Complimenting My Guitar…

On Sunday, WalMart complimented my guitar, while Target did not.  Those who have heard me play would probably ask “why anyone would compliment my guitar?” No I am not talking about the “nice playing” type of compliment, but rather the idea of selling complimentary products.  This concept was illustrated to me over the weekend as I made trips to both big box retailers.  Allow me to explain.

Sunday morning the family and I headed to Target to pick up some groceries.  We typically pick up the stuff in cans and boxes at Target because it is substantially cheaper that anywhere else - not to mention Target often  has some cool new items to check out.   Well, as we made our way through the store, I remembered that I was in need of a new guitar cord.  The old one shorted out.  So, knowing that they have a few instruments in the back corner of the store, I assumed that surely they would have what I needed.  Alas I was mistaken…

Now the point of this post is not about Target, WalMart, or any other specific retailer.  I just use them to illustrate a point about something I observed.  Target had amplifiers, keyboards, electric guitars, tuners, and even guitar effects pedals, but they did not have a guitar cord.  This would seem to be an assumptive sale for anyone purchasing any of the aforementioned products, as they all require cords to work.  Thus Target is not only leaving easy money on the table by not carrying guitar cords, they are going to force me to go elsewhere to get it.

Now I have personally have a guitar, but if I were in the market for a low end, new guitar, such as the ones they stock, I would now be forced to comparison shop with Target.  Even if I bought the guitar and amplifier at Taret, the need for a cord would take me to another store.  The other store would then have the opportunity through pricing, salesmanship, and promotion to talk me out of the Target purchase.   Suppose I drove around the corner to Guitar Center and discovered a better guitar for less, a more sophisticated amplifier for roughly the same amount, and the cord that I needed to make them work.  Now, suppose the sales professional is good enough to ask what the cord is for, and I tell him about my experience.  If that person were smart they could say something like - “Why don’t you buy the same guitar and amp here and I’ll throw in the cord for free - just return the other one for a refund at Target.”  Now they built customer loyalty, made a sale, and screwed the competition in the process.

Back to my story about Sunday.  The family and I had to run an errand later in the day that took us to WalMart - somewhere I rarely visit.  Again, I thought to look for the guitar cord, assuming that if Target sold instruments, so would WalMart.  I found some instruments in the Toy Section and there along side them was a guitar cord… which I bought.

Admittedly it was a convenience purchase.  I buy most musical gear at a music store.  Still, this story highlights the importance of complimentary products.  What do you sell that requires a complimentary product to make it work.  Could you offer something additional to keep people from going elsewhere?

How Bout’ Them Apples?

As a kid, one of my favorite parts about late summer / fall in Ohio was going to an orchard to get fresh apples.  A few weekends ago I got to introduce my kids to this tradition when we visited Crossroad Orchard, located on State Route 725 just West of Miamisburg, Ohio.

We had a great time at the orchard.  The kids were amazed at the impressive sight of row after row of apple trees with branches drooping under the weight of ripening fruit.   We saw sweet apples, bitter apples, red, yellow and green apples, tart apples, big apples, and any other kind of apple that exists - it was fascinating.

We learned that the orchard inspects the apples that are for sale at the end of every day.  Those did not sell, are reevaluated and either washed and polished again or discarded.  The focus on delivering quality was apparent.

And the taste… delicious.  We have been back 3 times in the 10 days since our first visit.  My kids are eating whole apples, and asking for them as a snack.  Not only have we purchased more apples, but also home grown tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, and the most perfect squash I have seen.  We bought a few gallons of homemade cider as well.  Wow is fresh apple cider tasty!

If you are seeking a fun and inexpensive activity for your family, take a few hours and head out to an apple orchard or farm market near you.  They are all over the place here in Ohio.  Should you live south of Dayton, check out Crossroad Orchard.

Thanks to the great people at Crossroad, who helped to make our first visit and subsequent ones so much fun.

Crossroad Orchard - Home

Olympic Fun

For the past week I have been completely enthralled with the Olympics.  It is funny, because in the days leading up to the games I was not really all that excited about them.   With the exception of 3 nights of synchronized diving, (Seriously… this should be a 30 second highlight reel, not 3 nights of prime time.) I have been fairly captivated.

Like me, many people have been closely following these Beijing Games.  I will certainly remember the opening ceremony, Michael Phelps and his domination, and I am sure the coming week of games will deliver more momorable moments.

Still one of my favorite Olympic moments was not an actual moment at all, but rather a spoof delivered courtesy of Saturday Night Live.  I remember when this aired.  It cracked me up then, and still does today.  Phil Hartman might just be the most underrated comedian of all time.  Check it out.

From Dayton to Hog Heaven…

One of the coolest stores in Dayton, Ohio is F&S Harley Davidson.  Located on North Dixie Drive, the store is family owned; run by Jeff Stolzenburg, his sister Jenny, and his parents.  F&S is a massive complex, filled with beautiful Harley Davidson motorcycles, Harley merchandise, a conference center, storage facility, repair garage, parts warehouse, and more.  They even have free coffee for guests, and I love free coffee.  One step through the front door, and you immediately begin to picture yourself out on the open road riding one of these beautiful machines.

When I worked in Dayton as an Account Executive, F&S was one of my favorite clients.  They were always fun to work with. They were not afraid to push the boundaries, and they sell an unbelievable product to a very loyal customer base.  Truly a dream account.  I still keep in touch with Jeff and the F&S crew, and they even hosted a fundraiser for the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio for free last March.  Great people, and a great place to visit if you have never done so.

With that said, this year is Harley Davidson’s 105th anniversary.  The company is pulling out all the stops to celebrate the anniversary, and Dayton will be included in the mix as several corporate executives from HD will be leading a cross country ride right through Dayton.  The group, which should be sizable, will be stopping at F&S in the afternoon on Monday, August 25th, and staying into the evening to answer questions, press the flesh, and greet the Harley faithful from the Miami Valley.  This should be a really cool event, and something that you Harley enthusiasts out there will not want to miss. When the ride leaves Dayton, the group will be headed to Wisconsin, where the company is based, to continue the celebration. Word on the street is that it is going to be legendary, with big name acts playing private shows over several days!

Part of the fun in Wisconsin will be the newly opened Harley- Davidson museum, featured in this month’s issue of Wired.  Harley fan or not, this is a great example of pulling people into the experience of the company and its devoted followers.  There are very few companies that could open a museum people would actually want to visit.  I stand in awe at the way in which Harley-Davidson has managed to cultivate such fierce loyalty amongst its customers.  If I ever find myself in that part of the county, I am going to make it a point to visit. Clearly there is a lot to learn about motorcycles and even more to learn about marketing.

New Harley-Davidson Museum Is Heaven for Hells Angels

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?

Whatcha Talkin Bout Willis?

By this time you have probably heard about Twitter.  If not, here is a quick summary.  Twitter is a site where you, and the rest of the world get 140 characters to answer one question “what are you doing?”

Now the common first reaction by someone who discovers Twitter is to scrunch up their face, tilt their head to the side and scratch it, sigh, tilt their head back again, shrug their shoulders and say “huh?”  “What is the big deal?”

Well shortly thereafter you begin to discover that on Twitter people are sharing thoughts and opinions on everything under the sun in a very concise and easy to understand format.  Better yet the format is constantly evolving.  Twitter also makes it possible to follow brilliant thinkers like John Moore, Pete Blackshaw, and Guy Kawaski, as you follow “what they do.”

Still, the whole thing can seem a bit overwhelming and disjointed.  That is where the new Twitter Search (formerly Summize.com) comes into play.  Simply type in a term and you can search in real time what people are talking about.  Search Dayton, or Obama, or McCain, Pizza, Reds, Apple, whatever - Twitter search will aggregate the results so that you can begin to make sense of it all.  Better yet, it is equipped with an RSS feed so that you can track the conversation as it evolves.  Track mentions of your name, your employer, your friends, and on and on.

So do you wonder what Willis is talking about?  Well I am not sure if Willis (Todd Bridges) uses Twitter, but you can find a whole bunch of people talking about him and darn near anything else by using Twitter Search.  Give it a try, and share the interesting things you find with your comments.

Twitter Search

3 Free Tools for Great Music on the Web

I love music.  I have spent a good portion of my life writing, singing, playing, and listenting to it.  Regardless of the genre, great music is something I value highly.  So, discovering new music I enjoy and rediscovering long forgotten old favorites from earlier in my life makes me happy.

When I was a young college student, many moons ago, I would spend hours flipping through the racks at CD Connection, searching for that little known Pearl Jam bootleg, or the side project that Mark Arm did, or the CD with Phish jamming with Santana, etc…  Most of my friends did the same thing, and as a result life was filled with great new tunes.  Time was more abundant, and music was a central part of my daily life.  However, with work, family, and the other responsibilities that come with adulthood, it is not as easy as it once was to find great tunes. The internet makes all of that easier.  Here are 3 sites that can help you find great music in a flash.

Pandora - I have written about this site before, but it is worth mentioning again.  Pandora is amazing.  To begin using it, you name your “radio station” (you can have several if you like) and you enter the name of a band or a song you like.  From there Pandora will play that song or artist, and others with similar musical characteristics.  You can rate them based on your preferences, and as you do Pandora learns about you.  Using something called the music genome project, Pandora determines what characteristics you like about music.  It is not just who you like, but what you like and why.  This allows Pandora to regularly surprise you with new music you enjoy, as well as giving it an eery ability to pull classics from the archives that at one time would have been in your favorites.  You can share your station with others, read information about the bands and songs, and link directly to itunes and amazon to make purchases.  I have been using Pandora for several years now, and I am still amazed by its ability to surprise me with great new discoveries.

Songza - Songza is a search engine for music.  Go there, type in a band name or a song title, and it returns numerous results of music tracks.  This is great for the times when you hear that song, but can’t remember the name exactly.  Or, when your nephew or niece, being young and still cool, is kind enough to drop the names of some cool new band they just saw in concert.  Songza is a great tool for researching potential new favorites.  It is also great for when you have a particular song stuck in your head, or the guy in the cube next to you says “no I’ve never heard that song,” and you are desperate to hear it.  Songza puts specific titles right there at your fingertips.

Musicovery - This is a recent find for me, as my brother in law Chad forwarded a link to me.  Musicovery gives you the ability to choose the genres of music you feel like hearing, the time frame or era in which it was recorded, the mood you are in (positive v dark) and (energetic v calm), and the relative popularity of the music it chooses.  This allows you to build a very customized radio station on the fly, based on how you feel at that specific time.  It has a great catalog of tracks, and was amazingly in-tune with what I “felt like listening to.”  It has a very cool interface, and delivers a very engaging user experience.  It is different from Pandora, in that it is more malleable, but it offers less surprise as a tradeoff.  I see it as a great compliment to Pandora, depending on how engaged you want to be in the selection process.  Musicovery also links directly into Amazon, making it easy to buy tracks that you want to own.

Give these sites a shot, and let me know what you think.  Know of other great sites?  Share your knowledge with us by leaving a comment.

High Five

The wired how to wiki is awesome.  You can learn how to do just about everything on this site.  Among this month’s featured “how to’s” is “how to throw the perfect high five.” The article is short, funny, and valuable if you are looking to improve your ability to slap some skin.  It features basic high five instructions, and alternative versions of high fives including “The Todd” - named for the notorious high-fiving, freaky character from the brilliant show Scrubs.   They even include this highlight clip from YouTube featuring the best of The Todd.

Just below that is a high five described as the “21 Jump Street.”  The picture makes me laugh, as it shows the rediculous huddle high five from that rediculous late 80’s show.  I actually remember people doing things like that, which is scary.  Better yet, they have the Top Gun high five too.  Oh, the 80’s…

Anyway, do yourself a favor and bookmark the wired how to wiki, or better yet subscribe to the feed and get updates as they appear.  Hive five to that!

High-Five - Wired How-To Wiki

Dropping Some Knowledge - Money Quotes from John Moore

Looking for some advice on how to build a successful brand?  Want to learn more about the importance of the customer experience?   Check out this post from my friend John Moore.  He lists “Money Quotes” from his book Tribal Knowledge - where he chronicles some of the wisdom he gleaned during his time at Starbucks.

John was kind enough to come to Dayton last year to speak at a PRSA meeting and then an AMA meeting.  Both presentations were incredible.  He shared so many fascinating stories about his life, and the lessons he has learned.  Both audiences were completely captivated by John’s creative presentation and compelling message.

I got to share the stage with him later in the day, when we addressed an auditorium full of students at the University of Dayton.  The experience was thrilling, and I hold him in the highest regard.  I also owe him a beer.

Get to know John Moore.  Check out Brand Autopsy and then pick up a copy of Tribal Knowledge.

Brand Autopsy: Tribal Knowledge Money Quotes
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/11572/30352818

Worth 1,000 Words

Who said church marketing sucks? I saw this sign outside of a church in Cincinnati today, and of course had to go back and snap a picture… and of course had to share it with you. Now, either this church is taking a REALLY different approach to attracting new parishioners, or they need to get some better letters for their display sign.

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