What Do You Believe In

What Makes You Different

The other day I wrote about competitive differentiation and asked you, the small business owner, what you're good at.  Our core competencies and intellectual property are those things that set us apart from other competitors and make us special, unique. It creates a difference between us and them. It gives the consumer a reason to do business with us.

Important as they are, another differentiating factor that I talk about in my strategic courses with students is the impact of values, thereby asking, what do you believe in?

This is About Personification ... Not Personhood

Now, you might find it odd that corporations (legal entities that purely exist to hold assets, accumulate wealth, pay taxes, and distribute dividends to shareholders) can have feelings, opinions, or values in the human sense, and indeed the political argument of corporate personhood isn't what we're approaching here, rather, it's the trend concerning the personification of businesses.

Businesses and brands want to become more like people. People, it turns out, are easier to relate to than a nondescript logo. Yes, it's true. And in social media, we're interested in learning about, asking about, collaborating with, and sharing content with people.  Businesses very much want to be in that game. They want to be trusted by the consumer much more so that their products and brand resonate on a very personal level. Examples:

• Sir Richard Branson of Virgin's support for LBGT and right-to-die causes
• Target creating policies surrounding open-carry of weapons in their stores
• Exxon, Urban Outfitters, Dominos Pizza, Purina, Cracker Barrel, Chic Fil A, etc. very public opposition to marriage equality and discriminatory practices towards their employees
• Hobby Lobby's infamous religious objection to covering contraceptives for their female employees
• Burger King's Gay Pride Whopper
• Starbucks' College Achievement Plan, their own response to open-carry, and their own CEO, Howard Schultz, advocating a hike in the US minimum wage

Companies Are Instruments for Promoting Values

You know, when I was in business school some twenty years ago, my professors were quick to tell me that corporations were generally neutral on social issues as to avoid offending broad consumer segments. I learned to write placid, vanilla corporate values like "return the highest form of shareholder equity" and be a "good corporate citizen" towards "human resources" and "environmental causes". Blech. Corporatespeak. Just leaves a film in my mouth ...

Anyway, think about it: historically: it's not like US corporations or their celebrity CEO's were coming out of the woodwork to address women's rights, racism, wealth inequality, environmentalism, supreme court decisions, and so on. But here we are.

Businesses have values, or, it would appear that they're instruments of promoting values espoused by its management team. And it turns out that they're not concerned about pissing people off. They're trying to connect to consumers who resonate with their message in a media landscape that increasingly speaks to the individual and not the mass market; to consumers who're enabled (through technology) to make more value-based decisions when it comes to their buying behavior.

Values and Technology Spending

And this is where technology spending comes into place.

• What is your technology strategy doing to speak to the causes, issues, and positions that're of concern to your customers?
  
  
• How is your technology strategy making it easier for you to share those values, or, to business with like-minded consumers?
  
  
• How are your values broadcasted loud and clear to the most appropriate audience? What does your website do to address those values?
  
  
• Where can technology be creatively used to promote your brand and its values? A great example: I recently saw Chipotle's clever Scarecrow campaign featuring an animated short and video games promoting sustainable farming and nutritious fast food.
  
  
• How are your competitors spending their time on social media? How are they using Social as a strategy to connect to likeminded consumers and build buzz around their positions? 

Monetizing Your Values

I'll leave you with a parting thought. This week, I landed a new Portland, Oregon client who found me online, reviewed my website, and read my story and my values statement. They said they wanted to do business with me because I was truthful, genuine, authentic.

Bang. Zero acquisition cost, new client: these guys approached me because I openly believe the same stuff they do. Again, we do business with people, brands, and companies we trust.

So I'll ask you: what is your tech spending and Social strategy doing to express your company's authentic-self, and to express what you believe in to connect with others? Or, is your brand terribly, conspicuously silent on these issues ... like companies were back, you know, 20, 30 years ago?

R

Turn Off Creepy Facebook Nearby Friends

Okay ... Facebook will, by default, share your location with nearby friends unless you turn off the feature.

What's nearby friends? Glad you asked. It is where Facebook is using the geolocation info from your phone to report where you are and if any of your pals are nearby. 

Intrusive? Maybe! If you want to turn it off, here's what you do: 

1. Sign into your Facebook app on your phone. 

2. Go to More and select Nearby Friends.

3. Now, once there, go up to the gear on the right hand side: 

4. And then turn off Nearby Friends:

Aw you're such a party pooper.

Anyway, if you ever wanted to turn it back on, you could. Just reverse the steps and flip the switch. You'd be the life of the party all over again. 

Remember: it's not that Facebook's evil, they just think you want to be the most public person possible. You're able to control this capability on your own. That's a company thinking about privacy as an option :)

R

QR Codes Don't Matter

... Or "Don't Invest in Geeky Stuff Nobody Uses" <rant>

Gosh I hate these things.

Well, okay, why?

Do you know what this is? Most people don't. It's a Quick Response (QR) Code.

They're super geeky, two-dimensional bar codes that were created back in 1994 that are devoid all branding. They found a purpose with smart phones once they were capable of browsing the Internet and taking pictures.

Now, if you download a special app that translates the bar code, it can convert it into a hyperlink that allows you to jump to a web page on the Internet, or, download programs.

As of 2013, less than 13% of all adult American cell phone users actually scanned a QR code. Uh, guys: that's like saying 87-percent of a market doesn't even know what to do with them, and they've been out now for nearly five years. Kids, that's a terrible adoption rate. Why would you ever use something that 87-percent of the population is clueless about?

Such low adoption hasn't prompted OEM's to include native software on their devices. Example: Apple and Samsung have yet to ship a native QR code reader, either, so you've got to know what software to use on your smart phone to make them work. They just don't magically work.

Strangely, a lot of marketers don't know what to do with them, either.

• They put them on a website. Why? So that some idiot can point their cell phone at a monitor, translate it, and then go somewhere on their cell phone? Duh.
   
• They put them on their business card, as if somebody is going to scan the QR code from the business card instead of typing in the website they already see on the card, or, scanned in already using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Most people are going to type in the URL they see in an email address into a browser anyway. So why? Duh.
   
• They put them on their doors or storefront so that, when they're scanned, the user is brought to their webpage. Well, yes - we knew about your store, that's why we're here. We didn't have to leave home for that? Duh.
   
• They put them on a billboard that just redirects the user to a branded website. What extra value is that? So that some idiot can drive ... DRIVE!, whip out a phone, select an app, focus on the moving billboard ... CRASH! Duh.
   
• They put them on a box of purchased goods that the consumer takes home. Instead of a clever QR Code that could redirect the consumer (along with all of the purchase data) to a return process to be conducted online - I mean, real utility here - they're directed to the website of the company. Duh.

Furthermore, their use is redundant to things that people already understand, like smart phone apps. You can use apps easier than you can QR codes, so why would you ever want to point your phone's camera at one?

</rant> Okay, So Where Do QR Codes Make Sense

QR Codes make sense if you're doing something like this:

• Speaks to Youth. Marketing to kids, teenagers, and young adults, who're more apt to understand what to do with a QR Code - and have the software on their mobile device - than an adult. Their adoption rates are also higher.
   
• Extends Value. Example: imagine looking at a package of coffee on a retail shelf. Next to the retail pricing is a QR Code. The user scans it and they can be brought to a branded 30-second video that explains this specific coffee, where it was grown, who it was grown by, and what's the value in purchasing the coffee. Or in a museum where a 2-minute long video presentation can talk about a painting with a qualified art historian, and save your museum big bucks on having a couple of those people hanging around all day? Or how about on a menu? Scan the QR Code to see the full supply chain for that pork you're about to consume: from farmer, to processor, to distributor, to restaurant ... dates, times, quality, freshness. Hell, you'll know where your pig came from and eat in confidence. Notice that the QR Code extends information that adds value to the transaction. 
   
• Captures Data. Instead of directing the user to a website, how about to a form to capture information about who clicked? What's your name, telephone number, purpose, and email, and can we call you back? Get a hold of you? The geo-tag of the scan (the GPS coordinates for where the scan was taken) as well as the technical information behind the device being used. The data can then be added to an active list or CRM package to facilitate customer contact, data analysis, or data mining.
   
• Initiates a Purchase Online. See something. Snap the QR Code. Purchase it directly.
   
• Provides a Utility. Like I was saying earlier, if a QR Code was printed on a receipt or a shipping container, why can't the QR Code leap the user into an authorized return process for the specific receipt that could be conducted from the cell phone? Why can't I just scan a QR Code on an envelope when I receive a piece of mail to confirm my receipt with a second factor of authentication, like, a password or a PIN number? Why can't I scan your company's QR Code to download an app? 

Where To Go From Here

So, okay. Maybe I've convinced you that geeky stupid QR Codes isn't something you need to invest in. Cool. All the better.

But if you're still hip on using them, think about the stuff I mentioned earlier. How does every scan provide value and differentiation between you and your competitors? How do they facilitate engagement or foster self-service? And the next time you want to have a QR Code and just point it at your website, please ... think again. It's a pointless exercise if I can just click on a hyperlink and get there faster and easier. Don't make the obvious more difficult.

Okay. I'm done. Thanks for reading.

R