I was nerding out one day watching a question and answer video on Tim Ferriss, where he recommended 3 books, one of them being this business memoir called Let My People Go Surfing.
I read the first few pages and instantly got drawn to this unusual story. It’s a topsy turvy life story by Yvon Chouinard, who reluctantly started a business based on his love for the outdoors, mainly rock climbing and hiking, etc. He started to create tools and materials that he felt he needed. He realized others liked and desired these products too, so he created this company as we know today as Patagonia. I like this guy a lot cos he challenges conventional wisdom on business. Not to just aim for pure profits, but make society better.
Anyways, I got curious yesterday and thought.. I wonder what there blog is like? So I did a search and came across this beauty postexplaining their latest advertising in the New York Times.
DON”T BUY THIS JACKET is the headline! On America’s greatest consumer holiday – Black Friday! I mean you must be thinking oh how clever. Addressing the consumerists. Say don’t buy it, taking the opposite approach to capture attention. That’s what my initial reaction would be to this if I didn’t know the Patagonia back story. AND yes! That’s what it is – however this is not just a stunt. Patagonia throughout it’s history has had this philosophy: don’t buy more if you don’t need it.
It’s controversial, yes, but the motive is to cause you to re-examine your purchasing practices. Do you really need it? Maybe you were leaning this way, but this might push you to be even more mindful. Perhaps to check out Patagonia’s website to learn more if it’s a strong interest to you. This is my kind of advertising. Some people hate marketing, but don’t realize this is the equilibrium we live in. This is how you fight back.
I try to convince my friends that the reason to use twitter is learn about all this amazing insightful stuff on business, psychology, latest health studies by scientists, etc. Yes I follow Conan as well for comedy relief. I mean it’s what you want it to be – entertainment or learning, if you choose to follow the right people. I came across a tweet by Ramit on Starbucks raising prices. You can check out the article by clickinghere.
There are some fancy words in the article, but this part right here caught my eye:
A key attribute of those practicing value based pricing is never explicitly saying that they are practicingvalue based pricing. There are always other reasons and you never say pricing at customer willingness to pay. A key part of practicing effective pricing is effective pricing communication and managing customer perception. Failing that you will face backlash as some brands recently did.
Its true, its all about elasticity of pricing and the lack of concern by Starbucks coffee drinkers. They’ll pay whatever asked for their favorite cup of coffee.
These caffeine addicts almost want a reason by the company so that they themselves can justify paying more to themselves and there friends!
This won’t work with, say Bank of Montreal, because they don’t offer a premium service that consumers know them for. Instead, they offer standard banking services, which gives consumers very low switching costs. Starbucks is about the feel you get when you walk out of the store holding their brand in your hand. Bank of Montreal is about getting the best ROI (a pretty poor one).
This device you see here has been the starter of many conversations and laughs at parties.
It’s a breath alcohol tester. It gives you a rating on how hammered you are. I like to carry it with me at bars just to make sure no one drives home above the limit. Okay actually because it’s just a lot of fun! Everyone gets curious to see what there rating is. It becomes something to talk about.
It doesn’t have to be a nifty gadget either. It’s when your buddy mentions at a party how godlike amazing Under Cover of Darkness (click to have a listen!) by the Strokes sounds. Or that favourite author or killer new Iphone app – it’s why two people start chatting and relating to one another. You do it without thinking in conversation all the time. So that’s also the warning: make a product that can incite conversation! That is the cornerstone of any marketing.
I was browsing Dan Pink’s website the other day ( I like his books A Whole New Mind and Drive, check em out!) and came across some posts on emotionally intelligent signage.
It got me thinking of what makes me slow down while driving. The only deterrent to speeding is a consequence such as paying a fine. Think about it. If you knew that there would be no consequence, would you slow down? I doubt it.
I snapped a photo of this sign from my car, while it was raining! No one was harmed, relax.
This sign creates an emotional appeal on why you should slow down. Quite different than the usual threatening of fines. Dan Pink finds these emotionally intelligent signs everywhere, click here to see some other ones.
This is perhaps the most mind bending documentary I’ve seen in about 6 months. The other one being about the global financial crisis of ’08 - Inside Job.
It’s about graffiti street art, specifically Banksy, a famous mischief from London who gives expression to the mundane things we pass by every day. Before I get into why this film is killer, I would just say this. If you’re interested in business and pop culture (who isn’t?) then WATCH IT. It will take you for an amusing ride, only to punch you in the face half way through. If you don’t want any spoilers, stop reading now. Download this and come back here, to read my thoughts. It’s a swift one and half hours of time well spent.
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Welcome back.
So as you know it starts off about this hilarious French film maker, Thierry, later known as Mr. Brainwash. He loves filming, eventually gets drawn to street art, which leads to him making art himself. He learned how to make street from all these guys over the past ten years.. and then he does it? Whoose being fooled? Was he actually talented? I think he was. Funny I think that’s how we all learn in a way. Collaboration isn’t it called? One of the people he collaborates with is Shepard Fairey, who is famous for the Obey images and the iconic Obama poster.
I guess collaborating and stealing is a very fine line. A friend of mine for example felt Mr. Brainwash was created by Bansky. In her words: ” Like, it’s all a hoax. Bansky is so illusive, why would he all of a sudden agree to do a movie if not to mess with people? I think the movie was to draw attention to art and authenticity – how this crazy French guy reproduced images, threw some paint on them, and sold them for thousands of dollars. I think Bansky was trying to prove that anyone could do this as long as the audience was stupid enough to buy into it. Okay, so that last sentence may be reaching, but hopefully you get what I’m saying….. I agree with you on collaboration and taking ideas from our influences, but at what point does it become “stealing”?
As the late, great, Michael Jackson once stated – “It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation… period.”
Well damn. Why did you have to bring MJ into this? I ll get back to him in a bit.
So I decided to watch it for a second time and I dunno about it being a hoax. That is fascinating premise though…but I feel the story is well too scripted for this to be just a hoax.
Real or not, this is really making you question why artists like Damien Hirst get paid millions of dollars for their art. Banksy himself gets paid half a million for certain pieces and he questions you, what do people value? Well like beauty, “value” is in the eye of the beholder. Kinda of relates to a blog post I wrote actually (someone sold virtual asteroid for half a million dollars). Anyways, Banksy is cool cos he’s bit of a punk. I did some research on him and found that he did a hugely successful show, “Barely Legal” in 2006, and gave a flyer out stating this:
“1.7 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. 20 billion people live below the poverty line. Every day hundreds of people are made to feel physically sick by morons at art shows telling them how bad the world is but never actually doing something about it. Anybody want a free glass of wine?”
I think you might call it stealing because he paints this French guy as a bit of a putz, who just miraculously honed his craft in 6 months.. well maybe he wasn’t as sophisticated about it? I’d argue the French guy is very talented. He just wears his influences on his sleeve.
As for Michael’s comment, well he by no means can claim to be the most original person either, nor can The Beatles, or Elvis, etc. They’re very unique, however. For example, the moon walk was underground dance move for YEARS, he popularized and branded it, made it his own in 83′ with Billie Jean. Even before that Michael solo moves and singing style was heavily influenced by James Brown, Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, etc. He became all these influences coming together, with a twist. Watch this, it’s absolutely fantastic:
See I’d argue Radiohead makes weird music okay to listen to, because people now trust Radiohead for producing weird sounds. They made it cool to listen to serious music. And it’s great, cos if they’re good, we becomes curious to learn where these influences came from. People learn about who Andy Warhol is, and appreciate the pioneers of pop art in the case of this film.
I think your good or a pro when people start imitating you. But it’s a very fine line isn’t it? Hopefully it eventually leads one creating something unique as well, because no one wants just a cover band. We remember the music, so you have to move beyond imitation.
One argument you could actually make is Thierry seems enamored seeing his graffiti everywhere, more than the actual art itself. More in love with the idea of photocopying his image everywhere and people knowing about him than actually making a statement. He openly admits in the film he was addicted to this.
And perhaps that’s what Thierry should be mostly credited for? How he made connections. Cos Thierry became a huge star himself! Like whatever you may say, he has drive, made observations, very likable character. Shepard loved his passion for the filming, and called him an accomplice. He became enamored with street art and that led to him become an artist as well. In a way this movie is a tribute to apprenticeships. There is tremendous value in this act, as you work with people smarter than you. See how they work, learn from it and apply it to your situation. It motivated him to work at that level. That and having major guts. Right? So many questions, hence this review. And definitely one to watch on a first date perhaps – you will talk all night afterwards!
How do we build trust? Well I ll start off with a well known principle in life: We deem more trust in products value when other people mention how amazing it is, thus the use of testimonials. Saying that I find one-two line testimonials to be kinda useless. Actually when others say “don’t read this” – this makes me more intrigued to read the book. Why did it cause such a strong reaction? Maybe that’s just me.
These SAP ads, a boring company to talk about, make them sound like an amazing company by showing off their clients.
“When I get all these nails out of this I’m going to build me a shelf they’ll last a thousand years!” said Bull, every bone shuddering with boyish excitement. ” Why, Sal, do you realize the shelves they build these days crack under the weight of knick knacks after six months or generally collapse? Same with houses, same with clothes. These bastards have invented plastics by which would make houses last forever. And tires. Americans are killing themselves by the millions every year with defective rubber tires that get hot on the road and blow up. They could make tires that never blow up. Same with tooth powder. There’s a certain gum they’ve invented and they wont’ show it anybody that if you chew it as a kid you ll never get a cavity for the rest of your born days. Same with clothes. They can make clothes that last forever. They prefer making cheap goods so’s everybody ‘ll have to go on working and punching time clocks and organizing themselves in sullen unions and floundering around while the big grab goes on in Washington and Moscow.” He raised his big piece of rotten wood. “Don’t you think this’ ll make a splendid shelf? “
I sometimes feel the same way about most electronic goods. Put some glitches on the first edition, so get the 2nd or 3rd edition when all the errors are mostly gone? Okay fair enough there is some legitimate kinks that are sometimes only noticeable after many user tests. But what if something was actually built to last long? So we don’t have to keep replacing it? I’m not sure if there is a big conspiracy to make crap stuff. The question to ask yourself, in the fast-food culture of North America, when was the last time you considered the time and cost it took to make something? How long something would endure?
There is something about listening to live concerts. It’s raw, anything can go wrong - and that’s the allure of it, that something unexpected could happen. Can they turn out a godlike performance? Are they as good as they say in interviews? As they sound on album? If there a proper band they will sound loads better.
I remember back in July 2000, staying up listening to the webcast feed of Oasis Wembley gig in London. Now this was a rough year for Oasis. Liam broke up with his 1st wife. Noel left the band briefly, etc. They played 2 nights, and 1st night was rock solid, Liam in top singing form. But Liam didn’t realize they had a second show to play the next night. This results in a very punk rock performance, much to the dismay of Noel. Noel jokes to the crowd this is what happens when your brother gets smashed the night before with a Spice Girl.
What does this have to do with business? Making mistakes, fixing it and apologizing done properly can be awesome. It gives you a chance to make amends, and take responsibility even its not entirely your fault. I mean it has to be sincere. And you know what will happen? They will tell 10 more people saying how this company went out of its way to make sure the issue was resolved. Not to say don’t do a good job every time. When a band plays a shit gig or the singer doesn’t turn up, sometimes if there smart, they’ll maybe give all the money back to the fans, apologize and try to make another trip to perform at that city. Fans love that, remember it and tell everyone about it. The other thing is, its sometimes fun to see the band screw up. Cos its more interesting as fans to see how they recover from this and start up again.
I recently visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the first time to checkout the Carnival. It was non stop action. I initially thought I could get around Brazil with broken Spanish. That didn’t quite work out. Portuguese doesn’t read like its written! Too many accents on words! Did my head in. Despite all this I enjoyed making a fool of myself by attempting to learn the language. I realized I’m not going to retain this, but I just enjoyed trying to communicate. Especially with the Brazilians ladies.
Now apart from the beauties of Rio, I noticed a few peculiarities in how people pay for things at restaurants and bars. One of my favourite type of restaurants was the Comida a Kilo. You fill up your plate with all the food you want and the cost is then determined by the weight! Churassco and feijoada were my favourite dishes.
They also got these wicked juice/snack bars on almost every corner of Copacabana and Ipanema. This is where you just hang out and shoot the breeze with other locals. One night I was with a loud mouth New Yorker who decided to ask this young couple where the party was happening that night. They mentioned they were going to a favela party. The New Yorker just burst out laughing roughly saying “dude i would never send you to the Bronx if you asked me in New York, now really tell me where’s the party at? ” This couple laughed a bit, but seemed visibly offended. They then said in a monotone voice ” no were actually going to a favela party” . I smiled and really enjoyed the tension this created! Nice one on the cultural sensitivities Mr. Americano! Apparently its cool for locals to enjoy a local samba party in a favela. But if you’re a foreigner, even from outside the city, its not advised.
good times
By the way safety wise I felt fine. Luckily in my case, many of the locals mistook me for Brazilian, which led me to nodding and laughing in agreement to pretend I knew exactly what they were saying! But yes, you do have to be careful as you do in any big city. The guys can be quite assertive, as are the girls which I didn’t mind obviously. So don’t keep too much cash on you, travel in groups, etc. But for the most part, Brazilians are extremely friendly and happy that you didn’t get scared off by movies such as City of God (watch it).
Anyways the fast food at these juice bars looked and tasted much better than what I expected. I especially enjoyed the Acai drink. They have a system where you pay first, and then take that stub to a 2nd person for the order to be made. I actually thought it resulted in faster service.
Then there was the bars, where the party really starts to begin at about 2 am. You’ve probably heard of bottle service in Vegas. They had a toned down version using a card system. The premise was they give you a card for 50 real for all your drink needs. I found this to be very smart.
Why? Because they got at least 50 bucks out of you. This requires you to chill out for a longer period of time to spend the 50.00 real! Unless of course you are able to slurp down 20 shots in 5 minutes. You don’t wanna leave spending less than 50, cos you feel you didn’t get your money’s worth! Right? So you order till your card runs out. Which is very easy to do. Using a card makes you feel like you’re not spending as much anymore, ie: why they use chips in casino’s. Also because you stay longer, this attracts more people to the joint, cos people wanna go where the party’s at!
Oddly the bar next to this place, Melt in Leblon, does the opposite. They gave you a card too initially, but you pay the damage at the end of the night. Again, when you have plastic, you spend more easily than cash…exactly what the bar owners want! At least you knew before it was just 50. Oh, but you will have a great time! They had a live samba band in the middle of the club.
Apart from the dancing, greeting each other by kissing on cheeks, beach activities, street parties, I didn’t feel too much of a culture shock, until I got back. They dress the same as us, okay perhaps a little less clothing because of the humidity. But I feel the world is becoming homogenized. You can get the exact same things from any shop. And yes you can get way with English, but its a shame to only know one language really well. You can’t relate to people the same way. Definitely need to learn more than one to enjoy this world.
ps: check out this nifty idea by the Brazilians. t-shirts that represent old bands and new bands inspired by them:
Been reading a book by a fellow Canadian, Unmarketing by Scott Stratten. I like to read books of people I follow on twitter and so I picked it up.
And its got some great practical gems that any business could apply today. Like you need to steal some of this, tweak and apply it today. It has some over tones with permission marketing by Seth Godin, in that spam and advertising isn’t so effective anymore, nor has it been for awhile. That’s a no brainer.
So what really peaked my interest is what you can do with people already interested in your product.
Well how about talking to them? I don’t know why its so hard for people to just talk to another as a person, instead of selling. Another way to put it is be informative, don’t say “how can I help you? “. That is the lamest thing you could ask someone. I slammed the book at this point when he mentioned this. I hate that too. One killer example he cites are the framing companies he visits.
He mentions that when someone enters your store they’re never just browsing or killing time. Scott calls this the biggest lie in the retail world and I have to agree. They’re curious. Some are looking for discount stuff, some aren’t sure what requirements they need to buy something and worse they are then made to feel dumb for not knowing! Not a good feeling to have when leaving your store. So you cater to them individually. For example, have a separate email list for those looking for the discounts – make them feel special. Give them examples of what size, requirements could work. Educate them so they feel smarter being at your store. Sounds so obvious, yet tell me how often does this happen?
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An example that will further illustrate this point is a recent visit to a car dealership. I’ve been driving the same car for 10 years, so I decided to do some test drives to see what I like. Unfortunately, zipcar isn’t in Calgary.
When I arrived, I was greeted by a young receptionist behind a desk. I told her my interest in driving the Cooper. She immediately picks up the phone and this message blares out this massive speaker system. The entire showroom now knows that I need a car…how thoughtful. The sales people are only 20 steps away, but that would require her to move, which would interrupt the movie playing on her laptop. I waited for a half hour until finally I’m informed it would be another twenty minutes. I walked out.
Now imagine if she gave me a tour while I waited. Ask what my hobbies are, talk to me like a person not a walking bank account. She might realize I love music. She might then show me how awesome the stereo is in a certain car. Imagine a week later she sends me some tickets to a Strokes show. I would be floored! I would strongly consider only buying from that dealership, and possibly marrying her. Wouldn’t you?
