This sign tells the people in my neighborhood when Joe the shoe-maker is in.

It reminds me of my mantra:

All that you say and all that you do,

helps your customers believe that they have come to the right place.

Or the wrong place.

In this case the sign makes sense because it says "same-old-same-old".

Walk in the store and there’s Joe: small, old, frail, friendly, surrounded by his old tools, worn shoes and compassionate customers. There are no deposit slips here, no receipts, credit, or debit cards. This store hasn’t changed in 40 years and everything in the store looks as shop-worn as this sign. But the neighborhood likes Joe and it wants to help him out. So patrons don’t haggle about the pick-up dates, pay what he asks in cash and encourage others to bring their shoes to Joe too.

So this is actually a VERY integrated little brand that knows its self and its audience well.

I don't think people would be as kind, compassionate and loyal to Joe if he showed up in a quality suit + tie, had a big new shop and a surly assistant at the front counter that checked your order in on a computer and promised to text you when the shoes are done?

Joe reminds us that great brands (no matter how small) understand their audience and draw them in.

It's part art and part science.

 HAPPY 100TH ANNIVERSARY

A long time ago in a galaxy far away I became a media estimator for a company called Foster Advertising (at Yonge + St. Clair). About 37 years later I'm still in advertising.

I owe a lot to all those who enabled our media to be audited, to those who designed the audit reports, to the media reps who insisted I review them before I do my media buys and to my mentors who taught me how to read the audits and interpret them for the benefit of the media evaluations, the media buys, the post buys, the media plans, and the advertising plans I wrote for countless clients.

• The certified audits lent credibility to my work.

I spend most of my time with online audience data now.

• It's not audited or tested.
• I often trip over data and projections that don't make sense.
• I wonder how many users know how to test or challenge data?

I hope the Alliance for Audited Media is with us for another 100 years.

This is a great case of Business Objectives In Conflict.

Canada Post recently announced that door to door service would be eliminated due to a decline in business – and many Canadians seem to be up in arms about it.

These are the same folks who flap their arms when Canada Post announces increases in postal rates.

Today the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) sent me this handy little notice, by Canada Post, encouraging me to use the internet to stay on top of

• GST / HST notices of assessment
• Easy access to your account statements, notifications and letters
• A quick and simple inquiry tool that provides you with written responses
• A variety of updated, helpful correspondence

A few months ago Canada Post sent me a notice telling me that they are now in the secure email business and that I could pay all me bills online now though their portal.

What will these smarties think of next?!

Why wouldn’t the CRA promote the Canada Post portal – or encourage us to keep using snail mail?

This data is a wonderful case study for those of us who believe in brand leadership. At the top of the chart you can see that Android shipped far more OS in 2012 and 2013 than Apple did. In the middle you can see Android’s market share increase – they are kind of numbers any MBA + MBO Market Manager would kiss a lot of ass for.

Now look at the third and fourth blocks of data. Apple’s OS brought in more than ½ of last quarter’s profits – and almost four time as high a gross per OS. Android has been giving their open source operating system away to grow market share. And so they have. Not surprisingly China is now full of very low cost phones running various versions of Android.

Google googled the future, saw a mobile world and wants to manage all the mobile touch-points so it can cash in on them with mobile ads. With 80% mobile platform share linked to Google Anaytics, the plan looks brilliant. But China and other low cost players don’t see Google’s big picture, just the immediate benefit: a very cheap and cheerful OS to run their low end phones. So the % of devices in the hands of brand and and people interested in online advertising is going to be a MUCH smaller number – but a number Google can cash in on for life.

On the other had there is Apple.

Apple is committed to the design, development and sale of consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers.

They have taken the high road and won’t sell its OS to anyone for any price.

Their profit per OS is much higher – and the user profile of their customers is enviable.

In October or 2013 ad buying firm Nanigans released a study based on 200 billion Facebook ads that ran on Android and iOS devices.

Facebook ads that ran on Apple’s platform were 1,790% more profitable than those that ran on Android.

The tactical and strategic lessons here are pretty interesting ones.

There are no right or wrong answers here, and no top ten best practices. Until you have a clear, well articulated company vision that you + your key stakeholders rally around, taking the high road or the mass appeal road makes no sense because you can’t justify the path decision.

The VAST majority of (younger) clients that I have worked with over the last 35 years do not understand contingency planning. They set aside some money for “plan B” but never sort out what kind of eventualities they may have to address in scenario B, C, D, E – or F for that matter.

After all – “I don’t’ know what I don’t know. And I’m sure as hell not going to tell anyone that I don’t know because there are 50 people lined up for my job who will swear that they really do know!”

Time and money are two other popular reasons why marcom contingency plans are becoming rare. Everyone wants a fast, cheap plan with no down-side risk.

Good-luck with that.

If you want to build a decent contingency plan . . . 

• Start by talking to those who sell and deliver your products and services to ensure you really understand your intellectual + economic business terrain.
• While time, money and effort will dictate that you focus on the “path of least resistance (and quickest ROI”, what are the other paths are there to market?
• Evaluate the other paths by key metrics like time, effort and risk. Example: moving oil by ship, pipe, airplane, truck or rail.
• Build a plan that enables you to change your tactics quickly but strategically. Avoid the chaos that comes with short-sighted planning.
• Consider A LOT of options. You can only do that by working with people who have been there, and have done that before. For most brands the intellectual terrain changes very slowly, the economic terrain changes faster and the media channels change fastest.
  • For example: people are as risk averse today as they were 20 years ago.
  • International trade is pushing profit margins down while global social reform is pushing labour costs up.
  • Today's social media channels can be used for peer reviews to reduce the personal risk of new product or service trial.

Here's an interesting personal example. My parents lost everything after WWII and immigrated to Canada in 1954 with very few possessions. In 1965 they began touring Canada and the U.S. by car. This is my dad's checklist as it was originally written in the 1960’s and then used for over 40 years. This is what a good contingency plan looks like.

Passport, Glasses, Sunglasses, Street-map, Pad, Pencil, Camera, Binoculars, Radio, Calculator, Compass, Flashlight, Magnifying glass, Canadian and American money, Toiletries, Sewing kit, Towel, Suspenders, Socks, Kleenex, Tobacco, Pipe, Antibiotic cream, Hand cream, Long pants, Shirts, Pullover, Windbreaker, Underwear, Bathing suit, Goggles, Rainwear, Shoes, Hat, Air-mattress, Blankets, Ground-sheet, Alcohol Stove, Thermos, Pots, Auto-repair tools, Motor oil, Top oil, Tire pressure 30 PSI, Gas, Bucket, Sponge, Cooler, Flippers, Bible, Books, Pendulum, Suit-case, Sun-hat, Pocket-knife, Pillow, Car Wax, Vitamins.