Dear Music Editors of ABC’s Brothers & Sisters,

Thank you so much for honoring Steve Winwood’s 60th birthday and new album by making his music (both original and covered) the bed for your episode last night. There is nothing like that voice, the Hammond B-3, or the opening melody of “Can’t Find My Way Home” to start the week. I’m not sure anyone else noticed, but I did and it was awesome.
And to you Steve Winwood, thank you for a 45 year catalog (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, Solo) that will never get boring and never be fully discovered. I am convinced that if my 9 month old knows any words at all, they are probably the lyrics to “Arc of a Diver”. It wasn’t until college when I first heard you perform “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” and went back and started listening to all of the Traffic recordings. And the fact that you still bring the house down and end shows with a song that you sang at age 16 in the Spencer Davis Group blows me away. What did I do at 16? Certainly nothing that has aged as well as “Gimme Some Lovin’” or “I’m a Man”. If you want to have you mind blown, check out this interactive timeline of Steve’s career here.

Listening Nuggets for non super-fans:

Spencer Davis Era: I’m a Man, Gimme Some Lovin’

Traffic: Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Glad, Dear Mr. Fantasy, Feelin’ Alright?

Blind Faith: Can’t Find My Way Home

Solo: Arc of A Diver, My Love’s Leavin’, Back in the High Life, Talking Back to the Night, Different Light, Chigano

It’s been almost 48 hours since I read the news, but I haven’t yet posted, because I’m not sure what to say. I recently heard that the Evanston, IL location of another WOM favorite, Cereality, should also be referred to in past-tense. What do we learn when brands with great Word of Mouth bone structure fail? Here’s the start of a list:

1. Novelty is enough for me to try you once and to talk about it. If this is what you provide, I hope you are in a place that will constantly expose you to new audiences like tourists. Everyone else needs a strategy for encouraging repeated, valuable engagements with the same set of customers over time.
2. Sustainability is important to customers, but a huge part of the population is not willing to pay “extra” for it - especially when times are tough. One of the reason the Leonardo DiCaprio light bulbs do so well is that they save you money in the process of drawing less energy.
3. Let them see you sweat. If your business needs something - press, referrals, investors, testimonials, etc - let your loyal supporters know so they have the opportunity to rally to your aide. Honestly, if I had know last week that Nau needed help, I would have let my networks know and bought items myself if I thought it would have kept them around to fight the good fight another day.

What are your takeaways?
P.S. Good news for shoppers - remaining stock is 50% off at nau.com

In the midst of the alarming number of “greenwashed” commercials that we were all forced to watch last week as every company and industry tried to get on the Earth Day bandwagon, I was inspired to read a little bit more about Tom’s. As you might imagine, they don’t just live their values for Earth Day - it was the core of the company’s founding in 1970 and one of the reasons they are the top natural care brand (now an independent subsidiary of Colgate Palmolive). The factory, packaging and products themselves are all as green as you would expect a product with “of Maine” in the title to be.

Check out the website to read more about their success in building a values-based business and the Boston Globe’s enlightening “Office Invasion” tour of the Tom’s of Maine offices.

I just finished all of my plans to attend the upcoming WOMM-U Conference in Miami, FL. There is a great list of mainstage attractions, but what makes this event different is that the 2 days will be peppered with small group working conversations with experts from various arenas - including some focused on putting WOMM to use for good.

• Keynotes include would-be-Blogger-Socialite Joseph Jaffe, Ogilvy’s Carla Hendra and Dell’s Andy Lark.
• Faculty include my Ogilvy PR 360 Digital Influence colleague (& newly minted author) Rohit Bhargava as well as my former manager from Dell (& dominator of all things digital marketing) - Liana Frey.
• “WOMM in Action” sessions will bring together attendees from various different background to create a Word of Mouth action plan for the Wilderness Society and the Overton Youth Foundation.

And now, for something completely different, I want to share a casual interview that I had the pleasure of conducting with Rahul Bhargava of nTag. (Still getting used to my FLIP cam)

Rahul is a technologist who really does spend his days thinking about the future of events as we know them. I have been to a couple of events recently that have done away with the printed conference book - putting materials online. Good progress, but a baby step compared to the future that nTag is envisioning. Enjoy the video and let me know if you ever get to experience one of these in person - I clearly don’t get invited to enough sales conventions!!

How were you first introduced to Beija Flor?

I was first introduced to Beija Flor by my good friend Jennifer Cavanaugh,who invited me to a jeans party at Emile’s (VM note: Emilie is Beija-Flor’s co-founder) house.

What do you like about the jeans?

I like the jeans because they are comfortable, stylish, and flattering to all figures. I have never been able to find all three of these attributes in one pair of jeans before. They make me feel 100% like I’m ready to bring my A game.

What do you like about the brand?

Well, I can not say enough about the brand. It makes me feel special to know that I have been in support of this business since the ground up. From the jeans parties to now a retail store and in the future I expect national recognition. Its make my ego feel good to know I am step above a new trendy jean that not everyone knows about yet. Also, most importantly, the conception of Beija-Flor is inspiring. I was moved and extremely impressed that Emilie and her mom Kathy took their cultural background and their entrepreneurial spirit to create a brand that is synonymous with empowering women to feel beautiful and exude confidence. Also, with each jean being named after a person, it feels as if every pair has a story. That’s extremely special to me because how often do you know a personal background to an item of clothing that you are wearing?

What do you say when you tell people about Beija Flor?

I always tell people that they are flattering, comfortable and stylish, and that they have to try them!

If you were invited to a weekend get together for Beija Flor fanatics, what would you expect to do/learn/see/experience?

I would definitely expect wine!! Seriously though, I would expect to see fabulous new creations with interesting stories told by Emilie of their genesis. I would also expect to learn more about Brazilian culture as well.

What would the ultimate Beija Flor fan experience be?

The ultimate experience would be to go to Brazil with all my girls (including Emilie of course) and to see where the jeans were made and to learn first hand more about Brazilian culture.

***********

What I love about Michelle’s answers above is that they demonstrate the power of conversational capital - she explicitly calls out the value of knowing and being able to tell a compelling story about what she’s wearing. Beija-Flor has also done an amazing job of building a database and keeping in touch with the women they touch. Everyone who is brought into the fold will feel like a co-owner of their success as the brand continues to grow.

And, for the record, I am ready to sign up for the first Beija believers Brazil trip as well.

Emilie and Kathy put their heads together and realized they had a golden opportunity. They formed Beija-Flor (portugues for hummingbird) and began to design and import jeans made with Brazilian denim for the American woman. Beija-Flor started by selling primarily through home shows and direct through their website and word of mouth took off. It’s not everyday you notice a hummingbird logo on your friend’s great fitting jeans.

What makes Beija-Flor a Brand Worthy of a Weekend?

Founding Story - There is a great founding story for Beija-Flor and they tell it well through all of there materials. Even better is the fact that the faces of Beija-Flor are also the masterminds and founders.

Style Variety - While Beija Flor has extremely cute jeans for dressy/fashionable occasions, they also offer more dressy trouser styles, skirts, etc. They aren’t a one trick pony - you can purchase multiple items to weave into your wardrobe.

Size - Beija-Flor jeans are sold in actual true-to-size 0 - 16 (Dear Ralph Lauren Rugby store who only carries 0 - 12 - J’accuse). For anyone who has looked at a $200 pair of women’s jeans that are a size 29 and look like they are made for a malnourished 12 year old - this is for you.

Unique Features - When you fold their bestselling “Jennifer” jean sideways, you’ll notice that the back is higher than the front. This is to help the forgotten woman who is not just standing in a club, but who will sit down at some point and does not want to hang out the back. This jean is guaranteed to prevent you needing to ask for a booth in a restaurant to cover your exposed assets.

Check back tomorrow for What Beija Flor Fans want from a weekend with the brand.

The night before the presentation, as we were walking down a pretty-full-for-a-Wednesday-night Bourbon Street, Malcolm Schwarzenbach told me not to be afraid to discuss “the storm”. Being a lifelong uptight WASP, I had no intention of bringing up any such thing. Malcolm saying that it was OK to acknowledge the elephant in the room changed the next 24 hours for me. I spoke with my hosts about property valuations, tourism, and the unique challenge of recruiting talent to the marketing and advertising companies within the city.

Before I left, Malcolm shared a recruiting card for his company Trumpet Advertising with this image on the front and the Ernest Shackleton challenge on the back: “Men (and women) wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” It is a unique touchpoint that highlights Trumpet’s attitude and creativity. Based on the amazing New Orleans tourism video that they produced below, it looks like their efforts to recruit talent have been quite successful. I hope it gives you a taste of how I felt after my brief stay. Enjoy the video but be warned, you may want to book tickets to the Big Easy immediately…

One of Jennifer’s examples of brands allowing consumer to educate each other was new to me. McDonald’s in the UK has an innovative site called Make Up Your Own Mind. From the home page: “The site has been set up for you to find out anything you would like to know about McDonald’s food, business, people and practices“. Customers are invited to submit questions (15,000 to date) and then other customers are invited to serve as reporters/quality scouts to share their findings with the world through the site. They report on everything from the cleanliness of the restaurants to conditions at the farms where ingredients are being raised & grown. The image I included above is from a part of the site that directly addresses the Happy Meal. Charlotte, a teacher and “Mum”, is featured in a video where she investigates how chicken McNuggets are made and confirms they are made with the same quality breast meat as what she could find in the supermarket. The site also frankly discussed the nutrition content as compared to other options for children. The questions appear to be completely uncensored and this transparency certainly makes me think about McDonald’s brand a little differently.

The interesting thing to note is that McDonald’s hasn’t actually changed (or doesn’t claim to have changed) anything about its organization, practices or food. It has just proved that they are willing to share what they are doing and be open to examination. French Fries are still bad for you (if you hadn’t gotten the memo), but if McDonald’s lets you in on how they are made and what the comparative nutritional choices on the menu are, then isn’t it your fault for putting on those extra 10 lbs? By inviting customers to experience the inner workings of the brand, have conversations, and building a platform for them to take place, McDonald’s has diffused our ability to criticize the wizard behind the screen by bringing us face to face with him. Maybe this is the type of effort that Starbucks should be looking into now - reminding the world of their extraordinary business practices - instead of asking us to hatch up the next latte drink or granting us Free WiFi about 3 years too late over at My Starbucks Idea.

While the work environments I have been in since have been quite different – and yes, I do miss the free Dove bars and company speed boats of the dot com days – the only thing constant is change. Because of the speed of innovation, deal factor continues to be something I think about every time I meet a candidate. The challenge is that it is very tough to test for. So how do you make sure you are bringing someone on board who is going to bring up your team’s average deal factor?

I usually craft some squishy questions about being able to impact organizational change, deal with a difficult manager, etc, but I would love ideas on best methodology for figuring this out. You can not ask “How do you deal with change?” head on, because it is oh so easy to say that you are inspired by constant change and oh so hard for it to be true.

The graphic above is based on some personality types I have personally encountered. I think I am at the “Lemonade Larry” waterline and continuing to aspire to the type of enlightenment and evolution that will empower me to be a true driver of change.

BlogHer Business was an eye opening event. Major standouts to me were results of Compass Partners research on women in the blogosphere, hearing about Kodak & DC Goodwill’s blogging efforts. On the blogger engagement front, Method, Graco & GM shared the results of their respective approaches of working with bloggers - sharing the stage with bloggers when they presented the case study. For any PR person who has ever considered blasting a press release to bloggers hoping it will stick, they would thing again after hearing some of the horror stories of bad influencer outreach told along the way. My favorite comments from bloggers:

Typing my name after “dear” is not a personalized approach.

You wouldn’t knock on my door and ask to put a billboard for a product I have never seen or touched in my front yard - why would you think I would post a jpeg for a product I’ve never seen or touched on something as personal as my blog?

Just an hour after BlogHer Business wrapped, I was off to Blogger Social. The concept for the event was simple - get a bunch of bloggers together to hang out and have fun. That’s it. No powerpoints, no projects, no pitches - social. One of the highlights for me was being able to put a face to The Viral Garden. Mack Collier was one of the first bloggers to pick up and write about the Fiskateers crafting ambassador movement on which I had the pleasure to work during my time at Brains on Fire. Being able to spend time talking to him in person took us from the mutual admiration society to real friends and I look forward to our next meeting.

Overall lesson from the 3 days?  Twitter is real - get to know it.

Many, many, many thanks for the event planning/hosting duties of CK and Drew and the friendly welcome from my new BS08 friends (listed below).  How many days until BS09?

Susan Bird Tim Brunelle Katie Chatfield Matt Dickman Luc Debaisieux Gianandrea Facchini Mark Goren Gavin Heaton Sean Howard CK Valeria Maltoni Drew McLellan Doug Meacham Marilyn Pratt Steve Roesler Greg Verdino CB Whittemore Steve Woodruff Paul McEnany Ann Handley David Reich Tangerine Toad Kristin Gorski Mack Collier David Armano Ryan Barrett Lori Magno Tim McHale Gene DeWitt Mario Vellandi Arun Rajagopal Joseph Jaffe Rohit Bhargava Anna Farmery Marianne Richmond Thomas Clifford Lewis Green Geoff Livingston Kris Hoet Connie Reece CeCe Lee Toby Bloomberg Seni Thomas Darryl Ohrt Joe Kutchera Paul Dunay Marshall Sponder Chris Kieff Tara Anderson Jason Falls Paul Soldera Roberta Rosenberg Saul Colt Todd Andrlik Nathan Snell Ryan Karpeles Mike Sansone Jennifer Laycock Neil Vineberg Cam Beck Mike Arauz Matthew Bailey Heather Gorringe John Rosen Cathleen Rittereiser Tamar Weinberg Rita Perea Linda Sherman Matthew McDonald Kaitlyn Wilkins Terry Starbucker
Jennifer Berk Jane Quigley John Wall Scott Monty Kevin Horne Virginia Miracle Amanda Gravel Susan Reynolds David Polinchock Shashi Bellamkonda David Berkowitz Vahe Habeshian