Tom Fishburne: Marketoonist

the art of planning

 

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For many businesses, planning for 2011 is in full swing, particularly the horse-trading, haggling, and negotiating to choose the revenue target. The core business team develops a bottoms-up plan they feel is achievable. The leadership team sets an top-down stretch target that is much higher. Then everyone bickers over the gap between the two numbers.

There are a few schools of thought on where to draw the line in between. Set your target too low and you can reliably hit the number, but you may not have achieved anything remarkable. Set your target too high and it may spur you to breakthrough growth, but it will feel like failure if you then miss the number. 

A plan is outdated the moment it's inked. Things change: customers change their minds, new opportunities surface, roadblocks appear. The key to hitting a plan is having a constant list of upsides to chase and downsides to mitigate so that you have contingiencies. I once saw a plan with a long list of downsides, but no upsides. Someone asked why the team hadn't come up with a list of upsides. It turned out that they had, but they then baked the upsides into the plan. They then had nowhere to go when bad news inevitably came. 

The best plans are neither sandbagged or full of hot air. They find the right equilibrium in between. But, they then provide extra incentives to the team for beating plan by different levels. This approach motivates the team to find breakthrough growth, but not at the expense to morale of having a plan perpetually out-of-reach.  

always in beta

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Beta releases used to be restricted to small groups of Beta testers. A Beta release allowed you to work out the bugs before a general market release. When a product shipped, it was considered final until the next release. 

Nowadays, many products are in perpetual Beta (and we're all Beta testers). Gmail, Flickr and del.icio.us carry the Beta designation for years at a time as the products are developed and refined in the open. This creates a mindset of continuous improvement and treats users as co-developers. The pace of innovation happens so quickly that traditional release cycles don't apply. 

This perpetual Beta mindset was born in web-based product development, but it's instructive for anyone in business. As Olivier Blanchard outlines:

"What does being in Beta mean? It means being in perpetual test mode. It means constantly asking “how could I do this better,” even when this worked just fine. How can I listen better? How could I improve customer service? How can I make my billing process smoother? How could we improve the UI/UX of our websites? How can I engage my user community even better? How could this brochure have been better?" 

When I worked at Dreyer's, we talked about "Ready, Fire, Aim" as our development philosophy. We fired quickly for speed to market and then perpetually improved our aim. The overlooked word is "ready", which is important to avoid shooting yourself in the foot.

Apple recently discovered that their are limits to what consumers will tolerate in bleeding edge products. While Apple never describes its live product launches as Beta, consumers often put up with bugs as the cost of being an early adopter. When the antenna failed on the iPhone 4, the consumer backlash was deafening. Apple learned that consumers may be prepared to put up with shoddy battery life, but the antenna snafu crossed the line. They also learned that their blame-shifting response to the crisis (asking consumers to hold their phone differently) only fanned the fire. 

Russell Davies shares this example of how Flickr positively handles the inevitable mistakes in bleeding edge product development. 

"One of the other interesting characteristics about always being in beta is accepting that mistakes are going to happen. And preparing for them. And thinking about, maybe, trying to turn them into opportunities. Flickr's attempt to turn a 'we're down' message into fun probably annoyed some people but I liked it are clearly so did lots of other people. When you're moving at the speed that the modern world demands mistakes are inevitable. Being surprised by them shouldn't be. Mistakes are also when the veneer tends to slip, if there is a veneer. The authentic voice of a brand or organisation is exposed when something goes wrong, if it's not the same as the voice you normally speak with people will notice." 

One of my favorite new brands is designed entirely around an "Always in Beta" mindset: BetaBrand, in San Francisco. Every Tuesday at noon, they announce a new limited-edition fashion invention to their mailing list. This week, it's the World's First Farmer's Market Backpack. BetaBrand continually releases new products and invites consumers to participate. Only selling online allows them to have weekly limited-edition launches as a physical product. Small-batch local production allows them a product development cycle that is only six weeks long. 

Every brand should have a new idea of the week. 

hoping to speak at SXSW again

Last year, I had a great time speaking about innovation and cartoons at SXSW in Austin.  I'd like to speak again next year and would greatly appreciate your help making it happen. It's *very* competitive and they pick their speakers by online voting.

So, please vote for me (and maybe leave a comment of support) here: http://ow.ly/2s6df. They ask you to register but it only takes a second. Thanks in advance. It really makes a difference.

My topic is called "Think Outside the Brainstorm: Developing Better Ideas" and it's about different ways to find creative inspiration throughout a project, not just the blue sky front-end.  I'll use cartoons to describe how to come up with ideas and bring them to life. This cartoon captures how this process often works.

jumping the shark

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My friend Michelle introduced me to the expression, Jumping the Shark, which is used to describe "the moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise." It comes from the fifth season of the classic American sitcom, Happy Days, when Fonzie donned swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket to perform a ridiculous water ski jump over a shark.

The guy who coined the expression describes it as "a defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on...it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it 'Jumping the Shark.' From that moment on, the program will simply never be the same."

Indiana Jones "jumped the shark" in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when Indiana was hit by a nuclear weapon blast while hiding in a lead-lined fridge.  While the fridge was hurled a great distance and everything else was obliterated, Indiana emerged unscathed. This lead to a similar expression, "Nuking the Fridge", which was one of the top buzz words of 2008.

Brands and businesses "jump the shark" and "nuke the fridge" all the time, often in a desperate attempt to reignite growth. They abandon what made them successful and drive away their most loyal consumers.

In her wonderful book, Different, Youngme Moon applies "Jumping the Shark" to product categories, which often reach a point of product proliferation where they leave their consumers behind.  Bottled water is a classic example of this.

"As these categories mature, the products within them get progressively better over time, with consumers benefiting along the way. But somewhere along the line these categories jump the shark, having undergone too many plot twists and turns for consumers to stomach any more."

Youngme describes this as "a consumption trend that I contend is one of the most significant challenges facing business today."

In the rush to maintain momentum, there is huge pressure to "jump the shark".  Jumping the shark attracts new attention and feels necessary in the game of competitive one-upmanship. But the volume of attention is far less important than the caliber of attention. And more important than grabbing fresh attention is maintaining the loyalty of those already buying.

The risk of jumping the shark isn't getting eaten by the shark. It's leaving your loyalists behind. 

make the logo bigger

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The quickest way to rankle a creative director is to ask to make the logo bigger. It's an age-old feud that has existed since the dawn of advertising. It's often the first piece of feedback shared, and has even led to its own song: 

"Make the logo as big as you can.
And make the logo bigger.
I don't want to tell you how to do your job.
But, could you make the logo bigger?
Bigger, bigger, make it big.
Make the logo bigger." 

A bigger logo won't fix a small brand. It won't make a brand more remarkable. There is no direct correlation between the size of a logo and the effectiveness of an ad. But, in the qualitative world of creative review, it's a tangible, quantitative response. So, marketers give this feedback a lot, even if it's superficial and even if it detracts from the strength of the creative execution.

The deeper issue is usually that the ad doesn't link closely enough to the brand, but the debate often devolves into a tug-o-war on logo size.

That said, branding has to be prominent enough to link a creative message to a brand. There is a difference between advertising and pure entertainment after all. Sometimes, a creative director, possibly anticipating a tug-o-war over logo size, starts off with an execution where the branding is so understated that consumers will never take away which brand was affiliated with it, no matter how entertaining the ad was. 

One creative director tellingly puts it this way, "Little does the client realize that your final allegiance is not to them, but to the quality of the work, something that you cannot in good conscience permit them to jeopardize with their lack of taste." He goes on to advise a sneaky con game on "How to make your client's logo bigger without making their logo bigger" that somewhat resembles this other cartoon I drew in 2007.

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In a classic Mexican stand-off like this, no one wins. Get past the standoff, and instead of arguing about something as superficial as logo size, you'll have time to come up with ways to make your brand more impactful.

post-production

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If you're ever on a video shoot, you'll no doubt hear someone say, "we'll fix it in post-production".  This usually happens toward the end of a long day, when everyone is tired and there's a sticking point preventing everyone from going home.  Sometimes the client hasn't seen what they're looking for.  Sometimes there's a stalemate on art direction. The promise to fix "in post-production" allows everyone to break and address the problem later.

But it's usually an empty promise.  Post-production isn't a magic wand.  It can fine-tune, but it can't resolve fundamental differences of opinion.  It also can't fix massive mistakes. When there's a real sticking point, it's better to buck up, make another pot of coffee, and do another take.

Contrast that approach with this 2003 Honda advert, Cog.  It's a 2-minute advert where disassembled pieces of a Honda Accord are laid out on a floor and an elaborate chain reaction is set in motion by one transmission bearing.  What's particularly stunning is that the team forced themselves to make the ad in two uninterrupted 60-second takes, without CGI.  This required accuracy to a 16th of an inch and they had to overcome changes in ambient temperature and settling dust.  It took 90 minutes just to get the first transmission bearing to roll correctly into the second.  The whole piece required 606 takes, but the result is pure magic.

This ad wouldn't have been nearly so remarkable had they faked it.  Partly as a result of their exacting discipline to get it right on set, this Honda ad received more awards than any commercial in history.

In a general sense, businesses often operate as if there is post-production to rely on. There is a manufactured wall between how a business operates internally and how it is designed to be seen by the outside world.

I once heard someone say that working in the best businesses was like working on live TV. There's no opportunity for post-production so you'd better be authentic the first time around. Remarkable things happen on live TV. The best brands brand from the inside out. And consumers are increasingly savvy enough to figure out the difference.

devil's advocate

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I've been hooked this week by Seth Godin's latest book, Linchpin. Seth briefly profiles the Devil's Advocate, which he describes as a "card-carrying member of the Resistance" -- a force that prevents remarkable ideas from coming to life. In his blog, Seth occasionally advises his readers to "uninvite the devil's advocate, since the devil doesn't need one, he's doing fine." 

The Devil's Advocate is a regular staffer in most offices. "Let me play Devil's Advocate" is a socially acceptable way to shoot down an idea. It's a guise that allows anyone to criticize an idea without offering an alternative. It's far easier (and safer) to tear down than to create. You can undermine what someone has just proposed without actually challenging them directly. 

The Devil's Advocate is over 400 years old. The Roman Catholic Church officially created the Advocatus Diaboli position in 1587 to be the official skeptic when debating sainthood applications. His job was to be the official naysayer: slander the candidate's character and argue that the miracles were fraudulent. 

In 1983, Pope John Paul abolished the Devil's Advocate position. As a result of this reform, he was able to canonize 500 and beatify 1,300 people in his tenure, compared to only 98 canonizations from all of his predecessors in the 20th century. 

When the Devil's Advocate lost his job with the Church, he started to hang out in business meetings.  Swap the process of canonizing saints to canonizing ideas, and you can see the wet blanket effect that this role creates. It's very hard to overcome the Devil's Advocate's argument because belief in an idea is an act of faith, not just an act of proof. There will always be reasonable doubt and the Devil's Advocate is there to seed it. 

If the Roman Catholic Church can abolish the Devil's Advocate, why not your business? That's not to say that you remove critical thought from the idea vetting process. Just channel that critical thought through a positive lens. Force yourself to start every sentence with "Yes, and" to make the idea stronger, not weaker, by the composite effect of the crowd. Don't offer criticism unless you have an alternative solution to share. And don't be afraid to take leaps of faith. Not all remarkable ideas can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 

In your next meeting, ban the Devil's Advocate and invite the Angel's Advocate instead.

brand archetypes

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I learned the power of archetypes from Joseph Campbell's classic interview with Bill Moyers. The explore the universal themes, characters, and stories that repeat throughout history, appearing in every form of human expression from the Bible to Star Wars. These archetypes repeat because they resonate deeply with human consciousness. 

I first saw Joseph Campbell's work applied to brands at General Mills, when the Wheaties team worked hard to understand and unlock "The Hero" archetype. I then learned that TBWA/Chiat used the archetypes as part of their exploratory work with brands. 

Not surprisingly, some of the most meaningful brands have tapped universal archetypes. These brands stand for something powerful to the consumers who buy them. 

• Nike --> The Hero
• Harley Davidson --> The Outlaw
• Pampers --> The Helper
• Virgin --> The Jester
• Ben & Jerry's --> The Innocent
• Patagonia --> The Adventurer
• Charles Schwab --> The Sage
• And so on 

Marketers spend a lot of time drafting brand pyramids, positioning statements, and messaging. Most of these are wordsmithing exercises. What can be more powerful is to understand your brand archetype. Mapping your brand to an archetype forces you to choose. The best brands narrow to one or two archetypes. Without narrowing, a brand is trying to be all things to all people. It ends up standing for nothing. When brands stand for nothing, the only way it can compete is on price. 

Last week, I heard Dan Germain give a talk about innocent (the UK smoothie business where he is Head of Creative). Not surprisingly, innocent represents "The Innocent" archetype, with it's fresh-eyed approach to the beverage market. As part of the brand history, Dan shared that the brand was first called "Fast Tractor", not "innocent". They created a smoothie with a short time from field to bottle, and "Fast Tractor" reinforced that positioning. "Fast Tractor" may fit a positioning statement, but does it stand for something greater? 

Later on, they migrated to "innocent", which tapped a universal archetype. The brand emerged with a similar playbook as Ben & Jerry's, and consumers instantly knew what it meant. 

All brands have the potential to tap and leverage a universal archetype. I found some useful guidance from Olivier's Blanchard in a post called "Archetypes and Brands". He includes this exerpt from a piece from Jon Howard-Spink called "Using Archetypes to Build Stronger Brands."

"I find it more exciting to think of myself as the author of eternal brand stories than as someone who writes strategy documents and brand pyramids."

new-featuritis

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The very first Saturday Night Live in 1975 featured a mock-commercial with George Carlin making fun of the Gillette Trac II, which was the first two-blade razor. SNL spoofed it with a fake three-blade razor called the Triple-Trac, and closed with a tagline, "The Triple-Trac. Because You'll Believe Anything". 

Twenty-three years later, in 1998, Gillette launched the Mach3 razor, the first three-blade razor. I heard a Gillette executive give a talk about the Mach3 soon after launch, and he talked in gushing terms about the innovation. When it came time for questions, someone in the audience asked, "What's next? 4 blades? 5 blades?" Everyone in the room laughed ... except for the guy from Gillette. He replied in complete seriousness, "I can't comment". 

As it turns out, Wilkinson/Schick launched a four-blade Quattro in 2004, which prompted The Onion to poke fun at the Gillette president with a mock-commentary, "Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades". And then three years later in 2006, Gillette actually launched a five-blade razor, the Fusion, along with a motorized five-blade version called Fusion Power. Truth is stranger than fiction. 

Feature proliferation is the name of the game in new product development. Most innovation in the market is composed of incremental improvements to what's been done before. Yet those new features often outpace what the consumers actually want. In the case of the Fusion, Gillette had to launch a marketing campaign specifically targeted to their own Mach3 consumers. Instead of campaigning to steal share from competitors, they had to practically beg their own consumers who were plenty happy with the earlier Mach3 to upgrade to the more expensive Fusion.  They over-served the market. 

As Clayton Christensen argues in the Innovator's Dilemma, the best move when the market is over-served is to innovate from below, not to join the new feature arms race.  Less can be more.  Simplicity is the killer app. 

The Economist ran a recent article on this effect in consumer technology, "In Praise of Techno-Austerity": 

"There are signs that technologists are waking up to the benefits of minimalism, thanks to two things: feature fatique among consumers who simply want things to work, and strong demand from less affluent consumers in the developing world. It is telling that the market value of Apple, the company most closely associated with simple, elegant high-tech products, recently overtook that of Microsoft, the company with the most notorious case of new-featuritis". 

This feature fatique carries to every consumer market, which creates opportunity for brands that think outside the new feature arms race. My favorite recent innovation is Vibram Five Fingers, a barefoot running shoe. Rather than engage in the feature one-up-manship of Nike and Adidas, Vibram launched a minimalist product that completely rethinks the nature of a running shoe. 

How can you launch the Five Fingers, Wii, or Flip for your category? Focus your energy there, not on adding a sixth or seventh razor blade.

after the brainstorm

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Last week I joined one of the better idea generation exercises I've experienced in a while. We split into small groups and toured the San Francisco Ferry Building to scout out retail merchandising ideas. The Ferry Building is packed with novel, funky shops like a Far West Fungi, which only sells mushrooms: dried mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, mushroom ice cream -- everything conceivably mushroom-related except for the psychedelic variety. You can learn a lot from experimental retail concepts like that. 

As we debriefed afterwards, it struck me that the real challenge is the period after the brainstorm ends. When you distill your notes and pack away the flipcharts and sticky notes, how do you bring the ideas to life without losing momentum and creativity? 

As we return to the realties of our day jobs at the end of a brainstorm, we run into road blocks, inertia, committees and other hazards that can water down ideas or shut them down entirely. That's what organizations do well. They are designed to minimize risk. Bringing an idea to life can feel like making it through a circuitous maze. So much emphasis with innovation is placed on the up-front brainstorm, yet the real acid test is in the day-to-day shepherding of the idea through the organization. 

Thomas Edison famously observed "genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration". Scott Belsky was inspired by this insight to launch a think tank and conference series called The 99 Percent, which has very useful guidance on making it through that maze without giving up.  Business creativity is not about brainstorming.  It's about persevering.