circa42

I was talking to my friend Todd the other day. (Todd and I collaborate on various and sundry projects at my day job—he copywriting and me designing—but he’s also a successful multipreneur on the side. We’ve worked closely together for a couple of years now.)

As we were discussing the economy he said, “You know, it’s crazy. The last year has been really slow, but lately the phones have been ringing off the hook. I’ve received more phone calls the last few weeks than I have in a long time.”

“Nice. So tell me, where do you get all your leads from? Who are all these all these people who are calling you?” I ask.

“Oh, you know, some are people that I’ve known for a while. Others are folks that I’ve worked with before. A few are people I don’t know but have heard about me from one of my contacts—we share a mutual friend.”

I know Todd: He’s crazy smart and very successful. In addition to his copywriting, he has several businesses on the side. Some small, some large.

But an online search will only yield a small amount of information. He has a small blog, no twitter presence to speak of, and only is semi-active on LinkedIn.

“But you don’t do anything with social media. Your blog isn’t even up-to-date.”

“Nope.”

As it turns out, these leads have all come from good old-fashioned networking.

In this world of micro-blogging, a world where people spend their time sharing articles, competing for followers and readership, most trying to make it big, Todd has effectively cut through all of that.

And he’s done it with what is—or rather what should be—at the heart of our social media attempts.

He’s done it through networking and simply being a mensch.

What should be at the heart of Social Media

It seems many of those who have never dipped their toes into a twitter stream have a warped idea about what the point is.

“What, am I going to be tweeting, ‘just went to the bathroom.’ five times a day? Who cares!” (That is, unless your target audience are people like dug then nobody, that’s who.)

Scott Stratten (aka @unmarketing) summed up twitter best with this tweet: “Directions for Twitter: Reply, Retweet, Tweet, Repeat”

Expanding that out, you have the heart of social media:

1. Interact with people. Find opportunities to have discussions. Doesn’t matter about what. Talk. Interact. Converse. Inquire.
2. Promote others. Be the connector between friend x and friend y. When you can connect two people to their benefit, it helps everyone involved. Be generous in your connections—and remember, it’s not about you.
3. Promote yourself. There needs to be some horn tooting or nobody is going to have a flying clue what you do. Show off a little without going overboard. Justin Levy of New Marketing Labs suggests a 10:1 ratio of promoting other to promoting yourself. Smart, that Justin.
4. Continue to network. Networking doesn’t end after the proverbial cocktail party. Touch base with those you know and see what they need, how they’re doing, and what’s new with them. Contacts need to know that you’re reaching out because you care, not because you need something.

Onward
Twitter isn’t about telling people you had too much cheese to eat last night. And it’s not about shouting from the rooftops that you just posted another article so drop everything and read it!

Social media is networking, plain and simple. It’s reaching out, connecting, promoting, and generally being a mensch.

Todd, incidentally, is an excellent copywriter specializing in sales copy. He’s done work radio spots, scads of work for hotels and resorts, Jobing.com, and a ton of work for us at Carrots. You can reach him at todd [at] toddnordstrom [dot] com

Photo “Heart of Midlothian” by Niffty..

I have five kids. All under seven years old. No twins.

Needless to say it’s a busy around here. As every busy parent knows, getting your kids to do something you want often takes a tremendous amount of patience, strategy, and coordinated tactics.

Kind of like marketing.

Make it Fun
How many of kids are picky eaters? Just about all of them. Kids need to eat healthy food and often healthy food is exactly what they don’t want to eat. But by making it fun, kids are more apt to do it. Peanut butter sandwiches become butterflies, dinosaurs, and geometric shapes. Carrot stick swords. Bug eye olives. Make it fun and watch their pallet expand.

Scarcity
Sometimes you have to pull out the big guns and introduce some high-pressure sales tactics. Nothing moves a young child to get ready for bed like telling them the bed time story offer expires when, “I reach 10.”
“1…2…3…4…”

Limiting Options
Kids like options—just not too many options. When presenting a choice, give kids a few options to choose from rather than being open-ended. They’ll feel some control but won’t be paralized to the point of indecision.” Would you rather wear x or y?” will be better received and have a better outcome than, “What are you going to wear today?”

Lower the barrier to Entry
If you’re asking a child to perform a difficult task make it achievable—lower the barrier to entry. Take the contents of a dirty room, ‘bulldoze’ them into a pile, quickly sort toys, clothes, and books then ask your kid to take care of each pile. Suddenly a task with a high barrier-to-entry becomes achievable. Win-win.

Translating marketing tactics into raising children is effective and fun. Give it a try—I’d love to hear your ideas.

Photo by BigBoyDrums

Overwhelmed with an incredible amount of work? Are you the type of person that simply can’t say ‘no?’ Have you found that “work/life balance” comes off as a joke?

I’m here to tell you something:

Stop it.

Stop killing yourself to do everything.  Stop saying ‘yes’ to every little project that comes you way. Stop staying late.

Don’t stop working, but:
Get organized then start leveraging other people. If it’s too much for one person, find an army.

Your job, while important, isn’t what’s important.

Stop. Go home and spend time with those you love.

Just got a promotion, eh? Nice job, you’re now the manager of your very own team. Bet you’re excited about your new position, right? Good for you. It’s likely you were promoted because you’re awesome at whatever you do. (At least more awesome than most people.)

Not only are you brilliant in your chosen field, but you’re an excellent manager. You know how to help others perform at their best. You know how to engender trust and open up the lines of communication. You recognize the importance of setting goals and fostering accountability without micromanaging.

Right.

You may be the best-of-the-best, but more likely than not, you don’t know the first thing about managing people.

That’s ok, I still like you.

But now you have a couple of choices concerning you management style. You can either make it up as you go, or you can learn some new management moves and practice until you get it right.

“Make It Up As You Go” Management
We’ve all been at a loud party with blaring music. People are dancing. Sort of. Rather, they’re just swaying to the music. There’s nothing wrong with a little impromptu movin’ and groovin’—just so long as everybody recognizes that you’re not out to win any dance competitions. It’s clear you’re not a pro, and that’s okay.

Suppose, however, you were asked to dance with the Riverdance crew. How people would react to your only move—an “improved upon” version of The Running Man? (Becoming an internet meme doth not a successful career make.)

As a team lead, this style doesn’t work. Your team will see through your weak attempts and, while they might not be able to communicate what’s wrong, will easily spot your poor technique.

The Basic Dance Management Moves
Like in dance, there are a few moves that form the foundation of good management. Get these down, practice them daily, and soon you’ll be softshoeing with the best of them.

These are moves are what Gostick and Elton identified in The Carrot Principle as “The Basic Four of Leadership.”

There is a chance that you, as a new manager, might inherently just “get it” when it comes to management. If you’re one of the lucky ones who really connects with people and are a natural leader, good for you. If you think you’re that person, I doubt you’re being totally honest with yourself.

No offense.

We can all use a little brushing up; let’s take a look at how you can improve your management moves.

Trust
How do you get people to trust you?

(psst—try “being trustworthy”)

Okay, it’s a bit more than just always telling the truth. You may always tell the truth, be honest, upstanding, and a picture of integrity and still not be trusted. (Incidentally, if you’re not trustworthy, better get crackin’—it doesn’t happen overnight.)

If you are a trustworthy, but not trusted, I’ll let you in on a little secret: The number one driver of trust? Communication.

Communication
Yes, that’s right. If you want people to trust you, be transparent. Communication is the number one driver of trust. Just because you thought the management meeting you just attended was a boring doesn’t mean your team shouldn’t know what happened. Tell them what happened and that it was boring.

Tell your team as much as you’re allowed to tell them and don’t forget be personable and allow people to get to know you.

Goal Setting
If you want those you manage to move forward and progress, help them set goals. Help them stretch a little. Set the bar a little higher but make the goals achievable.

Set a reasonable timeline, a clear end-goal, and help outline the tasks if needed.

Accountability
Goals are a whole lot of nothing if you don’t hold the members of your team accountable. Meet with them regularly—formally, informally, or both—to review their goals.

Identify the failures and figure out how to fix them, but also recognize the successes and don’t forget to praise the effort.

Practice Makes Perfect
Not all of us are born with the innate ability to manage people. But, with some foundational moves we all can go from making it up as you go to actually knowing what you’re doing.

You’ll feel more confident and your team will perform better under your trained leadership.

Several years ago, I worked with a man who was, by most standards, fairly successful. At 25, he had a successful IT consulting firm that allowed him enjoy some of the finer things in life.

One of those “finer things,” was a German-made sports car. The car was beautiful—from the high-gloss paint job to the wood and leather interior. When he drove, the engine purred and the tires squealed.

“It’s a beautiful car,” I commented one afternoon as we tested out his latest toy, a Segway. (It was back in the day when having a Segway was cool.)

“Yeah, but I think I’m going to get rid of it and get a Honda.”

Seeing my stunned expression, he followed up with, “It’s a pain to own; it’s in the shop every six weeks. That’s one of the reasons I bought the Segway—so I’d have something to get around town while it was in the shop. I want something nice, but I also want something reliable. I thought I had both with this car, but I guess not.”

He’d purchased the car believing that he’d bought a beautiful sports car—but one that was solidly engineered. The moment the car failed to deliver what was expected, his loyalty ran out. Any car that’s in the shop every six weeks takes the sexy out of a driving experience—and fast.

“We Create Beautiful Websites” Yeah? So What?
There’s a lesson for the designer—or any creative—in this little anecdote.

Beauty is important; beauty is what sells. But beauty isn’t what will engender loyalty. Beauty isn’t what brings customers back.

What brings them back? What engenders loyalty?

Here’s the formula: Make a promise, then deliver on the promise. Rinse. Repeat.

It doesn’t matter what the promise is, as long as everyone involved in the transaction has agreed on it.

If your product promises to be a German-made sports car, keep the “sports” promise, but don’t forget the implied quality that comes with “German-made.” Make the promise, then deliver.

If your product promises to make the user feel good about themselves, forget about pushing anything else. Make the promise, then deliver.

If your product promises the user increased productivity, don’t make your tool complicated. Simply help your users be more productive. Make the promise, then deliver.

As a designer, your implied promise is to add value to your clients. With that implied promise comes your own unique speciality. Deliver on both fronts—and do it in spades.

When the Rubber Hits the Road
The simple formula for high-octane creative success? If your product promises something—anything—deliver on that promise.

It’s not any more difficult than that.

I was in the middle of an IM conversation with my sister, when I received a text from my make-up artist. She had come to pick up a color swatch she needed to match for an upcoming photo shoot.

When I returned, I explained the concept behind an upcoming ad I was working on, and what my make-up artist needed.

Her response was simply, “Your job is random.”

My job is random; I specialize in bringing chaos into order.

When I need a specialist, nothing else will substitute. I get the best make-up artist I can find, find the best photographer, and hire the best designer. As long as the budget allows for it, there’s no substitute for a quality specialist.

But, who can pull that together? Who’s job is it to know enough about project management, make-up, photography, and design to order the parts into a whole?

A generalist, that’s who. A generalist will be able to see the finished project, not just a slice of it. They’ll know enough about x, y, and z to pull them all together—and do it well.

So, let the “which is better” debate rage on. The real answer to specialist vs. generalist is: it depends.

Do you want to be the person who excels at one task or brings many parts together?

In machinery, a linchpin is a little piece of locking metal that, when inserted, holds parts or pieces together allowing them function as a whole.

In the post-industrial age, it’s someone who is not easily replaced, someone who creates art, someone who is indispensable. Seth Godin’s newest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? is a visceral look at the post-industrial age and what it means for humans-as-machines.

Seth poignantly asks, “Are you indispensable, or just a cog in the machine?”

I had the opportunity to see Seth Godin live here in Salt Lake. He did an impromptu (thrown together in <23 days) appearance to promote his book book and raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti.

The event was simple—eat lunch, get a book, watch Seth present—but the message was profound.

Me and Godin.

Very few things increase the user experience in the offline world more than exceptional customer service.

A friend of mine recently related a story about an experience he had while calling Zappos.com. He’d called to ask a few questions about a pair of shoes. The first thing the rep on the other end says is, “What can I do today to wow you with service?” Before Chester could answer the rep whipped out, “How about free shipping both to and from your house?”

“Sure, that sounds great,” Chester replied.

“How about next-day delivery at no extra charge?” the rep countered.

“I love it! Even better!”

“What if I gave you a 20% your next purchase? Would that wow you?”

“Heck yeah!”

And on it went until Chester finally said, “Yes, that totally wows me!” He then went on to ask his questions about the shoes.  Before ending the conversation the rep added, ”Oh, and these shoes generally run a little small; I’m going to send out a half size larger with a prepaid return label so you can try both sizes on and keep whatever fits.”

Fully wowed, Chester placed his order. He pledged to never order shoes from anywhere else.

Contrast the above story with this tale from a co-worker of mine. I will spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that his efforts in trying in obtaining refund from an airline for a flight not taken have resulted in, literally, hours on hold. He’s endured mis-direction, apathy and hostility. Just when he thought he’d it was taken care of his experience culminated in this unfulfilled promise, “Thank you for calling [xxx] Airlines. I’ll send you an email with all the details of your pending refund.” You guessed it, the email never arrived. With no way of knowing who he’d talked to he’s back at square one.

Here are three things that will take the user’s customer service experience from drudgery to loyalty.

1. Kill the phone tree. Nothing says “we don’t care” like a phone tree. If it’s absolutely necessary, figure out a way to make it positive—whether it’s always mentioning the “dial zero for an operator” option or throwing in funny quips (a la Southwest’s preflight spiel), find a way to smooth the transition from machine to human. Many large companies can’t get around having a phone tree. But many small companies think they need them; they don’t.
2. Empower your people. If you remember one lesson from the above story, remember how the rep on the phone was able to give a number of freebies just to make Chester’s experience better. And not even as a consolation to an angry customer—but just because. Let your people know it’s okay—even encouraged—to make the customer happy. Don’t make them take every little request to the boss.
3. Lower the risk. Find whatever pain-point your customers have and lower the risk. It’s risky to buy shoes online. (What if they don’t fit? What if I don’t like them? What if…any number of things.) Zappos get’s points for paying for shipping both to and from their location and not making Chester pay for the second pair of shoes they knew he wouldn’t keep. Talk about lowering the risk. Knowing it’s not a risky experience do you think Chester will buy again? Absolutely. And so will some of the people he related the story to.

Do anything in your power to make the offline customer service user experience as smooth as possible. It generates word-of-mouth and engenders loyalty—both of which lead to more sales and happier customers.

It seems as though many of the designers I work with—and have worked with—all have a universal dislike for retail package design.

For obvious reasons it gets a bad rap. It rarely graces the pages of of Communication Arts. It’s loud, it lacks white-space and is full of sales copy snippets (yuck!). In short, it rubs many designers the wrong way.

But retail packaging is designed that way for a reason. It’s unique in the world of design and, when designing it, it’s imperative to keep that in mind. It’s not a brochure. It’s not a website. It’s not a business card. And it can’t be treated as such.

An entire book could be written on the subject, but for the lack of time and space I present to you six critical elements of retail package design. These, generally speaking, appear in virtually all retail packaging. There are always, of course, exceptions to the rules, but for the most part retail packaging utilizes the following six elements on every package:

1. Product name. This is a no-brainer. If you’re designing a Monopoly box you ought to put the word “Monopoly” somewhere front and center.
2. Show the product. This can either be done with transparent packaging (think clear bottle of salsa), a hero shot of the product (as in the case of electronic equipment), or done shown conceptually (an illustration for the board game Settlers of Catan). Whatever you’re selling, the person who is buying needs to get a sense of it and showing the product is the best way of doing that.
3. Key benefits. If it cures a headache, tell them. If it’s new or different, highlight that. If your selling your original recipe, let them know. This is where you sell like crazy and show the buyer that the problem that they have will be solved with your product. You may have 4-6 statements about how your product benefits the buyer.
4. Contents. Tell them exactly what they’re buying. There is some salesmanship with this element (e.g. “25% more!”) but often it’s simply stating how many pills are in a bottle, what the contents of a board game are or how many fluid ounces of Pepsi they’re buying. Give them the facts—play it up if you can. Don’t shy away from selling here—or anywhere for that matter.
5. Tell them who it’s for. If your product is age, gender or demographically specific, let the buyer know. Often times this will be apparent and may overlap some of the key benefits, but still spell it out. A sweaty man knows he’s buying the right deodorant when it specifies it’s for men and has “all day dry protection.” Whether done with graphics or copy, communicate who or what your product is for.
6. Parent company logo. In almost every case a packaging design will communicate the parent company. Instant Breakfast by Carnation. Bionicle by Lego. Whitestrips Premium by Crest. Etc. Every once in a while a brand will remain independent. Proctor and Gamble’s Tide, for example. But as a general rule, include the parent company’s logo.

Below you will find a few samples of various product designs found on the web. While I make no claim as to their efficacy in selling, they employ virtually every element mentioned above in one form or another. Go ahead, take a gander.

If you find the retail packaging scene repulsive yet find yourself in a position where you’re required design for it, here’s my advice: Take a deep breath, embrace garish colors, gradients and fonts. Forget about whitespace. And smile when the request for a aqua-style starburst with a drop shadow comes in.

Kibbles 'n Bits packaging design

Bush's Baked Beans package design

Crest whitestrips package design

Bayer Aspirin package design

Lego Bionicle package design

Recently I’ve had some trouble when making an attempt to change Twitter’s background image to a customized design. For whatever reason the image I’m trying to upload won’t stick. Try as I might it remains stubbornly as-is.

My whole theme will change—no problems—if I’m using a stock design.

Today I discovered a hack that will gets my image to stick every time. It’s pretty simple, but will save you from pulling out your hair if you run into the same problem.

1. Log into Twitter
2. Click Settings
3. Click the Design tab
4. Click Change Background Image
5. Upload your file and…
6. Tick the Tile Background checkbox (yes, even if you don’t want it tiled)
7. Save.
8. Now go back in and untick Tile Background and save again.

Tick tile background

Given how fickle the twitter custom background seems to be with some folks (including me) I’m not sure this will be fail safe. But it’s worked for me several times in a row with no problems.