My old friend Gary used to tell little parables in business situations to help resolve situations.  Here are some and some more:

Consider the Two Kinds of People

It is often said that there are two kinds of people in the world.

James Thurber, for example, said there are two kinds of people in the world, those that divide people into two groups and the others.

I like saying there are three kinds of people in the world.  Those who can count and those who can’t.

Consider the Purchase of Bread

You can tell everything about a person by the way they buy bread.  Nearly everyone has some older bread at home when they buy new bread.

When you buy the new bread, do you immediately eat the new loaf – or do you finish the old loaf first.  That’s the difference between the grasshoppers and the ants.

The grasshoppers eat the new bread because it is fresh and delicious – at the maximum level of flavour and taste.  They want to enjoy it at its best.

The ants are more concerned with the availability of the bread than the flavour and they will finish the older bread first.  They are willing to give up a little to get more.

Consider the Kind of People You Work With

It is at the entry of an old medieval town.  There is a blind beggar sitting there as people go about their business.  A man enters through the gate and walks up to the beggar.

“Hello.  Can you help me?  I am moving to this town.  What kind of people live here?” he asks.

“Let me answer your question with a question.  What are the people like in your town?” says the beggar.

“Well,” says the man, “that’s the problem.  The people are all very nice, trustworthy and helpful.  They are pleasant and courteous and always willing to lend a hand.  We are going to miss them.”

“Ahh,” says the beggar, “I have some good news for you.  You will find the people in this town are very much the same.

The next day, at the same place the same beggar sits.  A man enters through the gate and walks up to the beggar.

“Hello.  Can you help me?  II am moving to this town.  What kind of people live here?” he asks.

“Let me answer your question with a question.  What are the people like in your town?” says the beggar.

“Well,” says the man, “I am going to be happy to be rid of them.  Those people are never very nice or helpful.  They never have a good word to say and are always looking for favours.  You can’t trust any of them.”

“Ahh,” says the beggar, “then I have some very bad news for you.”

Consider Eating Bacon and Eggs

When you eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, the chicken is involved.  And, it can walk away afterwards.

The pig on the other hand is committed. It has no remaining options.

It is like that with many projects, people are either involved or committed.

The whole game in business is to turn your people into pigs.  Get them committed to a project or idea.

If they are only chickens, they can walk away at any time and leave you in the lurch.

Consider the Reasons to Support Your Argument

Another visit to the old walled town.  The Bishop arrives by train one morning for his first visit to the town.  He is greeted by the local Priest and the Mayor who express gratitude for the visit.

The Bishop is taken to the town square where all the townspeople are.  Speeches are made and the children, all up, put on a historical pageant.

The Bishop is then taken to the town hall where there is a fine and ample lunch prepared by the people of the town.

Following the lunch there is a full church service for the Bishop where all the citizens show up in their finery.  The service is followed by a banquet and a concert with singers and dancers from the town.

As the local Priest takes the Bishop back to train for his return to his home, he asks the Bishop how he enjoyed his day.

The Bishop is effusive in his compliments for the food, service, pageantry and everything.  “But,” he says, “I have one question. Usually when I visit a town for the first time, they ring the bells in the church.  Why didn’t you do so?”

“I knew you would ask that,” said the local Priest unfurling a long sheet of numbered responses.  “I have a list of 37 reasons why we did not.”  And he rapidly begins to rattle them off:  “First, we have no bells.  Second, we were unsure of the most appropriate tune.  Third, we were….”

“Wait!” said the Bishop.  “What did you say the first reason was?”

“We… have no bells.” stuttered the local Priest.

“That’s good enough.” replied the Bishop.  “One good reason is worth more than the other 36.”

(One good answer can win the “No Bell” Prize).

Nearly every civilization has origin myths that explain how they started.  Athens, Sparta and Rome had them and we learned them in school.

Nearly every native population has an explanation for how they came to be and why they are where they are.  It gives everyone a shared consciousness and a shared set of values to build from since they can all look to their origins for guidance for the future. Continue reading ‘Origin Myths Set The Trajectory’ »

Whatever happened to the old days when everything was “Plug and Play?”  You got some new technology; you plugged it in and started using it.

If anyone has gone through a computer meltdown, and I recently did, you will realize how fragile and interconnected everything is now.  Nothing is plug-and-play anymore.  It is more like plug-and-pray. Continue reading ‘Plug and Pray – A Personal Exodus to the Forbidden Country of NO COMPUTER; NO PHONE!’ »

Which commercials do you believe?  Too few!

Many commercials are produced these days with little thought of suggesting their message is actually believable. Continue reading ‘Commercials That We Don’t Believe’ »

The People’s Choice awards was well on its way when they declared a pizza break and a team of well labelled DiGiorno pizza servers came marching out with pizza.  And then there were the celebrities who were taking photos with their Kodak cameras – loudly labelled at that.

It got me wondering where the line between editorial and commercial got that blurred.

Product placement has been with us for a long time, famously when ET preferred Reese’s Pieces.  Product placement appearances, though, have not always been so blatant or heavy handled.

Is it that the advertisers have more power or have the producers of programming become overwhelmed?

Flimsy programing, like game shows, that have little editorial content and are designed to be extended commercials, have long integrated commercial mentions with content.  When Monty Hall revealed the brand new car his contestant won, it came with a list of advertiser defined features.

But when the CSI Miami crew make pointed use of Hummers, an incongruous placement of $100,000 vehicles for a police force, we sort of accept it.  How many police forces would allocate that kind of money for a status vehicle?

But is The People’s Choice award show any more than a prime time version of a game show?  Isn’t it just a promotional vehicle?

Like the OSCARS, or any “award” show, the show is designed to promote the entertainment industry.  It doesn’t have any real editorial content.  So cheesy (pun intended) product placement is nothing to be concerned about.

What is interesting is that few people see award shows as promotional vehicles.  They are considered newsworthy content and reported on the News shows.  The News shows are also part of the entertainment industry and have a vested interest in promoting the awards shows.

That’s why half of the news is not journalistic but promotional.  Public relations folks do their jobs really well.  And the news folks don’t seem to mind or notice.  When the sports guy tells us about the game to come, he is promoting it, not providing news.  And what TV news cast doesn’t have their celebrity report or talk about the shows on their own network?  News stories about Jay Leno’s show are not exactly incisive journalism.

Or, when the football post-game show features a presentation from our old pal Jared from Subway of a new sandwich feature to the coach/expert panel.  What does that have to do with football?

Perhaps this intrusion, or crossing the line, reflects a need from both broadcasters and advertisers.  Broadcasting is suffering from fragmentation.  Each channel is losing viewers to more and more channels that are proliferating on cable.  Each channel is also losing viewers to internet downloads such as Hulu, the networks themselves or file sharing.

Advertisers are losing eyeballs on their commercials to internet viewing, TIVO/PVRs, downloads, channel surfing and plain old lousy commercials that are uninspired and tedious.  So how do you intrude and get viewers to notice you if they are fast forwarding through your commercial on their PVR?

With one move.  Broadcasters add revenue by selling in show features and integrate the advertiser into the program for all future downloads.  Advertisers have always been keen on doing this and are happy to buy.  It even adds a small factor of endorsement at times that advertisers also like.

The downside for viewers is full time infomercials which will test viewers desire to watch particularly such commercialized promotional vehicles such as award shows.

What I would love to see is a show, let me call it “Awards of Awards,” where celebrities give out awards for: the best award show, the best award show presentations, the best staging, the best award show blooper, best fashion statement at an awards show and, maybe, even the best product placement.

How many times have people haggled over the price of something?  It is a regular occurrence.  But few are the times when people understand the real value of a thing or service.

In the creative business of advertising it is an on-going problem: It takes an instant sometimes to come up with a brilliant idea that is worth thousands to our clients.  Sometimes it takes a long, hard week to come up with an idea for a small space ad.

So how do we price our work? Is the value creating idea worth more than the small space ad?

There has been a convention to charge on a per hour basis.  But is that fair?

We can quantify hours.  We can calculate hourly rates relating to income, overhead and profit expectations and factor in out-of-pocket reimbursements.  So setting hourly rates is a well worn path to a model for charging.

But really is it relevant?  It is like saying a truck can go faster than a motorcycle because it has more wheels.  Quantitative difference, sure.  But spurious.

So we can price our hourly services.  But do we know the value?

Is it right that creative service companies should receive a share of the reward when an idea’s resonance creates significant profit for our clients?

It seems we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

But advertising companies are not alone.  Many of clients suffer from this same blindness.

Marketing communications companies are constantly being asked for help on small projects where “we don’t really have a budget” and “it is just a one time ad.”   Agencies comply to help out seeing there is no big benefit for the client.  But does the same client open their purse and say “We’ll pay extra for this because it is really important to us.”

The quality of something can be effected by the amount of time put into it.  Not on everything, but on most things.  And the value of knowledge is vastly underestimated.

I like to tell the story of the giant machine that worked flawlessly and old Bob who operated it.  Whirrr- whirr it went without a problem.  Old Bob retired and things went well for a while.  Then all of a sudden the giant machine started going whump-whump, whump-whump.  They called in engineers; they called in consultants.  No one seemed to have the answer.  Finally someone pointed out that the machine always worked when old Bob was running it.  “Let’s call in old Bob!”

Old Bob came it and was given a brief.  “Hmmm,” he said.  “I will need a piece of chalk and a sledge hammer.”  They got them for him.  “Turn on the machine,” he said.  Sure enough it started going whump-whump, whump-whump.  “Turn off the machine,” said old Bob.

He walked along the side of the machine, thought for a moment and finally took the chalk and put a big X on the side of the machine.  Then he picked up the sledge hammer and gave the machine a huge whack right on the X. “Turn on the machine,” said old Bob.

Whirrr- whirr went the machine as if nothing was wrong.  Everyone was jubilant.  The company president said, “Thank you, Bob.  What do we owe you?”

Old Bob thought for a moment and said “$10,003.”

“That’s a curious amount,” said the President.  “How do you get to that amount?”

“Well,” said old Bob, “I figure it is $3 for the labour – drawing the X and hitting it with the hammer.  And $10,000 for knowing where to put the X.”  So the price reflects a few minutes of work and a lifetime of learning to gain the right knowledge.  Not just a few minutes of work.

Clients have asked how we can create a commercial quickly, and I have replied that after the first few hundred, it is easy.  A few minutes of work, perhaps, and a lifetime of learning.

Nevertheless, the appreciation of quality is getting harder and harder to come by.  Computers make it easy to simulate advertising.  But appearing to be advertising isn’t real advertising.

We have all heard people mock modern art with “My kid could paint that!”  I always say, “If your kid is that good, get her into art school!  You will make a fortune.”  The mocking comment usually reflects more about the ability of the mocker to appreciate what they are looking at.

What is the value of quality in the communication arts?  Effectiveness.  Results.

The guy who says that advertising doesn’t work after doing it poorly means he doesn’t know how to do advertising.   Advertising always works if you put the right knowledge resources against it.

Coming up with the right message is the most difficult and important investment you can make in advertising.  Simulating it isn’t the answer.  Paying for the folks who have a lifetime of learning is worth it.