Scatter-Blogging and re-shaping... changing this section to describe the things learned while hunting for a... job.
Thoughts on the King... content and other notions
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YOU ARE HERE
Passion products, and things you'd like to see... GO.
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What must it be like to be a recruiter, and have hired one.
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more soon... |
...even more, later. |
WE'VE ALL WONDERED, AT LEAST ONCE... COULD WE HAVE DONE BETTER?... I'VE GIVEN UP THE NOTION OF DOING BETTER... SO HERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS ON DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY...What they asked for; an interpretation of what they were looking for; the opportunities I presented... What I would like to have presented... [BS] through [BO]
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[draft 1.1, November 29th, 2012]
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....helping legally, and nearly legally blind folks see...
why not... ...be bold!
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"...I am intrigued by this product. It would be an honour to promote and develop campaigns for a device that offers this gift of improved sight. Let's discuss how I might work with you to positively influence sales.
Indeed, I would view this as a chance to improve people's lives! - Admittedly I would need to study the channels, each position I've held, every product I've sold online has come with its own "geography"; learning how a particular channel is too be used or be 'manipulated' has been exhilarating and rewarding!" and with that - here we go! go go... |
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As one should, I start my pursuit for a gig with eSight by trying to figure out just WHAT the heck these things we'd be selling, are. It's only makes natural sense to start by learning, what do they do, how do they work... and, more importantly, who are they for?
How much do they cost? What is the marketplace like, who is the biggest competitors, what is their advantage; what is our advantage over their advantage... all of this of course leading to the fundamentals; what is the core benefit, and what is our USP. The basics and the obvious 101... But really getting at it... just what the heck are these goofy looking things? I mean honestly, at first glance, they look too much like a failed X-box accessory; those sad pieces of Chinese plastic one finds mounded to over-flowing in the dollar-bargain bin at Zellers... ...it wasn't long after watching this video; and the other videos eSight has sprinkled throughout their site... it really didn't take all too long to figure out what these actually are. Skipping through the first minute or so of the following video; which is basically a bunch of wasted time followed by some nice fella describing the device for far too long. He lets it slip that they've "let the engineers" name the product the Octavio or some such nonsense...
...the magic happens around 1:50 or so. the product is simply... defined at 1:59 / 2:01 |
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Two minutes in, a moment ...a moment you'd like to bottle, stick a label on, and run it on down to market. It's a precious moment. The moment a mother sees a picture of her daughter, a picture she hasn't been able to make out clearly for years. At this moment you could have told me that these things were made of solid gold, had the programming equivalent of Watson...
...I'd love to meet the engineers behind this product, look them straight in the eyes, ask them; when they go home each night, are they all up and proud of how well they glue bits of silicon boards together, burning eprom and adjusting little glowing video screens... if they are proud of their glueing, burning and adjustment skills, proud of the application of these skills that went into the making of this product... If that's all they were proud of... I'd have 'em take a look the these two seconds, this moment in this video; then send them HOME to be 10,000 times more proud. They have made, simply... JOY. ...go home, hug your family and come back tomorrow and make this joy, BETTER! |
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...and, so then, let's get more em-boldered.
Marketing joy isn't the most rational of assignment, but having joy in the marketing mix, does afford us the opportunity to be bold (er)... a whole heck of a lot more so than if we were selling say, burgers or discount sweaters. Of course, boldness is a tool/tactic one should apply to all campaigns, but... marketing joy, my goodness, I think one could be as much as, hmmm, say 47% even MORE bold! So much more bold that referring to this endeavour as a mere campaign seems rather... AND, given the end results, the joy this product could potentially bring our customers, I'd label this is more a mission than a campaign... but just WHAT is the mission? And, ...who are these for? AND, OF COURSE... gogo has his darned TWO QUESTIONS... • what is the core business objective? ...what activity/action triggers the transaction? • who owns the relationship with your customer? ...who pulls the trigger? (who resets the target?) Going by their site, eSight has a raft full of investors, parties with a tangible interest in their success. They have employees, suppliers and, I'm assuming a few creditors. All of these parties being very keen on eSight realizing it's CORE business objective. So, what activity triggers the transaction? What sells, eSight? Who owns the relationship... not as cut-straight-forward-dry as is the aforementioned ownership of the relationship with burgers & sweaters buyers; the distributor, cook, store manager & front line agent "matrix"... Oh, for certain our sales-dude(s) are going to own the relationship with our channel partners and our "retailers"; BUT... There are a couple of layers here that needs to be exploited, tapped into... the trusted expert; the extremely concerned. How do we encourage the "trusted expert" to become well, why not, evangelical? AND... How do we help have these evangelized experts help us to reach out to the "the concerned"... The simple math of human nature leads me to believe that for every person afflicted with an unfortunate desease that deteriorates their eyesight, there are likely five people extremely motivated to explore, pursue, HOPE for any solution - some "thing" that would provide relief and help improve the life of their loved one. Folks willing to try anything, yet skeptical about everything... where do these people "shop"... what are they shopping for? When we find the place where these people "shop", I'd bet the sweater off my back and a dozen burgers they are shopping for HOPE; when our particular hope-store pops up... it only makes logically bold sense to have our shelves stocked with... joy. |
working with this big ol' bag of bold hope and joy
...it always seems, these days, that final most prettiest and most important slide is left, unfinished; so... read that > over there for now.
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Obviously.. Bold, hope and joy do not make a business. How to we reach and evangelize the experts, how do we convince the concerned, prove our credibility to our customer? What's the program, what are the tactics? ...a few, lossy-goosey thoughts, how much they cost, how they'd be scheduled, interact and... as always the finer points are impacted by information I do not have and, as always, real work needs to be done to hone these, but...
TACTIC ONE: THE t 'n t & ...T I see NO way around this whole enterprise relying heavily on the tried, true and traditional. Anyone who tries to un-sell the need for 1, then 2 then 3 more and more hot-blooded (emboldened) sales "guys", guys on the phones, dialling for dollars, stroking the channel partners; massaging each and every point of sale, every expert and retailer; from the firm that'll move thousands to Dr. Bob, country optometrist who'll move one... Given the expectations, environment and landscape... mail-bombing the doctor's offices with waiting room coffee-table talkers, posters and pamphleting is simply a "fool hardy to believe you don't have to do it" tactic... after all, the offices of the experts are chock-o-block full of the concerned. At least one of our "dudes" and "the brass" should be fulltime assigned to credential building, reaching out to the legions of agencies, organization and "help groups" who, essentially own the midshare of... the concerned. TACTIC TWO: Enlist the concerned... You needn't take any more than two or three of the twelve steps to understand that people "with troubles" are always seeking and well served when they gather to share their, "troubles". This oh-so modern technology allows these groups to congeal virtually, and allows us to find, join and influence... immediately. It is a simple tactic, but never believe this tactic to be, easy... (I've suffered far too many fools who believe in easy. There is no easy-button; get over this, and please stop watching the UPS, MIcroSoft, Arthur Danielson Midland ommercials that pepper the Sunday panel shows and golf tournament coverage. Stop reading the Office Max flier.) This tactic involves the employment of meticulous efforts... researching, scraping, cataloging, listing, organizing, ranking and reaching out; encouraging and then enlisting the listed thousands, and then more thousands of groups. Systematically but individually - personally... This activity must be "on mission" and enacted BOLDLY (but not so boldly as to be scary or seem insincere). There are no fatal mistakes, but the tactic is fraught with damaging blunders that kill precious time and sap boldness from, the mission. The goal; become a trusted source, and a "center"... a voice to be brought forward for consideration by each and every group. Become trusted... become one of the concerned... and this dovetails into T3... TACTICs (THREE): feed the hope, demonstrate the joy (blue-skying... the conversation-starter) If only someone had a video camera each and every time someone put these things on for the first time... OH wait. If only there was a way to get one of these Octavio thingys fitted onto the heads of those whose life would change in an instant, a group... OH... wait If only there were an agency, an organization an "eSight Society" (perhaps)... oh... wait... I'd rather bring this one up, in a little more detail... where I could measure the expressions... see if the lawyers began to chuckle... so... |
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...and what is this bold mission?
...is simply spreading joy this bold mission? is the mission to be concerned? how do we truly AND honestly... enlist the concerned? can we really get the concerned to join us... |
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...can we package the moment, that moment of joy? Can we use this joy to embolden each of us immediately involved, each of our stake holders, the experts and the concerned? Can we gather every one with an interest, focus this expertise, interest and concern on a mission to change people's lives?
Involve & enlist... hey pal, are you in, that's great! Now... ...Let's go change a life!
...and, meet our core business objective.
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