Taking a Hiatus

Human relationships are founded upon mutually understood - and usually unwritten - social contracts. That is, the trust required for healthy relationships is maintained through the understanding and fulfillment of certain expectations.

A friendship, for example, rests on a social contract that includes respecting one another, standing up for one another, listening to one another, being there for one another, investing time in one another, etc. An employer-employee relationship rests on a social contract in which the employee follows the instructions of the employer, the employee shows respect to the employer, the employee pursues the goals set for him by the employer, the employer pays the employee the agreed-upon wage, the employer provides a healthy working environment for the employee, etc.

These social contracts may vary depending on the culture in which they exist; however, social contracts do exist for every type of relationship, and when a social contract is broken, the relationship deteriorates.

The social contract between an organization and the community stipulates that the organization will provide some benefit or meet some need in the community; that the products or services of the organization will maintain a consistent quality; that the organization will steward its share of the community's resources; etc. The social contract among users of social media includes meaningful interactions, consistency of communication, timely responses, etc.

As a blogger, I operate within social contracts described in my last two examples. My blog is a product offered to readers; the social contract mandates that my blog posts benefit my readers and offer consistent quality, if I am to maintain healthy relationships with my readers. As part of social media, my blog is expected to be consistent in its frequency and responsiveness to readers.

My blog posts have gradually been declining in frequency and consistency. I suspect that some readers may have found them to be declining in quality also. For all of this I do apologize.

As I allocate my resources of time - much like an organization allocates its resources - I am finding it difficult to devote the kind of time it takes to produce well-written, thoughtful, frequent blog posts without detracting from my performance of other obligations. Since I cannot commit the time to fulfill the social contracts implicit in a good blog, I am hereby going to take a hiatus from Haley's Marketing Blog.

This will be my last blog post for some time. I expect - and hope - to return to steady authorship of Haley's Marketing Blog at some point in the future. Until that time, I will not waste my readers' time as they wait for a new post, only to be disappointed.

Be sure that I will continue expressing marketing ideas on Twitter (@HaleyDD), and when the time comes for me to revive Haley's Marketing Blog, Twitter will be the main channel by which I announce the blog's renewal.

For now, I must bid my readers adieu. I look forward to chatting more later.

Blessings to all! Happy marketing!

Thanks for reading,
Haley

If I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener...

...I would be on my way to feed hungry families right now, thanks to Oscar Mayer's Good Mood Mission.

The Good Mood Mission is a partnership between Oscar Mayer (a Kraft brand) and Feeding America (the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization).

Visitors to www.goodmoodmission.com can help feed needy families across America by completing a Good Mood statement like, "It doesn't get better than...." or "The best cure for a case of the Mondays is..." By completing the statement "If I could ride shotbun in the Wienermobile, I'd...", they can also enter to win a ride in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile for a day.

For each of these "Good Moods" submitted, Oscar Mayer will donate one pound of food to Feeding America.

For each "Good Mood" shared with friends via Facebook or email, Oscar Mayer will donate five pounds of food.

For each person who becomes a fan of Oscar Mayer on Facebook, Oscar Mayer will donate ten pounds of food.

Plus, folks can visit ebay.com/oscarmayer to bid on the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. The winning bidder will win the Wienermobile for a day, plus a catered Oscar Mayer cookout for 50, and a year's supply of Oscar Mayer wieners. All of the proceeds will be donated to Feeding America. As of this writing, the bid is at $1111.11 - the auction ends June 4, 2010.

This kind of initiative is why I love the idea of social cause marketing. Organizations support - and encourage their customers to support - a worthy cause, and build something fun around the effort. With the Good Mood Mission, people all over the world can contribute to the conversation, enjoy reading others' Good Moods, daydream about riding in the Wienermobile, watch a funny video of actor Ty Burrell with the Wienermobile, and have their days brightened in the process.

Not to mention that when they do so, they are also causing Oscar Mayer to feed hungry families.

If a company is going to make a contribution to a non-profit organization, why not give their customers a chance to get involved as well? And why not have fun doing it, and create a great experience for the customers who join in?

It has worked for Oscar Mayer and Feeding America so far - the goal for the Good Mood Mission was to donate 3 million pounds of food. As of this writing, 2,904,795 pounds have been donated.

As a corporation, find a way to help the world, and find a way to enable others to join in.

"...if I were an Oscar Mayer weiner, everyone would be in love with me!"

New Year's Resolutions for the Marketer

With New Year's Day comes the tradition of new year's resolutions.

Lose weight; exercise more; eat right; save money; spend less; read more; be more patient with my loved ones; be more considerate; invest more time in people; be less sarcastic; pray more. We set so many goals for ourselves as individuals, as family members, as friends, as human beings.

Do we set similar resolutions for ourselves as workers and business owners and public servants? I should think that we would seek to improve ourselves professionally as much as we do personally.

For myself in 2010, I resolve to adhere to the following principles as a marketer:

1. I will intentionally and humbly listen to my customers' opinions, complaints, and ideas.
2. I will continually refine my actions in order to offer better service to my customers.
3. I will do everything feasible to resolve my customers' grievances, meet their needs, and exceed their expectations.
4. I will look at my product from the perspective of the customer, not only from the perspective of the company.
5. I will view each new technology as another potential tool for serving my customers, not as a new gadget that will help us look snazzy.
   
6. I will approach all of my communications as dialogue, not monologue.
7. I will consider it my purpose to benefit society, not simply to make more money for myself.
8. I will cultivate a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in those working with me.
9. I will appreciate and respect the work of others in my organization.
10. I will seek to build better relationships with other departments in my organization.
    

Happy 2010!

A Corporate Thanksgiving?

During last week's Thanksgiving holiday, people around the U.S. gathered together to eat turkey, watch football, and, presumably, to give thanks for the blessings they have received.

We share in this ritual of thanking God as individuals, as families, as friends. The first American settlers (with their American Indian friends) thanked God together as a community who had survived a hard voyage, harsh winter, cruel sicknesses, and new growing season.

Shouldn't our corporations offer thanks in a similar fashion, as a community that has received numerous blessings in good economies and in bad?

Below is my list of thanks-giving to God, on behalf of my organization:

Thank you for air to breathe.

Thank you for the capacity to learn, the capacity to think, the capacity to remember, the capacity to communicate, the capacity to grow things, the capacity to build things, and the capacity to work.

Thank you for the natural resources – earth, trees, water, sun, food, wind, stone, minerals, electricity – and the laws of physics which enable us to live and survive.

Thank you for beauty and strength and goodness and truth and trust.

Thank you for people. Thank you for relationships. Thank you for enabling us people to work together as a team, to learn from each other, to support one another, and to grow together.

Thank you for people who care – who care about their work, who care about the people around them, who care about their families, who care about customers, who care about being good stewards of the things they have been given, who care about making the world a better place.

Thank you for wisdom to make good decisions.

Thank you for leaders who care about their followers, who empower and strengthen their followers, and who lead by example.

Thank you for followers who follow responsibly, who work wholeheartedly, and who support their leaders and one another.

Thank you for families and for generations – for children, for youths, for young adults, for singles, for spouses, for parents, for grandparents, for elders, for those who have gone before us, and for those who are yet to come.

Thank you for ideas.

Thank you for the free market system, and the ability to trade, and the ability to connect to people in other locations and other nations, and the ability to compensate people for the work they do.

Thank you for nations that value and enable freedoms – among them, freedom to speak, freedom to practice religion, freedom to be educated, freedom to work and trade and be paid, freedom to start and run and own businesses, freedom to choose where to live, freedom to care for one’s family.

Thank you for governments that protect freedom and justice and truth and right-doing.

Thank you for the ability to create and the ability to make the world a better place.

Amen.

Volkswagen and the Theory of Fun

I feel slightly behind the times. Within the past five days, I have received links to this video series from three different people. When I did a Google search for the series, the first results page was full of blog references to the initiative. As much as I dislike following the crowd and talking about the same thing as everyone else, I must say something about this.

It is spectacular.

It is called the "Theory of Fun," and it is a new initiative by Volkswagen to persuade people to act responsibly.

The idea is that adding fun to a specific action will cause people to participate in that action - perhaps even changing their behavior over the long-term. This video shows how Volkswagen induced subway travelers in Stockholm, Sweden to take the stairs rather than the escalator, by turning the staircase into a working piano:



Climbing stairs is not the only thing that Volkwagen has made more fun. To see how Volkswagen put some fun into both recycling and throwing trash into the trash can, visit www.thefuntheory.com.

Volkswagen is also encouraging consumers to generate their own ideas for how to change behavior for the better by making things fun. People can submit their own videos from now through November 15 for the chance of winning 2,500 Euros.

Isn't it a brilliant idea? Changing behavior by making things fun? Of course, over the long-term, people should choose to do the right thing (i.e. exercise, recycle, refuse to litter) simply because it is the right thing to do. But why not use fun to start people on the path of building those good habits? It is like the scene in Mary Poppins in which Mary convinces the children to tidy up the nursery by turning it into a game. "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down," Mary would say.

So why is Volkswagen doing all this? First off, getting masses of people to start taking care of the environment is a wonderful, rewarding, and wise thing to do. A clean planet is good for everyone. Secondly, engaging in social responsibility and creating free fun for people builds goodwill toward the Volkswagen brand. And third, if people start being more environmentally conscious, perhaps they will become more interested in purchasing environmentally responsible cars.

Do you have a cause that fits with your brand, like environmental responsibility fits with VW? If not, get one. Explore the basic need being filled by your products and services. Find out what your people are passionate about. Discover the root principle behind your mission statement. And make that your cause. Your company should not just add more "stuff" to the world; your company should make the world a better place.

Once you have a cause that fits with your brand, see if you can make it fun for people to participate. Walmart could encourage kids to "save money. live better" by giving them free musical piggy banks. Schoolteachers could make studying fun by creating educational games for their students. Hospitals and restaurants could encourage people to wash their hands by installing synchronized, dancing, multi-colored lights over the sinks in the restrooms. Your human resources department could encourage employees to turn in their paperwork by singing every time someone places their papers into the inbox.

Find your cause, and make it fun for people to join in. You'll be helping society, helping your customers, and helping your brand, too.

This Billboard Saves Lives.

Here's a novel idea: help people in crisis and build goodwill for your brand by providing free supplies during emergencies before rescue teams even have a chance to respond.

That's what Indian telecommunications company Aircel did during this year's monsoon season in Mumbai.


Photo by Aircel. See the full slideshow of events at www.aircel.com/Mumbai_sails_through_aircel/

Aircel attached an inflated life raft to a billboard near the Milan subway in Mumbai; the billboard read, "In case of emergency, cut rope." Citizens of Mumbai followed the billboard's instructions when a monsoon flooded the streets on July 15, 2009. With the Milan subway nearly impassable, a group of Mumbaians cut the rope and used the Aircel boat to row themselves to safety.

According to CMD Global, Aircel now plans to expand the billboard campaign to Delhi and Calcutta also.

This corporate social responsibility effort actually helped people in the crucial moments of a crisis - while the rains were still falling, the floods were still rising, and people needed immediate help. Perhaps U.S. companies could follow Aircel's lead - lashing life rafts to billboards along the Gulf Coast during hurricane season; snowshoes and shovels in the Northeast during the winter; fire blankets and hoses in California during the summer.

Can we pre-plan ways to help each other during crises, instead of relying on our government to rescue us?

Some of my more cynical friends might accuse such corporate social responsibility efforts of being mere ploys to attract more customers. And perhaps they are - for some. And certainly, good works ought to be done with pure motives. But I, for one, would much rather give my purchasing dollars to companies who are doing good for society, than to companies who aren't.

Marketers, keep seeking more ways to genuinely help people. Consumers, vote with your dollars - support companies who are champions for good in the world.