At The End Of The Day

What A "Best Place to Work" Means

You may have seen news items about companies named "Best Places to Work" or "Family-Friendly Places to Work." I can now, with authority, explain what that means.

A "Best Place To Work" is a creative, open environment. It should have open idea sharing, flexible work spaces, free-flowing information, regular training or practice-improvement, a dash of sense of humor about its business and a commitment to more than its own self-interest. It also should have a continuing drive to deliver excellent work, accountability to those standards, a respect for and commitment to customers, and a leader who sets a direction, leads, but also lets others drive, because she (or he) trusts them to do so. It's not all fun and games at a "Best Place To Work."

These qualities will not all manifest themselves in the same fashion at any company so honored. Depending on the business, and the personality of the company, these may come out in different ways. But it results in committed employees who feel like they have a stake in the company's success.

I can now speak with some authority on this subject because I work at the Best Place to Work in Maine for 2009. The agency business has come a long way since Mad Men. While I love that show, I doubt that many of the employees outside of management there would consider Sterling Cooper a "Best Place to Work."

What's next is to continue to build on this, and make sure our clients consider us a "Best Place to Do Business."

Blog Activity

When you're busy, you don't blog as much. I don't Tweet as much either.  Less than once a day now.  I will though, I prommise.

Winter Storm Warning

This week while my car is in the shop, I have had a rental. Over all it's been a pleasant experience. It started off a little rocky when I had to wait longer than I would have liked for them to pick me up because they were so busy. But, because they were so busy, there was a shortage of mid-size cars which resulted in an upgrade to some SUV crossover. The car is clean and pleasant smelling and over all a fine temporary replacement- except one thing.

It occurred to me sometime yesterday afternoon as snow was turning to some nasty wintry mix, that I would most definitely be needing to scrape my car when I left work. I hoped that there was a basic little ice scraper in the rental, but suspected otherwise. Sure enough there was not. But there was a very thick, crusty layer of ice & snow on the windshield. Don't you think a car rental place in Maine in the winter should have ice scrapers in the cars? It seems to me that would be a nice little piece of customer service.

Finance and Your Brand

Your brand is what you promise as well as what you deliver. This insight helps to explain the depth of betrayal in financial markets, and part of the reason for the precarious state of the financial community.

This insight was brought forth by Ron Strauss, CEO of Brandzone, in a post on the American Marketing Association Branding SIG.

I hope the link works if you're not a member. Strauss' thinking focuses not on the poor performance by financial service brands, who promised a value return for investing and believing their brand, but on the the poor "values" executed by these brands. In doing whatever it took, including risky investments, they fell short on the values promises more than the value promises.

This is valuable insight into how your brand should go to market, as much as what you market.

Remain Calm! All Is Well!

Are you panicked?  Are you ready to make a run on your bank and put it under the mattress?  I offer this piece of wisdom from the Newspaper of Record.

The time to take your money out of the market was last year.  Or, at least, a few months ago.  Don't lock in your losses.  Don't go nuts.  There are ways to survive, and, in fact, do well. 

Rather than panic, take a few minutes out of your day to see where things are going.  What are the trends that will affect us over the next year?  The economy is the big one.  But, our focus on green, on reliability and security, and assuredness, allow marketers real opportunity to mean something to their customers.  Stand for something, and stand by it.  People want to know what they can trust.  Is your brand such a brand?

A cool site

One of our art directors sent this email to me:

If you're interested in spending your money at socially responsible companies, this site is a great guide. I got the book version recently and it's pretty interesting. It's called Better World Guide.

Stand Up

Day 2 at Garrand, and I learned more during this morning's 30-minute Stand Up Status Meeting than in weeks of online research.  Already, I feel like I'm home. I knew Garrand was producing great work but I just learned how we do it,  with a unique team of extremely kind, creative-minded people. It is my initial observation that everyone here is sincere, intelligent, and full of personality.  Ideal characteristics of a successful agency.

Here are just a few things I took away from this morning's meeting:
- Maine Medical Center presented us with a plaque thanking us for donations - Garrand is generous
- Garrand will soon be adding staff - Garrand is growing
- Garrand's teams are pushing through projects for several clients, including Gorham Savings Bank, Island Oasis, Sylvania and local non-profits - Garrand is busy
- We will no longer stock the break area with paper cups - Garrand is doing its part

Oh oh oh oh what a feeling!

Ever seen a Tacoma fall apart? Toyota is offering to buy back more than 800,000 Tacoma model trucks manufactured in the US between the years 1995 to 2000. These vehicles were mostly sold and driven in Northern climes where road salt and excessive moisture prevails and where these vehicles have experienced excessive frame rust-through.

The deal is, if your VIN matches you take your Tacoma into an authorized dealer where they inspect your frame for free. If you "fail" then Toyota offers to buy back you truck at 150% KBB retail, rated as excellent condition. They'll then offer you a free rental car for 30 days while you decide how to solve your transportation dilemma. There is no hook. You are not obligated to buy a Toyota.

I owned a 1997 Tacoma, and I took the deal. It was rusted through and in need of substantial repair (no big surprise – after all "rust never sleeps"). I'll be receiving my check for over $10,000 any day now. By the way, I bought a new Tacoma on my way out the door that day. I believe that Toyota is doing it right. They're great brand stewards interested in playing the long game, a rare breed in the auto industry. Here's a tip: keep your eye on Toyota stock.

There's No Two Ways...

This just in, Hannaford Bros. has pulled advertising from WGME, Channel 13 in Portland, over "aggressive reporting" on a recent credit card security breach traced to Hannaford's systems. This is not only wrong, on several levels, but also points out a serious flaw in Hannaford's marketing communications.

In marketing, at least in my world, we prefer media that is objective.  We want our advertising to run in credible media, from news to other content.  Consumers are well aware of, and reject, those media that seek to try to hide advertising in other messages, or alter their content to please advertisers.  Likewise, I don't want to be held hostage by media that would purport to alter content based on whether we do or do not advertise.  Black marks to Hannaford for attempting to use their advertising clout to alter news coverage.

On the public relations side, we expect news sites to be credible.  How and why would I believe anything out of WGME if they bowed to Hannaford pressure?  Hannaford has also weakened their public stance by drawing unnecessary attention to themselves.  They have extended the story of their own fallability.  By pulling advertising, they have created the appearance of fault, and of trying to hide it.

For reference, see the recent story about Mark Penn resigning from the Clinton campaign for conflicts of interest, and basically how a PR master failed at his own expertise.  This is why lawyers hire lawyers when they need them.  (Shameless plug upcoming) Communications is not a do-it-yourself enterprise.

I Heard The News Today, Oh Boy...

Old School Salesman - Watch the top videos of the week here

A salesman stopped in to see me yesterday. As the de facto purchasing agent for the company, this is not unusual. I'm contacted by sales people all the time. For a great post about effective sales calls, read Seth Godin's archive post on this subject.

Marshall Gordon is a different type, who has been working in the same industry for 62 years! Certainly, his account base is much, much smaller today than it was in his heyday, but he's still out pounding the pavement, drumming up sales and pressing the flesh.

When I asked him how it was that he decided to drive 2 hours just to meet with me his reply was "well, I never learned how do that email and faxing stuff." I love this guy – he's getting my order. Maybe there's still room in this world for the original, hard-working pitchman.