Marketing Roadmaps

Archives for April 2006

The power of language

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I’ve been thinking quite a bit about words lately — and please read until the end, there will be some choice ones. Promise.

A few things kicked off this rumination. First, Mack Collier and Nellie Lide  posted some thoughts about the word "consumer." And then my son asked me about the International Association of Nobodies— he was initially concerned about being one 🙂 and I had to explain why being one was a good thing.

That got me started on words. What do they mean, really? Isn’t the meaning delivered by your context and your own filters? For example, the word consumer. For me, it is nothing more than a word to distinguish people as individuals versus people in their business roles. Ie business media, consumer media. It is the aggregrate. I appreciate Mack and Nellie’s comments about the word consumer, but I wonder — isn’t the real problem HOW we market, not the label we use, whether it be consumer or customer or whatever. Changing the label doesn’t change the behavior, much as we wish it might. If you are a change agent, and I do consider myself one, you need to focus on the behaviors first. Don’t worry so much about the words. Make the customer the focus, and he won’t give a damn WHAT you call him 🙂

Which brings me to nobodies. I was on vacation last week, so apparently missed the bulk of the contretemps (thank god, my testosterone meter clearly would have gotten a workout). But nonetheless, it is worth revisiting. For me, the whole point of the nobodies wasn’t the insult to any one person; it was a collective reaction to "rankism." The idea that one has to be a SOMEBODY for one’s opinion to matter.

I have always believed that everybody’s opinion has value. When you stop learning from others, you stop living. The wonder of blogs is that they give so many the opportunity to speak. Even if only to one other. As I posted in a nobody’s blog comment, everybody is a somebody to someone. All you need is one reader to make a difference.

Translation: you are f***** the minute you start believing your own press 😉 It is really about what you do. With your words, with your life, with whatever influence you have. Not about how many stripes you perceive you have on your sleeve. Not about what you write or your Technorati ranking. Not about whether you have the status conveyed by the print press.

Whoever you are, make your words matter.

Utopian. Probably. Oh well. C’est dingue mais on y va.

Which brings me to the promised choice words. I made the decision yesterday to leave a comment on Shel Holtz’s blog relative to a nasty comment made by a blog troll about Shel. I made the comments knowing that said troll would probably use them to insult me again. Yes, l’il old me has been a target of this troll’s bile more than once. And predictably, (she he it) disparages me once again in the comments on Shel’s post.

Why am I bothering to mention it again? Not because I think it will make a bit of difference to this troll, hiding under her (?) bridge, sniping and spewing venom at the PR industry. She’ll probably show up in my comments with the usual bile, since I will not link to her. Or not. Catch-22.

The reason I commented, and the reason I am posting this now, is that this troll is just about the worst example of  elitism that I have ever seen. Obnoxious. Condescending. Insulting. Devoid of any positive contribution — in fact, I sense a real ax to grind. The troll’s blog ain’t about making PR better, it’s about spewing bile and venom. And with bad spelling to boot.

The list goes on. I really don’t care what (she he it) has to say. The words don’t matter.

J’en ai marre. Nous en avons marre. Allez-vous en.

Doesn’t it sound nicer en francais?

UPDATE 4:30pm EDT: I’ve been told that the online translation services have a bit of trouble with slang, so here’s the rough meaning (not literal translation) of the phrases I used above.

C’est dingue mais on y va –  It’s crazy but we’ll do it anyway. Also the name of a French comedy released in 1979.

J’en ai marre. Nous en avons marre – I’ve had it. We’ve had it.

Allez-vous en – Go away permanently, get lost, drop dead are all reasonable approximations.

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Giving Back and Where WAS Scott?

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It turns out I was the winner in the "Where’s Scott" contest held by guest bloggers Andrea Weckerle and Bill Green over at the Media Orchard. My guess, "Maybe he is in France doing damage control for Dominique de Villepin," apparently came the closest. We’ll find out tomorrow where he actually was.

I was asked to post my desired prize in the Orchard comments. After cycling through all the obvious jokes like give me all your traffic and so forth, I decided to be somewhat serious:

"For my prize for approximating Scott’s location, I’d like him to make a donation to a charity, amount and charity of his choosing. And then tell us about the charity and why it is important to him. He doesn’t have to share the amount."

Why did I pick this? Because I believe in giving back. Whatever our personal or professional problems may be on any given day, most of us in the PR/marketing blogging community are doing pretty well. We may not be rich or famous, but we probably have food on the table, a roof over our heads and the cash to fill our gas tanks. And we probably all support a number of charities as well as volunteer for community and charitable organizations. But… we rarely talk about it unless there is a tragedy like the tsunami or Katrina.

Robert French has tried to get the party started with Operation LinkLove but we need to do and say more, and more often. And not just about charities that are embracing social media. Every so often, we need to step away from the latest industry brouhaha and talk a little about the organizations and causes that mean something to us. They may not be blogging, but we are, and we can help spread the word.

That’s a meme well worth participating in.

So here are just a few of the causes and organizations I have supported recently:

American Diabetes Association. The Hudson MA school system does a School Walk for Diabetes each year. All the children, starting in kindergarten, are invited to participate. Douglas and I walked a bit more than two miles, which is a lot for a six-year old. Why did we do it? Well, we have family members who have diabetes, but just as importantly, I wanted to start Douglas off early with the idea that we do what we can to give back.

Muscular Dystrophy Association. Fellow marketing blogger Yvonne DiVita went to jail for a day for MDA, and I contributed to her bail money.

School Year Abroad. This program is for high school juniors and seniors. It gives them an opportunity to spend a year in another country, living with a local family, but studying in a "regular" high school program so they can still graduate on time. I am an alumni (France 78-79) and have contributed to the scholarship fund nearly every year since I graduated from college. It was one of the best educational experiences of my life… still… and I would not have been able to go if I had not received financial aid.

International Association of Nobodies. Proceeds from the Cafepress store will be donated to charity. Buy your t-shirt today. Wear it proudly.

What charities do you support, and why? I’m not tagging anyone — except Scott 🙂  Tag yourself and give the causes you support some airtime.

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Marketing Roadsigns Newsletter

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Marketing Roadsigns is the newsletter that accompanies this blog. Last year, I did it monthly, but have had to move to a bi-monthly schedule this year.

To make up for the reduced frequency, I’ve decided to make the lead article in each issue exclusive to the newsletter. The March/April issue (published today) features Customer Loyalty. I also have a brief review of Naked Conversations by Scoble & Israel and Blogging for Business by Holtz & Demopoulos.

Some of the Roadmaps content will still be used in the newsletter and vice versa, but for the  most part I am going to keep the two vehicles distinct. This blog, which has a PR/marketing slant, will continue to focus on timely communications, blogging and industry issues. The newsletter will cover "evergreen" sales and marketing topics like customer loyalty, telemarketing and so forth.

This way, those of you who are kind enough to read both the blog and the newsletter will get something a little different out of each, which hopefully equates to the best of both worlds.

If you do not subscribe to the newsletter, but would like to check out one of the above-mentioned articles, I do index the newsletter on my company website.

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