available.

#social media #community building #marketing #positive marketing

Product is the new frontier of marketing

Every day I read about a new marketing trend – a new addition to social media, content marketing, real time marketing, interactive marketing… it is enough to make your head spin. Yet what all of these things have in common is that they are part of the promotional component of marketing. The terms marketing and advertising are used interchangeably and critique of marketing efforts is increasingly based entirely on the activity used to promote the brand or product.

#positive marketing #marketing #product development

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a young woman discovered something inside herself that she never knew existed...

...that despite being uncoordinated, clumsy and awkward, she was actually really good at taekwondo!

But that was then and this is now. 5 years without practicing! 5 years with lots of sitting in front of desks and spending time in my own head. 5 years of getting older and even less coordinated.

2 years ago I found a taekwondo gym near my home. I emailed, checked the timetable, and asked all the right questions. And just as I would expect from any taekwondo teacher, I was given the instruction: just do it. Come in, start training and the rest will follow.

I responded in my usual way: no - first I must get fit. I must practice my poomses until I remember them. I will come back soon though, I promise.

Today I felt sick to the stomach all day. You see, I'd made my decision to go to class known. I had made myself accountable to someone else. And all I could think all day was "Which will be worse? How self-conscious and ridiculous I will feel turning up to class and not being fit enough and not remembering the forms? Or how pathetic I will feel telling my colleague that I chickened out?"

Not very constructive but not an uncommon thought pattern either. Personally, I am sick of chickening out of things. Especially things that aren't that scary to start with - I mean I've had some pretty wild adventures in my life and faced some interesting challenges so what on earth makes this such a big deal?

So I went to class. And I did every exercise I was told to do. Some of them I almost got right. Some I got really wrong. I even fell backwards on my bum, kicking while off balance - something I didn't even do as a white belt! And I huffed and puffed from every small round of kicks or punches. But I did it. And actually I did better than just doing it - I relaxed and enjoyed it!

Turns out, I can do anything I put my mind to :)

#face your fears #taekwondo

Positive Visioning for better marketing

I’ve been thinking about deficit thinking a lot lately. As a marketer, this style of thinking is deeply embedded in taught methodologies. Most marketers, whether consciously or intuitively will follow a deficit thinking pattern to drive their marketing solutions.

Deficit thinking is all about can’t, problems, weakness, obstacles etc So marketers will often start by asking “What’s wrong?” "What's the problem?" or “Where are a customer’s pain points?” That is, we seek to find dissatisfaction that we can then address with the product or service we are selling. (Or create a new product or service to meet that need.)

#positive marketing #deficit thinking #asset based thinking

Stop comparing yourself to others

I like to say that every minute you spend watching your competitors is a minute that your attention is not on your customer. But comparing ourselves to others is even more damaging than that.

#positive marketing #competition

A few words on purpose

Purpose in business is simple. You exist to meet people's needs.

If you can't clearly describe what needs you are trying to meet and how your product or service succeeds in meeting those needs, go back to the drawing board.

Once you are clear on this your marketing will come easily - you will identify people who have that need and introduce them to your product or service. You become the matchmaker!

What is your purpose?

#purpose #positive marketing

Tuesday night is my Buddhist class and meditation night. I am finally being disciplined and not letting anything else get in the way. Which is harder than it sounds - I thought I'd made it easy by picking a Tuesday night class but from the moment I did, amazing invitations and opportunities started presenting themselves on Tuesday nights! (It was almost like I was being tested...!)

My teacher is amazing - he has the whole class in giggles for most of the hour and a half that we are there. Although not the part we spend meditating, of course! He brings such joy and playfulness into the teachings that there is no way to feel bad. He points out behavioural patterns that we personally berate ourselves for and make them look so silly that it is easy to laugh at - and forgive - ourselves.

I think sometimes we forget that it is easier to learn a hard lesson while you are feeling good. We get all caught up in the lesson having to be a serious as the topic we are teaching. Yet all it does is make us more uptight, more angry and less ready to hear new ideas.

I know when I was teaching English to elementary school kids in Korea the same applied. If I could get them laughing and having fun, they learned really quickly. It was like they forgot it was hard to learn, so it wasn't any more. Maybe this is the problem with how we are trying to solve the world's social and environmental problems at the moment - we've made it all too serious and people are stressing about it but not learning it. As hard as it may seem, I think we need to bring more joy back into it all.

One of the key learnings from class tonight was about meditation practice but it applies to trying to do anything difficult really: 1) expect no results (but do it anyway - do it because it is the right thing to do even if you're not successful)

2) inject delight into every aspect of what you do

3) never give up. Not ever.

I love the idea of 1 and 3 together - the idea of just choosing to do the practice because you trust it is the right thing to do, discarding all thoughts of achievement and deciding to just keep doing it forever, no matter what. Of course, it seems a bit like hard work if you have something really difficult (like meditation!) in mind. And then number 2 jumps in - and if you are doing the endless practice, with no expectation of success, ensuring it is fun and joyful is surely the only way to go!

There are so many things in my life this applies to right now but setting up Just Good Marketing especially. I need to be doing it whether it succeeds or not, just because I know it is the right thing to do. But, by golly! it needs to be done with delight :)

What could use a shot of joy, laughter or delight in your world right now?

#buddhism #meditation #joy

Building a community on Twitter

There are many articles and help guides around that will assist you to build a Twitter following but if you are a specialised or localised organisation, you may prefer to use Twitter to actively engage with your relevant community.

This community may be donors or investors, service users or people interested in your cause but if your communications plan has indicated that this is the approach you want to take, many of the help guides won’t be quite so relevant.

#positive marketing #community development #twitter

Clean Slate Day

I've been trying to live more actively, eat more healthily, be more social, meditate and reflect, and well - all the usual things we know we probably should do if we want to be healthier and happier. Some weeks are great and it all seems incredibly natural and fun. Then out of the blue, a week comes along that just whips you!

So I've decided that Sunday (which is usually the slowest, most peaceful day in my house) is Clean Slate Day. On Sunday mornings, I take a few moments to reflect on the week - what went well, what didn't, and how it all felt. Then I simply LET IT GO!

And I start again...

I don't plan for the coming week or make lists of what I'm going to do better this week than last week. I just start again.

I know that I already know how to live a great life, so a I start doing it. But with a clean slate - because the truth is, even if I've just finished a great week where I did all the "right" things, it doesn't really count for anything this week.

Can you give yourself a clean slate?

#happiness #wellbeing

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