Making a Difference that is Greater than the Sum
I saw the trailer for the Animation Show 4 had arrived! Thank you for making my day that much better.
I highly recommend checking out this show in your neighbourhood theatre, or in some cases for people like myself — drive 2 hours to a city where it is showing. Last year it wasn’t showing in Toronto so we drove to Waterloo!
I follow people who I want to influence me.
If I find people they are following who I want influence over me, I also follow them.
I learn and have fun and learn.
Am flattered by those who are following and willing to listen.
I listen, respond and try to give back.
It will happen soon — in the meantime, check out this article from the Medical News Today. It claims that happiness is dependent on genes. Would you believe that?
I believe that if we truly believe happiness is dependent on genes, then we are letting ourselves be defined by factors we don’t have control over. Here’s an interesting blurb from the article:
“The researchers found that people who did not worry too much, were sociable and conscientious tended to be happier, and they suggested that this combination acts as a buffer, an “affective reserve” of happiness, that shields them during stressful times or when they need to recover.”
It is interesting that researchers consider these as factors to their research. In my opinion, we decide what we want to worry about. I’ve often had arguments with friends about whether or not it is possible and I firmly believe it is — we have the ability to either worry about all contentious issues surrounding the world, or we decide to tune some out and focus on the issues we care most about. If this is possible, then we can definitely decide what we want to really worry about and ultimately — whether or not something is worth drawing from that so-called “affective reserve of happiness” as the researchers put it.
So if you’re in Toronto, you can choose to worry about the snowstorm but for the meanwhile, I’m just enjoying watching the snow storm in Toronto from the window. Check out the snow building up on the roof!
Definitely a blogging slowdown:
1. Full-time work.
2. Taking three part-time courses (with a hearty amount of homework!)
3. Still lots of ideas in my head but no time to blog about them.
That’s probably why I like my twitter account. The blogosphere continues to evolve as a population’s behaviour shifts and twitter allows me to share my findings or short ideas.
What I’d like next? An Amazon Kindle so I can read whatever book I want (and surf the web) in a convenient, wireless way. Maybe even blog wirelessly.
For now: Still waiting in Canada…
Recently Chip Kidd had an interesting response to the Kindle. To say the least I was disappointed to hear that from a normally forward-thinking designer.
Two words to describe my initial opinion of Kidd’s response: wow and stubborn
When the printed book was first introduced — people were skeptical. This is to be expected for change in general. To dismiss the fact that there are actually many people who want to read books in another way is just a silly way of saying that you just don’t like it.
The Globe and Mail has an article today about Last.fm now offering music on-demand with advertising. It’s good to see that the music industry isn’t totally ruling out internet radio, although this is slightly different.
I still miss listening to music on my Pandora account — while Last.fm allows me to find songs based on similar interests among other users, Pandora was really easy to use and was customized for me and only me. I hope that Canada can get back in on that action soon. I miss being able to find new artists or artists a just had not heard of before, without the “word of mouth” step. Sometimes “word of mouth” can be a pain…
How many things did you purchase this year for others? How much did you spend on yourself? With the total amount of money you spent on yourself or others, how much influence can you wield around the world?
Despite my yearning to purchase a few items on my wishlist, I’ve painfully managed to refrain from doing so as well as from purchasing items for friends and family primarily because I want to see if I can push myself towards a state of mind where I do not feel the need to be purchasing massive number of gifts for everyone. I did receive a couple of small presents this year although I am trying to reduce that number.
This isn’t for a particular cause or some action against consumerism but rather my attempt at determining my level of freedom. The freedom that is the consequence of wanting fewer things in the world. We all have things that we need (to live) and want (to enjoy live comfortably). By no means am I preaching an ideology but rather this is to test my own ability to control the consumer in me — to be able to say no to purchasing something that I do not need but think would be neat to have, or to be able to wait until something is drastically lower in price.
It is funny that I am in marketing. Many people including my friends think of scams and very profit-driven individuals when the term marketing is mentioned. I think the problem is that the ones who are key in creating that perception are businesses (and individuals) with little regard for the power of other individuals and for that matter, consumers or the customer — maybe even society as a whole. I used to be a sceptic of marketing — until I realized that marketing is more than the sale.
Marketing is the ability to freely exchange ideas with an audience. Ideas have a purpose but the individuals have the power to decide which idea they want to embrace. There is one I embraced just recently.
I ran across an article detailing how the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project is doing. A few months ago, my sister and I decided to donate to the Give One Get One campaign to provide a child out there with a pretty spiffy little computer that uses very little power, is able to provide the child with nearly all the functions that we have on our power-hungry computers, and to also try out one of these laptops for ourselves and see how good it really is. Unfortunately, we haven’t received it yet so I can’t really speak on that topic yet. But I am happy to hear that children in Peru are beginning to reap the benefits of the initiative.
Merry Christmas World – I hope for the best to come in 2008!
*** An amusing look at the past and present.
Of course there is, but is it as big as people anticipate? If so, I’m not feeling it. I use Facebook on occasion and when I do, it is mainly because it’s one aspect of my job. Majority of my friends no longer log on very often and while the applications were a fun feature, it’s gotten pretty old. That is — aside from the stupid application notifications that continue to arrive and tell me that a friend has bitten me in some sort of manner. My friends and I used to some pet application and feed one another’s pets with old ragged boots, but that has gotten tiring as well despite the huge amount of amusement we received initially from doing so.
Just as an example of my own demographic — I am 26 — turning 27 very soon. I have friends and relatives who are older and younger than I am on Facebook ranging from 16 to 57 and I have begun to notice their usage level gradually slowing down.
What does this equate to?
It means that Facebook’s influence is not ever-expanding. Web 2.0 fanatics and sites that continue to multiply by copying and upgrading or building upon one another’s features will not win over users simply by making an application on Facebook’s platform or even Google’s potentially OpenSocial platform. The reign of superficial qualities, functions and aesthetics of Web 2.0 is over.
Providing interesting functions and impressive interactions between people is good and it is a feature that is highly regarded but the underlying flaw behind many web 2.0 sites and applications is the assumption that the time factor is constant. The other assumption is the friend factor — that if friends are there, people will almost always follow their friends.
The Internet is meant for diversity and many different communities. Websites that aid in the creation of such diversity and appeal to specific interests will prevail in the end. Facebook will survive, there’s no doubt about it but it definitely will not be the giant that people think it will become. Facebook is a gated-community with many communities but it’s key features are its human interaction functions. Some communities within Facebook will thrive, others will fade out and find another website that’s more suitable to its needs.
I know there are still many people who still live and thrive on Facebook, but for me — *yawn* … it just isn’t worth my time anymore — not for my interests anyways.
——
Check out Seth Godin’s recent blog on Facebook’s generational challenge. It’s not the same opinion as mine, but his post illustrates how communities in Facebook can be formed — how a university introduced people together to form a community (or more like a bunch of friends).
I’m accustomed to reading a lot of business idea manifestos and the more or less revolutionary or evolutionary ideas of people such as Patricia Martin, Seth Godin and Chris Anderson. Whether it is the form of marketing in customer service or the theory behind the long tail, I find a lot of people are so focused on their core business that they really forget about their key business. I got talking with a colleague at work and I explained why I felt independent booksellers in Canada need to get their act together. It’s not that they are not great booksellers, it is just that they slow to realize that customer behaviour is shifting online, or they are reluctant to adapt to this trend.
The argument is that small booksellers do not have the resources for online marketing is valid and very true, and by no means am I suggesting that they take upon online marketing themselves when they are already short-staffed and short on resources. I however must point to the Canadian Booksellers Association and ask why the lack of vision? Why the lack of direction?
The first step towards an online presence IS NOT e-commerce. I think that is where independent booksellers are mistaken. What should be happening is a result-based campaign focused on bringing awareness of independent booksellers across Canada. How? I point to the American initiative — Booksense.com
I’m allowed to make fun of myself — I am in marketing. Sometimes I think this is true of all marketers when we’re so focused on our core business that we forget about our actual business.
Why does it work so well as a first step?
It’s all about making it easier for consumer to find you. Booksense.com just simply asks the visitor to type in their zip code and it automatically brings up the closest local independent bookstores. Is that so hard to create? Instead we have a difficult to navigate website.
My colleague who happens to be a very loyal supporter of independent booksellers argued that people should know about them and consumers should just go find out about them. Very true and ideally, this should work but here’s why it hasn’t worked and it will continue that way until independent booksellers change their strategy.
The first element that is working against an independent bookseller is brand and the fact that I can recognize only Chapters or Amazon indicates that it is one strike against them.
The second element is pricing and well, that’s just not going to be something that can be addressed in the industry. Big retailers can under cut the pricing of any small retailer easily. There just isn’t any way around that. You can only differentiate in order to compete.
The third element is whether or not the consumer is aware. You may judge me however you may want — but I can honestly say that until I finished my publishing program in school a couple of years ago, I did not even know about independent booksellers. I understood that there may be a small bookstore here and there, but I had no idea that there were so many. My friend pointed out that there was a huge marketing campaign to promote buying from local independent bookstores so I should have known. Should — exactly the word that will cause a marketing plan to fail, and precisely how that marketing campaign failed me as a consumer by not equipping me with the freedom and options to shop elsewhere.
Did I notice it? — No.
Have I even heard of it? — No.
Where was it? Where was this campaign that was meant to encourage people to not buy from big box retail stores like Chapters Indigo? If I did not notice it, then think of how many people did not notice this campaign as well? If I did not know about independent booksellers then think of how many people how there that do not know about them as well?
Is it a bookseller’s role to promote themselves to every single consumer? — Definitely not!
Is it a bookseller’s role to ensure that they are easily found by all consumers? — Most definitely.
Ensuring that your business is easily found is my main point in this post. We are too focused on managing the processes of our daily lives and not looking forward. We are too busy focusing on who will buy it rather than focusing on who might be interested in it. We are so focused on the already converted — those who already love books that we forget about those who may just actually buy it if they knew more about it, but it requires more effort than simply promoting a book in the newspaper, hand selling a book, or hoping for a television interview.
We should spread some of that intense focus on to consumers who don’t view books as a high priority. Why? Just because they regard books as a second or third or lesser priority doesn’t mean that they are not a viable customer. Consumers are individuals of a great multi-faceted and multi-layered society, to reach them, we need to actually reach out in many different ways — or at the very least make it easy for these people to find us or the products we create. Is this marketing? To many it isn’t but it really is and ironically it is the most fundamental aspect.
Make life easier for them, help them find your local bookstore, and they may just happen to drop by and purchase a book. I don’t expect the independent booksellers to take action alone, but I do look towards the Canadian Bookseller Association for the leadership.
This was only the first step … there’s more but that’s enough out of me — for now.
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