Brains on Fire

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  F.I.R.E Sessions Recap Part 2 – Steve Knox on Trusted Advocacy and How It Will Change Marketing

  Posted on July 30th, 2010 by Kindling Spirits and currently 10 commenting.

  Thanks again to @mackcollier for capturing the day. Enjoy.
  
  Photo via flickr via hyku

  Steve Knox, CEO of Proctor and Gamble’s WOM Unit Tremor, was the second presenter of the day, and I thought he made an incredibly profound business point early on in his talk:

  “Victory in marketing doesn’t happen when you sell something, but when you cultivate advocates for your brand” –

  Think about that for a minute, because that statement really ties into the themes of the FIRE Sessions.

  Change.  Reframing the conversation.
  
  What if we stopped talking about selling more stuff, and started focusing on delighting customers to the point that they became passionate advocates for our brand?  As Steve clarified in his talk, “Advocates Begets Advocates”.  And won’t more advocates for your brand mean more sales?  Logic dictates yes, so by shifting from focusing on sales as a barometer for marketing success, to instead trying to cultivate/embrace/empower your brand’s advocates, you’ll not only get more advocates for your brand, but you’ll also get those sales you wanted to begin with.

  Oh wait…since those advocates are reaching other customers and also converting them into advocates, that ALSO means your marketing costs are falling, right?

  But as Steve explained, we need to focus not just on advocacy, but on TRUSTED advocates.  That’s the brass ring that we should be shooting for.

  Think about impressions.  That classic marketing metric that advertisers want.  They want more people exposed to their message.  Maybe it’s a commercial, maybe it’s a radio ad, maybe it’s a website.

  Those impressions can sometimes lead to conversations about the brand.  Ok that’s a bit better, but what’s the context of the conversations?

  Sometimes, those conversations can lead to brand advocacy.  That’s even better.  But it’s still not perfect.  Sure, if I see that a particular restaurant got favorable reviews, but those reviews are from people that I don’t know.
  
  But what if we had trusted advocacy. Let’s say I am an extremely picky eater (cause I am).  Let’s also say I am going to Nashville next week and want to find a good restaurant that I can actually eat at.  If I find a restaurant that’s reviewed on Yelp! as having a wide selection of items and they cater to special requests, then that MIGHT be a good choice for me.  But even better would be if I called up my friend Jake, who lives in Nashville, and knows what type of food I like.  Since I know and trust Jake, I’ll always go with his choice over anyone else’s recommendation.

  So how do we create trusted advocates? One way, according to Steve, is to create disruptive experiences.  This is where Steve got into a fascinating discussion about schemas, and how the brain uses them to avoid thinking.  Think of schemas as shortcuts that we (often unwittingly) use to help us quickly analyze and assess our environment.  Steve offered that when you create a disruptive experience that doesn’t fit into our preconceived schemas, it does two things:

  1 – It makes us stop and think

  2 – It makes us talk

  The example Steve offered was the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ last year, where a US Airways flight crashed into the Hudson River.  Steve showed us a picture of the front page of a Seattle paper that had a picture of the US Airways flight in the Hudson, with passengers walking on the wings into rafts that would take them to safety.
  
  Think of all the schemas that were shattered in that one photo:

  When planes crash, they are destroyed (The US Airways plane landed on water, and really wasn’t damaged)

  When planes crash, people die (No one died from the Hudson crash)

  People don’t walk on water (Yet the photo shows them walking on the plane, it appears as if they are walking on water)

  We talked about the Hudson crash because the outcome was unexpected.  It challenged the above schemas, and forced us to think about what was happening, and talk about it.

  Now this doesn’t ALWAYS work, and the disruption still has to appeal to ideals about the brand/person/idea that we believe to be true, or that could be true.  For example, Las Vegas a few years ago tried to rebrand itself as being family-friendly.  That’s disruptive, but since the message wasn’t consistent with what people believe to be true about Las Vegas, it didn’t register.  Another example was Diet Coke offering a version with vitamins.  This was also disruptive, but didn’t work because people don’t consider Diet Coke to be a healthy drink, and don’t buy it for health reasons.

  As Steve explained, the disruption has to be “faithful to the foundational truths” of the brand in order to be effective.

  So how can your business create something disruptive?  Steve gives us the blueprint:
  
  1 – Figure out what the foundational truth of your business/brand is. Don’t know?  Ask your customers.

  2 – Ask yourself what schemas are already at play? What do customers already think about you and your brand?  What are their preconceived notions about you?

  3 – What would disrupt those schemas? What would make people stop, think, and talk about you?

  4 – Are their ‘blends’ that would make sense? Can you play existing schemas about your brand off each other?
  
  So how do you get started? Steve says you listen to your customers, be open to schemas other than your own, and test and verify your results.

  At this point Steve took some questions, and one point he made that I wanted to highlight was this:  Companies have to learn to let negative comments happen.  This is one of the biggest worry points that companies have about social media.  It’s a completely pointless worry for a couple of reasons:

  1 – Negative comments are going to happen and you can’t stop them.  In fact, if you TRY to stop them, that’s usually the quickest way to get MORE of them.  Steve gave the example of Greenpeace making a clever video that parodied a Kit Kat ad by trying to make the point that Nestle is killing orangutans by clearing out forests to make the palm oil that goes into their candy bars.  The video didn’t go viral until Nestle stepped in and threatened to sue Greenpeace for violating their trademark.  THAT got everyone’s attention.

  2 – Negative comments can often be a GOOD thing. One of the most passionate advocates for your brand can be a detractor that you’ve converted into an evangelist.  If your customers go to a blog or your Facebook page to complain about you, it’s normally because they want you to pay attention to them.  They’ve likely got a problem that they need solved, and they’ve also likely tried calling you, emailing you, and there problem is still there.  They just want you to pay attention to them and HELP them.  If you’ll do this, respect them, LISTEN, and help them solve their problem, then MOST times you’ll flip that negative comment into a positive endorsement.  Food for thought.

  And speaking of food, by now we were heading to lunch, and after an incredible morning of learning from Steve and Geno, we still had a great session from Max Lenderman on tap.  Let’s meet back here next time and talk about it then.  Deal?”

  Thanks again to Mack for recapping Steve’s amazing talk. IF you get a chance to see Steve in person. DO it. Here are a few more pictures from the day and the opening which I thought you might enjoy. Stay tuned for even more as Mack finishes up on Monday with the last post from the event. Happy Friday! Do something remarkable with this day.

  

  

  Tags: @mackcollier, FIRE session, Hyku, Josh Hallet, P & G, Schema, Steve Knox, Tremor
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  “We aren’t in Kansas anymore, we’re in Greenville. (Part 1)

  Posted on July 29th, 2010 by Kindling Spirits and currently 13 commenting.

  Today’s post is from @mackcollier. We were so lucky to have him attend and agree to blog from the 2010 4th Annual Brains on Fire FIRE Sesssions. What a treat to finally meet him in person. Photos from this post are via Flickr via hyku’s photostream (our super cool and very talented friend Josh Hallett). More photos to come from our very own Justin Gammon. So enjoy:
  
  

  And being in Greenville on this glorious day means being at Brains on Fire’s FIRE sessions.  This is an event, actually I think it would be more appropriate to call it an experience.  I was beyond thrilled to be invited by Robbin to attend and blog the event, and to say it didn’t disappoint would be an understatement.

  The day started out with the Brains on Fire serenading us to David Bowie’s Changes.  I’m not sure what surprised me more, that Robbin was air-playing a saxophone, or that we were a couple of hours into the day before I first heard the term ‘social media’.  Both were very pleasant surprises!
  

  The schedule got started with BOF’s own Geno Church telling us a bit about some of the work BOF has done.  One thread that seemed to run through each case study (and this is a big reason why I love BOF) is finding the people that are passionate about the message you want to spread, empower them to spread that message then get out of their way.

  Geno told the story of the Rage Against the Haze movement that was created to help combat teen smoking in South Carolina.  Teens that were passionate about their community and stopping teen smoking were empowered to lead the charge for this movement.  Geno admitted that giving control away to teens was a bit scary, but when the teens realized they were being empowered, they took ownership of the movement.

  The results?  The state of South Carolina saw a drop in teenage smoking from 36% to 19% within 3 years of launching Rage Against the Haze.

  Next up was the always-inspiring Fiskateers story.  Geno talked about how BOF worked with Fiskars to do initial research to figure out who the company’s market was.  These findings led them to realize that Fiskars market was younger than Fiskars thought, and they were more active online.  BOF found that many of Fiskars’ existing customers were active online, and they weren’t talking about the tool (Fiskars scissors) but rather what the tool allowed them to do (scrapbooking).
  

  But what Fiskars and BOF also discovered was that there wasn’t really a positive place online that ‘regular’ scrapbookers could come together and support each other.  In fact, there were some scrapbookers that were abusive to others and identified themselves as ‘Scrap Bitches’.

  So first, they worked to reframe the conversation from being about Fiskars products, to the experience that customers have by using the products. Then, they looked to create that supportive and nurturing place where scrapbookers could form a community.  Enter a blog and before you know it, we have a Fiskateers movement on our hands.

  You’ve likely heard of the Fiskateers movement so I won’t spend a lot of time rehashing what Geno shared about it.  But I did note two key takeaways about the success of the movement.  First, Geno shared that Fiskars saw a 600% increase in brand mentions of ‘Fiskars’.  Still, I thought this stat was more interesting: Stores that have hosted at least one Fiskateer have enjoyed THREE FOLD increase in sales.  That tells me that Fiskars has people in place that are passionate about the products and more importantly, what the products allow them to do.  I believe Geno also made the point that when looking for lead Fiskateers for their blog, they weren’t interested in good writers as much as they were looking for customers that were passionate.  Love that.

  Key takeaway from Geno’s session?  Find messages about your brand that resonate with the people you are trying to reach, then empower those people to not only help shape that message, but to spread it.  Doing so gives them ownership, which only intensifies their natural passion and enthusiasm for the message and idea that you want to spread.  Yeah, it’s kinda scary to give up control, but putting an idea in the hands of the people that want to see it succeed beats having an idea that no one cares about, right?

  My head is already hurting from all this smartitude, and we are barely 90 mins into the day.  I’ll share more wholesome goodness from the #firesessions in the next post!

  

  Another big thanks to @mackcollier and Josh Hallet (@hyku) for pushing out some awesome content from the FIRE Sessions! More fiery goodness to come soon!

  Tags: Brains on Fire FIRE session, Brains on Fire the book, Fiskateers, geno church, Josh Hallett, Kindred Spirits, Love, Mack Collier, Rage Against the Haze
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  What makes us human?

  Posted on July 26th, 2010 by Robbin and currently 15 commenting.

  
  Several weeks ago, my friend Francois asked me to give him a photo and sentence or two on what it means to be human for the website for his newly re-named company:

  Human 1.0.

  Don’t you just love that name?

  I am crazy about Francois. I drink his champagne.

  His new book, The Hyper-Social Organization with co-author Ed Moran is a bit more academic than the Brains on Fire book, but we’re singing the same tune.

  It’s not about technology or social media, it’s about people.

  So back to the question Francois asked of me.

  I have to tell you his question stumped me. And since we are in the people (human) connecting business, I wanted to explore it deeper.

  So I watched pieces of this NPR episode. I asked people on twitter. I asked strangers on the tram in airports. I asked friends over wine. I asked kids. It was all very interesting. When I’m trying to figure something out my first inclination is to ask and listen hard.

  I got great answers.

  Opposing thumbs. Conscience (love that one). Morals. The ability to tell right from wrong. Empathy. Sentimentality. Think about it we are the only species to have wedding bands and sentimental keepsakes. One person said the inability to learn from our mistakes. Some people said I have no idea.

  Then I woke up one night and said out loud: soul. We are the only species with souls.

  Hmmm.

  I woke up the next morning thinking nope, that’s not it. I’ve had a dog or two with serious soul. So. I was left — still seriously stumped.

  A side note about soul and human-ness: Some time back someone’s actions were so freaking unexplainable to me that I hastily blurted out; you have lost your soul. What I meant to say is your actions don’t seem human to me they are so hard to understand. So soul and human are words I often associate together — for right or wrong. Guess that explains the middle of the night thought…

  Anyway, here’s the photo and the very short answer I gave Francois on Friday:
  

  Now. You go. What do you think? Share with me this Monday morning. I’m still searching for answers…
  
  What do you think makes us human?

  P.S. This will be seriously fun, fun week. Wednesday is the 4th Annual Brains on Fire FIRE session. This year @mackcollier will be our guest blogger. Can’t wait to meet him in person and finally shake his hand. Stay tuned.

  Tags: Alan Alda, brainsonfirebook.com, Ed Moran, Francois Gossieaux, Human 1.0, Human-ness, Mack Collier, The FIRE session, The Human Spark, The Hyper-Social Organization
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  Pictures of the Week

  Posted on July 23rd, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 1 commenting.

  We’ve been super-busy and the camera hasn’t been out lately. But our hard work has paid off and we’ve taken some time to celebrate. Enjoy a few shots of the BOF Family marking a job well done.

  

  When someone says, “everyone get together, NOW!” you can probably bet there will be a mini field-trip and some tequila involved. Doddfather raising the bottle of victory high.

  

  Is he winding up or winding down?

  

  We love our Brains on Fire ladies. They’re so pretty.

  

  You know, an abstract artsy picture. Because we’re a creative company.

  

  Some summer sweat is bad, other summer sweat is good. Doddfather chose wisely.

  

  Mix a little grapefruit vodka and some club soda and you get…dangerous. Seriously, though, it’s crazy refreshing. (But be careful).

  

  Cordell’s probably solving the world’s problems. All in a day’s work.

  

  Full = happy Justin.

  

  Alexis got some big news last week – congrats girl!

  

  Don’t ask. And we won’t tell.

  

  Empty = sad Justin.

  

  Tags: Alexis Bass, beer, Brains on Fire, brainsonfire, celebration, drinks, engaged, Greg Cordell, Greg Ramsey, Heather Hough, Justin Gammon, kim hebert, ring, Robbin Phillips, tequila
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  Movements and ownership – employees and customers behind the wheel

  Posted on July 22nd, 2010 by Eric Dodds and currently 2 commenting.

  On Monday we talked about why movements require ownership – putting employees and customers behind the wheel. Today we’re gonna look at a few really practical examples.

  First, if you missed the last episode, here are a few highlights:

  • So many well-meaning businesses initiate use of social media tools and conversation with their employees and customers, but never let them out of the passenger seat.
  • If you want to build real community, though, you can’t just invite your advocates along for the ride, you have to let them get behind the wheel at some point.
  • Without letting them drive, you’ll never see your employees or customers let out their full potential - which also happens to be the full potential of your brand.
  Ok, on to a few practical examples. There are lots of them out there, but I picked a few different ones that look at ownership from different angles. We’d love to hear about some more examples from you.

  

  Example 1: Engineering and letting the people who use your products help design them.

  Fiskars is an amazing client of ours. Their willingness to let the people who love them most play an active role in the brand continually amazes us. One of the coolest examples, though, is the magic that happened when the brand let some of their biggest fans meet the product engineers – and tell them what they liked and disliked about old products and what they’d like to see in new products.

  That’s right – Fiskars let the people who use their products on a daily basis get together with the engineers to help them brainstorm on how the products could be better. And the engineers loved it – end users giving them practical and useful product improvement ideas. What’s more, one of their meetings even resulted in a new product.

  

  Example 2: Using customer artwork in company marketing.

  Pabst Blue Ribbon has held an annual art contest for the past 4 years. The rules are pretty simple: any art created had to have the Pabst Blue Ribbon can or logo and any sculptures created had to be constructed solely of empty PBR cans. How’s that putting customers behind the wheel?

  Pabst uses a selection of the artwork to display on billboards (giving the original artist full credit). Lots of companies solicit user-generated-content from customers, and many of them display the work online. Pabst (and other companies with similar efforts) takes it a step further and actually involves artists’ work in the companies marketing and let’s the world know it.

  

  Example 3: Asking employees to be the brand of good customer service and putting your money where your mouth is.

  The Ritz Carlton has an incredibly strong commitment to the quality of their customer experience. That customer experience is delivered by their employees, so they obviously have very high standards for their workers. (Sidenote, their employee motto is really cool: “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”.)

  But The Ritz doesn’t just ask make customer service a job requirement or simply ask their employees to provide an optimal stay for guests. They give them the power live the brand of customer service. With cash.

  …they’re empowered to deliver the level of service Ritz mandates… Sixty-seven percent of customers leave you because of indifference with how they’re treated. Customers judge the quality of the institution, he said, by the responsiveness of the first person they come in contact with to discuss their problem. Given that, the Ritz empowers and trains the front-line service to resolve conflicts. Part of this entails allowing employees to spend up to $2,000 per guest per day to “fix” any problems, as well as giving employees ongoing problem-resolution training.

  –Milla D’Antonio

  Tags: art, beer, Brains on Fire, Brand, Brands, customer service, customers, Employees, engineering, fiskaneers, Fiskars, Fiskateers, Marketing, ownership, pabst blue ribbon, PBR, Ritz Carlton, user generated content