The Physics of Marketing - Snell’s Law

Willebrord Snellius saw the light.  Well actually he saw the light do funny things, and then went on to describe why it was so.  The output was Snell’s Law, which describes how light travels at different speeds through different substances.  Ever wonder why that drinking straw looks different in the glass of water than it does above the glass -   Snell’s Law.  How about why on hot summer day there appear to be puddles of water on the road off in the distance, yet when you get to where they seemingly were you find nothing but blazing hot asphalt - again Snell.  It is all about refraction, or how light bends.

Different materials have different refractive indices, meaning that light travels at different speeds through everything.  A high refractive index indicates that light bends a lot as it passes through.  Conversely a low index means that light moves more quickly.

So how does this idea apply to Marketing?  Well there are about 50 ways to go with this one.  I am choosing to go with the following, but encourage you to choose one of the others and leave a comment.  So here goes my take.

In marketing, there is often the concept of the great idea.  You know what I mean… “How about we try __”  or “What if we make ____”  Internally a few people discuss the idea, and quickly it turns into a product.  Note that for this example we are going to assume that this idea makes its way through the process of becoming an actual product or service - most never get that far.

Okay, so the idea hits the market in the form of a product and it is a huge disaster.  What happened?  We thought it would be great.  It did everything we wanted.  Everyone will love it.  We knew it would work. One problem.  The consumer, or at least the one’s whom you approached, did not want it.  Things are received differently by different people just as light moves differently through different substances.  So making the right thing for the right people matters.

Successful marketers realize this principal and attempt to use this to their advantage.  For a product to become successful, marketers must find the innovators and early adopters for their idea.  Target them.  Talk to them.  Find out if they are influential with others.  Satisfy their needs.  Dazzle them.

Again, these ideas spread at different speeds.  Successfully getting through the innovators and early adopters moves you into the early majority of people.  This group is slower to respond, but just might come around with some coaxing from the other two groups.  This process might then continue onward through the late majority of buyers and into the laggards before your idea is replaced by another.  As the pool of people spreads, your idea becomes more commonplace, and the impression it makes distorts from the original image.

Again, the key is to realize who you are trying to target, how their response may be different from others in the market, and what the implications of those differences might be.  Making something for everyone from the start is a surefire way to fail.  Making something remarkable for a few people, who might decide to share their passion for your idea with the world is a much better choice.

How would you use Snell’s Law in the context of Marketing?  There is certainly something out there along the “Things are not always what they seem / All Marketers Are Liars” angle.  (Seth Godin, if you read this, please share a thought with us.)  There could be something along the lines of the Pete Blackshaw “An Angry Customer Tells 3,000 People” angle of what happens when you buy that water puddle and actually get hot air. (Pete, if you read this,  please share a thought with us.)   Or maybe you have a completely fresh take to add.  Give it a shot and leave a comment. (Please share a thought with us.)

Take Me To Your Leader… Tribes by Seth Godin

Seth Godin has done it again - written an amazing, fresh, relevant, and useful book I love.  This time it is Tribes - a book about the importance of leadership.  The book is probably the least “marketing” oriented book Seth has written, focusing instead on addressing the much broader topic of leading other human beings.

The book talks a great deal about the importance of overcoming fear in the pursuit of innovation.  In today’s world, I am fully convinced that the old ways of “go along and get along” can only lead to a slow death - whether that applies to education, business, marketing, non-profits, or any other facet of life.  Today, the rewards go to the risk takers, the creators, and the innovators who are willing to step up with a vision and lead others toward realizing it.

Here is an excerpt from one of the passages on The Elements of Leadership:

• Leaders challenge the status quo.
• Leaders create a culture around their goal and involve others.
• Leaders have an extraordinary amount of curiousity about the world they are trying to change.
• Leaders use charisma (in a variety of forms) to attract and motivate followers.
• Leaders communicate their vision of the future.
• Leaders commit to a vision of the future and make decisions based on that commitment.
• Leaders connect their followers to one another.

The book also discusses numerous ways that individuals can levarage the web, blogs, and tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Squidoo, and others to build a tribe of followers.  Seth outlines numerous examples of others who have successfully built a tribe, and highlights simple strategies for following in their footsteps and leading with yours.

Not only is it a great book, but I even got a free copy of it.  I had pre-ordered the book on Amazon a few months ago.  Two weeks ago, a surprise advance copy showed up on my doorstep.  Seth sent them out to people who ordered early so that we could have a sneak peak at the book.  Talk about engaging the Tirbe.  The one I paid for showed up last Tuesday, and I quickly gave it to a friend to read… and the Tribe grows.

Thank you to Seth for continuing to be an inspiration to me, for providing me with countless great ideas, and for motivating me with your words and actions to be a leader with mine.

Amazon.com: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us: Seth Godin: Books

David E. Bowman - Squidoo Lens Returns

I gave a speech earlier this week to the Dayton LinkedIn Group.  In the speech, I spoke about some easy ways that individuals can use the web to build their personal brand.  One tool I referenced was Squidoo - one of the most useful sites (or grouping of sites) on the web.

Squidoo is a powerful tool for sharing ideas, finding information, and building your personal brand. It is the brainchild of Seth Godin, one of the foremost thinkers in the areas of technology, business, and marketing.  The idea is that everyone is an expert at something, and thus should be able to use the web to help others by sharing that expertise.  Squidoo enables users to easily create a one page web site, called a lens, full of rich content, links, video, notes, polls, rss feeds, and other interesting items.  The beauty of Squidoo is that you don’t have to know anything about writing code to use it, and Google loves it.  It is easy to use, and provides in-depth information on hundreds of thousands of topics, and continues to evolve into a powerful research tool.

Well, many moons ago I built a Squidoo lens about me.  After all, I fugured that if everyone is supposed to be an expert at something, I should be the foremost expert on the subject of me.  It was up on the web for a while, but then I became dissatisfied with it.  As a result I took the site down for a makeover. Then, as happens, I got side tracked with other things, and the lens sat dormant.

Well, after giving my speech, there was a huge interest amongst those who attended in Squidoo.  Most had never heard of it, and many curious people have since emailed me for more information.  All of this reminded me that I still need to bring back the lens about me - and so I did.   View it here or by visiting http://www.squidoo.com/davidebowman.  The lens was very easy to put together, and offers the world a different look at me and some of my work.

They recently rebranded the “people” section of Squidoo - giving it the clever moniker of SquidWho.  Check it out, and let me know what you think.  Then, start building your own lenses.  Share your expertise with the world.

Some other lenses I have built include:

Dayton Marketing Community

Dayton Weblogs - which I need to update

The Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio - a work in progress

David E. Bowman

Linking Up with LinkedIn Dayton

Today I was given the distinct honor of addressing the LinkedIn Dayton networking group at Champps in Centerville, Ohio on the topic of leveraging web based tools to build your personal brand.  I want to thank everyone who attended the event.  I hope you found it to be fun and informative. I know that I had a blast and made a number of professional connections in the process.

I was given this opportunity by responding to a call for speakers put out by Joe Durbin and Michael Morley, who organize much of the LinkedIn Dayton group’s actual face to face meetings.  This was the first breakfast meeting, and they sent out an email request for speakers, which I responded to immediately.  I thank them for allowing me to be the first, and hopefully not the last, speaker.

As for the content of the presentation, I offered my 2 cents on how to leverage the emerging web to build your brand and further your career.  I talked about my recent job changes, and the valuable lessons I learned about the importance of both knowing people, and more importantly, being known.  I have given similar presentations before, but have never related the personal history of how I even got into blogging and social networking relative to the crazy events of my life.

My message in a nutshell was this.  We live in a new age.  40 Years of “doing good work and getting a gold watch at the end” are done.  You have to take ownership of your life and your career.  Building a network plays a huge role in determining your ability to control your future.  This applies to all areas of life, not just finance.  The web makes it easier and more affordable to build your brand, and to leverage your strengths to create your future career.

I spoke about how individuals can leverage everything from Microblogs like Twitter and Plurk, to Blogs using Wordpress, Podcasts, Squidoo, Social Networks, and other free and easy tools to join the conversation and establish an area of expertise.  I tried to deliver enough explantion of these tools to make them understandable, without being too technical in how they work.  We discussed numerous ways to utilize LinkedIn, beyond just an online repository for contact information.  (Research Database, Employment Tool, Sales Information, Communication Vehicle, Information Source) In summary, it was a high level overview of a broad swath of web 2.0 tools that can benefit those who seek to leverage the web as a personal branding tool.

Blogging and social media have changed my life in so many ways.  They led me to my current job at LUCRUM - where we use blogs, social networks, wikis, and podcasts to build the company both internally and externally.  They have generated countless connections with other people around the globe, and put me in touch with some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.  I love what I do, and I am delighted that I not only get to do it, but that people are interested in hearing me talk about it too.

Thanks again to all who came to the event today.  If you have questions about anything I covered, or did not cover, in my presentation.  Please drop me a note.  I am happy to help in any way that I can.  I look forward to the next LinkedIn Breakfast, where I will get to eat, socialize, and enjoy watching the speaker.

David E. Bowman - LinkedIn

Seth Riffs on Proximity

A few weeks back I was discussing Newton’s Law of Gravitation and the importance of proximity in Marketing. This discussion revolved around the idea of getting close to the customer, and how that can yield huge dividends. Seth Godin has furthered the discussion with this great riff on proximity.

Seth looks at the implications of proximity relative to the pain experienced by the consumer. The closer you are to the consumer, the more you understand their pain. The better you are at relieving that pain, the more value you bring. The more value you bring, the more you can charge for what you do.

Think about how trust and relationships play a role in your purchasing decisions, especially in today’s fast paced world. The modern marketplace is more fragmented than even, and the ability to attract attention through sheer mass becomes more difficult every day. Conversely, it seems that technology is making proximity - which according to Newton is exponentially more important than mass - easier to achieve every day.

Seths Blog: Proximity to pain

Communication - The Point of PowerPoint

A few weeks back I was asked by fellow LUCRUM employee and friend Andy Erickson to speak to the Agile Round Table, a technology focused group that meets monthly here in Cincinnati. The topic - PowerPoint. It was supposed to be done 20 seconds per slide, and 20 slides, but once I got going I completely lost all track of time. Inspired by Seth Godin and Garr Reynolds, I ended up speaking for about 15 minutes on the topic. In the end, PowerPoint is all about communication and delivering a compelling message. Whether that information is right brain - big picture, synthesis- or left brain - technical, detaileded analysis - presentations should be more than just reading. Show up. Entertain. Add something by being there, and for God sakes, Have some fun.

Someone said to me recently, “What if I need to present code?” “How can I do that without using bullets and reading it?” I thought long and hard about it, and came to this conclusion. You can absolutely do it. Simplify the code down to its essence, and elaborate on it in your presentation. If you need to use documentation, deliver it as a leave behind document - probably done in Word or Google Docs. After all if Einstein’s Theory of Relativity can be boiled down to a few characters, can’t pretty much anything? If you insist on putting all that code up there in the presentation, why not just show it in a live environment? Or dress it up with color, or imagery, or illustrate the concept that it represents - efficiency, capability, performance.  Engage me.  Make something memorable.  Something remarkable.   Just my 2 cents. Anyway, thanks to Andy Erickson who taped the presentation which you can watch below. For YOUTUBE sake Andy broke these into 2 clips. Again, sorry for running long. My Pecha Kucha skills need some work.

Thanks to the Agile Round table and Andy for letting me speak. It was a lot of fun.

What’s In A Name?

I am named after both of my Grandfathers - My father’s father David and Edwin, my mother’s father. I am very proud of my heritage. My father’s father, who actually went by his middle name Carl, owned Bowman Hardware in Marshall, North Carolina. I knew him as Papa Carl, and loved going to Marshall a few times a year to visit him. Though he is no longer around, the store is still there, and still bears his name. He was a proud man with a strong work ethic, and he was hands on as a business owner. My mother’s father, whom I don’t remember personally, was another great man. He died shortly after I was born. Daddy Ed, as he was known, worked as an editor for the Toledo Blade - a paper that is still considered to be exceptional. Anyway, as a result of these two great men, I was named David Edwin Bowman. So where am I going with this…

Well as fate would have it, Arthur C. Clarke, who recently passed, chose to name the main character in 2001 A Space Odyssey, David Bowman. Thus, should you choose to search for David Bowman, you will find Arthur C. Clarke first. Periodically, when I call into a customer service and give the person on the other end of the line my name, I get the reply of “Hello Dave” in the best HAL impression the sci-fi buff turned customer service agent can muster. I always play along, as I get a chuckle out of it.

Now, that is an interesting coincidence to be sure, but there is more. When I went to work as a sales representative for a small company in Cincinnati back in 2001, who was I introduced to on my first day? Dave Bowman, sales rep. This presented a problem, and for a short time I foolishly chose to use my middle name to alleviate the confusion. I never got used to that. I love my middle name, but it was meant to be in the middle. To this day there are people whom I met there that refer to me as Edwin. Fortunately, he left soon after I started, and I went back to my given first name.

Well, living in Dayton, I have tried to spend a good deal of my time networking and building the brand call “David Bowman” brand as Tom Peters might call it. It just so happens that there is a local newscaster named… you guessed it, Dave Bowman. I am convinced he used to spell it Bohman, but I can’t verify that. So, yet another of me.

There are David Bowman’s that are musicians (so am I) bloggers (so am I) and any number of other things. I can’t imagine being John Smith.

So when people wonder why the E. in the middle? The answer is mostly because I like the way it sounds, but has a little to do with differentiation too. Even that is not foolproof. I have my Google Alerts set up to let me know where David E. Bowman turns up on the web. It turns out someone who shares my first name and middle initial, was arrested in New Jersey last week. It is weird to see your name in print like that - but good to know it is somebody else.

So, what’s in a name? Arthur C. Clarke unknowingly altered my life, albeit just slightly, with his choice of names. I would guess that all the other David Bowman’s out there probably share this experience in some way too. So I suppose that names do matter - sometimes in ways that can’t even be measured. Is it any wonder that one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories is too many Daves?

Seth’s Blog: What you can learn from Arthur C. Clarke

What’s Next in Marketing?

Check out this great slide show from Paul Isakson on the Future of Marketing and Advertising. In this series of slides, Paul captures the essence of where I believe marketing is headed. It is about listening, using insight to solve problems, and finding ways to create the remarkable. The hard part is not in identifying what to do, but is in actually doing it. I also love the use of the web based tool SlideShare for viewing the show.

[ paul isakson ]: The Future of Marketing + Advertising

Kuler: Adobe’s Killer Color Application

Color choice is a critical part of design, especially on the web. The right color scheme can go a long way in making a site appealing and ultimately drawing new and repeat visitors. For those, like me, who can be color challenged check out kuler. This site from Adobe makes picking a color scheme easy. On the web you can choose your base color, the type of color scheme you are looking for such as monochromatic, triad, analogous, complimentary, shades, or custom, and kuler creates a color scheme for you on the spot. From there you can tweak and play around to your heart’s content. Kuler then provides you with all the specific color information you need to put your color scheme to work - HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB, and HEX settings that represent your color choices. It is an amazingly easy and extremely powerful design tool that has already been added to my list of favorite sites. Another favorite is Seth Godin’s blog, where I learned about kuler. Thanks Seth. You still have the best site on the web.

So why would you care about kuler? I was thinking about how I might use it. The first thing that came to mind was to decorate my home. My wife and I are looking to repaint a large part of the interior of our home. We also have a number of rooms that just are not “there” yet. Kuler is the perfect tool for helping us get it right. Sure, we will probably resort to the good old fashioned paint swatch for the paint color we put on the wall, but then what. For us, the hard part is not the color of the wall, but rather the accent colors to go along with it. By entering the room color in as a base in kuler, I can then begin to put together numerous color schemes to fit the feel of each room until I get something I like- without having to piece together swatches or blindly guess as to “will this look good with that?”

Professionally, I can think of endless uses for this tool. Every brochure, presentation, web site, mailer, and marketing piece I design can benefit from using kuler. Again I can start with a base color, like the green we use at LUCRUM, and then quickly mock up multiple color schemes to create different feelings for pieces. This takes much of the guesswork out of the equation, and really streamlines the creative process.

I am interested to hear your thoughts on kuler (or color as a design element). Will you use this tool? How?

kuler

Meatball Sundae: Mmm Good

Seth Godin is an amazing author, marketing thought leader and agent of change. His brilliance was proven to me yet again, as I read through the pages of his latest book, Meatball Sundae. The book is about the alignment of an organization’s marketing with its cultural mindset and makeup. Read more