If I Was In Charge of… NBC

Next February, good old fashioned broadcast television - the kind delivered by the combination of aluminum foil and rabbit ears that sits atop of my old school analog set - will cease to exist.  The Federal government is mandating that television networks broadcast solely in digital signals. Thus, if you are like me, you will need to get yourself a digital converter soon.  Still, I think this turn of events in conjunction with the tough economic times we face might just open up a new opportunity for Network television.  Follow along while I briefly explain my reasoning.

Recently I used the $40.00 voucher from the government to purchase a second digital converter for my home.  I bought it at Target, and it ended up costing me $10.00 after the voucher.  As I was buying it, a guy in line who identified himself only as a Television Executive, asked me if I really viewed television strictly over the air.  I proudly replied yes.  He was dumbfounded.  He could not believe that I was able to manage with only network television to guide me.

This got me thinking, why would I need cable at all?  With my digital receiver I now have over 30 stations, all for free.  I have more than 10 versions of PBS - covering kids programming, cooking and arts, travel, state government, and traditional programming.  Not only that, but local stations also offer multiple channels for me to enjoy.

Now that got me thinking even further…  With the expanded bandwidth afforded by digital broadcast television, why would the networks need cable or satellite for distribution?  The answer is they don’t.

So, if I was in charge of NBC, I would create 100 niche channels and make them available for broadcast through the local stations.  Music, sports, finance, politics, gardening, gossip, talk and more - all for free.  Why would I do this?

Well the whole point of commercial television is to sell ads.  If I can attract people to my content, I can sell more ads.  If people can give choices without having to make them pay, they should be interested - especially now as family budgets are stretched to the limit.  By being the first network to embrace this move, NBC could take a dominant role in the new niches that will emerge in the digital broadcast space. (note that you can substitute CBS, ABC, or FOX and it still works).

Look at your most recent cable or satellite bill and then tell me you would not be interested in having all the networks embrace this potential opportunity.  Imagine having 100, 200, 400 digital channels all for free.  Imagine having over $1000.00 back in your pocket at the end of the year - how is that for a stimulus package?

No, cable and satellite are not goint away.  No, I would not pull programming from them… yet.  What I would do is take advantage of tough times, federal mandates, vouchers, digital technology, analog televisions that still work, and mounting consumer frustration to take advantage of what might well be the biggest opportunity to come to television in years.

What would you do if you were in charge of NBC or another television network?

If I Was In Charge of Verizon…

If I was in charge of Verizon, the first thing I would do would be to take the large group of people, known collectively on TV as “the network,” - seen following around the “can you hear me now?” guy in the commercials - and reassign them to work in Customer Service.  In fact I would make the core focus of the company customer service. I would make going to the Verizon Store something you love to do - not loathe to do.

Note to Verizon.  I can hear you.  Great job on the network thing.  Now that we have established that fact, let me hear you be nice, thoughtful, and helpful.  Make me feel like bypassing the iPhone and AT&T (who could also benefit from this) or Sprint, or whomever, was the right choice because you actually care about your customers.

From the billing process, to telephone help desk, to the in store service and sales experience, there is huge opportunity for you to improve what you do, while setting a new industry standard for excellence.  Be the first to own this space and make service the cornerstone for your future growth.  Can you hear me now?

What would you do first if you were in charge of Verizon?

If I Was In Charge of… City Life Sculptures in Dayton

For the second year in a row the City of Dayton, along with the Downtown Dayton Partnership, has brought in 20 of the magnificent bronze sculptures sculptures of J. Seward Johnson.  The sculptures are extremely lifelike.  They depict people, sometimes accompanied by animals and props, going about daily life in the city.  The detail is amazing - causing people to double take as they pass just to make sure that it really is a statue.  They have been widely successful in attracting attention and drawing people to visit downtown Dayton to check them out.  The city started a photo contest around the sculptures, which I think is brilliant.

Still, if I was in charge of the City Life Sculptures the first thing I would do would be to create a blog for each of them.  On each blog, the story of the person depicted in the statue would be told day by day.  This could be done as a creative writing project, where students from Dayton Public Schools could compete to earn the right to tell the fictional story of one statue.   The writings could focus on a different area of life each week, creating a framework for the project.  This could start with biographical information about where they grew up, where they live and work, what they see everyday, how they interpret it based on who they are, and what they hope to see in the future.  This would be a wonderful exercise in characterization and imagination.  By placing it in the context of a blog, readers could engage with the statues in conversation - truly bringing them to life.   This would be sort of a Canterbury Tales meets the Internet.  Each statue has a story, and each winner gets to tell it.   I think this would be an amazing opportunity to showcase young, creative talent, while simultaneously attracting additional attention to this amazing exhibit.

What would you do first if you were in charge of the City Life Sculptures in Dayton?

Downtown Dayton Partnership

If I Was In Charge of Coke… or Pepsi

This week, I am offering a suggestion that can be easily implemented by either Soft Drink giant.  However, since I have named 2 companies, I will make 2 suggestions.  Fair enough?  Alright, here goes…

If I was in charge of Coke the first thing I would do would be to bring back real cane sugar.  I would eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup from the core product, making the delicious beverage it once was.  The second thing I would do would be to package it in glass bottles.

Why?  First, anyone older than me can vividly remember what it was like to grab an ice cold bottle of Coke, and chug it down on a hot summer day.  Delicious.  I was reminded of this on Father’s Day.  For lunch, we went to City BBQ for a father’s day feast.  In addition to the delicious Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwich that I ate, I was delighted to discover that City Barbecue now carries icy cold, glass bottles of Cheerwine - a soda that is rarely found outside of the Carolinas.  Best of all, it was made with real sugar.  It was so delicious and refreshing that I went back and bought another bottle.

It got me thinking, why wouldn’t Coke and Pepsi take advantage of this.  After all, High Fructose Corn Syrup has plenty of detractors.  It has been suspected, but not proven (please no lawsuits), of contributing to diabetes and obesity.  More important to me, sugar just tastes better.  Perhaps in a blind taste test, I would never know the difference, but I am not blind.   I read the ingredients, and frankly I am predisposed to believe sugar tastes better.  (See Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars for more on that idea)

Now, surely I would not be alone in this predisposition toward all natural sugar and glass bottles.  Think of the aging baby boomer population, the largest segment of the population by the way, and how they might wax nostalgic for a good old fashioned Coke “like the singing international hippies in the commercials used to drink.”  No, soft drinks aren’t that healthy to begin with, but if they were less unhealthy - especially than that of competition, - that would be a selling point for some.  The glass bottles are reusable, and offer the sweet 10 cent bounty for turning them back in.  Being made of glass, which is made from sand, they would be more bio-friendly.

Because corn is in high demand relative to ethanol, the use of sugar would not be as cost prohibitive as in the past.  Thus, the switch to sugar might not even change the price.

So in summary, better tasting , more healthy, more eco-friendly product that would appeal to the largest group of consumers with the most disposable income on the planet.   That is what I would do.

How about you?  What would you do first if you were in charge of Coke?

High-fructose corn syrup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If I Was In Charge Of… Staples

I was watching game 3 of the NBA finals last night, which was being played in Los Angeles at the Staples Center. The building is home to the Lakers, and hosts concerts and other events as well. There are frequently blimps flying around the building, shooting the all too familiar overhead view of the venue. So as I saw the blimp shot last night it hit me. Something was missing, and thus came the inspiration for this post - the latest in my series of “If I was in charge, the first thing I would do would be…

So if I was in charge of Staples the first thing I would do would be to change to roof of the Staples Center. The roof is a perfectly nice roof. It appears to be structurally sound, and even has some nice, subtle messaging for Staples on it. However, if I were in charge, that roof would be transformed into a giant marketing icon - The Staples “Easy Button.” This would be really “easy” to do, and would further reinforce my the current Staples marketing campaign.

I would light it up so that it would be a bright red beacon to planes, blimps, interstate drivers, and television viewers alike. The photo is a mock up of the idea. Yeah, it is that easy.

If you were in charge of Staples, what would you do first?

If I Was in Charge of Rolling Rock…

Week 2 in my series of “If I was in charge.” I discovered that it is more difficult than I thought to pick a company. Inspiration comes from many sources, and tonight, it happens to come “from the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe.” - Rolling Rock.

So, if I was in Charge of Rolling Rock, the first thing I would do would be to continue to play up the mysterious 33 on the back of the bottle by creating a Twitter type of microblog on the web site. It would ask you to tell your Rolling Rock story, or just share a comment using only 33 words. This would be fun to do, and might create some interesting tales about Rolling Rock.

Here is mine.

I drank my first Rolling Rock in Springfield, Ohio in 1992. My second one had a lemon in it. Delicious. I love the story of 33. Very mysterious. Painted label. Great summer beer.

Now, I would then continue to reposition the brand to be more “Yellow Springs, Ohio” or “Athens, Ohio” and I would redesign the web site to reflect that.  It would be much less branded and contrived, and much more down to earth.  I would make the content far more user driven, and I would find ways to get people involved in the brand.  I would get someone like Trey Anastasio to play a private show at the brewery - inviting loyal consumers to attend and chronicle the experience.   Sticking with the music idea, I might pick a few small target markets, like Dayton, and invest in supporting the local music scene.  I would include bands from these cities in the event with  Trey, using them as opening acts.  I would create a community and then engage them.

So, if you were in charge of Rolling Rock, what would be the first thing you would do? If the answer is drink free beer, than what is the second thing?

If I Was In Charge of Microsoft, the First Thing I Would Do…

Before we talk Microsoft, let me talk about the premise here.  How many times to you hear yourself or someone else make the following statement,  ”If I was in charge of that company the first thing I would do would be…”  I hear it every day, and probably utter the phrase myself every other day.

Sometimes we say this about our own company.  Sometimes about a rival.  Sometimes it is the result of a bad experience with a company you love, or a pleasantly surprising experience at a business you never knew existed.

I find it fascinating to hear what people think should be done.  I have a hunch, people in corporate marketing departments might be interested too.  Thus, I introduce the following series of posts.  If I was in Charge…

Now, as a consumer, my belief is that through choosing where to spend your money, you are indirectly in charge, but this is different.  I am saying if you had absolute power to make one change in a company, right now, what would you do?

I like to use Rod Sommer’s matrix of considering ease of implementation relative to size of impact.  So based on this model, the best things to do are those that are easy to get done, and result in huge results.  You may subscribe to a different decision making model.  That is where the fun is.  Your thoughts.

So I hope you will share with the world by commenting.  No idea is too small, or big, and everyone is welcome to play along.

So back to the post.  The first company in this series is one that everyone knows, and many love to hate - Microsoft.  Never in history has a company whose products so many people use so frequently been so hated.  This company literally changed the world with DOS, Windows, Office, and other tools.  However, the firm’ history is full of aggressive business practices that have led many to label it as the devil.

Microsoft has been in the news a lot lately.  From the shortcomings of Windows Vista, to the failed acquisition of Yahoo, to Steve Ballmer getting eggs thrown at him during a speech, Bill Gates’ retirement, and the introduction of their new touch screen technology called Multi-Touch, there are ample headlines about this Redmond, Washington based Goliath.  With all the turmoil facing Microsoft, I think it might be fun to ask “If I were in charge of Microsoft, the first thing I would do would be…”

For me, it would be creating a new version of the Windows operating system that was smaller, faster, and did much less.  The opposite of Vista.  I would want it to be able to perform basic functions, have little vulnerability to computer viruses, and be extremely stable.  No bells.  No whistles.  It would just work.  It should run on any computer built in the last decade, and reflect simplicity and intelligence.  It would never crash, and it would be very responsive to the user.

I would market it to retiring baby boomers, who spend a lot of time exchanging email, looking at pictures, and looking up and storing basic information.  I would then create a stripped down suite of applications to run on the plaform - Office Light.  Using the 80 / 20 rule, this would only offer the most used, and most useful features.  It would be easy to learn, and again it would just “work.”  This would also be ideal for young children, seeking to learn how to use a computer - that would be a second target market.  This could yield a new crop of low end, value priced computers, built to provide basic services and reliable performance, and a whole new market could be created for products.

If I were in charge of Microsoft, that is the first thing I would do.   What about you?  What is the first thing you would do if you were in charge of Microsoft.  Would you try to buy Apple?  37Signals? Would you make a play for Ask.com?  Yahoo again?  Facebook?  LinkedIn?  Would you get out of the software business or focus solely on enterprise applications?  Would you fire Steve Ballmer?  What is the first thing you would do?  Please chime in and share by leaving a comment, and look for more posts like this to follow.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121193874854224859.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us