Canuckflack

1. The 22 Immutable Laws of Blogging

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   August 17, 2006 by Colin

   Ripping off a starting point from Buzz Canuck, who gave us the 22 Immutable Laws of Word of Mouth Marketing, originally derived from Ries & Trout:

   1. First Impressions Always Stick
   2. Half Baked Ideas Are Better Than No Ideas
   3. Big Voices, Small Minds
   4. Good Ideas, Badly Presented
   5. Catch Phrases Imply Wisdom
   6. Intellectual Plagiarism Is Rarely Called Out
   7. The Ends Justify The Means
   8. Building An Audience: Political Theory Versus Fashion Commentary
   9. The SlipStreaming to Notoriety By Commenting Strategy
   10. Lost Alliances: Disappointment, Disillusionment, Betrayal and Retribution
   11. Google Juice Bests All Comers
   12. If I Blog, I Must Podcast
   13. Pig-Headed Contrarians Stand Out
   14. Setting Up An Intellectual Straw Man
   15. Sympathy Drives Traffic
   16. Go Big Or Go Home
   17. Flying By the Seat Of Your Pants
   18. The Sisyphus Corollary: Down Doesn’t Mean Out!
   19. Another Day, Another Lame-Ass Idea To Float
   20. Opposition By The MSM Validates Me
   21. One Comment Is A Fad; Three Trackbacks Is A Trend
   22. When In Doubt, Join A Blog Network

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2. How excess salt translates into corporate skulduggery.

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   August 4, 2006 by Colin

   In a story about the British government’s efforts to make manufacturers reduce the salt levels in their snacks and foods, I found this amusing snippet implying a Pappudum vs. Yorkshire Pudding rivalry. The Times (London) discussed the lobbying and negotiation tactics between manufacturers and the Food Standards Agency.

   Over the course of the article, it was revealed that Patak’s had argued that they should be exempted from more stringent controls on the amount of salt in their pappadums and, instead, the much more traditional Yorkshire Pudding should bear the brunt of the cuts. I guess it’s a cultural shift, much like the difference between Coronation Street vs. Footballers’ Wives.

   “Patak’s wanted poppadums exempted because only 16 per cent of households ate them. It suggested that Yorkshire puddings should bear the strain, an argument the agency resisted.(Times Online)

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3. Podcasts: another way for the paper to preach to you

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   July 10, 2006 by Colin

   Voice. It’s a concept we normally associate with identity, opinion, the differentiation of personalities. Charlton Heston is the voice of authority. Dr. Ruth represents compassion. Will Rogers was your wise old uncle. Morton Downey Jr. was your crazy old uncle. David Leisure is your insincere cousin, ready to sell you a lemon and an extended warranty.

   Today, it may be voice that keeps podcasting from being overtaken by the corporate training and outreach department. Is podcasting an opportunity to distribute repurposed content? Is it another vehicle for one-way communication? Is the podcast destined to become the medium of choice for, in effect, bootlegged academic presentations and the mutterings of beat columnists? There’s a battle developing between ideas and flair, between content and presentation, between spit and polish.

   Obviously, voice is an essential part of podcasting. Rough, hesitant, noisy, easily distracted voice – as listeners we will tolerate ambiguity, trains of thought that miss the station and poor audio quality in the pursuit of original and incisive analysis. In some ways, we imply authenticity and authority from the unprofessional tics found in podcasts today.

   Podcasters who came from the world of blogging understand this. They’re struggling with format issues: do they need intros and outros? Are professionally voiced interstitials necessary to keep the listener engaged? How do they handle audio comments to the podcast? What is the relationship between their podcast, their blog, and do the two actually align? Why must I sell my soul to the machine that is iTunes?

   A column from Poynter made me pause, however. Chip Scanlon interviewed Tom Opdyke, the morning metro editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the narrator of the paper’s “Through Hell and High Water” series on the aftermath of Katrina.

   Opdyke is both a journalist, a professional narrator/voiceover specialist and a dramatist. He discussed how he prepared for a dramatic spoken presentation of the AJC’s original printed word – not what I would consider an original podcast.

   Scanlon characterized podcasts more bluntly, and more commercially. In the end, he also seems to have overlooked the value that podcasts can bring to a developing story: first, the capacity to deliver real voices from the scene, to share true emotion from an event’s actual participants. Second, the ability to reflect reader’s reaction. Third, and most importantly, an opportunity for a print medium to break out of its constrained frame of reference.

   “For news consumers who like nothing better than a good listen, and for newspapers who desperately want to hold onto their business, podcasts offer a note of hope. Combining the power of audio with the freedom to choose when to tune in, podcasting — think of it as TiVo for the ears — they offer an alternative way for consumers to get their news and information on a schedule, through a medium of their choice.

   In print newsrooms, where audio is limited to the quiet mumbles of reporters reading their stories, a new skill set is becoming increasingly necessary: The ability to voice a story with the same competence of a skilled broadcast journalist. ” (Poynter)

   A skilled broadcast journalist, as well all know, does not hold much currency with the digerati anymore. Scripted news is as scripted news does.

   I’d like to see news outlets make a dedicated effort to developing a real dialogue with the readers – and not just the eight guys who write to the op/ed section three times a week. A “community advisory board” doesn’t cut it either.

   I’m probably not giving Scanlon enough benefit of the doubt. He’s a blogger, and he has discussed the reader reaction that can be generated by effective spoken presentation of articles.

   But where’s the connection for other readers? How can we tell that a story has resonated with others? In some ways, I feel like this sort of podcast should be delivered in RealPlayer: they represent the same sort of thinking about control, presentation and risk avoidance that we first saw in 1997 and 1998.

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4. Yoga, retail and public relations; Vancouver style

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   May 29, 2006 by Colin

   You’d like Lululemon. It’s a crunchy granola kind of high-end leisure wear chain based in Vancouver. The stores have a nice open design with plenty of piles of warm fuzzy workout clothes to touch, fondle and hold to your cheek. The clothing labels are clear and emphatic. The staff is well-trained and practices what it preaches. In materialistic terms, the chain emphasizes its links to yoga and holistic well-being, all the while charging you $59 for a t-shirt.

   Their approach to public relations is refreshing – it’s been dubbed “community relations” inside the company and relies on individual stores managing and promoting local relationships through activities like sponsoring local yoga classes. Promotions are distinctly local – like window displays that make a political statement or encourage you to take up yoga.

   “We’ve decentralized marketing,” says community relations manager Sara Gardiner. “The emphasis is on stores being active in their communities.” Every two weeks, community relations director Eric Petersen hosts an hour-long conference call with each store’s community relations representative on the line, in order to share best practices and ensure everyone is on the same page.” (Canadian Business)

   Stores feature a rack of corkboard displays for local holistic practioners, fitness coaches, yoga instructors and others to post information – as well as personal collages prepared by each member of the store staff.

   My only complaint? It’s hard to shop there if you’re not a fellow traveller or true believer. The pressure gets to you. Paco Underhill has discussed the effect of the “butt brush” factor on browsers in a store – if displays and merchandise are packed so closely that shoppers have to brush against each other to pass, shoppers will leave the store.

   Well, I think the “butt brush” factor can also be applied to the feeling you get just milliseconds before an eager (and hot) Lululemon employee approaches you to preach the gospel according to Luon fabric, or the benefits of soy. The problem isn’t the first time you’re pitched the product benefits – it’s the second or third time. They’re that engaged in the product and the brand.

   But I’m not. I just like the clothes.

   technorati: lululemon

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5. Wave Babies, lyin’ on the sand

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   May 24, 2006 by Colin

   May 24. Victoria Day up here in Canada. The rule of thumb is usually “no white shoes before Memorial Day”, but we get a jump on the official start to summer. As Joey says, “commence the wearing of the white pants.”

   My treat to you: a video that has always meant summer to me. Honeymoon Suite’s Wave Babies, filmed in beautiful Sandbanks Provincial Park. Keep an eye peeled for the parachute pants, oversized tshirts, teased hair, and keyboard axe.

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6. Information design and onboard navigation

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   April 22, 2006 by Colin

   You come to a fork in the road. You don’t know which way to follow. Which resource appeals the most: your car’s onboard navigational computer, with its limited portrait of the neighbourhood; your AAA TripTik; or your fearless certainty that “left is right”?

   Each choice reflects your relative appetite for information, your interest in your immediate or distant surroundings. Do you only need intersection by intersection directions to the hockey arena, or are you more interested in visiting every sports facility in town?

   If you’re fond of electronic maps – Google, MapQuest, Yahoo or onboard – you’re likely relying on information from two companies: NavTeq or Tele Atlas. The New Yorker explains how NavTeq updates its information, then mosies on down a garden path to discuss the development of previous generations of traveller’s guides and maps.

   “A map is a piece of art. It is also a form of language—a rendering of information. A good map can occupy the eye and the mind longer than almost any other single page of data, including Scripture, poetry, sheet music, and baseball box scores. A map contains multitudes.” (New Yorker)

   But your little 4 by 4 inch screen can’t show you all that information.

   Also in the New Yorker: The Lonely Planet Guide to My Apartment:

   LOCAL CUSTOMS

   The population of My Apartment has a daily ritual of bitching, which occurs at the end of the workday and prior to ordering in food. Usually, meals are taken during reruns of “Stargate Atlantis.” Don’t be put off by impulsive sobbing or unprovoked rages. These traits have been passed down through generations and are part of the colorful heritage of My Apartment’s people. The annual Birthday Meltdown (see “Festivals”) is a tour de force of recrimination and self-loathing, highlighted by fanciful stilt-walkers and dancers wearing hand-sewn headdresses.

   Technorati: maps wayfinding Lonely Planet

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7. Haikus in honour of Scott McLellan

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   April 19, 2006 by Colin

   

   The White House press secretary has resigned, and the folks over at Democratic Underground have penned some very-not-so-flattering farewells … haiku style!

   In the interests of fairness, let me point you to a previous post on the difficulties of acting as a government spokesperson.

   Your fat flabby ass / disappearing through a door / don’t let it, hit you (link)

   Miss Helen Thomas / outlasted the little shit / there is some justice (link)

   Delighted you’re gone / Your lies no longer pollute / The peace of my home (link)

   Lying’s not easy / Propaganda takes its toll / My soul has been lost

   I do need a break / Spend more time with family / Who will lie for Bush? (link)

   The BEST, in my opinion:

   That’s an ongoing / investigation that I / will not comment on (link)

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8. Why does your client’s argument fall on deaf ears?

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   April 6, 2006 by Colin

   What logical structures guide public relations staff in building and deploying an argument in favour of their clients? When confronted with a demand for an explanation “why?”, there is always a “reason” underlying the logic in your media lines and storyline. In his book Why?, the sociologist Charles Tilly identifies four different types of reasons – or answers – that we all attempt to use at one time or another. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about Tilly this week:

   ” … In Tilly’s view, we rely on four general categories of reasons. The first is what he calls conventions — conventionally accepted explanations. … The second is stories, and what distinguishes a story … is a very specific account of cause and effect. Tilly cites the sociologist Francesca Polletta’s interviews with people who were active in the civil-rights sit-ins of the nineteen-sixties. Polletta repeatedly heard stories that stressed the spontaneity of the protests, leaving out the role of civil-rights organizations, teachers, and churches. That’s what stories do. As Tilly writes, they circumscribe time and space, limit the number of actors and actions, situate all causes “in the consciousness of the actors,” and elevate the personal over the institutional.

   Then there are codes, which are high-level conventions, formulas that invoke sometimes recondite procedural rules and categories. … Finally, there are technical accounts: stories informed by specialized knowledge and authority. An academic history of civil-rights sit-ins wouldn’t leave out the role of institutions, and it probably wouldn’t focus on a few actors and actions; it would aim at giving patient and expert attention to every sort of nuance and detail.
   Tilly argues that we make two common errors when it comes to understanding reasons. The first is to assume that some kinds of reasons are always better than others—that there is a hierarchy of reasons, with conventions (the least sophisticated) at the bottom and technical accounts at the top. That’s wrong, Tilly says: each type of reason has its own role.

   Tilly’s second point flows from the first, and it’s that the reasons people give aren’t a function of their character—that is, there aren’t people who always favor technical accounts and people who always favor stories. Rather, reasons arise out of situations and roles. (New Yorker)

   More detail can be found in a lecture by Tilly. I’ve included a sizeable excerpt after the jump, an excerpt that deals with how social scientists struggle to communicate their research and theory effectively to the general public.
   keep reading »

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9. Coverage of executive compensation often mis-stated: academics

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   March 30, 2006 by Colin

   Just in time for spring proxy statements, the Wharton newsletter discusses a late 2005 academic paper on the media’s coverage of executive compensation: “The Power of the Pen and Executive Compensation.”

   “… What models, they ask, are used by the media “to select CEOs for negative articles about their compensation, and do firms and managers find this attention sufficiently costly that they respond by making changes to their compensation policies?”

   Relying on 15,000 press articles about CEO compensation from 1994 to 2002, the researchers find “mixed evidence on the level of sophistication used by the press to select companies for negative press coverage. While such coverage is more strongly related to measures of excess total annual pay than to raw total annual pay, coverage is also related to CEO options exercises and total stock and option holdings.”

   One sizeable weakness in their analysis: they apparently weren’t able to weight for the varying influence of different newspapers:

   “…For example, the authors make no distinction between articles written by the business press, such as the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, and national newspapers such as The New York Times and Washington Post, and regional newspapers such as the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Philadelphia Inquirer. Nor in this paper did they look at how local coverage in a company’s hometown newspaper may differ from national coverage. “We haven’t figured out how to digest local information when it applies to a global corporation,” says Guay.”

   There’s further discussion of the article, and the work of a Times reporter, over at Ideoblog. The blogger, Larry Ribstein, makes the blunt observation that:

   “… while we’re reexamining all levels of corporate governance, from inside executives to outside directors to securities analysts, we should do some hard thinking about the governance role of financial reporters in our major newspapers.”

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10. “Brazil” vs. “V for Vendetta”

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    March 24, 2006 by Colin

    A wonderful analysis of the strengths of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil – and the weaknesses of the Wachowsky Brother’s V for Vendetta – in Slate. So you know, Brazil is in my top five movies of all time.

    ” …. Nothing better illustrates the simplism of V for Vendetta, or better highlights the unflattering contrast with Brazil, than V’s motto: “There are no coincidences.” The comic beauty of Brazil’s portrait of totalitarianism is that everything rests on random coincidence, which nudges the bureaucracy into its own blind and murderous momentum: A dead fly falls into a computer printer and—voil� —poor law-abiding Buttle is mistaken for dangerous subversive Tuttle. …

    … Underlying Brazil’s antic nightmare is a rigorous understanding of the bureaucratic totalitarianism that dominated much of the world for much of the 20th century. Underlying V for Vendetta is yet more magical thinking about that evil omnipotent genius, George W. Bush. …

    Remember, that’s the reviewer making the judgement about the Wachowsky brothers and Bush. I’m just dwelling on the more nuanced examination of totalitarianism and bureaucratic efficiency found in Gilliam’s Brazil.

    A visual reference I didn’t cotton on to: the opening cloud sequence of Brazil parallels the “cloud-filled opening sequence from Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will.”

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11. Wal-mart’s blogging outreach: pick some better friends

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    March 7, 2006 by Colin

    The NYTimes look at Wal-mart’s blogger outreach program is now online: Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in Its Public Relations Campaign. As Paul Holmes has noted, “sadly, I just don’t see what the story is.”

    Given the breadth of comment and criticism posted over the last five days by bloggers who were contacted by Barbaro, the NYT reporter, during his research for the article, we can identify some basic working tips for our emerging online outreach practices.

    The nut graf for public relations staffers:

    “… Copies of e-mail messages that a Wal-Mart representative sent to bloggers were made available to The New York Times by Bob Beller, who runs a blog called Crazy Politico’s Rantings. Mr. Beller, a regular Wal-Mart shopper who frequently defends the retailer on his blog, said the company never asked that the messages be kept private …”

    Always remember to be open and transparent in your public outreach activities. That way, articles like on your ourtreach program woon’t blow back on your firm, your client or your strategies.

    (I’ve already made my point about staff choice implying bias in your activities)

    Just as importantly, be selective about the channels and blogs you pick for your outreach activities. It’s too simplistic to base a strategy on the principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The online discussion around the NYT article would be much more informative if it wasn’t coloured by interjections and polemics about the battle between conservative bloggers and the estalishment media.

    I have to think this ideological mano a mano has tainted the Wal-mart blogger outreach program to some degree. A perfectly acceptable public relations tactic (and a commendable effort by a historically reticent corporation) has now been associated with negative opinion and emotion – both online and in print.

    Technorati: blogger outreach Wal-mart New York Times Edelman

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12. Guy Kawasaki, powerpoints and the 10/20/30 Rule

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    January 4, 2006 by Colin

    Guy Kawasaki, who has now launched a blog, has some good advice for anyone considering a powerpoint presentation:

    … I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

    Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

    Problem
    Your solution
    Business model
    Underlying magic/technology
    Marketing and sales
    Competition
    Team
    Projections and milestones
    Status and timeline
    Summary and call to action

    You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.

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13. RIM’s litigation and media strategy

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    December 22, 2005 by Colin

    RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, are undoubtedly pursuing a multi-faceted strategy In their ongoing legal battle with US patent holding company NTP. The much smaller US company, however, seems to winning the parallel public relations war. Earlier this week RIM’s co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, launched a broadside against NTP – on the pages of the WSJ. At least in the Canadian markets, the momentum from this move was reinforced by the revelation that the US Patent Office was fast tracking its review of NTP’s erstwhile patents.

    Still, Mark Evans rightly calls out RIM for implying negative media coverage prompted RIM’s lowered fourth quarter forecasts.

    A considered media relations approach is an important component of every litigation strategy – just as it should be part of your analyst relations efforts. Reporters can only amplify existing murmurs and concerns – doubts about your ongoing profitability originally expressed by your customers and the analysts tracking your company.

    If the media is playing up the potentially devastating implications of losing your case, shouldn’t your media relations efforts strive to reassure customers, analysts and the media?

    (copy of Balsillie’s op/ed found on Blackberrycool)

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14. Garden State: How retail analysts look into their crystal ball

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    December 21, 2005 by Colin

    Wonder how retail analysts keep track of their companies? Other than quarterly financials, calls from the friendly IR department, the occasional visit to CEO and reading the weekly circulars? They try to visit retail locations as inconspicuously as possible. The Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. is a favourite for NY- based analysts looking for a quick dip in the market.

    “… Thomas D. Lennox, the head of investor relations at Abercrombie & Fitch, jokes that on any given Friday afternoon “you will find more retail analysts at Garden State Plaza than on Wall Street and Midtown Manhattan combined.”

    … Retailing analysts and fund managers say they never base judgments – particularly recommendations to buy or sell a stock – on observations from a single mall. In interviews, half a dozen analysts said they visited at least three malls a month. But nearly all conceded that they returned, again and again, to Garden State Plaza, about a 20-minute drive from Midtown, making it perhaps the single most influential mall in the country.”(NYT)

    How do these analysts, seeking partial anonymity while strolling through the mall in “suburban dad” clothes, judge the success or failure of holiday marketing campaigns? How do they “develop” the qualitative data for their reports?

    “…In the world of retailing analysis, even the size of the sale sign has meaning, conveying what [Harris Nesbitt retail analyst John D. Morris] calls “levels of desperation.” A large, bright sign positioned prominently outside the store in the mall’s main corridor is “very desperate,” whereas a small, unobtrusive sign, visible through a display window, conveys confidence.”

    Really, the analysts don’t wield any specialist knowledge on the shop floor. The impressions they form are based on pricing, inventory and customer care signals that any experienced shopper can recognize.

    “… the peculiar craft of retailing analysis, in which a store’s strength is measured through dozens of tiny, seemingly imperceptible signs, ranging from the size of a 50-percent-off sale poster (revealing how desperate a store is to clear out merchandise) to the number of unfolded shirts on the sales floor (indicating a store, perhaps fearing poor holiday sales, has cut back on employment and is understaffed).”(NYT)

    There are weaknesses in relying on the Garden State Plaza, which Retail Traffic called “the patriarch of New Jersey’s shopping centers.” Thankfully, the NYT acknowledge’s the mall unusually high average family income and other factors.

    Technorati: retail mall analyst

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15. Wal-Mart is a job sucking retail machine

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    November 25, 2005 by Colin

    This just in from a new NEBR paper on the economic effects of Wal-Mart on the retail sector:

    “In the retail sector, on average, Wal-Mart stores reduce employment by two to four percent. There is some evidence that payrolls per worker also decline, by about 3.5 percent, but this conclusion is less robust. Either way, though, retail earnings fall. Overall, there is some evidence that Wal-Mart stores increase total employment on the order of two percent, although not all of the evidence supports this conclusion.

    There is stronger evidence that total payrolls per person decline, by about five percent in the aggregate, implying that residents of local labor markets earn less following the opening of Wal-Mart stores. And in the South, where Wal-Mart stores are most prevalent and have been open the longest, the evidence indicates that Wal-Mart reduces retail employment, total employment, and total payrolls per person.”

    Try looking at the maps and charts after page 35 for an epidemiological examination of the spread of Wal-Mart across the U.S.

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