You Do The Dishes - Latest Comments

Re: Making a Career Change

SQIAR — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 05:53:17 -0000

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Re: Making a Career Change

steiny — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:31:09 -0000

Rule Enthusiasts are 3/3 on leaving the law! I did this EXACT process when leaving law. I met with 40 different people on informational interviews and ultimately I got the job that was the perfect fit.

Re: LeBron and Us

Samit Sheth — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:06:40 -0000

Love the article man.

Re: LeBron and Us

Shahakasha — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:39:12 -0000

This was awesome, sir.

Re: What Is A Technology Company?

Varun Shetty — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:13:41 -0000

I really like the software / technology distinction - it's certainly more accurate.

I think the questions become much more complicated as you start building off of other people's APIs (essentially, your Q #3). That's when the label as "technology" company starts to really lose meaning.

Most of the companies that are making markets out of nothing use software to create the market - AirBnB is just a virtual corkboard, right? Does the label matter?

Re: What Is A Technology Company?

kipbot — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:06:49 -0000

Great post, and thanks for providing two quotable passages. I don't have a formal answer that can withstand rigorous scrutiny, but I do think there are relationships with software that need to be better understood. In fact, saying software instead of technology might be a good first step. The analogies and samples above seem to point to software rather than technology.

1. How important is software as part of their competitive advantage?

2. How much much value does software add to the customer's experience of the company? (This is different from the first.) Or how much of the value of the product comes from the software supporting/driving it?

3. Is the software home-grown, JVed, or outsourced?

4. Is the competitive advantage coming from software accompanied or even fueled with data?

I think there is some value to labels . . . at least for investors or people overseeing their operations. The answers to the above question might change over time. People running these companies need to track the shifts and adjust their teams, goals, and marketing accordingly.

Re: Understanding GM’s Decision: Social Marketing Is Alive and Well

Varun Shetty — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:25:40 -0000

I disagree with your premise that brands don't need facebook pages because they have websites. Americans spend on average 23% of their online time on social networks - with Facebook making up a majority of that time. People don't go to information anymore - information comes to them. Advertisers and brands always need to go where the audience is, not the other way around.

I also believe that many companies do see consistent engagement on their social channels. It's a customer service tool as well as a forum for building a brand identity.

And, while FB's profit numbers don't match up with the valuation yet, that overlooks the fact that they have barely even begun to scratch the service of the real jackpot within their service: data.

Thanks for reading - I appreciate the comments.

Re: Viruses and Seeds…and Marketing

Varun Shetty — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:54:50 -0000

yes, you're completely right. just trying to make the math as easy as possible.

Re: Viruses and Seeds…and Marketing

Dale Cooper — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:49:10 -0000

"400 people a display ad and there’s a 50% probability they click on it" I think you are looking more at 0.001% rather than 50%

Re: Defining Strategy

faris — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:10:49 -0000

Strategy: the general direction. [pun intended ;-)]

So - we are going to make more money by selling more of these things to more people in more place.

Tactic: how do I get distribution with WalMart.

Tactic: getting fans on facebook to re-market to.

trade offs are essential. you don't have infinite resources so you can't target everyone and do everything.

THE BIG issue we have as an industry is the conflation of 'account planning' and strategy - they are NOT the same thing.

Strategy: deciding how best to spend time and money to achieve objectives, considering whether advertising is an appropriate tool.

Account Planning: finding insights to inform the advertising creative. Much much further downstream.

Re: Defining Strategy

faris — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:06:20 -0000

Hello chaps! great glad you guys connected over this. You found my humble contribution [i'm aware that i'm using 'strategy' to mean 'business strategy' i think.

the key aca text here is Porter:

http://hbr.org/product/what...

Re: Defining Strategy

Varun Shetty — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:01:37 -0000

Thanks, Mike. Right on. I get frustrated when people lose sight of or don't align the objectives piece. It throws everything off right from the jump. I'm also still trying to figure out if there's a difference between tactics and strategy. Is strategy just a theme that runs through tactics? It is something bigger? Not sure if that needs to be defined. But it's something that's come up for me.

Re: Defining Strategy

Mike Arauz — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:48:13 -0000

Yep, this sounds right to me. The more I've been thinking about it the more I see that there are lots of "right" ways to define strategy ... as long as they address certain fundamentals like where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there.

Re: Somebody Is Watching Me

Varun Shetty — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:58:38 -0000

hey erin - agree with everything you said. i think the end of your comment is really important because it shows that there are different levels of social fans (e.g., casual, aspirational, people who actually purchase the good) that have different values to brands.

Re: Somebody Is Watching Me

Erin Joan Lamberty — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:25:22 -0000

Related to the Hawthorne effect is Panopticon/surveillance and how that impacts what people do/share online. Consumers know that brands are listening and that leads them to complain when their product sucks or on a peer to peer level will exclaim "I'm so happy I'm single!" on Valentine's Day (no not me I swear!) because they know their ex is out there getting status updates. People also try to play up a level and are aspirational in their brand preferences. Many people "like" Mercedes Benz but how many of those people are really ever going to buy one? All the more reason to track true brand performance (sales) vs. online perceptions and conversations.

Re: Just (Don’t) Do It

Varun Shetty — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:06:06 -0000

thanks, faris. it really is a great book. i'm actually formulating a post now about the individual/group tension is at the heart of all good social networks.

Re: Just (Don’t) Do It

faris — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:54:27 -0000

nicely mate - buying in is awesome. the biggest insight, alongside this, is the pull between being an individual and part of a group/ rock ON FX

Re: Global Social Media: There’s a Whole World Out There!

Varun Shetty — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:16:10 -0000

Thanks for reading and commenting, Seth.

I agree that brands have been dealing with localized content forever (your Hennessy example).

And I actually think we're saying the same thing at the end. You say that brands should create valuable shareable content and user will share it for them. I agree. I'm just saying that a lot of brands miss the point that the content needs to be localized and tailored. Otherwise, why would someone share it?

Re: Global Social Media: There’s a Whole World Out There!

Seth — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:50:32 -0000

I have a few points to riff off of the tribulations of global branding you laid out above.

The first being that a multi-national company has both a global brand voice and also a targeted, local brand voice that is tangential, yet still strongly tied to their global brand voice.

Local brand voices have always existed. It's the sleek, sexy Hennessy ad that appears in the latest issue of Vogue, while simultaneously hiring Swizz Beatz to promote the product at a music venue. It's the Ford Focus ad that appears on a street corner in Warsaw (in Polish), while running an online Ford Focus Rally campaign back in the US for adventurous 20-somethings. Those are all local, targeted branding and it has existed for decades.

What the advent of social media has allowed is for companies to strengthen their global brand voice and reach all of their consumers and fans in a singular, unified manner. Yes, you can create localized Facebook campaigns and offer your subscribers 30% off their next purchase, but you gain no brand awareness nor increase your CLV.

Instead of these impersonal, ubiquitous offers, global brands should use this media to tell their brand story. Social media has provided both individuals and brands alike with tools (and they're very powerful tools) to communicate with their consumers and fans. Advertising is no longer one-directional. It's collaborative. It's a dialogue. What brands need to realize is that if you create valuable, sharable content (social currency in a way) your consumers will spread it and socialize it themselves. It's shared within their own networks, thus your consumers create localized branding. For you. And it's the most trusted type of branding when it's personal because it doesn't feel like a sales pitch. And the company didn't have to do a thing past providing great content.

While I understand your point that brands must communicate to their users in French, and Polish, and Mandarin, what if your consumers did that for you? The brands that get it have already started moving in this direction.

Re: Global Social Media: There’s a Whole World Out There!

Varun Shetty — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:18:15 -0000

There definitely are two sides. But I think everyone should agree that if you're trying to just engage with people via social channels, the least you can do is speak in language to them.

I think that's wholly separate from the issue of "do you want to be a global brand?" Obviously everyone can't be one (and probably shouldn't).

Love that crystallization about Nike from Buying In - had a similar thought in my head for a while but couldn't put it as clearly as you did.

Do you think there's a fine line between fuzzy branding and just pushing platitudes out to your audience?

And thanks for reading!

Re: Global Social Media: There’s a Whole World Out There!

faris — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:18:54 -0000

good stuff mate - global branding is ever tricky - both models have problems..

http://farisyakob.typepad.c...

Re: Timeline: Let’s Move Forward

Andy Dimakopoulos — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:06:29 -0000

I loved 1997...but I digress

Re: Hello New World

Varun Shetty — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:03:27 -0000

Thanks, mom!

Re: Hello New World

behroze — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:13:40 -0000

hi roonie! wishing u way, way more than luck!!! at first, u took dad and i by surprise with ur decision, but knowing u, we are absolutely confident that u will be mega successful in anything and everything u do! all the very best as u embark on the next chapter of ur career. God bless! tkGblu

Re: Hello New World

Varun Shetty — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:48:03 -0000

Thanks, Caitlin!