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Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week

This week is like a bag of mixed treats – delicious snacks that you can savour individually or dive in by the handful. Some are good for your brain, some for your heart and others will make you want to get out and try things for yourself.

I Hope you enjoy reading these – and that you find something that hits you in the right spot.

Have you ever wondered why your press release doesn’t get an airing with the media? Trevor Young may have the answer for you! Take a look at his Five Tips for Pitching the Media.
I used to work with someone who was difficult to interview. Knowing that I was going to write our conversations up, he’d try and talk as if he was writing. It was weird. As Bill Delaney says, Talking Isn’t Writing.
Does your brand have a reason for being beyond the profit motive? Maybe you should rethink what you do and consider storybranding, says Jim Signorelli.
Stories remind us that we are human – fallible and mortal. Valeria Maltoni shares some of the cultural assumptions that underpin the way that we construct our most important stories.
The always brilliant Ann Handley shares a personal reflection on the history of the future – life with and without your loved ones. Read it. It will make you cry as well as smile.

Customer Experience is the Future of Retail

Uncategorized

One of the things that interests me about retail is the potential for performance – for art, drama and transformational customer experiences. But so few retailers deliver this. In almost every case, I am underwhelmed by the retail experience. The range on offer is limited, understocked or difficult to find. Customer service – should you actually be able to find someone to serve you – tends to be cursory and uninformed. Sure there are exceptions … but these tend to be localised – known and loved in pockets across the city.

One of my favourites are the jovial, knowledgeable and friendly “grandpas” at Bunnings Warehouse who are not only helpful but willing to share a lifetime of home maintenance experience. When I bought my first lawn mower years ago, I was guided through the different options and brands by a man who might have been my own grandfather. He not only sold me the option he thought was best for my needs, he also gave me tips on mowing – time of day, technique and even suggestions to get the right kind of edge close to the vege patch. This high touch customer service humanises the vast spaces of the hardware warehouses that have become weekend Meccas for Australian home owners with more than a passing interest in DIY.

My local salon, MGs for Men, also takes a very different approach to customer experience. It’s neither a bare bones barber shop nor a relaxing pseudo-day spa, it’s closer to a testosterone laden workout. Staffed by a team of edgy, tattooed young men, it feels closer to a gym with squads of buff personal trainers prowling the tiles whipping their charges into physical shape.

But fewer of the larger retailers can claim anything like this sense of brand personality. In fact, I often feel awash in a sea of beige.

Going online is no better. Australia’s major retailers ignored eCommerce for decades – insisting that it was a fad and that shoppers would eventually return to the bricks and mortar experience for the convenience of immediate delivery, sizing in-store and handling returns. Harvey Norman and David Jones have recently revamped their sites – which is a welcome improvement – but still falls far short of a “transformational experience” with limited or no thought given to the online customer’s buying process. The sites are designed around the way that the retailers categorise their range rather than helping customer discover or browse – there are no sizing charts to give the customer a sense of confidence and there is no help or customer support to be found. The visual clutter sends confusing signals to the online shopper and – and there is scant regard to the social dimension of shopping with a basic nod to Facebook here and a review tab or two there.

Compare all this with the trends and opportunities presented in PSFK’s Future of Retail report for 2012 – the “new brand champion” and “retail on-demand”:

The new brand champion acts as not only an advocate, but an affiliate to your retail business. They use their social-savvy connections to advocate and sell on your behalf and profit themselves in the process. They also provide vital input into the product rage, design offers (think “crowdsourced buyers”) and deliver shopper-to-shopper customer service.
Retail on-demand is the fully digital experience – delivered by ANY connected device. Shoppers trade their data for better, more tailored options and service – from auto-curated shopping to “fit with a click” technology that takes the guess work out of online purchases.

Clearly, Australian retail is some distance away from this type of experience. But it’s not the trend or distance from the trend to the reality that most concerns me. It’s the lack of vision. The trends point in a fundamentally different direction from that followed by Australian retailers. The trends are focused on the customer experience and are centred on the customer journey. For the most part, Australian retail barely acknowledges the existence of the customer. We won’t be able to fix Retail until we fix retail. It’s time to get back to the customer experience.

PSFK presents Future of Retail Report 2012

View more presentations from PSFK

Dude to Dude – Bullying and Harassment is Not OK

Life, Pop Culture, Public Debate, Rant, Smart Bloggers

The internet can be a messy, chaotic and unpredictable place. You can see some of the best and some of the worst of humanity on display … with the implicit understanding that we are all free to express our opinions.

Over time, many of us create personas through which we air our views and opinions. For example, I tweet using @servantofchaos but also use @gavinheaton – which has a different focus and audience. The ease with which we can setup these accounts often provides people with a false sense of anonymity.

But what happens when you witness bad or bullying behaviour? Do you say something, write, call it out or step back into the shadows of the social web?

I have always believed that to witness and NOT raise your voice in protest gives a silent nod to the behaviour you are witnessing. This sometimes makes for confrontation but often also leads to unimagined change. But whatever the outcome, speaking up at least gives permission for others to take your part or express their own uncertainties or fears – and that can only be a good thing.

Because the thing is … this is NOT just ONLINE. The technology is just another mask – and behind that screen is a real person.

Katie Chatfield shares a great video that provides some leadership. Jay Smooth’s Ill Doctrine blog is a treasure trove of in-your-face commentary on the nature of politics and masculinity. Here he talks about the appalling situation that confronted Anita Sarkeesian while running a Kickstarter project – finding herself the subject of a concerted and vitriolic sexist attack.

What I love about the video is that he addresses men specifically. One of my favourite lines (towards the end) is:

“No matter what scene on the internet is your scene, if you are a dude on the internet and you see other dudes in your scene harassing women or transgender people or anyone else who is outside of our little privileged corner of the gender spectrum, we need to speak up. We need to treat this like it matters. We need to add humanity into our scene to counteract their detachment from their humanity.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Take a few minutes to watch this clip – and then think about your scene – work, home, politics, sport, online and off. Find ONE way to add humanity into your scene and you will make this world a better place.

Give Bullying a Kick – Start with Dandelion

Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Life

As anyone who has experienced bullying will tell you – it’s not only an unpleasant and humiliating experience, it can leave a lasting footprint on your memory and change the way that you relate to even the most important people in your life.

But bullying can be stopped … as long as other know about it. The challenge is getting kids to talk to their parents about being bullied, or seeing bullying behaviour.

At the recent FailCon conference in Sydney, I had the chance to hear about Dandelion – an interactive story that encourages kids to talk to their parents about bullying. Built for iPad helps to build a way into difficult discussions in an imaginative way.

The Dandelion project is currently seeking funding through Kickstarter – with the App + Wristband pack great value for only $14. You can back the project with as little as $1 or take out the Wish Come True Pack at $5000 with benefits including lunch with the author and a day’s creative direction workshop from the folks at Protein One.

There’s only a few days left to get behind this great project. Give bullying a kick and start with Dandelion.

Using the Cloud to Launch Your Products

Branding

The “cloud” is not just about reducing your IT costs. When you think about it, what business calls “the cloud” has been providing us consumers with plenty of flexibility and innovation for years. Look no further than YouTube to see how this innovation is changing the face of what it means to be a “broadcaster” or a producer of “media”.

But for those of us wanting to reach new audiences, create markets or simply just “tell our story”, cloud computing changes the nature of the game – putting us all on the same level as the largest of enterprises. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of cloud or “on-demand” platforms that provide high-end functionality for low monthly or per-use fees.

I take a quick look at some of the best platforms for launching new products in my latest post for The Pulse. Check it out.

Want to Write a Book? Join Age of Conversation #4

Age of Conversation, Books, Social Media

Have you ever wanted to see your name in print? Do you have ideas you’d like to share with a global audience? This may be the opportunity that you have been waiting for!

Over the last four years, Drew McLellan and I have instigated and published three books exploring the Age of Conversation. These crowdsourced books have brought together over 400 authors, raised more that $50,000 for charity, and provided many people with the opportunity to see their names and ideas in print.

After our third book, the Age of Conversation 3: It’s Time to Get Busy!, we thought that the series may have reached it’s natural end point. But now, two years later, we believe there may be still more to explore. And this time, it’s PERSONAL.

Once again, we are throwing the doors open. If you have an idea that you’d like to share with us, we’d love to have you join us.

How does this work?

Nominate for a topic area using this form (please choose three topics – as we have a lot of authors to accommodate, we need to ensure the coverage is spread)
We will advise you of the area
Write a 400 word chapter (no longer please) or 750 word case study and send it through
We will edit and curate the flow of the chapters
The book will be produced on-demand and be ready to promoted
All funds raised will be donated to charity:water

What if I have a case study?

If you have a case study that you can share, we’d love to have it. BUT … this needs to be YOUR case study. They need to be projects that you have worked on or have been responsible for. You must include measurable results of some sort. We’re not going to get into the whole ROI discussion … but you need to show how it played out. Please don’t propose case studies based on other people’s work.

Where do I sign up for the Age of Conversation #4?

It’s easy … sign up using this form.

Please register your interest QUICKLY as we will close off very soon.

Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week

5 Must-Read Posts

As I surf the web, I normally keep a few tabs open with links to the best stories I find. But last week, there were so many that I just had to start writing this post early – or risk Chrome crashing through over work. These were the best five I could find. Enjoy!

There are many who analyse, rate, rank and make decisions based on various “measures” of influence – from Klout to Kred and back again. But Danny Brown suggests that it’s not influencers we seek but instigators.
Most businesses claim to seek out and nurture creativity – yet, in practise, creativity in the corporation can prove to be not only risky but career limiting. David Burkus takes it further, suggesting that traditional organisational structure – hierarchies – kill creativity. Does this gel with your experience?
In Australia, a price on carbon came into effect over the last weekend. Will it mean that our country will be transformed into a post-apocalyptic Mad Max style landscape? Jim Parker shares his vision of this new world order – and it doesn’t look pretty.
I have always thought that great marketing tells a story. But Jim Signorelli explains exactly why marketers should care about stories.
Can you use social media to find a job? Dave Cutler shares five personal branding best practices.

What Google Searches in the Blink of an Eye

Infographics, Web/Tech

I can remember the day I switched over to Google for my internet searches. Before that I had a number of favourite search engines – each with its own specialty. One I would use for searching forums, another I would use for question and answer content. Still another would be used for web page and blog searching.

I quite liked the feeling of control that I experienced in those old days. I knew which tool to use and when. I could find things that other people couldn’t. This made me valuable.

But this process was time consuming. Sometimes I would need to work through many variations of my search terms using two or three different search engines before I found what I needed. And all the while, the clock was ticking.

Eventually I began turning more regularly to Google. It started with a blog search here or there. A boolean search from time to time. But it wasn’t just the results that made me switch. It was the relevance. And it was the speed.

Google’s search far outstripped all the others for speed. The clean, white page offered by Google smashed the slow loading, ad heavy portal offered by Yahoo! It was easier to read than Alta Vista … and it was just more relevant than Ask Jeeves.

But how does Google actually find and return such powerful results so quickly? This infographic explains nicely. And you may just be surprised to know that since 2003 Google has answered 450 billion unique queries that it has never seen before. And only a small percentage are mine!