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Mario.

Last Friday, while watching Rafael Nadal play Roger Federer for the Miami Masters semi-finals, I couldn’t help but to reflect on the enduring nature of brand names.

The Miami Masters, now called Sony Ericsson Open, was initially sponsored by Lipton and called Lipton International Players Championship (or simply, The Lipton). It carried that name until 1999. Since then, it’s changed sponsors and names several times: the Ericsson Open from 2000 to 2002, the NASDAQ-100 Open from 2003 to 2006, and finally the Sony Ericsson Open from 2006 until now.

The interesting thing is that people old enough to remember still commonly refer to it as The Lipton, as in: “are you going to The Lipton this year?” The tournament’s original moniker endures more than 10 years after it was changed!

Something similar happens to Sun Life Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins. Originally named Joe Robbie Stadium in 1987, it has subsequently been called Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Land Shark Stadium and now Sun Life Stadium. Not surprisingly, many people still refer to it as Joe Robbie or Pro Player.

Finally, in yet another example of the enduring power of brand names-taken also from the world of sports, South America’s Copa Santander Libertadores, the oldest and most traditional soccer championship in the region, is still widely called Copa Libertadores (its name from the pre-sponsorship era) or, more affectionately: La Libertadores. The only ones who go to great lengths to squeeze in the sponsor’s name (Spain’s Banco de Santander) are sports announcers-for obvious reasons.

The lesson for companies, big and small, is this: if you have an established brand name and want to change it, make sure you have a very good reason, since it is most likely already embedded in your customers’ minds and won’t be replaced easily (or cheaply!). And, if you’re about to create a new brand, the best advice is this: choose carefully.

Much has been written about the value of persistence in sales. It has even been said that you need to contact a prospect seven times before you make a sale. Like the “one page résumé”, the rule of seven has taken hold as one of the most entrenched ideas in business.

After more than 20 years in the business world, I’ve come to realize that these notions are just myths. I’ve never seen a qualified job applicant get rejected up front because his or her resume is two pages long. Similarly, I think that if you need to go back for a seventh time to a prospect that has already said no the previous six, there is something seriously wrong with you or your product, or you’re just not pitching the right prospect.

I felt a sense of comforting validation yesterday when I read a great post by Mark Cuban, where he talks about the problem with not taking no for an answer, and not recognizing when it might be better to just move on (if you haven’t read it yet I highly recommend it: here’s the link).

Which brings me to my second point: just as important as recognizing when to move on is to know when your prospect is saying no. Most of the time, you won’t be rejected flat out but will instead be given the run around (“no”s are often cleverly disguised as “maybe”s).

This fact was pointed out very effectively by a keynote speaker I had the chance to listen to last week during a sales convention in Brazil. To make his point, he first asked the audience if we knew what the opposite of love was. Predictably, everybody answered: hate. He then proceeded to explain that the opposite of love was not hate but indiference.

To prove his point, he keenly observed that when a customer takes the time to argue with you or makes the effort of telling you exactly what’s wrong with your product or service, what it really means is that he cares.

On the other hand, when the customer or prospect doesn’t tell you anything, or worse still, comes up with any of these:

• We’re still evaluating
• We need more information
• Can you leave me a brochure?
• Give me your card, I’ll call you back.
• We’re busy know, can you come back some other time?

you know you’re in trouble…

If you find yourself in this predicament, do what Mark Cuban says: find out what the real objections are, address them, and go back one more time. If the prospect still says no it’s time to move on.

Photo Credits: gphemsley

It’s no secret that everybody’s wired these days, and that public payphones are going the way of the dinosaur. The folks at Miami International Airport are apparently aware of this, so they have removed the old payphones from the walls and replaced them with… nothing.

I took the picture above yeaterday, as I was on MIA waiting for my flight to Brazil. I noticed that there were a few plug boxes underneath the empty payphone area so I plugged my Blackberry on one of them. Suddenly, other travelers discovered the other plug boxes and gathered around the area, standing or sitting on the floor, while their different electronic devices charged (I apologize for the bad picture; I didn’t want to use the flash and freak people out…):

Fast forward to a few hours later, at Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport. Apparently they’re also aware of the decline of the payphone and the fact that people now travel with cell phones and laptops that need to be charged.

Unlike their counterparts in MIA, however, they didn’t just remove the payphones. They decided to make it easy for passengers to charge their gear, so they installed these user friendly plug towers and positioned them close to where passengers can comfortably seat.

But they even went a step further: recognizing that an airport is frequented by people from many different places who don’t necessarily use the same type of plug, they’ve equipped the towers with both American style (white) and European style (red) plug boxes.

The moral of the story (there is always one) is this: it’s not enough to recognize a trend. We must also take advantage of it as an opportunity to create a better customer experience.

And now for the bonus round: if you look again at the first picture above, you may notice that some people are obviously using the space left vacant by the payphones to leave their empty food containers and water bottles. Aside from the fact that some people are just plain lazy and uncivilized, food in the concourse is another trend resulting from the fact that we don’t get food on planes any more. There wasn’t, however, a single trash can for as far as my sight could reach. So, a few extra trash cans would be nice to go with our charging stations, please.

Are there any trends taking shape around your business? How can you turn them into an opportunity to delight your customers?

Interesting, how sometimes the only thing we need to do for people to pay attention is to frame our message from a different perspective…

One of the most difficult feats in marketing is to pull off a successful re-branding. It is difficult enough when you’re talking about products, but it’s even harder when the subject of the re-branding is a city.

For the longest time, Detroit has been all about cars. Unfortunately, the financial crisis that started in 2008 and the near-collapse of the American automobile industry have turned the city of Detroit into a shell of its former self, and have left her grappling with high unemployment, crime and a dilapidated infrastructure.

And yet, when most can only see uncertainty and despair, a growing number of local artists and entrepreneurs see opportunity. Instead of dwelling on the negatives, these remarkable individuals are making lemonade out of the proverbial lemons, bringing much needed energy, creativity and optimism to the city, and starting the businesses that will shape its future.

And they are doing it by themselves. They are not waiting for the government, the unions, or corporate America to come to their rescue. They are standing up, taking initiative and just starting something.

Enter Lemonade Detroit

Erik Proulx, a 15-year vetaran of the advertising industry, independent filmaker and author of the popular blog Please Feed the Animals, is putting together a documentary about this rebirth of sorts, aptly titled: Lemonade Detroit.

To fund the film, Erik is reaching out to the community and giving everybody the opportunity to pitch in. He has created a microfunding site where for just $1 a frame (24 frames make one second of film) you can become a co-producer of the film. For your contribution, you also get a color strip with your name in the progress bar featured in the film’s website, and will also receive credit as a producer in the film and in the IMDB.

I just sent Lemonade Detroit a small contribution. You too can do the same: Watch the trailer and if you feel inspired and inclined to donate just head to the microfunding site and become a producer yourself.

Photo Credits: luca.sartoni

If you want an example of clear, effective communication, look no further than Nokia CEO’s recent open letter to employees. Nokia, the embattled mobile phone maker, has recently been losing market share to rivals like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platforms. This dire state of affairs prompted Stephen Elop, the man at the helm of Nokia since last September, to give his troops a wake up call.

His memo is already a classic, providing a framework for anybody who needs to convey a message of change or sell others on a new vision.

That framework can be divided in three parts:

1. Capture attention
2. Diagnose the problem
3. Call to action

Elop is able to capture his audience’s attention by using the most effective technique of them all: to tell a story. In this case his story is a metaphor, which makes it even more effective. To describe his company’s plight, he tells us about an oil rig worker who is forced to jump from a burning oil platform to the sea in order to save his life.

Metaphorically speaking, the guy is, of course, Nokia, the flames the competitors, and the dark, cold waters of the North Sea the new, uncharted direction in which he intends to lead his company.

I’m reproducing that passage of the letter here. Notice how vivid and real the story feels. It’s almost as if we were seeing what’s happening with our own eyes:

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice.

A few paragraphs later, once he’s got his audience’s attention, Elop diagnoses and explains in no uncertain terms what he believes is the problem:

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

Finally, he explains what he intends to do about it:

We are working on a path forward — a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.

It doesn’t matter that he didn’t outline all the details of his turnaround strategy right there: the memo, which was sent February 9th, explains that the strategy would be unveiled two days later, thus building excitement and anticipation, and making his message even more effective (if you want to learn what the turnaround strategy was, click here).

I highly recommend to read the full letter, and to study it carefully. It is a great business lesson as well as a brilliant example of how to communicate effectively.

Summarizing:

1. Capture attention with a story
2. Explain clearly what the problem is
3. Tell them how you intend to solve the problem

Photo Credits: Wsobchak

During my daily 45-minute commute to and from work, I normally use the down time to listen to business-related CD books. I am currently listening to Warren Buffet Speaks, an entertaining collection of notes and quotes from the world’s greatest investor, and the following passage (paraphrasing) really struck a chord:

Every other year, Buffett and some old friends go to Pebble Beach to play golf. In the 1980s, Jack Byrne, who had taken over GEICO, proposed a side bet among the players. If someone put up $10, then made a hole-in-one during that weekend, Byrne would pay that person $10,000. Everyone else put up the $10. Buffett thought it over for a few seconds and decided he wouldn’t fork over the $10. The odds were just not good enough and he didn’t want to make a foolish investment.

Now, most people would put up the $10 bucks just for fun, and not make a big deal if they lost them. On the other hand Buffett, a multi-billionaire, understands the value of discipline and consistency: making that seemingly innocuous bet would have flown in the face of his convictions and believes.

Just as past behavior is the best predictor of future performance, the small habits we develop, and how we handle the little things are powerful indicators of how we’ll handle larger, more important situations. For example:

• The executive who leaves the lights of his office on at the end of the day probably won’t be a good steward of the company’s $1M marketing budget.
• The employee who consistently comes in 30 minutes late every day probably can’t be trusted to turn in that important project on time.
• The middle manager who sucks up to the boss but mistreats the intern will most likely be a terrible manager of people.

Little habits matter. Pay attention.