The Susan Boyle phenomenon dissected

Better quality version here

Before Susan Boyle, there was Paul Potts. He was the winner of Britain's Got Talent in 2007 and a viral success in his own right. (The various videos of his first performance have over 52 million views.) But Susan Boyle is something else--a global, viral phenomenon not just on YouTube but in the mainstream media too, even in countries like the U.S. that don't air the show. Why?

The contestants have a lot in common. They are both attractively-challenged and they both emerged from obscurity (Susan Boyle, living with her cat in a small village in Scotland, and Paul Potts, working as a mobile phone salesperson in Wales). Both having seemingly impossible dreams to be professional singers and both setting up negative expectations with the judges and the audience that they then completely demolished with their performance. No doubt this was by design--I'm sure that Paul Pott's success in 2007 had the BGT team looking for a repeat performance. So, once again, why Susan Boyle?

Let's start with the judges explanation (after her semi-final performance):

Reality vs. expectations: This was where Simon focused: "I want to apologize because of the way we treated you before you sang the first time. You made me and everyone else look stupid." Although Paul Potts delivered an equally unexpected performance, the show did a better job this second time around of setting up and capturing the expectations of the judges and the audience.

Context (these hard times): When Paul Potts won the competition we were still in the sub-prime and derivatives-fueled boom-boom times. Now we're in a recession so, as Piers said: "When the world was going through a pretty tough time and was looking for a bit of hope and inspiration, Susan Boyle was there to deliver."

Some other ideas:

The song: "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables (Susan Boyle) vs. Giacomo Puccini's "Nessun Dorma" (Paul Potts). An advantage for Ms. Boyle. Not only because musicals are more familiar and accessible to the general population than Italian opera but also because the theme of her song mirrors her story. ("I dreamed a dream in time gone by, when hope was high and life, worth living.")

The back story: Another factor in favor of Susan Boyle. She really seems to have come from complete obscurity vs. Paul Potts who had had some professional experience prior to the show. Whereas he had sung with the Royal Philharmonic in front of an audience of 15,000, her experience had come from singing in church and karaoke in the local pubs in her village.

Practice makes perfect: I think that Paul Potts' success perhaps caught the show a little by surprise and they didn't take full advantage. No mistake this time round as they figured out every (camera) angle and every other way (cutting to Ant and Dec as the crowd gasps etc) to maximize the impact. They were ready.

So, there's five reasons but have I missed anything here? As I look at this list, I think it shows the importance of timing, the need for a deep and consistent story and how small details matter a lot.

One final thought--what about next year? I guarantee that the show will be scouring the nation's backwaters for more well disguised talent. But how are they going to avoid appearing like they've gone back to the well one too many times? Could Susan Boyle's great success actually be the beginning of the end for the show itself?

I don't know but let's leave the final word to Susan Boyle herself lest, by this dissection, we forget the bigger picture:

"All my life, I've always striven to prove to myself--that I can be accepted--that I'm not the worthless person that people think I am--that I do have something to offer...I just want that chance to perform in front of the Queen." Susan Boyle

Economist Marketing Forum (Day Two) Top 10 round-up

Highlights from Day 2 of the conference using the Tweets made by myself and others. To review the Twittering activity during the forum, go here on Twitter Search. (Search: #ecsf09):

1) russhmeyer: "'We' is the pronoun for the internet, not 'me'".-A.Rasiej, TechPresident.com

The first session of the day was about building the Obama brand. Andrew Rasiej believes that, over and above all the political dynamics, Obama won because he and his team understood the rules of the game for the Internet, especially that its language is about "we" not "me." Yes, we can.

2) jweinberger: #ecsf09 Barr: Obama won because: right people, right product, right time, flawless execution

A different perspective on why he won came from H. Buford Barr of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. He believes that it was more of a textbook campaign: A good strategy, well-executed. "Now I've got something to prove the textbook is right."

3) russhmeyer: boutique hotels=magazines...interesting source for marketing inspiration. - C Conley

Chip Conley is founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, California's largest boutique hotel company. As he said: His original target market was: "Chip's friends who used to sleep on my couch." But, once he got started, he found his inspiration from magazines. His first hotel: Phoenix Hotel was inspired, for example, by Rolling Stone. Others have been inspired by Simple, The Economist and Sports Illustrated.

4) martinjbishop:The employee track up the Maslow pyramid: From Job to Career to Calling

Conley is a devout follower of Maslow and the hierarchy of needs, using it as the organizing principle for the positioning of his hotels and also as a way to think about employee engagement. His goal is to get employees to think of work as more as a calling and less as a job or even a career. Customer experience can also be translated to this scale: "meets expectations" to "meets desires" to "meets unrecognized needs" (Conley's book where he explains this in more detail: Peak http://tinyurl.com/2uxyrd)

5) martinjbishop: Who knows how the consumer will react? Why are they buying puppy treats at a time like this? http://www.pupperoni.com/

The next panel explored the relationship between CEOs and CMOs. In his introductory remarks, William Pearce of Del Monte threw in this unexpected fact. Demand for puppy treats has gone through the roof since the recession started. Why? Who knows?

6) martinjbishop: Zappos has taken some of the things at the bottom of the Maslow pyramid and made them differentiating (e.g. warehousing)

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, declared himself a fan of Chip Conley and also uses Maslow principles in managing the company. What's interesting is that he's taken things that are normally considered costs-that-must-be-controlled and made them into points of differentiation. For example, Zappos runs its warehouses 24/7 which is not efficient but gives them an edge in customer service.

7) martinjbishop: The Zappos offer to pay people to leave after training is designed to get rid of people who are only there for the paycheck

Hsieh also talked about his famous policy of giving people the chance to quit for money after the training period. He wants people who are there for more than the paycheck. There's also some nice cognitive dissonance going on for those that stay. They have to rationalize the fact that they didn't take the money.

8) martinjbishop: The only way you win an argument against a person with a higher title is to "have a fact" (Kumar/Frito Lay)

Jay Kumar of Frito-Lay made the point that when two people are disagreeing with each other, the winner will generally be the one with the bigger title unless the lower-titled person has some compelling facts at hand. That, he pointed out, is why CMOs need to invest in getting facts if they are be persuasive in the boardroom.

9) TrevorWade: Virgin america goes to great lengths to connect with customers, stories are as remarkable as FedEx

The last speaker at the Forum was Porter Gale of Virgin America. Like Zappos, Virgin America is very plugged into what its customers are thinking and saying in real time. Porter shared a couple of stories where they had actually been at the gate of an incoming flight to talk to and help out customers who had complained about problems en route. Even as I tweeted about Virgin America at the conference, they started following me. Sort of GDR tactics made good.

10) johngerzema: My Economist presentation is posted here http://bit.ly/cnflH (expand)The slideshare has the links, but better graphics by dowloading.

John Gerzema, who spoke on Day 1 about avoiding the looming crisis in brand value, made his presentation available on this link. Well worth a read.

The Economist Marketing Forum Day Two speakers

Here are the speakers and agenda for today. You can follow the event via Twitter here. (martinjbishop on Twitter Search: #ecsf09):

1) Building the Obama brand: The selling of Barack Obama
Jim Margolis: Senior Partner, GMMB
H. Barford Barr: Lecturer in Marketing, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
Andrew Rasiej: Founder, techpresident.com

2) Stand out from the brand crowd
Chip Conley: Founder and CEO, Joie de Vivre Hospitality

3) Ties that must bind: Why CEOs rely on CMOs more than ever
William Pierce: Senior VP and CMO, Del Monte Foods
Jay Kumar: CMO, Frito Lay
Tony Hsieh: CEO, Zappos.com

4) Case study: Building a brand from scratch
Porter Gale: VP Marketing, Virgin America

Economist Marketing Forum (Day One) Top 10 round-up

Drawing: George Bush by me. Proving that even the best teacher (in this case KAL from The Economist) can't help those beyond help.

This conference was the first time I've used Twitter and my tweets (as martinjbishop) can be found via #escf09 on Twitter Search. So, apart from KAL trying to teach us all how to draw George Bush, what, as I look back through the tweets (mine and others), were the top 10 highlights of the day?

1) Don't just go after high-return customers. Just like stocks they may be the high risk ones. You need a balanced portfolio. (Ward Hanson: Policy Forum Director, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research)

The first session of the day was: "The economic landscape: How to spot an upturn." I thought this was a very interesting idea. Hanson made the point that, just as you wouldn't (or shouldn't) put all your eggs in a basket of high risk stocks, so should you avoid only going after high-risk customers. I think that AmEx's recent $300 incentive to encourage some card holders to leave is its effort to rebalance its portfolio.

2) The government is borrowing on the public's behalf (while we all pay off our debt) (Michael Lehmann: Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of San Francisco)

Also in the first session, Professor Lehmann made a compelling case for why the government must borrow and spend money. His argument: The public isn't doing it and the banks aren't doing it so, if the government doesn't do it, the economy will grind to a complete halt. But will the governement ever be able to turn off the tap?

3) russhmeyer: The good news and bad news of marketing right now is nobody has any money...levels the playing field. May the best idea win, then.

Marketing and advertising dollars have been a barrier to competition. But, these days, budgets are being cut and media is fragmented. As Russ Meyer suggests, this opens up the field and the best ideas may now prevail.

4) jweinberger: CMO of @tripadvisor talks about social media failure (their own site) and success (facebook)

The second session of the day explored the theme of how to market in a downturn. That task is a little easier for Christine Petersen, CMO of TripAdvisor because she never had much of a budget, even when times were good. Here Jeff Weinberger tweets that she has had more success developing social media applications for Facebook than she did trying to create things on her own site.

5) mktgwithmeaning: denny's received 1000s of thank u calls for free promo, one guy sent a $300 check "to thank u for what u did for America"

Mark Chmeil from Denny's was the architect of the recent Grand Slam giveaway, one of, if not the, marketing success of the year so far. Bob Gilbreath tweeted that the Grand Slam giveaway became much more than the simple trial device originally intended. It tapped into the strong feelings in the country as we bear the brunt of the recession.

6) The birth of Elf Yourself: One of 20 web sites launched with a total budget of $400,000. It was the one that took off.

Classic innovation technique adopted by Bob Thacker from Office Max. With a limited budget, Office Max launched 20 different web sites with no idea which one would be a hit. Turns out it was Elf Yourself that became the blockbuster.

7) danielriveong: Beam CMO: "our metric is getting into out consumer's heart", measuring "talkability". Very curious how's that's defined, budgeted

Rory Finlay is Senior VP and CMO of Beam's Global Spirits & Wine and he was part of a session talking about metrics and how to optimize marketing dollars. As Daniel noted in this tweet, Rory is trying to get a handle on "talkability" as a metric. As Rory went on to say, he's not quite got what he wants yet. He would like to measure the "quality" of conversation about his brand, not just the quantity.

8) WadeTr: Hermes is giving out paper bags to takes your purchases out of the store: guilded to guilt age (gerzema)

John Gerzema's book: Brand Bubble looks at what he called (all the way back half way through last year) the "looming crisis in brand value." Well the storm has hit and now we're seeing the impact. Trevor Wade's tweet captures John's idea that we have now entered a "guilt age" where conspicuos consumption has had to go undercover.

9) johngerzema: Econconf:Live your brand. UPS Marketing Chief Christine Owens started as a driver; mandatory for all executives

After his turn at the podium, John was also Twitter-active commenting on the fact that Christine Owens from UPS started her career as a driver. It reminded me that my first day on-the-job at Nestlé was to get up at 5am to go to a store in Seattle and reset the dog food section. Nothing like some real experience to cure you of ivory tower syndrome.

10) As we pursue efficiency via packaging reductions etc: "We are the accidental environmentalists." (Hagan/Clorox)

In a session on sustainability and corporate responsibility, Katherine Hagan: Marketing Director, Environmental Sustainability for Clorox made the point that going green only works if there's a business case that can be made as well. Clorox doesn't depend on altruism to get its green initiatives implemented. It relies on the bottom line.

All in all, a great first day. Back for more tomorrow.

The Economist Marketing Forum on Twitter

I'm attending The Economist Marketing Forum in San Francisco. And Twittering like crazy! You can follow my comments as well as others attending here. (martinjbishop on Twitter Search: #ecsf09) Speakers and agenda:

#1 The economic landscape: How to spot an upturn
Ward Hanson: Policy Forum Director, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Michael Lehmann: Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of San Francisco
Martin Giles: Senior Business Correspondent, The Economist

#2 Brand management: Successful marketing in an economic downturn
Pam Kaufman: Chief Marketing Officer, Nickelodeon
Christine Petersen: Chief Marketing Officer, TripAdvisor
Sylvia Reynolds: Chief Marketing Officer, Wells Fargo

#3 Consumer behavior: New attitudes, new approaches
Mark Chmiel: Executive Vice-President and Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, Denny's
Bob Thacker: Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Advertising, OfficeMax

#4 Payback: How to optimize marketing dollars
Rory Finlay: Senior VP and CMO, Beam's Global Spirits & Wine
Angela Courtin: Senior VP, Entertainment and Content, MySpace
Maureen Lally: VP Americas Marketing, Trane

#5 Avoiding the looming crisis in brand value
John Gerzema: Chief Insights Officer, Young & Rubicam Group, author of The Brand Bubble

#6 Communicating to a global audience
Kevin 'KAL' Kallaugher: The Economist's political cartoonist on Kaltoons

#7 Responsibility unbound: Expanding the role of the corporation
Katherine Hagan: Marketing Director,Environmental Sustainability, Clorox
Matthew Heim: President, Nine Sigma
Christine Owens: Senior VP of Communications and Brand Management, UPS

#8 Emerging markets case study: The rewards of brand-building in developing economies
Glenn R Weckerlin: Global Director, Brand and Product Line Management, Chevron
Rajesh Subramaniam: Senior VP of International Marketing, FedEx
Russ Meyer: CSO, Landor

Economist Conference base camp

I'm attending the Seventh Annual Economist Marketing Forum for the next couple of days (Landor is the founding sponsor). This year's theme is: "Managing for the present, preparing for the future," focusing on the marketing challenge of dealing with today while keeping an eye on opportunities for tomorrow. As described on the forum's home page:

"Chief marketing officers have been hit with a double whammy in the current financial turbulence: the slowing economy is forcing most of them to become cost-cutters just at the time they are being asked by their CEOs to take more responsibility for building brands and increasing revenue. At the same time, media consumption habits are changing significantly, leading CMOs to struggle with how to build brands in the digital age. They need to use their marketing dollars more effectively, decide on the proper mix of online and offline spending, and learn to reach and engage customers in new ways that underline two-way dialogues rather than simply pushing out one-way marketing messages."

Some interesting speakers lined up including Mark Chmiel from Denny's who was the architect of the free Grand Slam giveaway which I thought was the best Superbowl ad/promotion this year and Zappo's Tony Hsieh, everyone's favorite socially-media-active CEO.

Ski Trip

We're off to Tahoe to ski for a few days. Snow has been falling (to order) this last week so we're ready for action. Happy Holidays!

Why I love to go to Chuck E. Cheese's (Part 2)

For fight night.

Key quote (per Dave Barry): Seven officers arrived and found as many as 40 people knocking over chairs and yelling in front of the restaurant's music stage, where a robotic singing chicken and the chain's namesake mouse perform.

Here's Part 1 where the love came from proving how great a parent I must be to go through a few hours in this house of fun and entertainment.

One year old

Brand Mix is one year old today! 245 posts. Not bad. Some of my favorite posts from Year One:

1) Trouble in Paradise: The very first post about Fiji water. The challenges of the bottled water industry facing a eco-led consumer backlash became a frequent topic through the year.

2) Hertz values (mostly) represented by LAX bus driver: This was one time when I was really happy that I had a blog to be able to relay the unfortunate opinions of a Hertz bus driver.

3) Choice of beverages: The difference between Coke and Sprite as heard on a plane flight.

4) Now it's Greenpeace's turn to attack the Dove: This was the last of a series of posts about the flak that Dove received this year for its "Campaign For Real Beauty."

5) UK supermarkets: A trip down memory lane: My top-ten UK brands based on "resonation power"

Bonus picture of the year: Create your reality

Legal Marketing Association event

I was a panelist today at a Legal Marketing Association Bay Area Chapter event discussing the topic: Brand Valuation: Does Size Really Matter in the Real World?...and how does it relate to law firms? Here are some quotes from just one of the topics covered:

Why brand? What does branding mean to you?
"A brand is a sales tool. A brand is going to help a business grow." (Daniel)
"Brand is about being consistent, it's about getting everyone on same page and it's about a call to arms"(Daniel)
"Brand is about perception, it's about what people think of you...people will have a perception whether you think you're branding or not" (Martin)
"Brand is what's left over in client's brain long after you have left the room" (Jeff)

Links to information covering some of the topics discussed:
1) Brand definitions: Brand Mix
2) That Future Is Gone: Jeff Yerkey’s blog on "design, tech, politics… the usual junk"
3) Managing Millennials: A BNET Survival Guide
4) Ideastorm: Dell's 2.0 suggestion box
5) That's What She Said: A legal analysis of The Office (with claims estimates)
6) Legal Blog Watch: An assortment of legal blogs from Law.com

Fellow Panelists:
Jim Stapleton, Fenwick and West LLP (Moderator)
Jeff Yerkey, Right Hat/Charette Communication
Daniel Grace, Creative Mint

The Olympic Torch catches some San Francisco spirit

There were Tibetan flags, Chinese flags, U.S. flags and Free Burma placards. There was a die-in for Darfur with green-shirted students sprawled across the Embarcadero. There were dancing dragons, balloons, nude protestors and bemused bystanders.

Police were on bicycles, on foot, on jet skis and on buses but none of them were doing all that much. There was also an Olympic torch somewhere.

Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the United States Olympic Committee, said: "Virtually anybody and everybody is being heard."

Protest, support, tolerance, noise, color, wind and chaos. It was a good day for San Francisco.

Fooling around, this April

I realize that this title may have attracted a few searchers looking for something that this blog does not have to offer. Sorry about that. Have a beer instead:


Yes, it's that day of the year again when everyone can indulge the crazy in them. Be careful out there. And don't believe anything you read or see. (Except the story about a UK airline paying passengers to fly to Norwich. Apparently that's true.)

Guinness holds a narrow lead in my completely arbitrary list of the best of the day. In second place, Virgin Blue's "No Chair Fare." Trying hard is Google with all sorts of stunts including a feature that was suposed to allow you to search for content before it's created.

Links:
1) April 1, 2008: Wikipedia
2) Airline hires temps to fill plane: Reuters
3) Snacking Mugabe, flying penguins greet April Fools: Reuters

Starbucks vs. McDonalds

A big news day for Starbucks. First, the WSJ has a front page article about McDonalds foray into espresso beverages, baristas and all. Later in the day, Starbucks announces that Howard Schultz is returning to his role as CEO replacing the unfortunately named given the circumstances, Jim Donald who is leaving.

By this morning, most everything that could be written has been written. Here's one of the news pieces that quotes Schultz as saying most of his company's headaches have been "self-induced."

Here's a link to John Moore's thoughts about the McDonalds move. John is a Starbucks expert having worked there for a number of years and he focuses on the challenges that McDonalds will have trying to replicate the Starbucks experience within its ultra-efficient fast food operation.

For general Starbucks gossip, go here. And finally for some other thoughts about the battle between McDonalds and Starbucks, read Danielle Blumenthal's comments here.

The point she makes, same as my own reaction, is how both great and how awful it is for Starbucks that McDonalds should be now thought of as a competitor. On the one hand, it shows the success that Starbucks has had penetrating into the mainstream. On the other, it shows how close it has become to being just another commodity.

Based on his comments and his infamous leaked memo, that's something Mr. Schultz is all too aware of and is coming back to fix.

Meatball Sundae Thought #1: The consumer's voice

As I mentioned earlier, I have been invited to participate in Seth Godin's virtual book tour for Meatball Sundae. I just finished the book. It's a great read. Also thought-provoking, so I thought that I would share some of those provoked thoughts with you leading up to Seth's scheduled tour stop at this blog on January 16th.

So, thought #1 - you're damn right - the consumer's voice is LOUDER than it used to be. This is Trend #2 of 14 trends that Seth says are ushering in the fourth industrial revolution. A revolution that replaces mass marketing with new approaches that recognize that technology and competition "has led to a world where many people can get what they want, when they want it." And one of the things they want is respect.

Case in point - it's a lot more risky for hotel managers to insult their guests than it used to be. Back in the day, hotels could treat their guests badly and the worst that would typically happen is that guest wouldn't go back to the hotel and perhaps a few of their close friends would hear about it and they wouldn't go there either. But now there's TripAdvisor and many other places for people who've been done wrong to make loud their protest. Here's my tirade, for example, against the 3Peaks Resort and Beach Club where I stayed on my recent ski trip.

As Seth points out in the book, "the Web remembers forever" so my review is a permanent record of my experience and could still, potentially, be influencing people for years to come. It just isn't going to make financial sense to be rude anymore when any guest could be that person who will take the time to warn others of what they might expect.

And, we're back

A good time had by all, including the dog.

Coming soon, the first of a series of thoughts inspired by reading Meatball Sundae. Also, I'm ready to tear into Subway for its IMhumbleO unfortunate decision to use Peter Griffin (the Family Guy) as well as Jared.

Ski trip

We're off to Tahoe to ski for a few days. Happy Holidays!

Why I love to go to Chuck E. Cheese's

How else could I do prove in just three hours how great a parent I must be? I was thinking that religious organizations have missed an opportunity by not having posters nearby with a message along the lines of: "If you think that was bad, start praying with us so you don't end up somewhere even worse."

Of course, the kids loved it and won two rubber snakes. Everyone was a winner.

Turkey undercover

There's an outdoor swimming just up the road that's open year round. Once or twice a week I manage to get myself out of bed early enough to do some laps. When there's frost on the ground and it's still dark like today, I get to feel a little bit heroic just making it into the water.

Anyway, there's a bunch of wild turkeys who live in that neighborhood. Not the scrawny, bullet-fast wild turkeys I once saw in Florida. These are Californian turkeys - bigger and much more laid back. They seem to spend most of the time in the middle of the road gobbling at each other.

Well, the last few times I've been to the pool, the turkeys have not been there. They've vanished. I'm hoping they've made it to higher and safer ground, not the plates of the locals.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

Xmas creep jumps the Thanksgiving line

One thing, apart from the turkey, that I like about Thanksgiving is that it has helped block the early arrival of the Xmas season. There's been a certain order to the end of the year - Halloween, Thanksgiving then Xmas.

But now it looks like Xmas has broken through the Thanksgiving line. Santa has already arrived and set up shop in most malls in Rochester, Xmas trees were up in October in St Louis when it was still 80 degrees outside and Buffalo reports decorations out as early as July.

In trying to eke out a small advantage over their rivals, retailers risk killing their golden goose.

Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé

Brilliant marketing campaign or insiduos reputation destroyer? This year's Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived.

Described here as "nothing more than pleasantly tart barroom swill", Beaujolais Nouveau benefits from a marketing blitz like no other. That's because it's this year's wine and, by law, can't be sold before the third Thursday of November setting up the opportunity to make the wine's arrival a real event.

It started as a race to Paris with different teams competing to get the first bottle to the city and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. "Beaujolais Mania" has since died down but it's still a big seasonal seller.

Winners are the local Nouveau growers who benefit from a quick financial return on their harvest. Losers are the growers who have stuck with the other, far higher quality wines of the region. These wines have been buried in all the deluge of attention for Beaujolais Nouveau, bargains for those in the know but suffering from association with their much better known, lower class but more popular cousin.