I came across a bunch of notes I made this summer. Some I thought were the beginnings of lengthier posts. Others were obviously just passing notions. With the summer winding down and brains beginning to check out for the Labor Day weekend, I thought I’d publish these tidbits and unburden my own cerebrum a little.
Slow Down. While the world speeds up, science seems to be saying its in our best interest to slow down. From stress management and health-related consequences, to the Outlier’s notion of needing 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery, to the myth of multitasking, to The Shallows indictment of the skimming nature of the Internet Mind and the havoc it wreaks on our ability to learn – it seems to me sometimes we’re taking one step forward and two steps back. Does anyone feel like they’re at their best when they’re rushing? Why then does it seem so much of life moves at that pace? And as importantly, are the quality of our work and our lives benefitting?
Pre-customer Service. My college mentor once said, “Advertising should function as pre-customer service.” Rather than selling, advertisers (and by this he included marketers) need to think about making their products more easily ‘buyable’. Given the shift in media control from publisher to consumer in the 15 odd years since he coined the term, his idea seems ever more sensible. Until consumers look toward marketers with gratitude because they’ve made making choices easier I think the industry will continue to struggle.
Invention to Convention. Consider the QWERTY keyboard. It was developed to intentionally slow typing down so the mechanics of a typewriter could handle the outlay of characters without jamming the ribbon and wasting ink. It caught on as typing in general did. This was during a major technological shift that impacts a huge proportion of mankind. Decades later, and despite many better options and innovations having come along since, QWERTY still rules the roost. QWERTY, due to its good fortune of being made available as the typeing concept in general enjoyed broad acceptance became a convention. Conventions are very hard to displace once they’ve established themselves.
Related, the keyboard and mouse combo are a computing convention going on forty years old that made its debut right around the time computers began to go mainstream. Today touch-sensitive glass is novel and is finding traction, especially on small devices where keyboards are impractical. Will touch screens displace the keyboard and mouse as the dominant interaction device for our computers? How long will that take? There’s a relevant irony to the fact that the iPad for all its innovation has a QWERTY keyboard built into its system. Inventions come and go. Conventions stay for the long run. The jury is still out on what really needs to happen for an invention to survive long enough to become a convention. Personally I find this pretty fascinating.
Corporate Values. When we ask firms about their values, we’re often given lists that include ‘we’re ethical’ ‘we’re innovative’ ‘we’re customer centric’. These are not in and of themselves differentiating values. In most competitive environments they’re table stakes. What business doesn’t want to be ethical, innovative or customer-centric?
My co-worker realized something: differentiating values are something a company can expend resources on. This is not only in the boolean sense of can you invest in it or not. After all anyone can invest in innovation and most companies do invest in product development.
Rather a differentiating value is established by both the necessity of investing it in and by the fact that the definition of the value itself guides how the investment is made. Investing in ‘being innovative’ offers no guideance. Investing in ‘simple usability’ absolutely does. The same goes for ‘customer-centricity’ (generic table stakes) vs. ‘simple, convenient, and satisfying customer interactions’ (invest in good training for the customer service people, get them off the computer-prompt system and empower them to make decisions).
Social Media Class of 1988. Does anyone else find it ironic that conversations and theory around social media usually originates from people who have traditionally been identified as socially marginal ‘computer geeks’? Theoretically speaking, it would seem more likely that when one cracks open their high school yearbook they would discover that the most social people of their graduating class – the heart throb jock, the class President, the captain of the cheerleading squad – were the ones who went on to become experts in ‘social media’. Instead social media if often defined the kids who wheeled the AV cart down the hall trying to avoid wedgies. In fact, the jargon-laden nature of social media, with its ‘user interactions’ and ‘aggregate digital experiences’ sounds exactly like geeks talking to computers and not human beings talking to each other.
Funny how socially awkward the lexicon of social media is.
In my mind this is just more anecdotal evidence that the entire ‘social media space’ is a lot more about the media (technology) than the social. To establish the proper balance the geeks need to recruit some jocks and cheerleaders with experience in appealing to and engaging with human beings.
Buzz Machine Hindsight. Remember a few years ago how Madison & Vine got all frothy about the power of advertainment? Remember BMW films and how it was the vanguard of how products would be sold? Advertising and entertainment were the peanut butter and chocolate of the future. Angelina and Pepsi would co-star and a Grammy category would eventually be born.
I don’t hear much about that anymore. Do you?
I keep this in mind while evaluating some of the stuff being thrown around as ‘where its all heading’ today.
…unplug, pop open a cold one and enjoy the long holiday weekend friends.
Posted by Corey 















