Money is good 04/10/2010
 
I am not one to blog political, so please don't take this post as a political statement.  I do think that this soliloquy from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is more relevant today than it was in 1957 when it was written.  I also believe that this passage and the entire book is an instructive read for modern marketers and PR folk.  If you'd rather read this, here's a link.  Please share this.
 
How We Decide 02/19/2010
 
How We Decide, by Johan Lehrer is a reasonably well written excursion through the competing rational and emotional processes of the mind.  For marketers interested in consumer behavior, decision making and general psychology this is not a bad introductory work.  I was disappointed, however, because I was expecting more.  Much of the text is a collection of interesting anecdotes, but many of them will be familiar to those who read a lot of this sort of material, including any of Gladwell’s recent stuff.  It also fails to put together a model or coherent thesis on how he believes that we decide things.  

In the end, conclusion seems to be that sometimes the rational mind is correct, and sometimes it’s the emotional mind.

Should you read it?  You decide.
 
Applied Woo 01/27/2010
 
In their book, Art of Woo (Penguin 2007), authors Richard Shell and Mario Moussa present “the selling of ideas”  from a sales/negotiation perspective.  Despite their rather broad framing of the subject  their discourse is highly instructive for Marketing Public Relations professionals.  One of several points that are worth noting is their discussion of barriers to woo.  Shell and Moussa consider relationships, credibility, communications mismatches, belief systems, and interest and needs to be the major obstructions to successful persuasion, and, I will argue, they are the same hurdles faced by marketers when pitching journalists and other connectors. 

 Clearly, relationships are critical to PR.  The better we know our connectors and the better they know us, the more likely our chances of getting media mentions  from connectors picking up our stories, or by their coming to us for assistance on something they are already working on. 

Credibility is obvious, but the key to being a trusted source and strengthening the newsworthiness of a pitch. 

Communications mismatches manifest themselves in the mundane and operational side of PR when marketers forget to pitch connectors in the format and in the timeframe that suits the connector best.  Is a journalist more receptive to a phone call, email, or a letter in the mail?  Is there a certain time of day week, or month that is typically best?  Communications mismatches also occur when styles clash.  For some editors and journalists bold, over-the-top pitches work really well, for others, they do not. 

A match also needs to exist between the story you are pitching and the belief system of the connector.  In the case of pitching in PR it is more about knowing the mission and audience of the connector’s medium than understanding the socio-cultural profile of the connector himself, although both are important. 

The last barrier is one that MPR pros are keenly aware of-interests and needs.  Connector are charged with producing content that is interesting to their audience, is in line with the mission of their medium, and supports their editorial calendar.  If you can show how it will also please their advertisers or help their medium’s sales people sell into a specific issue or episode, you’ve struck gold.

Check out Art of Woo.
 
 
If South Park had an evolutionary psychologist as a character it would be Geoffrey Miller, professor at the University of New Mexico, and author of Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior.  Miller uses his irreverent writing style to explain global consumer culture through the application of the science of human nature.  This is a particularly good book for marketers as it uses up-to-date science to explain why we, as humans, buy, and why we are often trapped by the allure of consumerism.  He bases his argument on the notion that our needs and wants are driven by a psychological (or perhaps biological) predisposition to behave in a manner that signals our physical and mental fitness, and thereby, increases our likelihood of finding mating opportunities and receiving social support from friends and family.

Marketers will find this approach satisfying as Miller points out that we have been relying on an outdated model for understanding what drives consumers to want and buy things-namely Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.  Spent’s model suggests that humans display conspicuous waste, conspicuous precision, and conspicuous reputation to signal mating and social fitness. (You’ll have to read the book for specifics.) Fitness indicators manifest themselves through general intelligence and five personality factors.  (If you are familiar with the NEO Personality Inventory, you’ll recognize these factors.)   When applied to market segmentation, message creation, and media selection, it is my belief that marketers will find this approach more profitable and more socially responsible than the conventional “marketing as a business process” method.

From a literary point of view, most will find this book an easy read.  Miller’s writing is in the pop-intellectual style made fashionable by Gladwell, but the academician occasionally bleeds through.  He offers a fair amount of social commentary which is often arguable, but always well thought out and provocative.

You are invited! Become an MPR Facebook Fan.
 
Crush It! 10/17/2009
 
It was late last year when I first heard about Crush It! (Harper Studio, 2009) I was interviewing author, Gary Vaynerchuk for my book.  The Crush It! may not have had its title at that point but he spoke with passion and enthusiasm about the value of authenticity, hustle, and following your DNA.  He really believes that someone can follow their passion and live the life of their dreams.  I am happy to say that the sharp wit, business savvy, and zeal that I experienced in my conversations with Gary come across in Crush It!

The book is both a motivational speech and a how-to manual for budding Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, and really anyone who wants to take charge of their lives by doing what they love.  Despite being a brief 142 pages, he makes his point strongly without wasting a lot of ink.  He discusses indentifying a personal passion, and using social media to build a personal brand that will, through hustle and patience, reward the entrepreneur with happiness and cash. (He stresses the former as the primary goal.)  Clearly, anyone new to the world of social media will find this book informative, instructive, and easy to read.  Those with more experience in the world of Web 2.0 will also find Crush It! worth a look.  I suppose I am a great example of the latter, I live the subject and have written a book, keep a successful blog, teach it at the college level, regularly speak to business and professional groups, and use these techniques every day and I have a page of notes that I made while reading this book.

If I have any criticism it is that Gary does not give much time to using traditional media ( I am talking about PR stuff, not advertising) to create the personal brand that stems from the entrepreneur’s DNA.  He mentions it briefly in Chapter 11, “Start Monetizing,” but doesn’t give us the depth he could have.  He is a master of the traditional media too.  He has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, on the Today Show, and on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, just to mention a few of his traditional media appearances.

So, whether you’re just getting started or have already made a mark for yourself I will say that you will find a pretty strong return on investment for the $19.99 you spend on Crush It!