New Persuasion

Free - A Rising Business Model

A couple years ago, I wrote about free.  And now that I'm finally catching up with my daily blog reading, I find that Chris Anderson of The Long Tail, is writing a book about free.  He's delving into the economics of free and how it can work in many different industries.  One quote - from an old Financial Times article - caught my eye:

"Never in history has so much innovation been offered to so many for so little. The world’s most exciting businesses – technology, transport, media, medicine and finance – are increasingly defined by the word “free”. Whereas WalMart, the world’s largest retailer, promises “everyday low prices”, entrepreneurs and ultra-competitive incumbents develop business models predicated on providing more for free. It is a difficult proposition to beat."

It is hard to beat free.  It's become part of our changing expectations.  We expect things to be free - especially when it comes to the Internet. 

The Green Umbrella Part 2 - Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

Dr. Karel J. Samsom, a specialist in environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship and author of Spirit of Entrepreneurship told Entrepreneur magazine that green business is “… a highly underrated opportunity for small business.”   

What are the opportunities for small businesses that want to “go green”?  Every industry, every hobby, every action can have a shade a green.  Broadly, green means either improving the planet or improving its people or both.  Any process, product or service that saves natural resources or re-uses these resources is considered green.  Any effort to help people live healthier lives is green.  The green umbrella also includes the growing field of social entrepreneurship – a business which sets out to solve a social problem while at the same time making money. 

Are people really buying green?  The answer is yes – although many green businesses find it helps to sell quality and price first, and green bona fides second.   Some 63 million American consumers are classified as LOHAS (those with “lifestyles of health and sustainability.”)  According to the Natural Marketing Institute, this means that they
“have a profound sense of environmental and social responsibility... these consumers are also the most likely of the segments to buy environmentally and socially responsible products.”  These are the customers who, according to Fast Company magazine, “…have proven themselves willing to spend up to an astounding 20% premium on clean, green products…”  Add to that another 38% of consumers who “are less resolute in their LOHAS attitudes, though still show moderate levels of related concern and select LOHAS behaviors (such as recycling, among others), and you have an incredible consumer base which at the very least open to green ideas and products.

So where are the best opportunities for entrepreneurs?  Here are five areas:

1.  Organic Products- We’ve all read about the exploding organics industry – There are organic cosmetics, toiletries, vodka, pasta, tea, waffles, peanut butter - but there is still tons of room for growth here particularly since, as Andrew Zolli wrote in Fast Company, “With two huge generations dominating American society--the baby boomers, who created the first draft of contemporary environmentalism, and the millennials, the most globally connected cohort in history--principles of conscious consumption will come to dominate the brandscape.”

• About 75% of shoppers buy organic products at least occasionally, up from 55% in 2000; 23% buy them at least once a week.  (Supermarket News, 8/27/07, subscription required)
• Organics are here to stay - Goldman Sacks snalyst Steven T. Kron said, "We believe that the recent surge that organic foods have experienced is not transient, but rather a sustainable shift in food consumption with ramifacations up and down the food chain."  (Associated Press, 7/13/07)
• Organic beer still represents less than 1% of U.S. beer sales, but those sales doubled to $19 million between 2003 and 2005 (last year figures available).  In 2005, organic beer ranked with coffee as the fastest-growing organic beverage.  (Reno Gazette Journal, 6/27/07, purchase required)
• U.S. organic food and beverage sales totaled nearly $17 billion in 2006, representing 3 percent of all retail sales of food, up from 2.5 percent in 2005 and 1.9 percent in 2003.  So though organic retail sales have grown between 20% and 24% each year since 1990, that’s still only 3% of the category.
• Organic-cotton production in the U.S. increased by 8%—and was up 7% in China, 25% in India, and 40% in Turkey—between 2004 and 2005, according to an April, 2006, Organic Exchange report that lists the top four producers. But demand for organic-cotton fibers by clothing makers increased 93% in the same period.  (Business Week, 9/27/06)
• U.S. sales of organic sheets and towels rose 38% to $20 million in 2005, while sales of organic mattresses and pillows increased 32% to $2 million. (Financial Times, 9/3/06)
• MediaPost reported that the $20 million organic chocolate category grew 57% last year, compared to a decline of 0.1% for conventional chocolates.

One example of an organic company is Eco Lips, which makes organic lip balm.  From Entrepreneur magazine: 

Placed “anyplace that has a cash register,” the product, which is made using solar  energy, is an easy sell to consumers who not only want to buy green, but also  want a quality product. “It's so inexpensive, and it's a gateway organic product-- people will try Eco Lips and maybe have such a good experience that they'll want  to try organic orange juice or organic cotton sheets,” says [Eco Lips co-founder  Steve] Shriver…

For more information, the Organic Trade Association runs HowToGoOrganic.com – a site “for anyone exploring how to transition to organic.”

2.   Trash – Thar’s gold in them there rubbish hills. According to the EPA, Americans generated some 245.7 million tons of garbage in 2005 (latest figures available.)  That’s 4.54 pounds of trash per person per day.  Here are some of the things we throw away:

• Americans currently dispose of 128 million cell phones a year, only 1% of which are diverted from landfills.  This does not include the 2 million tons of used electronics we also discard annually.
• A typical baby goes through around 5000 disposables during its diaper days; across the US, this adds up to an astonishing 20 billion each year, enough to cover a football field with a three-mile high pile.
• Each year, 3.5 billion wire hangers end up in U.S. landfills. (Reader's Digest, June, 2007)
• Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. (Illiinois Times, March 8, 2007)

If you can figure out new uses for a specific garbage item, you’ve got yourself a business.  Terracycle makes plant food from worm poop and packages it in recycled soda bottles.  One company, EVCO Research in Atlanta, uses scrap plastic beverage and water bottles to make water repellent coatings for cardboard boxes used for shipping fruit and meats. Chicago Cargo Bike and Trailer Co. makes bike trailers out of reclaimed materials.  ReCellular, Inc. collects, recycles and resells cell phones.  They process around 300,000 phones a month – which still leaves over 120 million phones in the trash. 

3.  Government– including Federal, State, County, and City levels.  How are governments an opportunity for small business?  Two ways:

a) Find out what your local government is doing re “green” – and craft a service to meet their needs. A good place to start is The SustainLane Government Knowledge Base – where, according to Shirl Kennedy at Resource Shelf, “You can read full documents submitted by urban planners and sustainability managers from across the country. Find out what cities, counties, and states are doing to improve their carbon footprints, quality of life and resource efficiency. Find the latest programs in urban ecology.”

b)  Create a service or a product that helps other local businesses comply with  environmental regulation/laws/ordinances that apply to them.  For instance,  San Francisco recently banned plastic bags – can you supply a biodegradable or  recycled or reusable alternative to retailers?

c) Take advantage of government grants and loans encouraging green practices. From the Wall Street Journal: “The government is also giving small businesses a spur to go green. Just as large companies receive government breaks for environmental-friendliness, the Department of Agriculture offers a Small Business Innovation Research Program that offers awards of $80,000 to $250,000 for using certain environmentally friendly practices in selling or processing wares. The Environmental Protection Agency gives grants to small businesses involved in environmental industries and initiatives. On a state level, New York awards  funds to small businesses that are involved in projects such as pollution prevention and recycling.”

RubberForm Recycled Products LLC, in Lockport, N.Y., recycles old rubber, such as tires, and turns it into new products.  The owners used federal, state and local funds (and private investments) to launch their business last year.

4.  The Green Lifestyle – As I said earlier, just about anything we do in our regular lives can be transformed or altered into a green state.  So if you examine your own life, you might come up with something you do everyday that could use a green element.  Do you use a lot of paper – how about making recycled paper?  It’s only left to your imagination.  Here are some of the small businesses created around the green lifestyle that may spur your thinking:

• Green Singles – find your perfect match in the environmental, vegetarian, or animal rights community…
• Vivavi – eco-friendly furniture and home design.
• Stay at a green hotel
• Save your money at a green bank – ShoreBank Pacific is the first commercial bank in the United States with a commitment to environmentally sustainable community development.
• Working Assets Funding Service issues a “socially responsible credit card.”
• Build and live in a green home.
• Memorial Ecosystems - Bury your loved one in a green cemetery.  From their website:  “Our main focus is to develop multi-functional memorial nature preserves that we create with the cooperation and assistance of non-profit organizations. Through becoming members of the preserve during life, and choosing burial in the preserve after, our clients leave a permanent legacy for their families, their communities and the natural world. We are committed to being the leaders in environmentally and socially responsible death care.”

5.  The Local Angle – Kemi Osukoya recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “Many green consumers tend to see a small, local business as naturally more environmentally sound than a sprawling multinational. And small businesses can provide a personal touch that big ones can't -- which can be important when selling complicated eco-friendly wares.”

This type of local green businesses commits to the locale and the customers, and they promote the green life beyond what they sell.  These green local merchants are authentically green – they consciously use less energy, try to find local suppliers so their carbon footprint is smaller, and often live a green personal life.  As small businesses they owe nothing to shareholders or investors – which in the eyes of consumers, makes them more trustworthy.  Their payback? Loyal customers, a decent business, and the notion that they are doing good. 

Green Opportunities for Existing Small Businesses

For existing small businesses, going green can be anything from a wellness program for your employees to reducing your energy consumption to making a green (or greener) product to committing to a sustainable business model – a cradle to grave effort. 

If you’re looking into going “green” figure out what that means for you and what makes sense for your business.  You need to find what the Harvard Business Review called the– “shared value” – does your green effort create a “meaningful benefit for society that is also valuable to the business.”    If you sell office supplies, it probably doesn’t make sense for you to sponsor a program at a nursing home – maybe you could open a section or your store with sustainable supplies or solicit supply donations to a school in your area – or if you’re in a relatively affluent area – then a sister school.

The other thing small business owners should keep in mind is that they need to tell people about their green efforts –customers and suppliers and anyone else.  Local papers and local television news always like a good story.  Small Businesses can position themselves as part of a larger story about how local businesses in the area are trying to improve the planet in lots of different ways.  And don’t underestimate the value of blogs – write an article, offer an interview to a green blog – there are loads of them – here’s a good list to start and you can always look at their blog rolls for more:

Treehugger
WorldChanging
Clean Edge-The Clean Tech Marketing Authority
Ask Pablo – Sustainability Engineer
ecogeek
Green Trust Sustainability and Renewable Energy
Joel Makower
Lazy Environmentalist
Lime – Healthy Living with a Twist
Marketing Green
Organic Researcher
Envirolink Network – environmental resources
The Watt - energy news and discussion

I would also recommend these two books for an overview of green issues:

Shopping with a Conscience by Duncan Clark & Richie Unterberger
WorldChanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century, edited by Alex Steffen

Are We Bad Parents?

My best friend Kelly is a kindergarten teacher.  She has 29 children in her class.  Normally, she says that maybe 2 or 3 are disruptive, don't listen, and don't respond to threats.  This year, Kelly has 14 kids like that.  What's different?  Kelly thinks it's the fact that this is the first group of kids she's had born after September 11.  She speculates that this event affected parents so much that they never set limits, they never said no to their children.  (And here in the Washington area, 9/11 was followed by the sniper - which didn't help matters much.)

One of my sisters - she has six kids - once told me to never feel sorry for my children.  If you feel sorry for them, they got ya.  Over the years, I've come to think she's right - and now we have a nation of people feeling sorry for our kids because of scary incidents like 9/11 or the sniper. 

Which may explain the growing success of a book by psychologist David Walsh: No: Why Kids—of All Ages—Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It. Walsh says our kids are suffering from a discipline deficit disorder.  What I find fascinating about the book is that teaching professionals are pushing it.  From U.S. News & World Report:

In Minnesota, Walsh's home state, a "Say Yes to No" coalition of educators and PTA parents sent "tool kits" touting the book...to 2,500 principals before school began last week...School principals from Indiana, South Carolina, and several other states are getting set to work No into teacher training sessions.

Kelly told me that on her back to school night, she was firm with the parents about setting limits and saying no to their children.  Again, our teachers are telling parents how to behave.  When and how did we stop parenting?

Does This Diet Make my Footprint Look Smaller??

As an overachiever, I'm always looking for ways to make myself better.  I am constantly trying to plan for the future, figure out how to do the best I can in the moment, save money, take care of myself, be a good person, take care of others, and stay happy.  Sometimes this is a tough thing to accomplish without becoming stressed-- which can make me act like a different person.  It's like a vicious circle.

I think a lot of other people feel the same way I do.  We are all so busy and we feel that we have capabilities to fill roles that we couldn't fill in the past and are trying to take full advantage.  Technology has changed our lives and has made a lot of things easier-- but this doesn't mean we want to do less.  We always want more.  We want to accomplish more during our days but we also want more sleep.  We want to save money but we still want to spend it on luxury items we may not necessarily be able to afford.  We want to be successful at work but we still want family time.  We want huge homes but we don't get to spend time in them because we have to work so hard to be able to pay our mortgages.  Basically, we want everything. 

Because the environment has been a topic that has gotten lots of attention lately, and global warming is on a lot of our minds, the concept of carbon offsets has become big news to a lot of people.  When I think of carbon offsets I immediately think of travel by plane and the option of paying for carbon offsets from our flights-- that sort of thing.  Apparently, I need to think outside the box.  The Washington Times published a short piece on a unique diet coined by Laura Stec, a chef from San Francisco, who has created "The Global Warming Diet."

She realizes that food choice has a big effect on climate change and wrote a 250-page  book packed with vegetarian items, scientific claims from the United Nations and the Union of Concerned Scientists, as well as guides for "discussion" parties.  She says, "One of the most positive effects you can have on the environment begins on your dinner plate."

Here are some shocking statistics from the article:

• It takes 10 times more fossil fuel to produce a calorie of meat than a calorie of plant protein.
• Flatulent cows and methane-producing manure piles contribute to 18% of all greenhouse gases-- the equivalent of 33 million cars on the nation's roadways.
• 11 pounds of grain and 2,500 gallons of water go into making a hamburger.
• The average meal travels 1,500 miles to get to your dinner plate.
• Americans consume more than 1 billion pounds-- and 1 trillion calories of food each day.

The fact that our idea of a "diet" may not just revolve around losing weight, but also focus on the good of the environment is a good sign.  Cutting out meat altogether seems like an extreme move to me, but I would be willing to buy locally and make vegetarian meals every now and then.  We will probably see more of this type of thing in the future as more attention is paid to our world and the impact we have on our environment.  Making a few small changes is definitely doable, but I can't see myself hosting a "discussion party" anytime soon.

New Words in the Dictionary

  Merriam-Webster recently announced some of the 100 new words they've added to the newest edition of their collegiate dictionary.   If a word appears often enough in the mainstream press, and if they think it has staying power, then the editors there will define it and officially add it to the dictionary. 

So what's new?  Here's the list they released:

1. agnolotti
2. Bollywood
3. chaebol
4. crunk
5. DVR
6. flex-cuff
7. ginormous
8. gray literature
9. hardscape
10. IED
11. microgreen
12. nocebo
13. perfect storm
14. RPG
15. smackdown
16. snowboardcross
17. speed dating
18. sudoku
19. telenovela
20. viewshed

I confess that I've never heard of agnolotti, chaebol, flex-cuff, gray literature, hardscape, microgreen, nocebo and viewshed.  Seems like a lot of these words are basically from pop culture:  telenovela, crunk, Bollywood, speed dating, perfect storm, smackdown, sudoku, DVR.  These words seem so of the moment - yet they are understood by almost everyone in American society.  I guess only time will tell if they are merely historical words - to decribe an event or product or idea that has passed (crunk?) or whether they continue to be used far into the future (ginormous gets my vote).

Changing the Bible?

I found an interesting article today which, to me, is a good indication of how we as a society are changing our habits and traditions. 

The Bible in glossy magazine format...

The Bible has been turned into a glossy magazine by Dag Söderberg a former Swedish advertising executive. The magazine is titled, "The Book" and it is a complete unedited text of the Old Testament. Mr. Söderberg has high hopes for his magazine and has said: “I want it to be well spread, to create a buzz. I want people to start taking it to dinner parties, instead of flowers. That way, perhaps everyone can have a Bible on their table without causing too much panic.” The magazine is 450 pages complete with modern-day magazine glossy photo illustrations. There are plans to have it translated to English and brought overseas to cater to the 25-50 year old markets and also a New Testament sequel is in the works.

Most people have issues with the Bible,” Söderberg says. “They have never gotten into it. They don’t find it accessible. But it’s our history, our heritage. And for most of us, we relate to it more than we think. Religious or not, it shapes much of our moral codes. (sweden.se)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I definitely was.  It seems that some people believe that the world is ready for new ways to digest old information so we can keep up with traditions of the past.  We are always looking for ways to personalize our lifestyles, and for better and easier ways to accomplish as much as we can in our lives.  I guess religion is no exception.

Staying at home...

Every mother experiences the big decision of whether to stay at home or go back to work after a child is born.  Obviously, every situation is different and every woman has to do what is right for her and her family.  However, over the past several years, more and more new mothers are staying out of the workforce.  According to a recently published report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

In recent years the labor force participation of married mothers, especially those with young children, has stopped its advance.  Sixty percent of married mothers of preschool children are now in the work force, four percentage points fewer than in 1997.  In 1995, their labor force participation rate had reached a high of 70 percent. In fact, married mothers accounted for most of the increase in total labor force participation during the post-war period.  After reaching a peak of 59.2 percent in 1997, the participation rate for married mothers of infants fell by about 6 percentage points to 53.3 percent in 2000 and has shown no clear trend since then.  The declines have occurred across all educational levels and, for most groups, by about the same magnitude.

There is no clear cut answer as to why all these women are "opting out" of the workforce.  A recent New York Times articles tries to explain:

What has changed in the last decade is that the job of motherhood has ramped up. Mothers today spend more time on child care than women did in 1965, a time when mothers were much less likely to have paying jobs, family scholars report. The pressure to increase mothering is enormous.

A new book by  Leslie Bennets, The Feminine Mistake, criticizes stay-at-home mothers and claims that by not working outside the home they are making a huge mistake and are financially, emotionally, and medically at risk.   Probably not too surprisingly, there has been a backlash from stay-at-home mothers everywhere.  The author tries to defend herself from the backlash:

My goal was to gather into a single neat package all the financial, legal, sociological, psychological, medical, labor-force, child-rearing and other information necessary for them to protect themselves. My reporting revealed that the bad news is just as ominous as I'd feared; so many women are unaware of practical realities that range from crucial changes in the divorce laws to the difficulties of reentering the work force and the penalties they pay for taking a time-out. I devoted two chapters to financial information alone.

So, what does all this mean? Well, there is no right answer. More and more women are opting out of the workforce, at least on a full-time basis.  They have decided being at home with their children is easier or better for them.  They are willing to take the risks of any possible financial or other consequences.  That is what works for them. And that is all that matters.

The Ipod is More Popular than Beer?

I got an Ipod from my children for Christmas - I have yet to load music on it, but someday I will.  It's kind of a cute thing, all green and stuff.  So when I read this post by Lynette Web at the Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog, it caught my attention:

"No one expected that the iPod would become the signature artifact of our young century, selling more than 60 million units in its first five years. No one envisioned vast swaths of humanity escaping reality via the White Earbud Express. And no one would ever have believed that a 2005 survey would report that the iPod is more popular on college campuses ... than beer. But that's what happened. " - Steven Levy, Newsweek, Oct 23 2006

Webb recommends we read Steven Levy's book, The Perfect Thing.  I think I will.

Image from Flickr CC --thanks to Kandyjaxx

Made to Stick Sticks With You

I just read the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (brothers) and then I read on Rajesh Jain's weblog, emergic , that Guy Kawasaki did an interview with the two authors.

As the Heath brothers explain in Guy's interview:

We spent lots of time researching sticky ideas—ideas that people understand, remember, and that change the way people think or behave... We found there were six principles that link sticky ideas of all kinds. Sticky ideas won’t always have all six, but the more, the merrier. For example, JFK’s idea to “put a man on the moon in a decade” had all six of them:

1. Simple - A single, clear mission.
2. Unexpected - A man on the moon? It seemed like science fiction at the time.
3. Concrete - Success was defined so clearly—no one could quibble about man, moon, or decade.
4. Credible - This was the President of the U.S. talking.
5. Emotional - It appealed to the aspirations and pioneering instincts of an entire nation.
6. Story - An astronaut overcomes great obstacles to achieve an amazing goal.

I bought this book for work after reading this review by John Moore at Brand Autopsy.  He glowed about it.  Then I started reading it and almost wept with happiness.  Here were two guys that talked regular and explained things even the most simple-minded of us could understand.  And they give lots of examples. I bought another copy (with my own money) so I could mark it up, write all over it and keep it for myself.

You can read more on the Made to Stick Blog. 

Buy the Book.  Read the Book.  Mark-up the Book.  The book will stick with you.

Elwood P. Dowd Was Right

Jill Fallon at Business of Life points to an article in The Observer: 

'There is a widespread belief that ruthless and self-centered people are the most successful when it comes to their careers. But being prepared to do anything to get ahead does not mean you will succeed in your ambitions,' says Stefan Einhorn, author of The Art Of Being Kind, to be published this week by Little, Brown. 'True success is not achieved by those who are smart or inconsiderate, by hard-baked egotists or psychopathic bosses,' says Einhorn, who is also chairman of the Ethics Council at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

'On the contrary, being kind to our fellow human beings is a precondition to becoming truly successful. Goodness and kindness are the single most important factors when it comes to how successful we will be in our lives.'

Einhorn says we're often kind out of pure egotistical needs - but that's okay.  It's the act, not the thought that counts.  He gives three reasons why it pays to be kind:

1. Kind, generous people are not perceived as threats, and people tend to cooperate with them, not compete with them.
2. When you're kind - people tend to be kind back.
3. Being kind simply gives a person pleasure.

And all this kindness makes me think of my favorite quote of all time - as a kid I thought it was the wisest thing I'd ever heard.  It was spoken by Elwood P. Dowd in the 1950 movie Harvey:

"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be' - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me."

More on Creativity

"If you're not prepared to be wrong - you'll never come up with anything original." -Sir Ken Robinson, TED 2006 Conference

I came across this talk by Sir Ken Robinson from the TED 2006 Conference. Sir Ken wrote the book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, and could probably quit his day job to be a stand-up comic.

Take 20 minutes and watch - he speaks about creativity and education and how never the twain shall meet:

Temporary Ownership by Customers

I came across this article in The Economist's Intelligent Life edition (subscription required) about the ease of reselling things we no longer want and how customers are increasingly factoring in the resale value of the things they buy.  They quote Daniel Nissanoff, who wrote FutureShop:  How the New Auction Culture Will Revolutionize the Way We Buy, Sell, and Get the Things We REALLY Want:

"As a society, we're evolving into one of temporary ownership....we used to buy and hold everything, let it gather dust or break, and then we threw it away...Eventually we will become leasers of our own property rather than owners of it."

There is some truth to this - I've heard myself say to people, "Sell it on ebay" - when talking about some electronic item they no longer need.  But I think we're still aways from parting with our things.  For instance, it took the self storage industry more than 25 years to build its first billion square feet of space; it added the second billion square feet in just 8 years.  And 1 in 11 households (9%) currently rent a self storage unit (2005); that has increased from 1 in 17 US households in 1995 – or an increase of 50 percent in the last decade (from Self Storage Association Fact Sheet).  There are plenty of us out there who are too lazy or won't bother to sell their old stuff - they'll just store it. 

But, what if some of these eBay drop off stores teamed up with moving companies and made their services available when you are purging your stuff anyway?  What if they team up with storage units and offered to go through your things to let you know what might sell well on eBay?  Then I could see this becoming more commonplace. 

I do think we're moving to a temporary society - but not because of eBay - more because we get bored with things more quickly and there are newer models always being put in front of us.  I've always kept a car at least 8-10 years, but so many people I know trade them in every few years - I am amazed at this.  I also think Nissanoff's notion of temporary ownership works best for more expensive, luxury items - where you can recoup a lot of your initial cost.  Maybe that's why he's started a company, Portero: "....a specialty online facilitator focused on the secondary market for luxury consumer products." 

Anyway, I'm going to get the book - it intrigues me.

Listenomics

John Winsor at Under the Radar finds  Bob Garfield's new blog.  Garfield is writing a book, in full public view, based on his long article in Advertising Age last year:

"Listenomics" (registration required), about how open-source principles are already changing the economy and the society, and how the world of marketing is therefore being turned upside down. It was a sort of manifesto on consumer control...

His first post has an outline of book chapters.  What is exciting here is that a book about open-source is being written using some of the same principles of open source:

The idea is to put it together, chapter by chapter, with ideas, criticism and corrections coming from all of you out in the Bobosphere.

Very similar to what Chris Anderson has done with The Long Tail blog -  but I'm not sure Chris realized when he started that he was creating a quasi-open-source book.  I find this whole thing exciting - and I'm going to be part of the Listenomics action.

Marley & Me

As I sat reading “Marley & Me” by John Grogan yesterday I felt that tight feeling in my chest - the one I always get when I am about to cry. “Shake it off,” I kept saying. “This is ridiculous. She is just a dog.” But the truth is she isn’t just a dog to me. Let me start at the beginning.

It was when I first started as an intern at the Lee County Humane Society that I knew I would give in. When I told my parents that I had accepted the position as fundraising coordinator at the animal shelter my father shuddered. “Now Margaret,” he said. “Promise me you will not get a dog.” Laughing to myself I tossed his concern aside and vowed to him that I would not adopt an animal. Three weeks later I gave in to temptation.

I named the tumbling, adorable, 8-week-old lab Audrey after my all time favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn. We did everything together. I taught her as best I could. We had a bond. It was my first true responsibility.

When I decided to move to DC, I made the heartbreaking decision to leave her behind with my parents. Reading this book yesterday brought all of those feelings of betrayal when I left her in LA rushing back to me.

Marley & Me is presently on the best seller list at number 5, but it peaked at number one a few weeks ago. There is no question why I think this book is top-notch. Why so many others think it is up for debate.

According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association:

63% of U.S. households own a pet, which equates to 69.1 millions homes 45% of U.S. households own more than one pet.

The pet industry generated revenue of just over $36 billion in 2005 and is expected to reach more than $38 billion this year.

In 1994, the industry had revenue of $17 billion.

The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that in 2004 pet owners in the United States spent $34.4 billion on their pets, thus making the pet industry larger than the toy industry (where spending was $20 billion).

Bob Vetere, the managing director of the APPMA, says, “Pets have become more of an important part of people's lives, whether you call them an extended family or whatever. The strong growth in the industry demonstrates what an important role pets are playing in the lives of Americans. They have become a part of the family.”

The entire pet industry is expanding. Consider these facts from as well:

Interest in obedience training and related products is at an all-time high. Some 15% of pet owners used obedience training classes in 2005, up from 12% in 2004. (Packaged Facts)

North American pet owners paid $185 million in pet insurance premiums in 2005, up 23% from $150 million in 2004. The pet insurance market has grown 26% annually since 2001. Pet insurance premiums run from $200 to $500 annually. (Packaged Facts)

It is projected that the employment of animal-care and service workers will grow faster than the average for all U.S. occupations through 2014. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Lucky's Pet Resort & Day Spa in Greensboro, SC, have more than doubled to 3,000 clients since it opened in June 2004. (Winston Salem Journal )

APPMA's National Pet Owners Survey shows 27 percent of dog owners and 13 percent of cat owners buy their pets birthday presents, and 55 percent of dog owners and 37 percent of cat owners buy their pet holiday presents. (“Pet Spending at All Time High,” Business Wire, 4/5/2006)

I believe animals have become a more important part of people's lives, of course in my case, perhaps they always were.

How Americans spend their free time and money is important for any business to study. We at New Persuasion look for deeper insight into what motivates and entices consumers to spend.

New Audiences - Nasty "Gurls"

A look at what teenaged girls are reading gives you some insight on this demographic, and much of it is disturbing.  The good news is that girls are reading.  They are reading books.  They are reading magazines.  They are reading websites.  It is the content of what they are reading that is unsettling – mean-spirited, vapid and shallow, focused on sex, fashion and looks. 

In the Clique book series, the characters are middle school girls who are exceedingly cruel and over-the-top materialistic.  Plots vary somewhat, but each storyline basically involves the pretty popular girls making fun of fat girls and those with bad skin, and making themselves feel better by buying designer clothes and high-end electronics.  These characters are 12 and 13-years old.  I guess you could call this “mean girl youth fiction,” which is proving increasingly popular. 

Gossip Girls books feature older protagonists – 17 to 18 years old – who have sex with numerous partners in department store dressing rooms, museums, and movie theaters.  They too thrive on materials goods. Naomi Wolf, writing in The New York Times book review recently, said the problem with these books is that they represent a “value system in which meanness rules, parents check out, conformity is everything and stressed-out adult values are presumed to be meaningful to teenagers.”  More than a million readers have bought these two book series.

Seventeen magazine has appealed to teenaged girls since 1944, only now those readers may be as young as 11 or 12.  And what are they reading about?  The February 2006 edition features the following stories:  “Find Love,” “The Pill – What You Should Know But Are Afraid To Ask,” and “The Styles Guys Love Most.”  More than two million girls subscribe, and even more can access seventeen.com.  Articles do not fit into the mean girl genre, but do fall under the vapid and shallow category.  Out of the 136 pages of copy, only two focused on topics other than sex and fashion – a one-pager on contact lenses versus glasses, and a breakdown of caloric intake for Starbucks drinks.

What may be the most unsettling are outlets like gurl.com, an edgy website aimed at teenagers.  A typical article is headlined, “masturbating can be tricky.”  Readers can “Ask Heather” about issues on their mind –  just reading the letters made me blush.  Let’s just say no topic is off limits, including faking orgasms, condom comparisons, and tips for increasing your bra size.  We are talking about TEENAGED GIRLS here!

Are these outlets reflecting the reality of young women today, or is the content extreme on purpose in order to attract readers?  One wonders if all girls like violence, makeup, and sex, instead of academics, competitive sports, or even Girl Scouts.  Okay, maybe not Girl Scouts, but are teenage girls really so raunchy?

The recent book – See Jane Hit : Why Girls Are Growing More Violent and What We Can Do About It – by James Garbarino chronicles increasing violence among girls, including the fact that the number of girls arrested for assault is close to that of boys.  He discusses the influence of pop culture on girls, including the impact of Hermione's physical aggression in the Harry Potter movies to the fist fights depicted on the "Powerpuff Girls".  Does the social reality of such programs create people like Lyndie England, convicted of mistreating prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison?

I am sure plenty of girls go to church, volunteer at senior citizens centers, participate in the debate club, and do their homework.  Pop culture does not reflect these girls, but I see them in my local newspaper, the Arlington Sun.  For example, a recent edition profiled a rising soccer star in a local high school.  Another piece highlighted recipients of academic awards.  Maybe these good girls do not read Clique books, or Seventeen, or gurl.com.  Maybe they do, then go back to studying for their calculus exams.

Life After the 30-Second Spot

Joseph Jaffe was kind enough to send me a copy of his book Life After the 30-Second Spot in exchange for a review on this blog.  Little did he know it would take me this long. 

This is an excellent book.  He's trying to wake up and shake up the advertising industry.  (Something we've looked at before - see Advertising is Going through Menopause.)He challenges advertisers to rethink four fundamentals of marketing:

• The Changing Customer
• Branding
• Advertising
• The Agency

For me, the most important area is the changing consumer.  Jaffe outlines ten areas where the consumer has morphed.

Jaffe says today's consumer is:

Intelligent - super-intelligent actually

Empowered - they can effect change

Skeptical -they're not going to accept your word

Connected - 1 or 2 degrees of separation from the information they need

Time-pressed - it's hard to get their attention

Demanding - you owe them a product with value, and much more

Loyalless - they're loyal to "a brand or company until they fool, disappoint, or let me down once." 

Always Accessible - "If the consumer is given more avenues to access, connect, research, purchase, and communicate, the result is an always-open-for-business utopia.  Media or mediums become essentially transparent, as information is delivered in a seamless on-demand fashion."

Ahead of the Curve (or at least ahead of you) - "using a combination of most of the preceding tenets, today's consumers use the power at their fingertips to manipulate, finesse, and fine-tune information and knowledge to their unique requirements."

Vengeful - we'll use the "word-of mouse" to let others know about bad service and experiences.

Life After the 30-Second Spot is not just a thought piece. Jaffe also gives solutions and practical advice to marketers on reaching these new customers using every method available in this high tech world of ours. 

The 30-second spot isn't really dead.  It will live on for a long time - but it is aging rapidly.  And Jaffe wants advertisers to recruit some of the young media out there.  He's right.  Advertisers should get this book and do some changing - like their customers.

Advertising as Barter

I've written before about Dan Pink and his book A Whole New Mind - and I continue to read his blog because he always has great insight and a different take on things.  And one of his recent posts jumped out at me because it's a wonderful example of how advertising and marketing and most importantly, customers - are changing.

Here's the story:  Charlie Luck from Virginia went camping in the Canadian Yukon and took along Dan Pink's book.  Luck sent Dan this picture:

Kind of fun to see your book surviving the great outdoors.  But more than that, Dan Pink then linked to Charlie Luck's family business website saying,  "Meantime, if you're in the market for crushed stone, there's now only one sensible choice."

Okay, so what's the big deal?  Well, I guess it's that a third person has entered the equation - me.  And I've already read Dan Pink's book and think it's great.  Charlie Luck thought enough of the book to lug it out in the wilderness to read.  So, already I'm liking Charlie.  And then Dan puts me in touch with Charlie's business.  So here's Charlie, who invests time in taking a picture, sends it to the author, and the author, in exchange for a unique picture of his book, gives Charlie some advertising space.  Advertising as barter.  Cheap, fun, authentic, and I'm in.

The Power of Oprah

Since we mentioned Oprah in a post earlier this week, I thought I'd mention my recent Oprah experience. 

Not long ago, my mother gave me her copy of A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey, a book she read because Oprah recommended it. My mom wasn’t the only one who bought the book after seeing it on Oprah. The book is a memoir of the author’s rehab from drug and alcohol addiction and has sold over 3.5 million copies so far.

As you may already know, this week the book has become the source of a highly publicized controversy, where the author has been accused of writing a nonfiction book containing “exaggerations,” “embellishments,” and “misrepresentations.” It all began with an exclusive article that was published on “The Smoking Gun” website, called A Million Little Lies: Exposing James Frey’s Fiction Addiction.” This article was the result of an intensive 6-week investigation which involved scouring court records and police records and interviewing law enforcement, concluding that Frey fabricated details in his memoir regarding his criminal career and jail terms.

For two days after the initial article there was a lot of negative media buzz towards Frey. Readers were outraged, and then the publisher offered refunds to customers of the book. There were also questions about a planned movie of the book, and according to them the movie project may need “a rehab of it’s own.”

My mother called to tell me how angry she was that she had been lied to and “duped” by Frey. She was not the only one who felt that way. Consumers today have very high expectations for honesty and transparency. We don’t handle dishonesty or even “embellishments” very well at all. When we read a book, we like to know if it is fiction or non-fiction. There is no grey area for us, as there seemed to be for Frey in his memoir.  So, the other night Frey appeared on Larry King Live for his first interview since the allegations were made. One of the first questions King asked him was if he had talked to Oprah and if she would continue to endorse the book. He did not know. After a lot of speculation on her reaction, Oprah called into the show to state her position. Oprah called the allegations “much ado about nothing" and said she will continue recommending the book.

I was not surprised when my mother emailed me this morning to say that Oprah had made some good points in her defense of Frey, and she decided he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. The media felt the same way, and according to USA Today, ”Winfrey's latest endorsement could likely keep Pieces a strong seller.”  What does all this say about consumers? We have high standards, for both people and for products. But we are also easily swayed and we can still be forgiving.  All it took was one phonecall from Oprah to Larry King to sway public opinion back into Frey’s favor. I don’t know if this speaks more to the power of forgiveness or the power of Oprah.

Cory Doctorow's Freeward (As In Reward)

Cory Doctorow has a new Science Fiction novel - Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.   There's the hard bound copy you can buy.  There's also the downloadable version for free.  Say what?

In this USA Today article, Doctorow explains his reasoning:

On his Web site, Doctorow encourages fans: "When you download my book, please: Do weird and cool stuff with it. Imagine new things that books are for. Then tell me about it ... so I can be the first writer to figure out what the next writerly business model is."...

"I think book is a verb," Doctorow says. It's what you're doing when reading something like a narrative story or biography or academic argument in big chunks in multiple sessions, he says. "We need to find ways to insert the verb of book into technologies that arrive," Doctorow adds.

Doctorow admits he hasn't yet learned a lot from his fans about what books can become. But there are some interesting hints. For instance, he's certain that the free electronic copies are helping increase sales of hard copy books, which is the opposite of what publishers and authors fear.

Something's going on here.  Didn't the band Wilco find they actually sold more albums when they made their albums available for free online?  It's counterintuitive - but it's happening. 

I call this the "Freeward"  (rhymes with reward - goofy I know)  - it's the tenfold you get back when you cast your bread  upon the waters.  You give something away - you profit.  This is what's going on with companies backing causes too.  And it's when IBM decides to share some of its patents with the world at large.  The Freeward is a win-win. Newpersuasion strikes again.

Reading

A topic I seldom discuss with clients is reading.  What I'm reading.  What they are reading.  Which books or authors are most relevant for the particular issue we are addressing.  When I think about it, it seems odd.  After all, I'm in the business of selling my judgment.  Age and experience shape judgment, of course, but so too do the books, magazines, websites and newspapers we read.

A major part of my emphasis on newpersuasion will be recommendations on great books, articles and websites that inform our work.

Today I can offer five recent books that have had an impact on me:

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman  - a mind-stretching analysis of the impact of technology on our global culture, trade and commerce.

Shift: Inside Nissan's Historic Revival by Carlos Ghosn - The story of Ghosn's dramatic and lightning fast turnaround of Nissan.

Confidence:  How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End  by Rosabeth Moss Kanter -  A book for anyone trying to assess how and why organizations consistently win or lose.

Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe by Graham Allison - Like a lot of recent authors, Allison defines the risk in frightening terms.  He also offers interesting solutions.

The Purpose Driven Life:  What On Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren - More than 20 million copies sold.  A message relevant to millions.  The story of the marketing of the book is also fascinating.