DIGGING TO CHIINA

Ever been flummoxed by a seemingly simple request for data?

We have. 

When starting work on a new project or for a new employer-client, we usually ask for more information than anyone’s supposed to have, ranging from brand guidelines to a pretty explicit picture of employees, internal customers, and external stakeholders. 

Of course, we could do the research ourselves (caveat:  Barbara is a former MSLS-type librarian).  On the other hand, what better way to immerse ourselves in the business – and get a great bead on the culture – than by reviewing all sorts of stats and surveys and guidelines, noting questions and some surprises, and then beginning a conversation with the folks inside?

That’s a best-case scenario, unfortunately. 

Many times, we get a high-level portrait of audiences, without the kinds of demographics (not to mention psychographics) we’d prefer.  Agreed:  There’s usually an enterprise IT system that can spit out information on groups.  Human resources and marketing/sales and corporate communications functions also provide decent pictures of the different stakeholders, inside and out. 

If, though, our mission is to drive behavior change(s) among specific audiences, we gotta dig deeper.  Knowing past and detailed responses to change events helps.  Segmentation’s even better.  So are the kinds of in-depth emotional customer studies often pioneered by ad agencies, or by the new data analytics software.

That’s our point.  Let’s take a cue or two from our business partners and corporations.  Intel, for instance, boasts an on-staff cultural anthropologist who provides her company a better understanding of how people, worldwide, use technology.  HP, IBM, and Microsoft also employ social scientists with similar skills.  Dr. G. Clotaire Rapaille of The Culture Code (among other books) is another who applies that kind of thinking.

So why not an up-close, personal, and psychological look at the different internal groups that comprise our worlds?   After all, our employees buy our company’s products and use its services.  They interact with brands in much the same ways as our customers do.  Armed with that information, we’d proceed to developing and delivering plans that work hard to change behavior.

Sure beats digging to China. 

PICTURE THIS

A comic strip in Bloomberg Businessweek – called The Joy of Tech - prompted a smile.  And some thoughts.

It’s clear that Americans’ love of comix has lasted for decades; today, it’s morphed into a major business.  Librarians now cite the rush to check out graphic novels – in the adult as well as kids’ sections.  There’s a great uproar when newspapers cancel specific strips – and, often, popular outcry re-institutes their publication. 

In fact, the preference for “whimsical drawings” (English for the Chinese manga) and bande dessinée (“drawn strips” in French) is almost universal.  Think Tintin and Astro Boy, just two of the world’s most beloved characters.

The big question (at least among educators):  How much should we rely on captions/word balloons and pictures for learning and instruction – at any age?   Many naysay the medium, claiming it oversimplifies content.  Others see no issues; anything that prompts more people to read is good.  Even the late and much-celebratted author John Updike championed it, saying publicly in 1969:  “I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic strip novel masterpiece.” 

Given this background and our admitted sensibilities, we’re voting to launch (or continue, as the case may be) comix in the workplace. 

We’re not talking satirical, op-ed type of cartoons.  Nor do we advocate pretty visuals, without being accompanied by relevant content.  The pictures we’re seeing deal with how-tos, for one.  Like a new process to apply for internal jobs.  Or a visual preview of the elements of databases.  They can also relate stories – quickly and powerfully.  About culture, the way we do things around here.  About employee heroes and brand ambassadors.  [Add your great ideas here!]

Now we can just anticipate some of the reactions.  “Original illustration is expensive.”  “Our company won’t accept this kind of media.”  “It downgrades our efforts.” 

Nonsense.  All generations read and enjoy comix.  Many do their best learning through pictures.  It’s a true break from screen viewing and, yes, ponderous text.  As to the cost?  Ask your designer about adding an illustrative style to photographs using Adobe.  [Among other techniques.]

Japanese use manga to communicate about every subject imaginable, from romance to business.  Why not us?

MARS VERSUS VENUS

Sheconomy.  The Third Billion.  Influence-Hers.

Obviously, all three slogans tout the importance of women as consumers – and their major role in buying products and services. 

In fact, the numbers do astound:  Women account for 80 percent of buying decisions (though that statistic has been debated of late).  One-third out-earn their husbands.   Forty-four percent are NFL fans.  Et cetera. 

In targeting this group, marketers, through much trial and error, have discovered that women buy differently.  [Duh.]  Loyalty counts.   Explanations are critical.  Social networking makes large inroads into their decisions and preferences.  Once converted, they’re evangelistic and tend to spend more. 

Specific programs from the Dells and Midases of the world, though, have faltered.  Why?  Because originally these companies talked “female,” prettifying, almost downscaling information.  Others have learned the hard way that a woman scorned will resort to viral networking to broadcast contrarian messages. 

Dealing with internal change is different. 

We’ll argue that, today, genders don’t need to catered to as separate stakeholder groups. After all, the lines between the sexes have been blurred.  Men have nearly equal say on spend.  Roles and traditions have flipped.  Many products are almost agnostic in appealing to different populations.

Opt, instead, for engagement in change.  Before the “it” happens, ask both men and women to weigh in.  Request their opinions.  Show them what happens now and what will occur in the future.  Explain in detail why the change is needed – and solicit their help.  And use that help with all due candor and speed. 

Then:  We bet decisions will be made, along with whole-hearted buy-in.  Sure, segmenting and targeting groups in line with their preferences  and profiles makes sense.  For change to succeed, though, upfront participation counts.  No matter which planet you live on. 

POPULAR PHRASES WE'D LIKE TO CHANGE #3

There’s a not-so-new four-letter word we love to hate, one that the media (and our professions) are all over.

In one word?  Icon. 

At least five times a week, sometimes more (depending on the news and featured celebrity), headlines and Web copy label a style as “iconic” or a recently deceased personage, an “icon.”  Now, please don’t misunderstand us:  Elizabeth Taylor, for one, was the ultimate Hollywood icon, an enduring and classic symbol of the acting industry.  And Ralph Lauren could be deemed an iconic designer who popularized that certain je ne sais quoi of preppie-dom.

As communications stylists, we liberally toss around the word as representative of our ideas.  Developing a series of icons, for instance, enables us to communicate in a pictorial shorthand a desired action, a behavior, a brand to a set of stakeholders.  Geeks, too, have seized on these images as signaling quick entrances or exits into different computer programs and files.  [Steve Jobs, we thank you.]

Too, don’t forget that our favorite four letters originated with the Greek meaning “image,” associated at that time with a religious work of art from Eastern Christianity.  As defined by art historians, icons are usually flat panel paintings – also carvings, castings, embroideries, printings – picturing a religious being or objects such as angels.  Colors in these artworks also had iconic (ahem!) meanings, with red used for divine life; gold, the radiance of heaven; blue, human life.

With all that serious history, it’s difficult to call even the moderately famous “icons.”  [Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen’s late and great saxophonist, does fit that bill, in our opinion.]  Or describe a popular style, like the wearing of Uggs, as iconic.  [Add your own two favorite icons here.]

Maybe we’ll know it’s time to retire the word when Fox re-brands “American Icon.”