Here’s a selection of some of the more interesting items I’ve come across in the past week, along with a comment or two.
- What if your slogan is true? — I’m already on the record concerning Seth Godin and the sheer amount of valuable, witty insights he regularly gives away. Like this one: “A slogan might be evidence that you have a story, but it isn’t a story. A story is something you live and connect with and come back again and again and again.”
- My take: A pithy knock-down of the notion that marketing slogans matter. Unless they’re true.
- Why customer experience is the only thing that matters — When a conference attendee discovered Harley Manning conducted customer experience research, he got this in reply: “Companies already know all about customer experience! Isn’t it just common sense?” Harley suggests the attendee compare his experience with Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. (Cue light bulb.)
- My take: OK, customer experience is just “common sense.” If that’s true, why is it that so few business leaders can identify what the term “customer experience” actually means — never mind how much it impacts customer loyalty?
- How my opinion made it into The New York Times — 37signal’s Jason Fried traces the subtle links that resulted in his being asked to write an opinion piece — “Be more productive. Take time off “— for The Grey Lady.
- My comment: Until something relatively dramatic occurs, we really have no idea how our actions, work and connections can come together. Memo to myself: Pay attention!
- Africa’s pirates have demands — and letterhead, too — Rogues they may be, but these pirates are surprisingly well-organized, including packets of paperwork — on letterhead — for their victims.
- My take: Good to know Captain Kidd’s modern antecedents are as bureaucratic as any other business. (Marketing bonus: Use of a skull-and-crossbones signature stamp.)
- David Hepworth on magazines & beyond — From a long-time former editor comes a not-very-nostalgic take on the digital changes sweeping through the magazine world.
- My take: I love Hepworth’s angle — “In this new age, we have to be subtracting the amount of time we spend wrestling with the business of putting things on the page in order to be able to add the amount of time getting the right stuff to put there in the first place.”