About 1,900 km from where I'm posting this blog entry there’s a narrow forest road that meanders through our northern boreal forest. At the very end of this road there's a little village. Look closely and you'll see that this little village has stores, homes, cars, a bank; all of the amenities that you can image the local forest fairies might need on a day-to-day basis. It's wonderful.

Of all of the things that I’ve discovered on my forest walks this year, this is by far the most significant one. 

It shows me that love, kindness, environmental consideration and imagination are not just welcome here, they have a home here. 

This village inspires me to believe that the parents who have helped their children imagine and create this village are raising inquisitive, sensitive and imaginative children who are FAR more likely to grow up to be considerate, responsible, inclusive and visionary leaders. 

PEACE.  LOVE.  UNDERSTANDING.

Recently Linked In asked me the following question: “How can you build and maintain brand authenticity in the age of artificial intelligence?”

Here's my perspective:

Regardless of where I go or which channel I communicate through, I am Frank (by name and nature).

Some people \ clients \ brands really like and respect my approach to MARCOM while others don't. That is as it should be; as an individual, and as a brand, I can't please all of the people all of the time. 

POSITIVE:

Ai can help me find more people who like my approach to MARCOM. 

NEGATIVE:

Ai should NOT be used to create 25 shades of "Frank" to artificially expand my audience because all I'll get is a short-term pop in sales - until my brand-fraud is revealed and all of my brand equity is lost.

Across North America everybody wants more for less – plus a lifetime guarantee. To satisfy this insane and insatiable desire for more cheap food, goods and services, we’ve sent millions of jobs to Asia and India. We’ve also done a wonderful job of teaching our kids that many jobs are not worth doing or having. This mentality has shut down industries and laid waste to cities, towns and individuals all across America and Canada. Where will this end?

When companies do not earn decent profit margins their foundations crumble.

• They no longer can afford to do research and development.
• Without leading edge research and development their managers blindly follow the “best practices” of their competitors, and fail.
• They cut back on staff training and development.
• They cut back on benefits.
• Full time staff is rehired as part-time staff with no benefits.
• Part time staff juggle two, sometimes three, jobs just to make ends meet. No holiday pay, no pension plan, no medical support.
• Because they are just making ends meet, time and money they can't afford to "support" the arts and those who are less fortunate. 
• It impacts time at home and time with family and friends - life in general.
• And on and on it goes - in a giant downward spiral.

A client of mine had his website designed and built in the Philippines to save money. They charge 75% less than I do. Some of the money he'd paid me went back to his car dealership when I needed auto parts or service. The money he paid to the company in the Philippines left Canada and will not be used to buy any of his vehicles, parts or services on Black Friday, or on any other day of the year.

He thought he was smart . . . 

He taught his customers to look for "Fast & Cheap" - not for "Good and long lasting".

He's no longer in business . . . 

He couldn't make up in volume what he lost on margin.

When you charge a fair price and invest the profits in our people, our communities, and industries, we all grow stonger, better and smarter.

Follow this link to the Local News Poverty Map to see how many local media outlets have close, merged, or have been bought up.

https://localnewsmap.geolive.ca

Some of my readers will say – BORING . . . who cares! Those media (local paper, radio, TV, station, etc.) were old school, not keeping pace with the times, blah, blah blah. I can’t afford the price of the subscriptions, or the time. I can grab the local news I want / need on my social media apps for free.

Others, like me see something different. Local media – especially paid local media serve the community. Period. They keep local ad dollars in the community and promote opportunities and services in their home community. The loss of local media cannot be replaced by social media because a small business cannot compete for the keywords needed to promote its business online. Many small business owners do not have the time, money or expertise to do so effectively.

From a consumer \ recipient perspective, all social media channels are competing for a tiny sliver of your free time. In turn the small business’s “news or ad” is competing with all of the other feeds you’re getting from friends, family business collegues – and more. All that competition is exacerbated by the social medium’s proprietary algorithm which determines what you and your (paid) audience will see . . . and what it won’t.

At a time when “transparency” and “authenticity” are all the rage in communications, I find it VERY strange that marketing & advertising managers the world over have willingly bankrupted most local media and moved almost all of their ad dollars to on-line search and social media because online media metrics - PPC - is supposedly cheaper and better.

You will never know the truth.

Online media make billions of dollars with their highly proprietary black-box algorithms. You have no way of knowing if the "Ad Reports" are a fair and reasonable refleaction of reality - or not.

On the other hand all old fashioned "offline media" audience figures are reviewed and reported only AFTER they have been independantly audited and verified.