Brilliant Results October 2012

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cover story8 who says branding is not for you?

Departments6 publisher’s letter

7 contributors: who’s who in the industry

10 optimization: how to be human online

12 travel: incentive marketing through travel

14 online marketing: the sales approach your ecommerce store is probably missing

16 branding: the truth about Being “Done” versus Being “Perfect”

18 tech: Resizing apps for iPhone 5

20 ideals: follow the leader —

21 exhibit: cutting through the clutter

22 advice: this is your life

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Choose Post-it® Brand.Knock-off notes may look like the real thing, but they fall down on the job. Original Post-it® Notes stick securely and remove cleanly. When it comes to sticky notes, it’s the name underneath the pad that counts.

The Other Guys Post-it® Notes

Don’t be the fall guy

Brand.Knock-off notes may look like the real thing, but they fall down on the job.

THis issUe Holds some brilliant advice if i dare say so myself. if you follow even one of the suggested tips your business is sure to grow.

From “what do you want your brand to be?” to “done is better than perfect!” The most important piece is pretty basic be genuine and grow or do nothing and someday you may not be around…Kodak ring any bells?

in today’s marketing and branding you need people to talk about you. you need to be real and not worry about who has the deepest pockets. we can all make a difference; sometimes we just have to get out of our own way and to borrow another famous quote …”Just do it”.

i am certain you will be glad yet again that you took the time to read this issue. if you want to be on the pulse of what is going on in branding and marketing today that is…

enjoy the issue and as always,

Have a Brilliant day!!

pUBliSher’S letter

Brilliant Publishing LLC9034 Joyce Lane

Hummelstown, PA 17036Ph: 717.571.9233Fax: 717.566.5431

PUBLISHER / ADVERTISINGMaureen Williams

[email protected]

EDITORIALEditor in ChiefMaryAnne Morrill

Senior EditorMichelle Donofry

Style EditorCharity Plata

Asst. EditorMolly Anika

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Rudy DeFelice, Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D., David Lee King, Martin Lindstrom,

Blaine Parker, Barry Siskind, Steve Smith, Dr. Peter Tarlow, John Tschohl

PRODUCTION / DESIGNArt DirectorJeremy Tingle

Brilliant Results is published monthly by Brilliant Publishing LLC, 9034 Joyce Lane Hummelstown PA 17036 (717) 608-5869; Fax# (717) 566-5431. Copyright © 2012 Brilliant Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising or editorial material. Advertisers, and/or their agents, assume the responsibility for any claims against the publisher based on the advertisement. Editorial contributors assume responsibility for their published works and assume responsibility for any claims against the publisher based on published work. No part of this publication can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher. All items submitted to Brilliant Results become the sole property of Brilliant Publishing LLC. Editorial content does not refl ect the views of the publisher. The imprints, logos, trademarks or trade names (Collectively the “Marks”) displayed on the products featured in Brilliant Results are for illustrative purposes only and are not available for sale. The marks do not represent the implied or actual endorsement by the owners of the Marks of the product on which they appear. All of the Marks are the property of the respective owners and is not the property of either the advertisers using the Marks or Brilliant Results.

brilliantresults™

maureen [email protected] 717-608-5869

Follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@Bresults

6 Brilliant Results • October 2012 www.bri l l iantpubl ishing.com

contributors

a Rudy DeFelice is the founder and CEO of Bizinate.com. Based in Los Angeles, Bizinate’s mission is to launch a million new startups. Bizinate.com provides the easiest place to launch your eCommerce company, providing a high quality web site, payment processing, marketing tools and business cards for free. You can be up and running in 3 minutes or less on Bizinate, selling products or services.

b Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D. For more than two decades Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions, and government organizations have relied on Dr. Barton Goldsmith to help them develop creative and balanced leadership. His columns appear in over 500 publications. He may be contacted through his web site www.BartonGoldsmith.com

c David Lee King is the Digital Services Director at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He speaks internationally about emerging trends, website management, digital experience, and social media, and has been published two books, Designing the Digital Experience, 2008, and his most recent title, face2face: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Tools to Create Great Customer Connections (CyberAge Books). For more information visit www.davidleeking.com.

d Martin Lindstrom, a respected branding and marketing expert, was selected as one of the world’s 100 most infl uential people by TIME magazine. The founder, CEO and Chairman of the LINDSTROM company (Sydney), Martin speaks to a global audience of approximately one million people every year. His latest book; Buyology – Truth and Lies About Why We Buy – a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book has been translated into 37 languages and is on almost all major best-seller lists worldwide.

e Blaine Parker runs Slow Burn Marketing with his much smarter wife, The Fabulous Honey Parker. They are also co-authors of the controversial new book, Billion-Dollar Branding, available at your favorite online bookseller. For more information please contact Blaine at [email protected] or visit www.SmallBusinessBrandingBook.com.

f John Tschohl, is founder and president of the Service Quality Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Described by USA Today, Time, and Entrepreneur as a “customer service guru,” he has written several books on customer service and has developed more than 26 customer-service training programs—including his latest, Moving Up—that have been distributed throughout the world.

g Barry Siskind is an internationally recognized trade and consumer show expert. He is the author of six bestselling business books including Powerful Exhibit Marketing. Read his newest book, Selling from the Inside Out for an in depth guide to a successful sales career. Visit Barry at www.siskindtraining.com.

h As one of the leaders in Chariot Solution’s mobile practice, Steve Smith works with clients in numerous roles that range from determining mobile strategy to designing and developing mobile applications. Steve’s mobile experience includes native, mobile web, and hybrid application design and development.

i Dr. Peter Tarlow is the founder and president of Tourism & More Inc. Dr. Tarlow has appeared on Nationally televised programs such as Dateline: NBC and on CNBC. Dr. Tarlow organizes conferences around the world dealing with visitor safety and security issues and with the economic importance of tourism and tourism marketing. For additional information visit www.tourismandmore.com

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THe myTH? small businesses cannot afford branding, it’s too expensive.

The misunderstanding? it fuels the myth: confusion about what brand really is.

The Truth? small businesses can’t afford to noT be branded. Clearing up the misunderstanding makes that truth seem self-evident.

Go ahead, call us heretics… You wouldn’t be the fi rst. But maybe a little backstory will help explain the method

behind our madness. Convincing ourselves that we didn’t want to buck the

apparent trend that wildly successful ad agencies start during recessions, The Fabulous Honey Parker and i were crazy enough to open slow Burn marketing about four years ago. our goal was simple: Big advertising agency thinking for small business marketing.

Honey spent over two decades working in almost every Big advertising agency you can name for a slew of national advertisers.

i’ve spent almost two decades studying Big advertising, and creating marketing for a slew of small businesses you’ve never heard of.

Together, we decided to harness the power of our respective backgrounds for good. after all, small business is the lifeblood of the american economy. we are both descended from small

business owners. and, from The mountaintop marketing Fortress situated at 8,000 feet on a ridge outside

beautiful Park City, Utah, we fi gured we could help change the small business landscape one brand

at a time.

We had no idea What We Were getting into.

over three years, we’ve worked with small businesses from new Hampshire to san diego, from santa Fe to the Philippines. in the process, we’ve seen small businesses do astonishing things… like doubling revenues in a year...doubling the client base in six months…

landing quarter-million-dollar raises in one meeting.

all because of what they ostensibly couldn’t afford: Brand.

so, this begs the question: what the heck is brand, anyway? Want the Slow Burn Marketing defi nition…

the defi nition that has shaken the very souls of small

WHO SAYS BRANDING’S NOT FOR YOU?

By: BLaine PaRKeR

Welcome to a land oF myth and misunderstanding.


business owners from Boise to Kuala lumpur? That inspires men and women with mBas to say, “They never taught us THaT in business school!” That made a former Fortune 50 corporate president say to us, “you’re absolutely right: there’s no difference between branding a multi-billion-dollar company and branding a sole propretor.”

Here it comes. and it sounds deceptively simple. it also scares the pants off of people who start digging

into it. Brand is the one way you want your core customer to

feel about your business. That’s so insanely simple, it bears repeating: Brand is

the one way you want your core customer to feel about your business.

What does it mean? it’s basic human psychology. Pick one thing because it’s

impossible to focus on more. you can’t do it. neither can they. Your brand reaches out to your prospect in a fl ooded communication landscape. sources say the average american gets over 3,000 advertising messages a day. That doesn’t include non-advertising messages like phone, text, email and cat videos. (yes, new research says cat videos make you perform better, but that’s another article.)

with so much competing for your prospect’s attention, more than one equals none.

Why is Feel such an important Word here? Feelings drive purchasing. as you know from sales 101,

we buy emotionally, justifying the purchase intellectually. no matter the size of your business, whether you’re B2C

or B2B: bring one, emotionally evocative core idea to your brand, and you stand a much better chance of winning.

it could mean changing the business’ name… or building brand under an existing name…you might advertise…you might never advertise at all. it doesn’t matter. Having a brand that represents the one way your core customer should feel about your business can make it more powerful. it informs almost every business decision, from logo design to answering the phone.

a personal favorite Big Brand is motel 6. The reason? it’s so simple, there’s nothing about this brand that isn’t acheivable by a sole proprietor with a little thought and inspiration.

For over 25 years, motel 6 and Tom Bodett have been leaving the light on for you in a friendly, folksy way. everything about the brand makes you feel like it’s an affordable experience from people who care. look! Just like mom, they leave the light on for you!

Who’d guess that motel 6 is Worth almost $2 billion?

That it was recently sold by a luxury hotel chain to a fi nancial services group?

(if you’re one of the people who thought Tom Bodett owns motel 6, i’m sorry to break all this to you.)

look at another heritage brand: Bmw, “the ultimate driving machine” for even longer than motel 6 has been leaving the light on. Bmw has a distinct, teutonic snob appeal. you know what they stand for and what they want you to feel.

do you need to be bmW to harness snob appeal?

we worked with a house painter specializing in high-end homes. we’ll call him John smith. His core customer is status conscious, likes fi ne things, might drive a BMW and would never stay at motel 6. John’s company name is John smith Custom Finishes. “Custom.” This is unique and bespoke and just for you.

His logo looks high-end and minimalist, tasteful and slightly edgy. His tag line: “it’s not just paint. it’s how you look.”

His limited marketing makes the proposition of hiring him appear elevated. He feels like an artist and a guy you’d want in your high-end home.

Think that appeals to the status conscious homeowner? or is she going to call that guy using the clip art man in a cap with a brush and a ladder who says, “For all your painting needs”?

Chances are, she probably wants the guy she feels understands what’s important to her. and never once has she uttered the phrase, “i have painting needs.”

(Just like in romance, when you know exactly who you’re talking to and what she should feel about you, it’s easier to matter to her.)

since branding him, and with a marketing budget of slightly more than what you paid to read this article, John smith doubled his revenue in a year.

another example: a generalist came to us, wanting to advertise a specifi c service. Our suggestion: don’t merely create ads for this service. Be much more potent and develop a specialty brand for this service. as a specialist, they could directly challenge the category leader in this specialty.

They went for it. we branded them, the advertising began, and they were in the black after a couple of months. last we heard, they’re doing $1.2 million a year.

all this because they were willing to focus, making their core prospect feel one thing about their business. and that one thing informs all their marketing—print, radio, Tv, website and social media.

and no, i won’t name them or tell you what they do.…Because they could be almost anybody. They could be you. Brand like a big business. Focus and commit. Be

emotionally evocative. it can be a scary thing. But done even half well, it has the potential to propel a small business way beyond competitors who don’t do it at all.


Today’s wired world requires many businesses and organizations to have an online presence. That’s a great thing for consumers like me—i personally love to read about new products or news about a company if it’s an organization i’m interested in.

However, when an organization starts experimenting with social media, they often use these emerging tools with a glance to the past—like it’s still 1999. Their organization’s blog posts and status updates are written like stale press releases and brochures, and the photos look like they were purchased from stock photo sites.

what’s the problem? dry, tidy, “professional sounding” articles, videos, and photos don’t connect with your customers anymore. Today’s web-savvy customers are looking for connections and conversations around the products and services they use.

Thankfully, there are some easy ways to ditch that last-century, old media tone that’s coming through in your organization’s online presence. some of these are simple tweaks; some might take a bit more time to master. But if your organization can improve online customer engagement and interaction, you will start to create stronger connections and conversations with customers. Here are five tips to help your organization be more human online:

1. Casual Fridays - every day!organizations can come across as either formal or casual

in their communications to customers. Formality is a quick way to kill any hint of a personal touch in corporate communications to customers. your customers want to connect with your organization, and being a little more organizationally casual in interactions on the web can help.

a suggestion to make your online communications sound more casual: Unlearn many of the rules of formal writing that you learned from your high school english teacher. They work in an executive summary, but not in a Facebook post.

online writing that connects to readers tends to use informal, conversational language, short sentences, short paragraphs (maybe even less than three sentence paragraphs), and…a friendly voice.

2. Write Like You Talk.so, your writing style still has that “i’m writing a history

paper” voice…here’s how to cure that. write down what you want to say, and then read what you wrote. out loud. does it sound like something you’d actually say to another person? if it doesn’t, rewrite it. you can also say what you want to communicate out loud first, and write down what you say.

why do this? it helps your corporate communications, which includes blog posts, comments, and status updates, sound like it’s coming from an actual human, rather than from “an organization.”

optimizationBy: DaviD Lee King

How to be Human Online & Connect with Customers in the Process


3. Share photos of “business as usual.”you probably have a camera in your pocket right now.

Guess what that smartphone camera is good for? sharing photos of business as usual!

i know of a local coffee shop that shares photos online. The owners buy and roast their own beans, so they sometimes travel to places like antigua in search of yummy coffee beans. during their “business transactions,” they share photos of new products, coffee tastings, and even people they meet on the trip. The trick is to find something interesting to share via a photo. if you travel to fun locations for your organization, by all means take photos. if there’s a busy time at your store or organization, that’s also a great time to take a photo or two and share online. Customers using your product also make great photo opportunities. Photos can be a great way to connect with customers, because people are used to connecting through photos. we already use that tool personally; so using the same type of tool organizationally naturally works for many people.

4. Short helpful videos

short videos have the potential to create strong connections between your organization and your customers, if done with a conversational tone. on the other hand, a

poorly read video script can quickly ruin any connection you hoped to gain.

The easiest way to fix that – Don’t use a script. Instead of scripting out the dialogue for a video, simply think about what you want to say, and maybe figure out a short introduction and conclusion. Then go shoot that video!

if you need to use notes or some type of video script, use an outline format. instead of memorizing lines, just make notes about the points you want to make, and then ad-lib those points. it’s your business, so you probably know the product pretty well! The beauty of video is that you can reshoot many times, and then edit down to just the good parts. Keep that video at two minutes or under, do some simple, clean edits, and you will end up with a great video that connects with customers.

5. Be Yourself!

This last tip sums up the other four. Just be yourself! Communicate like yourself, take photos of what you find interesting at work, shoot casual videos of you sharing news about your organization or a cool new product or service, and steer away from uptight “press-release style” blog posts. The more informal and human-sounding you can be, the easier it will be for your organization to make those needed customer connections.

Travel Can Be fun, exciting, and even romantic. it is also an excellent motivational tool, especially in these diffi cult economic times. In a world where distances have become at the same time both smaller and larger, travel helps to unite family and friends and it provides a tool that allows for both spiritual and psychological rejuvenation.

There are numerous ways that you can use travel as a motivational tool. you can create friendly worker competitions, you can create travel point banks where workers can deposit and borrow travel points, or even travel raffl es. In all cases the essential point is to fi nd ways that reward employees and/or to inspire employees to become even better.

organizing reward travel is not always easy. luckily most travel agencies are more than happy to work with your company, the same is also true now of most hotel and airline programs.

To gain brilliant results, before giving the reward of travel remember to do the following:

Think about how much this reward will cost the receiver. it is not helpful to give an airline ticket or a free night stay at a hotel if the person cannot afford to get to the destination and/or stay at a destination’s hotels. make sure to match the reward with the receiver’s ability to pay for the other parts of travel.

Check with the person to whom you are giving the reward to determine which dates will work for him/her/them and which dates will become a problem. remember that airlines prices can vary greatly so if you give an open ended ticket be prepared for a great deal of price variations. This problem is avoided by using air miles.

make the reward match the receiver’s agenda and not yours. it does not matter what you like or think the other person ought to like, rather make sure that your travel reward refl ects the receiver’s lifestyle rather than yours.

Be savvy in giving air miles. most airlines charge for transferring miles, but allow you to “purchase” a trip for another person for free. do not transfer miles but rather purchase the trip for the person who is to receive the reward. remember that paid airline tickets usually are not refundable and charge for date transfers, most tickets bought with air miles are much more fl exible.

Book early or give the reward so that the receiver does not have time limits. if the reward receiver is going to be using air transportation, remember that airlines have had tremendous numbers of cutbacks. That means that air travel options are limited, that there are less seats and higher levels of frustration. make sure that your reward offers a great deal of fl exibility.

Purchase the reward around the other person’s likes and dislikes. Know if the person to whom you are giving the reward likes adventure travel, urban travel or perhaps countryside travel. you will get the most brilliant results from you reward of travel if you match the travel experience to the person’s psychological profi le.

if giving an urban travel reward, provide special add-ons. Travel is about memories so if you decide to give the reward of travel, turn the trip into special memories. These special memories need not be expensive. For example, a bottle of wine or a fruit basket will set the stage. if you can afford a bit more, consider theater ticket(s) or tickets to a sporting event. Make sure that you chose things that fi t the receiver’s lifestyle.

make sure that the person receiving the reward has an opportunity to share these memories with you once he/she has returned home. Travel is more than merely seeing and doing new things. it is also about sharing memories and creating brilliant results by letting someone else know that you care.

travelBy: DR. PeteR taRLoW

Be savvy in giving air miles. most airlines charge for transferring miles, but allow you to “purchase” a trip for another person for free. do not transfer miles but rather purchase the

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Incentive Marketing through

Travel

By: RuDy DeFeLice

over 20,000 eCommerCe stores are opened every week in the U.s. most of them will fail. and most of those will have one thing in common - they neglect to tap their best audience. it is not what they are selling, but who they are selling to, that matters most.

Finding your best audience

it has long been understood that social phenomena - fashion, a new band, a viral video - spread through social relationships. Malcolm Gladwell talked about “influencers” in the seminal book The Tipping Point. Influencers spot and adopt trends and through their adoption influence others in their social sphere to do the same. Geoffrey moore articulated the spread of ideas through early adopters – those that are inclined to try new things early - in his masterpiece Crossing The Chasm. The common thread between these teachings is that ideas are cultivated by planting a few seeds in the right fields, and that only certain fields are receptive to those seeds. as those seeds sprout, they spread seeds more broadly. But you can’t just scatter those to the wind - they rarely take.

so what does that mean for the 20,000 eCommerce stores that open each week? Their first, most important market is their own social circles. These are the fields in which they should plant their seeds first. People that know you - that trust your judgment, that care about your success - are your “early adopters”. These may be friends and family or your broader personal network, or they may be professional acquaintances, depending upon your eCommerce business. But you should have a strategy devoted to tapping this market and enabling them to spread your message.

Why is your social netWork so critical?Today it is so easy to buy almost anything. do a search

for your product or service and you’re likely to find millions of results. How do you cut through the clutter?

a primary differentiator in a purchase decision is the customer’s feelings towards the merchant or brand. when you can buy anything anywhere, the relationship with the merchant matters. major brands spend millions of dollars to try to simulate a relationship with consumers. But with your own social and business networks, you already have

The Sales Approach Your eCommerce Store is Probably Missing

Using social marketing to overcome the most common caUse of ecommerce failUre

online marketing


an authentic relationship. it’s an important asset. so taking advantage of that authentic relationship is the most powerful first step to success in your own eCommerce business.

of course, you can open your store and hope that people find you. That’s what everyone else does. and that’s the problem - you’ll be lost in the great mass of options available. (Try searching for your products in Google - you’ll likely find millions of search results competing with you.). so you should have an affirmative market strategy, where you’re reaching out to a core group of people that know you, and trying to set a viral chain in motion. if you make those people happy, they’ll spread the word to their networks and you’ll be on your way.

hoW to reach your best market?Knowing whom to reach is one thing. How to reach them

is another. Fortunately, it’s never been easier. as the wide variety of choices has made connection between a buyer and seller increasingly more important, various social media tools and social behavior have made it much easier to reach people and tap that connection. Consequently, a few simple steps can get you in touch with this important market and should be part of your strategy:

• Get personal with social media tools: There have been few areas in marketing that have created more confusion than how to use social media tools. There are certainly benefits to blogging and accumulating Facebook fans, but those are very hard to trace and if they lead to transactions at all, it is usually over a long period of time.

still, social media tools are quite valuable for reaching large numbers of people you know easily. They make the mechanics of contacting people easier. in a few strokes you can reach a whole network. The average Facebook user has 256’friends’. That means your message can be in front of 256 people, and depending upon their response, their friends, almost instantly.

• Have something new to say: It is said that in retail, the product stays the same so the audience must change, or the audience stays the same so the product must change. in tapping your social network, a relatively constant audience, you’ll need to continually change the product. That can be an actual change of the product - let’s say you grew your inventory by adding

new products or added some products that complement your services business (an iT service company that

is now selling electronics, perhaps). alternatively, perhaps there is something new to say about existing products an upcoming holiday or change of seasons makes an existing product relevant in new ways. The important thing is that when you’re tapping a constant audience over time that you say something new and of value and interest to that audience.

‘ increase your online presence: whether you are considering building an eCommerce site or have one already, you should consider existing platforms as possible forums. if you don’t have a commerce site, these platforms can get

you up quickly. if you do have an eCommerce site, third party platforms can create an additional online home and give you access to additional tools.

Three you can check out are:1. shopify.com ($29 - $179/mo.). sophisticated inventory

tracking and many plug-ins to manage customers. imposes limits on products and storage at various price points.

2. volusion.com ($19-$149/mo.). offers eCommerce sites as well as web design and marketing services for an additional fee.

3. Bizinate.com (Free). simple set up in 3 minutes or less. offers services or products. includes an inventory of products and on going daily deals you can add to your items.

all of these providers will give a professional looking site that offers additional marketing presence and access to social media tools easily.

Your goal is to build awareness first from people who know you, trust you, and have an interest in your success. People have a relatively short memory for new things, so you need to keep a consistent, ongoing effort. when someone has a need for your services or products, or someone they know does, you need to be top of mind. By leveraging your broader social network you are tapping your best source of customers. if you live up to your promise with this group, they will help you spread your message. don’t be one of the 20,000 stores that fail each week.

Your goal is to build awareness first from people who know you, trust you, and

have an interest in your success.


BrandingBy: MaRtin LinDstRoM

in 2010, a small California-based company opened its doors for business. They didn’t have much capital but, with a staff of only four, they did have a singular vision–to outdo Kodak. even through the rosiest of glasses, this would not appear a feasible proposition. it’s a scenario that makes David versus Goliath look like a fair fight. But 18 months later, the company of four, which had become a company of 13, was sold to Facebook for $1 billion.

it was a sale that made headlines the world over. instagram was the new digital sensation. They were perfectly in sync with a generation that records everything on their iPhones, and their service that enables the most amateur picture-taker’s photos to look like they’ve come out of a professional studio, was, well, an insta-hit.

let’s go back a little farther, still. in 2003, a small mobile game development company from Finland appeared on the

map. Taking their cue from the likes of Hasbro, the U.s. giant of interactive games, they wanted to create a small, fun, and dead-cheap game. operating in the country where nokia had so dominated the digital landscape, it came, naturally, to use smartphones as their platform. six years later rovio entertainment launched angry Birds. on may 9, 2012, the company announced the one-billionth download of the game.

instagram and angry Birds are not unique. one needs to look no further than Netflix and Blockbuster–and Skype and the entire telecommunication world–for similar stories. small startups, which despite all the odds, manage to succeed against well-established conglomerates with all the expertise that money can buy.

all the aforementioned startups began with nothing but an idea. How difficult is that? Having worked with some of

Ideas are easy–believing in them is the hard part…

The Truth About Being “Done” Versus Being “Perfect”


the world’s largest companies, i’ve come to realize that the idea is the easy part; the hard part is getting your company to believe in it.

if you’d entered Facebook’s headquarters sometime around 2010, you’d have seen a sign painted on the wall: “done is better than perfect.” i have no doubt that if you walked into the offices of any Fortune 100 brand you would see no such thing. Their legal, compliance, or human resources departments would insist on it being removed. and yet, had Facebook waited so much as a year to perfect its model, the company might very well be where myspace is today.

“done is better than perfect” is not about coming up with ideas; it’s about believing in them. and having an attitude that compels you to run with the idea before it’s too late.

My ultimate dream as a kid was fulfilled by the time I was eight. This is when i visited the research lab developing leGo. To be in the place where new toys were being developed before they hit the market–this was my version of the Willy wonka fantasy. i’ll never forget my encounter with the head designer as he showed me the newly developed leGo train. i could barely contain myself, it was just… well, the coolest thing i’d ever seen.

i spluttered out: “when can i buy it?” He said, “in about three years time.” That just baffled me. I wanted to know how he could project that far ahead. His answer was simple. He said, “Because we’re leGo.” a few years later leGo experienced its biggest drop in sales. it was the same year that the first hand-held computer games hit the market. It would take leGo another 20 years to reduce their r&d cycle to less than a year.

another Facebook motto says: “move fast and break things.” Can you think of any Fortune 100 brand that is not only prepared to say this, but actually means it? Google, apple, amazon, and perhaps samsung…anything in common? They are all innovative technology companies with a new style of leadership.

Until recently, sony was the world’s leading electronics company, and then something went wrong. was it lack of ideas? Having spoken with insiders and experts, i put it down to arrogance. a bit of cultural background is also relevant here. Historically, there’s always been friction between the Japanese and the Koreans. a few years ago, the Korean company, samsung, knocked on the door of Japanese-owned sony. They wanted to team up with sony to produce

lCd screens. rumor has it that mainly due to cultural baggage, sony politely refused. The rest is history. samsung is the leading manufacturer in six electronic categories in the United states alone.

whenever i spend time in boardrooms across the world, i can’t help but notice that courage seems to be a limited currency. no matter how the company presents itself, it seems Ceos rarely have the power one would imagine. The fact of the matter is that companies of this magnitude tend to be run by committees that make the tough decisions and take the risks. The problem is that committees rarely have courage–only people do.

at another company, on another wall i noticed another slogan: “let the consumer build the brand.” This was skype. skype is not a Fortune 100 brand just yet, but with microsoft’s recent $8.5 billion acquisition, it may soon become one. with widespread recognition in the developed world, and almost no advertising, this slogan rings fortuitously true. Bear in mind that skype is less than nine years old, and its blue icon has found its way to millions of computer screens with not a single ad.

i often conduct the skype challenge with my clients. if all advertising was banned, and the game was to increase sales, what would you do? You’d be surprised to find how creative even the least creative person can become. But what’s even more surprising is that most have never so much as entertained this as a possibility. as one executive explained, “why should we? we’re running one of the most successful companies in the world.”

There was a time when he was probably right–but no longer. The reality is that there’s a new set of rules in town, and they’re scarily simple. They’re also scarily powerful once you get them. However, getting them right is the hard part. if you can claim the management of your company truly lives by the mantra that “done” is better than “perfect,” and that the organization’s survival is about moving fast and breaking things, then you need to ask them if they’re prepared to cut out advertising. it’s more than likely their answer would still be, “no.”

But at this very moment, someone is hanging one of those fine Facebook posters on their business’ office wall. And like david, armed with little more than a slingshot and a stone, they’re acting on pure courage and just going for it, because that’s one of the rules of survival today–not tomorrow.

The Truth About Being “Done” Versus Being “Perfect”


techBy: steve sMith

wiTH THe laUnCH of the iPhone 4, apple introduced their retina display, with twice as many pixels packed into the same display area. The iPhone 5 keeps the retina display but expands the screen size to 4”, up from 3.5” on the previous models. as it turns out there are 2 ways to support the iPhone 5 screen in your apps: letterboxing and full-screen mode. we’ll cover both of them and offer some quick tips to help the transition go smoothly.

letterboXing

with letterboxing, horizontal black bars appear on the top of the bottom of the screen. This is the default mode for older apps. it has the advantage of working out of the box, but it’s not always a desirable user experience.

an ios 5 app with letterboxing

Resizing apps for iPhone 5making the app support Full screen

Fortunately, enabling full-screen mode is a simple process. The fi rst step is to add an app launch image. launch images are exactly what they sound like: static images that display on the screen while your app is starting. XCode looks for a default.png for the standard launch image and a [email protected] for the retina image. now, since ios 6, there is a [email protected], which applies to tall screens. This is the fi le that tips off XCode that your project is ios 6 ready. it is automatically provided for you when you create a new XCode project, but is missing from older projects.

note that the size of the [email protected] launch image must be 640 x 1136 pixels. This is because the -568h actually refers to the height in points – and on the Retina display, 1 point equals 2 pixels. Once you add this fi le, the letterboxing effect should disappear. if it doesn’t, try running “Clean Build Folder” (⌥⇧⌘K).

adJusting your uiOnce you’ve added your launch image, you may fi nd that

your app’s Ui needs adjustment. There are 2 important steps: adjusting the code and adjusting the user interface (.xib) fi les.

Changing your code:if any of your Ui is written in code, be sure to base the

positioning off of [[Uiscreen mainscreen] bounds]. For example, if you are positioning based on hard-coded values:

// screen height 480 is not valid on iPhone 5!int targetPositiony = 480 - myview.frame.size.height;

Try changing the code to use the bounds rectangle:

CGrect screenBounds = [[Uiscreen mainscreen] bounds]; int targetPositiony = bounds.size.height - myview.frame.size.height;

Changing your .xib fi les:

if you’re creating an ios 6 project from scratch, you should be using auto layouts, which are beyond the scope of this article. if you’re continuing to support ios 5.1 and below, however, you may run into some issues that need to be addressed. For example, in ios 5.1, typically your struts and springs are automatically set to anchor Ui elements to the top and left of the screen.


Typical ios 5.1 layout: anchored to left and topThis

causes a problem on the 4” screen where elements placed at the bottom of the screen are now floating above the bottom of the screen.

To fix this, adjust your struts so that the bottom strut is anchored, and the others are flexible.

struts anchored to bottom

Final thoughts

Converting your apps from letterbox to full-screen is simple, but it can introduce subtle issues with your layouts. Be sure to use the “size” dropdown in your attributes inspector for a quick peek at what it will look like in both retina 3.5” and 4” display modes.

BeFore (3.5” screen) aFTer (4” screen)

4” screen, with fixed struts(17.5% more bacon)

Brilliant results wishes to thank Brian loschiavo of slice Communications for bringing steve smith’s solutions to our attention.

one last note about letterboxing: it can be tricky to add back in once it’s gone. if you’ve taken out letterboxing and now you need it back, check out this trick (http://blog.chariotsolutions.com/2012/09/iphone-5-quick-tip-how-to-add.html) for re-enabling it.


By: John tschohL

idealS

amazon.com is a master at courting—and keeping—customers. it builds everything around the customer and has a better grasp of the power of the customer experience than any other company in the world. you would do well to study amazon’s focus on the customer and to do everything in your power to emulate it.

let me share with you the experience my friend, vicki, had with amazon, when she placed an online order for a Kindle Fire Hd. amazon immediately confirmed the order, then sent two more emails the day the Kindle was shipped. The first provided the tracking number and estimated delivery date, the second—sent at the same time and the same day—provided vicki with information she would need to immediately begin using her new Kindle once it arrived, including how to upload music and photos, connect with Facebook, and download music, books, movies, and Tv shows.

“i was blown away,” vicki says. “my new Kindle arrived a day earlier than anticipated and, once i took it out of the box and turned it on, i discovered that it already contained the book library and other items from my previous Kindle. i was up and running in a matter of minutes.”

amazon’s focus on the customer, combined with its focus on speed and price, resulted in 2011 sales of $41 billion, a whopping 41 percent increase over the previous year. amazon has more than 164 million customers, offers more than 20 million products, and has been rewarded with an increase of more than 397 percent in its stock during the past fi ve years.

i recommend that, if you are going to emulate a company, emulate the best company in the world. read everything you can get your hands on about amazon and how it uses technology and people to provide a customer experience that is unparalleled. let me share with you a quick look at how amazon does that.

it starts with amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Three statements he made during an interview with Fortune magazine sum up his winning philosophy:

“we will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers.” “we believe the principle competitive factors in our retail

business include selection, price, and convenience, including fast and reliable fulfi llment.”

“we maintain a dogged focus on improving the shopping experience.”

amazon’s focus on the customer is apparent during meetings with upper management. during the company’s early years, he would place an empty chair in the meeting room, forcing those attending to think about the crucial participant who was not at that meeting—the customer. Today, specially trained employees sit in that chair and react as they think amazon’s customers will to the discussion taking place and the decisions being made.

Bezos has attributed amazon’s success, in part, to its commitment to determine what its customers need and then working backwards to meet that need. For example, he says, the company’s new products, such as the Kindle, were defi ned by customers’ desires, not by engineers’ tastes.

Price is also at the forefront of amazon’s commitment to its customers, which translates to customer value. Bezos has said there are two kinds of companies: One tries to fi gure out how to charge more, the other tries to lower prices and charge less. amazon, he says, falls into the second category.

Bezos also places great importance on word-of-mouth advertising, which means that, for a company the size of amazon, very little money is spent on advertising. He prefers, he says, to provide customers with service that is so amazing that those customers tell everyone they know about it.

what is your business philosophy? do you focus on your customers? do you work to provide them an experience that will keep them coming back to you? what are customers saying about their experiences with your company?

Follow the leader—follow in amazon’s philosophical footsteps—and you not only will leave the rest of the pack behind, you will realize success beyond your wildest dreams.

FOLLOW THE LEADER — and leave the rest oF the pack behind


exhiBitBy: BaRRy sisKinD

Cutting Through the Clutterin 1970 THe rock group, Five man electrical band, had a hit called “Can’t you read the signs.” you probably remember the refrain which went like this:

signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs, Blockin the scenery, breaking my mind…”

while this song was written to protest an over regulated society, the issue of too much information on signs is just as applicable in a trade show scenario.

From the moment a visitor walks through the front door they are inundated with information on signs:

registration area… line up begins here… Today’s events… do not park… Keep the lines moving… The daily menu… aisle numbers, and… a hundred exhibitors with product information…

For these weary visitors all these signs are, “Breakin their minds.”

For sure, some signs are necessary. They help keep traffic moving in the right direction and eliminate confusion. But on the show floor this is where exhibitors can do something to minimize the confusion. Here are five things to consider when you are adding words to your exhibit:

inFormational versus shoWstopper

show stoppers are the large signs with a catchy phrase that captures the visitor’s attention quickly. showstoppers should be no more than seven words and are strategically placed so the visitor doesn’t have to hunt for the information.

informational signs are generally used to support a verbal presentation. They can be smaller in size and should contain 3-4 bullet points. when your staffer is presenting product information they can say to the visitor, “we have four separate solutions to this problem.” Then pointing to the informational sign and letting their finger follow point by point as they reinforce the presentation with a visual reminder.

Fonts

Choosing the right font is a matter of style, taste and clarity. If you have chosen a specific font in your marketing materials then it is appropriate to use the same on your display. The right font can support the experience that you are attempting to share with your visitors. with thousands of fonts to choose from, select carefully and remember to avoid any font that is confusing or distracting.

color

The issue of color relates to how well the sign integrates with your overall display. The color you choose for your display will help create a theme and mood and the choice of color for your signs needs to be one that blends in and stands out at the same time. The use of a color wheel where you look for complimentary or contrasting colors is a great tool that will help you select wisely.

tell them What’s important your signs do not replace literature or information that

can be read elsewhere. you do not want a sign to tell them everything, which only reduces the opportunity of engagement. To create signs that are impactful you need to focus on the audience of the show you are exhibiting in, and then ask yourself, “what information will be most impactful?” The trick here is to highlight the information on the needs of your visitors rather than on you and your corporation. Then rather than listing everything, use your sign as a teaser that will stimulate one-on-one discussions.

integrate Words With other display components.

This last suggestion will force you to think of your written information as part of your overall display. examine each component of your display and look for places where a word or two will enhance its ability to relate to your audience. words can be integrated into graphics, products displays or on the corporate clothing your staff is wearing. once again, just don’t try to tell your audience everything. leave something

for a one-on-one conversation.well-thought-out signs will not only support

your display they will decrease the marketing clutter your visitors face when they walk a show.


By: DR. BaRRy goLDsMith

advice

yoUr liFe is what it is because of you. your choices and decisions have made you what you are today. The really great news is that if you’re not happy with where you are, you have the power within yourself to change it. Believing that you have the ability to change your life (and the lives of those you care for) is very empowering.

Being able to cast off the shackles of the past and seeing the future as an opportunity rather than a burden is a great tool and, even if you have never done it before, it is something you can learn.

we are not the victims of our past unless we choose to be. Ideally, when things don’t go well or right, we find a different direction and continue to move forward. i know this is easier said than done, but without taking positive steps, you can become stuck in the negative, and you could stay there for quite a while.

dealing with issues as they come up, not ignoring or hiding them, will give you more strength to get things where you want them to be. even if you are afraid of rocking the boat with whatever is bothering you, if you don’t talk it out or take care of it in some way, you could capsize.

Think about what it is that you want for your life and for those you care about. From there, it is about small acts of progress. if you’ve lost your job, allow yourself a brief

vacation and then get back on the hunt. if you’re looking to rekindle your relationship with your partner, a romantic gesture or evening out may be a good place to start. even something as simple as to-do lists can help propel you out of a pit and into your next project, job, or relationship. i also think that visualizing a positive outcome is helpful to achieving a successful end result.

if you are unsure of your strengths, ask someone who knows you well. remembering the positive things that others have said about your talents and abilities can be very helpful. you can also make a written inventory of what you think your strengths are and then add to the list as you discover more.

if you are stuck or simply feeling bored with your life, know that you have the ability to change it for the better. sometimes anxiety or depression can keep you from gathering the energy you need. we all go through periods when our moods get low. Usually these times are temporary, but they can sap your energy and scare you. if that’s the case, you may be able to put yourself on the right path with just a little help and perhaps the support of a caring person.

Never feel that it’s too difficult or too late to make yourself happy. Once you’ve identified what’s holding you back, conceive of a way to change or eliminate it. Promise yourself that happiness and satisfaction are just around the bend.

This Is Your Life


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The Middle School Years

How To Be Happy Anywhere

Phonics vs. Sight-Reading

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