My Notes from Stephen R. Covey's Funeral: July 21, 2012

My notes from Stephen R. Covey's funeral on Saturday July 21, 2012 at UVU.

Maria Tedjamulia and I attended Stephen R. Covey's funeral on Saturday. We wanted to honor him and remember him because of the role he played in my life (he wrote my MBA letter of recommendation), and we wanted to remember him as his family remembers him. I took notes of what his children, his brother, and President Eyring said about him. My favorite quote was from President Eyring, "We rejoice with you in his life and accomplishments. He was an influence for good. He magnified his gifts."

http://studentgenius.com/patrick.tedjamulia1/StephenCovey

Bigger Impact = Invite your audience to more fully utilize their senses!

How often do you analyze your work, ideas, or beliefs by reviewing it through each of your five senses?

I'd venture to say that most of us will only use the senses that are required for us to review the item at hand. Which means most of us are living or experience the world by what others dictate to us, versus what could be experienced.

Take for example, a normal online banner ad. Let me go to CNN.com and review the first banner I see:

How many senses am I using to experience this Visa Black Card ad? One, sight. I'm not hearing anything along with this ad. I don't smell anything. I can't taste anything, and I can't touch anything unless I'm using an iPad or Tablet. So Visa is satisfied with trying to capture my attention through only one sense. 

How could Visa potentially add additional sensory experiences to their ad? Here are just a few examples that come to mind: Adding the sound from their TV ad, smelling the nail polish or the burnt rubber from the bike (there must be ways of doing this), using a scene that brings in exquisite taste like eating luxury, and lastly being interactive allowing for touch to unlock a new experience. 

One of the greatest masters of his own senses was Leonardo Da Vinci who reflected that the average human "looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking."

I invite each of you to improve your use of our senses, so you can truly engage with our minds and help us experience what's possible. 

Does your Brand or Community Give Your Customers the Power to Create and Share?

People want to create and share. That's a natural instinct we are born with. We want to conquer. We like the challenge of doing something we, or even better, no one, has done before. And then share it with others.

My son, who just turned one, will scan any surrounding he is in to find where he can go, where he has never gone before. Better yet, if he can find a tool or object that will help him reach his goal, he will use it. If he is trying to reach an object like a T-shirt, etc... he will do whatever it takes to get it and then he will bring it to me so I can see what he found.

Let me give you another example, this time from one of my own most useful daily technology solutions, my Galaxy Nexus Android Phone.

When I first got my new phone I was excited to try the new interface, but the latest feature which has caught my attention is the Panoramic Picture feature. Here are a few examples of the Panoramic pictures I've taken most recently.

I'm so excited about this feature, that I already came up with several different use cases for me to pull out my Panoramic Pic feature next: the focus group I'm conducting on Tuesday, the mountains behind my home, my wife's MBA graduation, etc...

The Panoramic Pic feature allows me to create pictures that most people don't have the ability to create. Plus, it allows me to easily share the pic with anyone. Showcasing my creation.

I invite Brands and Communities to ask themselves the following question: How does my Brand or Community help my consumers create and share?

Twitter Strategy: Brand = Character, Not a Hired Hand

If you want to grow your brand on Twitter, I recommend that you ask yourself the following important question: Does your Brand talk? 

If your Brand is Old Spice, you would say yes. Terry Crews is Old Spice. Old Spice is Terry Crews. Check out a few examples of the kind of discussions you can have with Old Spice:

The Terry Crews/Isaiah character has become so successful for Procter & Gamble, that they are borrowing it's equity to spice up their other brands including Charmin and Bounce. 

But, if your brand is Axe, you would probably say no. Can you even associate Axe with any specific face or character? I certainly can't. And that's because Axe positions themselves as the guy's wingman helping him navigate the mating game.

I went to the most obvious place to see a Brand's Voice come to life (Twitter) and looked at the Axe brand's tweets. Here is what I found:

Who is DanwithAxe? A hired hand? Doing a simple Google search for DanwithAxe, I found the answer:

Now, which brand has the most Twitter followers? I'm sure you can guess this one.

But knowing Twitter followers is not the ultimate way to measure a Brand's success, which brand has the greater market share?

Brand Characters can be a very effective way to execute your Twitter strategy. My former CMO, Mark Addicks, agrees that Brands should really consider Brand Characters. Just look at all the Brand Characters General Mills adopted to represent it's brands: Lucky Charms, Trix, Pillsbury, etc.

But, many times your Brand's Character may not be suited to talk. I remember back when I worked at Procter & Gamble for the Mr. Clean brand, Mr. Clean was a mute character associated with his magic rather than his voice. Unfortunately, I believe this has a significant limiting effect on the level of engagement consumers can have with the Brand.

Let your Brand Characters talk. Look what Mr. Mayhem has done for Allstate and what the Gecko has done for Geico.

Here is the one main question I recommend for deciding on your Brand's Character: Imagine a future moment when your brand is responding to thousands of tweets per day, who would be your brand?  

How to Create Your Brand Digital Dashboard

How can I keep track of my Brand online?

That seems to be the question I hear all the time these days. In our insta-share culture, Brands are realizing that they can either hear about the conversation after the fact, or they can participate in the conversation in real-time.

Here are a few of the triggers that cause Brands to ask "How can I keep track of my Brand online?"
- Search Trends
- Blogs/PR
- Social comments
- Product recalls
- User Generated Content (Videos)
- Reviews
- Voluntary Product Placement
- Competitive activity

Last year, I worked with Google's iGoogle team to develop a framework for Brands to create their own Brand Digital Dashboard.  Let me show you how its done.

Create a New Tab on iGoogle
- Go to iGoogle and access iGoogle's settings
- Add a Tab so the Dashboard can live on its own and be shared easily
- You can customize the theme/banner of the tab with your own brand

Add Gadgets
- Search the iGoogle Gadget Directory for gadgets to add to your Tab.

Here is a list of gadgets I recommend
Google Insights for Search - customize this gadget's settings with the search terms and locations you want to see. You can add multiple instances of this gadget so you can see Rising Searches, Top Searches, and Interest Over Time.
Google News - customize this gadget's settings with the topics you want to see
Google Analytics - login to your Analytics account and access Analytics reports.
Twitter Search - simply type a term and see the most recent Tweets with that term
Flickr - simply type a term in the search tab and see relevant pictures
Blogs - you can also add any blog you want as an RSS feed (ex: Yahoo Answers, etc...)
Other Gadgets of interest may be: YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, etc...

After you have created your dashboard, the key will be to develop marketing strategies that will allow you to act on this real-time insight. But, at least you now have a better sense of what's happening with your Brand online.

Google Launches Free eBook on the Zero Moment of Truth

I was first introduced to the "First Moment of Truth" and "Second Moment of Truth" concepts during my initial days at Procter & Gamble several years ago.  I remember getting the overview from a Brand Manager pitching Olay's new facial product for a case study we were doing as interns. We were asked to put together a strategy for launching a new facial cloth for the female on-the-go young professional. Our team presented a bill-board campaign (intercepting her as she goes to work, the gym, and the store) announcing Olay's campaign to find the Face of America. The idea was to get her engaged before she even made it to the shelf, associating the Olay Brand to what defines the Face of America. We won the case study competition.

Per Procter & Gamble's definition back in 2005, a consumer's first moment of truth is when they see the product at shelf and make their purchase decision. This has traditionally been the most important marketing opportunity for a Brand.  But, times have changed. Today, the consumer has the power to decide what she wants to buy before she enters the store. And you better believe that she takes full advantage of the information she has at her fingertips.

Our team at Google has been sharing a concept that crystallizes this new Moment, we describe it as the "Zero Moment of Truth". Jim Lecinski, Google's Managing Director of US Sales & Service describes it in this short video:




He is actually making a complete eBook on the topic available for free. You can download it by following the link here.

In a conference I attended last year honoring Edison for his innovations, I met-up with AG Lafley, P&G's former CEO, and asked him what he thought about the Zero Moment of Truth. Here is a clip of the interview Google conducted for Wharton's Fast Forward YouTube Channel that day:



Now with the Zero Moment in mind, I would have changed my case study pitch and expanded the bill-board strategy to include coverage of the Digital Shelf (Search, YouTube and Display) via Computers/Laptops and Mobile devices. I could easily imagine Olay's Faces coming to life on YouTube.

It's kind of ironic that we are focused on the Zero when we are a company named after a number with 100 zeros after it. But, it does hint at an even broader theme of the Zero Moments of Truth.