Brains on Fire

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  The Power of Thank you, pt. 2

  Posted on September 29th, 2011 by amy and currently 2 commenting.
  

  Photo credit: Ben Fredericson

  [The first part of this post is a recap of an awesome podcast by Shawn Achor, CEO of Aspirant and author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. You can check out the full podcast here.]

  Happiness precedes success. It’s plain and simple. When your brain is happy, it significantly outperforms your brain when it is negative, neutral or stressed. Unfortunately, for many people, their workplace puts their brain in a negative, neutral or stressed state, creating roadblocks and hindrances to dealing with problems, challenges and tasks.

  Among other things, a positive state of mind affects your energy level, how long you can work on a project, how many possibilities you see when working on a project and how well you perform on a task. A recent study put this theory to the test. When researchers primed one group of children with positive reinforcement before asking them to complete a block puzzle, the children in the “positive” group completed the task 50% more quickly than the control group that received no priming.

  When it came to adults, researchers found that it is possible to rewire the much more quickly than they thought possible. When managers just increased their praise and recognition of one employee once a day for 21 business days in a row, six months later, those teams had a 31% higher level of productivity than the control group.

  Praise doesn’t have to be monumental. Achor suggests something as simple as writing a 2 sentence gratitude e-mail each morning, or starting a meeting by writing down three things you’re thankful for can dramatically alter the way in which your brain processes the challenges your team is about to deal with.

  So. How does this apply to brands?

  If a little recognition from a supervisor can yield such positive results, imagine what being positively recognized and praised by your brand’s fans could do.

  If you’ve seen Geno speak in the past year, you’ve probably heard the story of his MINI experience. If not, here you go. I’ve never owned a MINI, but every time I see one on the road, I feel a positive sentiment wash over me as I remember Lindsey, Geno’s MINI “Motoring Assistant,” and the way she made him feel throughout the process of bringing his new baby home.

  Last weekend I visited a local Chipotle. When we asked for a to-go lid, the employees could have handed us a lid and sent us on our way. Instead, they sang a song about taking Chipotle home, using the lids as cymbals in their impromptu ditty. A typical experience was instantly transformed into something remarkable. We left smiling, and you better believe I was tweeting @chipotle_tweets to share the story (and say thanks) faster than you can say “burrito bowl.”

  If you are looking for a way to make your brand better, start by making it easy for fans to recognize the people (read: your employees – who ARE the brand) creating remarkable and inspiring experiences, products and services. Make it even easier for your fans to share the stories of those remarkable experiences with others.

  A little thanks, as it turns out, goes a long way.

  Tags: amy taylor, chipotle, geno church, Gratitude, Marketing, MINI, positive psychology, positive reinforcement, productivity, shawn anchor, Thank You
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  The Power of Thank You, pt. 1

  Posted on September 28th, 2011 by amy and currently 1 commenting.
  

  Photo credit: Ben Fredericson

  Last Friday I found myself scrambling to pack for a flight. With no food in the house, I did what every red-blooded American does in such situations – I turned to delivery. As someone who has done my fair share of “Are we there yet?” over the course of my life, I love Domino’s Pizza tracker. I no longer have to hover around the front door waiting for the delivery guy. Instead, I just let the tracker do its thing.

  If you haven’t ordered pizza from Domino’s in the past few years, allow me to explain.

  Once you pull the trigger on your order, you can “watch” as it goes through the process, from prep to delivery to doorbell. Along the way, the tracker even reports the names of the employees working on your order. Anna is prepping your pizza. It’s in the oven! Juan is doing quality inspection. Out for delivery.

  And if that’s not enough, customers can choose from several tracker themes, from hair band to romance novel, to hear the steps announced from start to finish. I must admit, the simple act of placing a pizza order becomes remarkably more intriguing when a Latin lover coos from your MacBook to let you know that your pizza is “being baked with the fires of passion.”

  Recently, Domino’s added another feature to the tracker, and this one has truly endeared the brand to me. The tracker now includes the option to send an electronic note of encouragement to the staff preparing your order. Pizza patrons can choose from a drop-down list of positive messages including “Keep up the good work,” “You’re my favorite Dominos team members” and “You are my pizza heroes!”

  With the click of a button, the anonymous process of placing a pizza order becomes personal. Anonymous employees become pizza heroes to hungry customers, and customers become cheerleaders to employees. Sure, the tool is cool, but far more importantly, it is a conduit for customers to express gratitude – and employees to receive it. The brand helps the people who ARE their brand connect with the people who LOVE their brand and vice versa. And that bridge is a mighty thing.

  An electronic “thank you” may not seem like much, but it turns out those two words may be more powerful than we ever imagined, and even a small act of gratitude can have a profound impact on satisfaction and performance. A recent study found that when your brain is positive, it outperforms your brain when it is negative, neutral or stressed. No big surprise there, right? Well, the study also found that the simple act of consistently saying “thank you” can increase a person’s productivity by 31%.

  Tomorrow, we’ll dig into the nitty gritty of the study to find out just how powerful giving thanks really is. In the meantime, a tiny, thoughtful TED talk on thanks.

  Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to read all the way to the bottom of the post. Happy Hump Day, friends.

  ————————-

  Just can’t get enough blog? Check out The Brains on Fire Book for more thoughts, insight and stories from the BOF crew.

  Tags: amy taylor, Brains on Fire, customers, Domino's, Employees, Marketing, pizza tracker, Thank You, Thanks, Word of Mouth
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  Do you celebrate the people in your life?

  Posted on September 27th, 2011 by Robbin and currently 3 commenting.

  

  I’m in Arizona. Taking few days to relax between two conferences/speaking gigs:

  WOMMA’s Talkable Brands in Chicago and the Health Nation Launch in Scottsdale.

  I’m staying with a friend’s cousin who has a house in Scottsdale. She is ABSOLUTELY delightful. The kind of person who has photos of her friends and family all over her home. Who leaves notes for a house guest she just met like the one in the photo above.

  She makes me want to be a better person.
  
  Last night we went to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants, FnB. Just a simple little place with great food and wine and fascinating conversation While we were all talking and sharing life stories, she (Lori) said the most amazing thing.
  
  “ People should be celebrated. Not tolerated.”

  Don’t you love that?

  Part of my work at Brains on FIre is to determine fit between the work we do igniting communities and our clients-to-be. Some of that is easy, like do they have the funds.

  But there is piece of it that is completely magical to me. I think about it a lot and we talk about it a Brains on Fire often.

  At our Fire Session Scott Stratten said something to the effect of this:

  If you don’t like people you have no business on social media.

  I think the same can be said for igniting a community of advocates around your brand or cause. It you don’t truly celebrate people, (people like your customers and advocates) it will not work. We have walked away from new business because you could feel it. That genuine love and admiration and awe for their customers and advocates was just missing.

  The Fire Sessions are an intense and amazing time for me personally.The event is chock full of people celebrating people. I honestly got a bit teary eyed at times this year as I felt that in my heart.
  
  So my question for you today. Do you celebrate the people in your lives? Or do you simply tolerate them? Do you have what it takes to lift up a community?

  P.S. Here is one more remarkable thing about the evening. When the bill came there was $30 “Guest Goodwill discount”. How cool is that? I thought that was a brilliant way for a restaurant to celebrate and recognize one of their best customers.

  Tags: @unmarketing, Community, FnB, Scott Strattenm, Word of Mouth
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  Brain Games and Conversations

  Posted on September 26th, 2011 by Eric Dodds and currently 0 commenting.

  Whew. It feels like I haven’t written on here in a while, and it’s good to be back now that the FIRE Sessions are over.

  Today I have a quick post on an article I read in this month’s issue of Fast Company magazine (1). I’ll only focus on a few small details, but the the piece is written about “neuromarketing,” an emerging method or research in the business world.

  I’ll spare you the lengthy description, but the short story is that really smart people put a contraption on people’s heads (see below) and take “…instantaneous readings of EEG sensors…track[ing] electrical waves as they relate to emotion, memory, and attention from specific areas of the brain…” (1) Essentially, neuromarketers want to observe unadulterated neurological happenings before they have a chance to be influenced by other variables in your noodle – things like “cultural bias, differences in language and education, and memories.” (1) I promise, I’m getting to the point.

  

  There’s a debate going on as to the legitimacy of these new methods (some heavy duty brands are using them), but what really caught my attention was this quote in relation to more ‘traditional’ research methods, specifically, focus groups:

  It’s not statistically significant, so it’s risky to graft your findings onto the population at large. One or two blowhards may hijack an entire panel, and researchers can, without knowing it, influence participants. The world has changed, and yet so much market research is still conducted the same old way. (1)

  It reminded me of a talk I gave last year to a group of students who wanted me to answer the question, “How are you and your company, Brains on Fire, adjusting to the vast changes taking place in the marketing world today?”

  And my how the world is changing. Information travels at the speed of light, the level of connectivity possible today was literally only a figment of people’s imaginations only a few short decades ago, and yes, there have been amazing technological advances in what we can learn about what’s going on in the gray stuff behind our eyeballs.

  As complicated as those shifts and advances are, my answer to the students was simple: “We manage change by focusing on the one thing that hasn’t changed, and that’s people.”

  People still have conversations, and the most meaningful ones most often are face-to-face, which is probably why Alexis and the Insight team will continue to sit down and have with actual customers and employees of our clients. That’s not to say neuromarketing can’t be tremendously insightful – heck, I’d love to get my hands on one of those helmets and sit a few people down for testing

  It was a good reminder that there are an increasing number of amazing tools at our disposal, and an increased responsibility for us to learn to use them, but that tools will never fully replace sitting down with a customer and asking them how your company can make a positive difference in their life.

  ———

  Just for fun, what kinds of things would you research if you could run some EEG testing, and who would you test?

  • (1) You can read the entire Fast Company article on neuromarketing here. It’s pretty darn interesting.
  Tags: Conversation, customers, Fast Company, focus groups, mynd, neuromarketing, Neuroscience
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  FIRE Sessions Afternoon Recap: Live #Blogchat and Why Offline is Still Sexy

  Posted on September 22nd, 2011 by Kindling Spirits and currently 5 commenting.

  This re-cap is from Kindred Spirit Mack Collier. (Check out his blog or follow him on Twitter.)

  

  After a wonderful lunch, we headed back to the stage at the Peace Center for a Live #Blogchat.  Every time I mention to someone that we’ll be doing a Live version of #Blogchat at an event, they almost always get this puzzled look on their faces and ask how a Twitter chat works in person.  It’s simple: We turn off Twitter and talk to each other

  And given the smartitude in this room, I knew we would have an amazing discussion, and we did.  The general topic was how companies can connect with their customers via their blogs and help them tell their stories.  The discussion quickly shifted toward building engagement with readers, and thought Scott Stratten and Josh Hallett had some wonderful thoughts for rewarding participation from readers.  Josh told the story about how with one of Voce’s clients, they identify the most active contributors to their blogs and message boards, and give them some moderation abilities.  I thought this was a fabulous example of rewarding the type of behavior that you want to encourage.  And also giving ownership to your biggest fans, which is always smart.

  At one point, I was asking the group how we can look to move the engagement level with our customers past simply getting comments.  I thought John Moore had a wonderful thought and reminder: Make the interactions more personal with our customers.  He suggested that social media can almost make us lazy, and that we tend to forget that in many ways, social media is NOT personal communication, or as personal as it could be.  Think about it, what’s more personal to you; a reply on Twitter, a phone call, or a handwritten note?  The phone call and note would be a far more personal reply to most of us than a simple tweet.

  ———-

  Which ended up being the perfect segue to John and Geno’s talk on offline marketing and how every touchpoint with your customer is a marketing opportunity.  John spoke first, and I was excited to hear him speak for the first time.  I loved this thought from John that seemed to frame his topic:

  Marketers do not decide what gets talked about.  PEOPLE DECIDE.

  This dovetailed nicely with John’s focus that every touchpoint is a marketing opportunity.  John talked about the value of being unique and giving customers a reason to talk about your brand and business.  John also used several examples to back up this thinking:

  1 – Buckley’s cough syrup, ‘It tastes awful.  And it works.’  As John says, it’s true on both counts

  2 – Zappos’ job application is designed in a way to help the company learn more about the PERSON applying for the job, not their professional skills.  For example, it has a crossword puzzle on it.  Zappos knows if you take the time to work the puzzle, you probably ‘get’ their culture.

  3 – Groupon’s unsubscribe option for its emails.  When you want to unsubscribe to Groupon’s emails, you are taken to a page with a picture of an unassuming Groupon employee that’s called Derrick.  Apparently, Derrick is the guy that’s been ‘spamming’ you with Groupon emails.  To opt-out of Groupon’s emails, you click a button titled ‘Punish Derrick’.  At this point, a video plays showing someone coming up behind Derrick and smacking him in the head.  Then the screen tells you that you were mean to Derrick, and that you can make it up to him by re-subscribing to Groupon’s emails.  Nice little guilt-trip there as well

  Another point that John made about a brand’s personality was ‘The more obvious you are, the more talkable you become.’

  So in sum, John wants us to realize that:

  1 – WOM comes from customers, not the brands.

  2 – Every touchpoint is a marketing opportunity, and a chance to create positive (or negative) WOM.

  3 – When you show your personality and what makes your brand unique, that creates conversation.

  ———

  Next up was Brains on Fire’s very own Geno Church, who opened with one of the most powerful points of the entire day:

  We are the stories we tell.  Being part of a great story compels us to share.

  Think about the stories that your marketing is telling about your brand.  To expand on this, think about the stories that your customers are telling about your brand as a result of their interacting with your marketing efforts.  Are the stories similar or completely disconnected?

  What I love about Geno’s approach is that he focuses on the value of brands finding their most passionate and authentic story.  Because that’s the story that will resonate with others.  Earlier this month I heard director Kevin Smith speak at Content Marketing World.  He made a point that really resonated with me then, and even moreso after hearing Geno’s talk.  He said that people are so desperate to hear the truth.  That we are all fed bullshit on a daily basis, and that if anyone or brand is willing to just be honest and authentic with the people they are trying to connect with, that they will win.

  Toward the end of the talk, Geno told the story of how his beloved Mini Cooper was damaged in a wreck, and he had to get a new one.  He ordered it online, and when he went to pick it up, the wraparound banner that normally comes around the steering wheel had been turned over.  The saleswoman at the dealership that had worked with Geno to get his Mini wrote on it ‘I am going home with my dad today!! ’  That was a very small, but personal touch by the saleswoman.  Because she understood how important this purchase was to Geno, and took a few seconds to move the pre-requisite marketing message out of the way, to replace it with a personal one.

  And maybe that’s what the theme of the FIRE Sessions and ‘Let’s Get Dirty’ is really about.  Maybe ‘getting dirty’ with your efforts in connecting with your customers isn’t about marketing to them, but about understanding and connecting with them as people.

  Or maybe it means something completely different.  That’s the beauty of the FIRE Sessions, they always spark my thoughts and imagination, and I know they did for everyone else that attended.  Thank you to the Brains on Fire crew for giving me another healthy dose of inspiration!

  Tags: blog post, Blogchat, Brains on Fire, Brands, buckle's, FIRE Sessions, geno church, group on, guest post, john moore, Kindred Spirits, live, Love 146, Mack Collier, offline, Rage Against the Haze, stories, Twitter, Zappos