Marketing

With 20 start-up investments and nearly 30 acres of land, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is slowly, but surely, fulfilling his promise to revitalize downtown Las Vegas.When Inc. last checked in with the Downtown Project, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's plan to revitalize Downtown Las Vegas, some Vegas natives were skeptical. At the time, local lawyer and restaurant critic John Curtas told Inc., "Some part of me doesn't trust what he's doing yet." He added: "As much as I'm afraid Zappos is going to Disney-fy the area, it's got nowhere to go but up."So 18 months later, has it?These days, Curtas is singing a slightly more optimistic tune. "Things are pointing in the right direction," he says of the project's ability to breathe life into a chronically-depressed downtown Vegas. "I think it's a couple years away from being there, but for the first time in 25 years, I have hope."What's Happening in Downtown Vegas?The grand vision for the Downtown Project began back in 2010, when Hsieh decided to relocate Zappos's headquarters to the City Hall building in Downtown Las Vegas (from the burbs), a move that will be completed this fall. Along with the move, Hsieh committed $350 million of his own money to invest in his new neighborhood, devoting $200 million to investments in real estate, $50 million to small businesses, $50 million to education and culture, and the remaining $50 million to tech start-ups through the VegasTechFund.In just the last year, Hsieh has made quick work of that money. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Downtown Project has dumped $93 million into the purchase of 28 acres of land across Clark County. In late March, Downtown Project inked a deal to purchase 100 Tesla Model S electric cars for Hsieh's car and bike-sharing initiative Project 100. Meanwhile, several projects are still to come. This summer, the 150-seat performance space, the Inspire Theater, is set to open, followed by Downtown Container Park, an outdoor mall of sorts made of repurposed shipping containers, which will open this October."One of our goals is to have everything you need to live, work, and play within walking distance," says Hsieh via email. "In an ideal world, we'd like to help people get rid of their cars."The Biggest Winners So FarThe primary beneficiaries of Hsieh's investment have been the founders of VegasTechFund's 20 portfolio companies, including start-ups like Wildfang, an e-commerce clothing company, and Skillshare, a platform for taking classes online. For many of these founders, including Maren Kate Donovan, CEO of Zirtual, Hsieh's offer was too good to pass up. Having grown up in Las Vegas, Donovan always believed that in order to get her entrepreneurial career off the ground, she'd need to get out of Nevada. So, after graduating college, she moved to San Francisco to launch her start-up, which connects executives to virtual assistants all around the world, in 2011. "It seemed to me that San Francisco was like Los Angeles if you want to be an actress," Donovan says.Soon enough, however, she began to feel the strain of being a small fish in a big pond. Hiring talented engineers, she says, was prohibitively expensive in San Francisco, as was office space. So when Zach Ware, a Zirtual client and VegasTechFund partner, put Donovan in touch with Hsieh, it didn't take much convincing to get her to relocate Zirtual's headquarters to Vegas.Since opening an office at The Ogden, a luxury condo building occupied largely by Zappos employees and VegasTechFund portfolio companies, Donovan says one of the biggest perks of being part of the Downtown Project is having unfettered access to Hsieh and his fleet of influential friends."I'm obsessed with logistics and operations, so Tony put me in touch with the president of UPS," Donovan says. "In San Francisco, there are hundreds of people trying to court and woo and get advice from a select group of mentors. It's easier to be dismissed."But while founders may be lured by all Downtown Project has to offer, attracti

I'll tell you up front, it's not easy. If you want to do something worthwhile, you need to work at it. Many people ask me about writing a book. I've written 8 books and each one was a tough slog. If you want to write nonfiction, you’ve got to research your topic, find an angle nobody else has, do a bunch of drafts, get feedback, do several rounds of edits, and more. Fiction is even tougher because your writing has to work on so many levels including conflict, characterization, dialog, setting, and much more. And that's only half of it. The other half is promoting your work so people find you and get interested in what you do. It's about building a platform years before your book's publication date by blogging, doing videos, speaking at conferences, reviewing books similar to the one you wrote, being social. There are no shortcuts. "Diet and exercise." That’s what I tell people when they ask me how I dropped 50 pounds in a year. Most people stop there. Some probe for details and I usually say something like: "I eat very little starch and exercise every single morning." For most people that's enough. Unless someone is serious about getting fit themselves (or is already fit and interested in swapping stories) they really don't want to hear that there are no shortcuts. There is no magic pill, special machine, or secret diet. It is a lifestyle change. Very few people want to hear what it really takes. Paying attention to every single little thing that goes into your mouth and an average of 90 minutes of tough exercise every day with no excuses for things like being in a hotel room. What are you doing now? Are you looking for a new job? Starting a business? Beginning a blog or YouTube channel? Learning to paint? Preparing a TEDx talk? It's not easy. Nothing worthwhile is. But if you work hard you will be rewarded. One of the most difficult things I've ever done is learn to surf. I took it up with my daughter and she was a natural. But I wasn't. My balance stinks. I fell a thousand times before I felt even remotely comfortable. I'm not very good but I love it. It was totally worth the effort over several years. Your effort will be worth it too. Don't try for shortcuts. Welcome to Seth Godin readers who found this blog from Seth's shout-out this week. I typically post twice a week.

Audi is famous for its start-stop engine technology that saves fuel… So how about an app that does it for your phone? Genius right? Well, here it is, obviously only available on Android due to the iOS restrictions! A scam? No… You can download it here. Created by the guys at DDB in Spain. Related posts: Start Thinking Soldier Campaign Social Movement: Stop The Vuvuzelas! Audi: An Urban Mobility Future Installation

I love this stunt from Heineken, which sees guys trying to convince their female partners to spend $1899 on two plastic stadium chairs, in order to win a trip to London for the UEFA Champions League finals… (thanks Dean!) Related posts: Heineken Star Player: Live Football Gaming App Hot Wheels: Double Loop World Record Stunt Your Heineken: Customise A 6-Pack

In case you haven’t heard, Mike Jeffries is a jerk. A big one. Robin Lewis was recently quoted claiming Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, “doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people. He doesn’t want his core customers to see people who aren’t as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they’re one of the ‘cool kids’.” So, Jeffries basically wants to hang a sign in front of every Abercrombie & Fitch store that reads: “No Fat Chicks”. Twitter is still aflutter with girls and guys claiming they’ll never, ever, ever shop there. Here’s the thing though: Jeffries is a jerk, but it doesn’t matter. Like, at all. In fact, here are some things that matter more than the fact that Jeffries is a jerk: 1. What you ate for breakfast this morning. 2. How long it will be before Lindsay Lohan gets locked up again. 3. Your high score on Fruit Ninja. If anything, the fact that Jeffries is a jerk is going to do wonders for the brand. Do I think what Jeffries has said in the past about plus size women is offensive? Yes. Do I think he’s overcompensating for some deep-seated high school insecurities? Definitely. Do I think he’s a fantastic marketer? Hell yes. How to Make Sales & Alienate People Here’s a universal truth: As a marketer, you need to know your audience. And Jeffries definitely knows his audience. He wants good looking, skinny, popular people wearing his clothes (in case you missed that the first time). “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive, all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong, and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” ~Mike Jeffries Tell me something I don’t know, Internet. Here are some equally shocking revelations: 1. Chanel is a fashion brand for rich people. 2. Addition Elle is for plus size women. 3. Axe markets primarily to men. The only difference is Chanel, Addition Elle, and Axe don’t come right out and say it. Or, at least not in the polarizing way Jeffries has. What matters is that Jeffries has an opinion. It’s not an opinion everyone agrees with, but it’s one those popular, attractive, skinny teenagers agree with. And that’s his audience. Wake up! He doesn’t care that people who have never shopped at Abercrombie & Fitch are vowing to never, ever, ever shop there. He cares that he’s empowering those popular, attractive, skinny teenagers. He’s focused on the people who belong (and the people who want to belong). Everything else is just free press. Not Everyone Is Going to Like You. Get Over It. This is what all marketers need to be doing. We need to have real opinions (and we can’t apologize for them like Groupon). We need to make statements that will resonate with our audiences… even if they will alienate others (ahem, Chick-Fil-A). Don’t be afraid of the controversy that will arise from having an opinion – it’s worth it. It’s hard to make a brand relatable. Big executives invest millions in marketing teams that can help make their brands relatable to as many audiences as possible. Jeffries is pulling us in a different direction, a better direction. We need to be more like Mike Jeffries (Yeah, I said it). Stop trying to be relatable to everyone. Focus! Work on being relatable to one audience. Skinny people, overweight people, men, women, rich people, poor people, smart people, dumb people, black people, white people – whatever. “Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.” ~Mike Jeffries If you do it right, you’ll create some controversy. You’ll alienate people. You’ll even piss some people off. You might be slammed by Kirstie Alley. And that’s ok. In fact, it’s a good thing. Because

A step-by-step approach for building up your sales pipeline.For most companies, the ability to find potential customers is the difference between growth and bankruptcy. Here's a systematic approach, loosely based upon a conversation with Thomas Ray Crowel, author of the excellent book Simple Selling.1. Get a decent list of prospects.Ideally, you want to be prospecting for customers who are already likely to buy. To do that, draw your list of prospects from the following sources in this order:Referrals. People whom your existing customers have contacted and suggested that they get in touch with you.Networks. People whom you've connected with personally at industry events or online via social networking.Website Visitors. People who've shown an interest in your offerings by accessing your website and leaving contact data.Purchased Lists. People who have the job title that typically buy your offering inside industries into which you typically sell.2. Create a qualifying script.Based upon your experience, define a conversational way to ask, during an initial conversation, whether or not the suspect has a budget, authority to spend the budget, and a need for your offering.In most cases, qualifying scripts are built around open-ended questions that you ask during the conversation. I've provided you with a list of these questions in my previous post "14 Ways to Qualify a Sales Lead."If you're calling somebody from a purchased list, you'll also want a basic cold-callings script. There's a good model for this in my previous post "A Cold Calling Script That Really Works."3. Set reasonable prospecting goals.Set a target for how many prospects you will need in your pipeline order to generate the number of sales that you need. For example, if you must generate five sales a week and on average close one out of fifty prospects, you will need to make 250 calls a week.Based upon how many of your prospecting calls "go through," estimate the amount of time it will take to make those calls, including the time that will be required to have a meaningful conversation once you've gotten into one.4. Get into a positive mental state.Find a place where you won't be interrupted or distracted. Take a few minutes to focus yourself and your thoughts:Be positive. Believe you will succeed. If you fail try again.Be optimistic. Look for the best in people and expect good things to happen.Visualize success. Imagine ALL the emotions you'll feel when you achieve your goal.5. Make the calls. 'Nuff said.While doing so, remember to listen as much (or more) as you talk. According to Crowel, the most common prospecting mistake is failing to notice when prospect wants to buy right now. Listen for stuff like this:"We've been looking to buy something like this.""I was thinking of contacting your firm about this.""Oh, yeah, we definitely need to talk."If you hear something like this, you can skip the script and jump right to the close.Like this post? If so, sign up for the free Sales Source newsletter.

I don’t do a lot of book reviews here at WUL. For one thing, most business books are dreary reads (yes, I said it), and dreary reads are, for me, slow ones. Which means that the time I spend reading a book to (potentially) give it a review is time I could have spent doing something else… either working on my business, or doing something fun. Opinions do not a critique make The other reason is that I don’t think of myself as a book critic. That may seem a weird thing to say, at a time when most people seem to pride themselves on being some kind of critic (or so you’d think, judging by their Facebook posts), and we’re all being encouraged to post our own reviews of this site, and that site, and this book, and that book… why look, what a democratized world we live in! Our opinions matter! But opinions are one thing, informed critiques are another. At least, in my world they are. This is probably why I don’t get asked to do a lot of book reviews. It’s not that I don’t share my opinion of books, occasionally I do. And today I’m going to do just that. Aren’t you lucky?! Civility in the Digital Age The book in question is Civility in the Digital Age, by Andrea Weckerle. Now, I’ve known Andrea for some years, and consider her a colleague. I’ve been impressed with her commitment to CiviliNation, the nonprofit organization she founded, and a few years ago, she helped out one of my students by offering CiviliNation as a mock “client” for the purpose of my class at Hopkins. All of which is to give you some background into how I know and regard Andrea. So when she and Kami Watson Huyse (on CiviliNation’s Board of Directors) asked me if I would like to read her book, to possibly write a review, I agreed. Therefore, please note that I received a free (digital) copy of the book, but the writing of this post is entirely of my own choosing. When I started reading Civility in the Digital Age, I knew it would take me a while. Not because it was a dreary read – it’s actually not – but because it is very thought-provoking. I still haven’t finished it, but if I don’t get this post out the door soon, I never will. Yea or nay? If you’ve stayed with me this far, you’ve figured out that I’m probably going to tell you that, in my opinion, you should read the book. And you’re right. Now, since I haven’t quite finished reading the book (though I almost have!), I can’t tell you whether all the stories it cites are the best ones at hand, or whether it’s a better piece of work than  other comparable works. I can tell you that it’s an important subject, and you and I have talked about it fairly recently here at WUL. So when someone takes the trouble of writing a book about it, especially someone who is a part of our community, I think the least we can do is read it. Andrea shares the stories of some people I know, as well as those of many I don’t. Some stories are familiar, many others are not. And in my unformed opinion, her training and background in conflict resolution and mediation comes across strongly, as there are several exercises to go through, such as determining your conflict style (and don’t tell me you don’t have one, everyone has one). As I’ve been reading, I’ve noticed that Andrea veers quite a bit into privacy and online reputation management because, of course, if online conflicts are not properly managed, they can affect both of those as well. So while I wouldn’t call this a reputation management handbook, there are some very practical tips to do so. The chapter on legal aspects of online disputes and conflicts is very interesting… and aren’t such legalities on everyone’s mind these days? And while the final chapter of the book will probably take more than 30 days to implement (it’s titled a “30-day Plan

Yahoo’s had a busy week. First, they took over Tumblr and then they redesigned their old photo storage service Flickr. (Or was it the other way around?) Flickr’s an interesting beast. Like many aging websites, there was a time when everyone knew it and used it. But in the last few years, people have slowly migrated their photos over to Facebook or Google+ and Flickr’s been on a downhill slide. In order to renew interest, Yahoo invested in a lovely new design that even made me, the girl with only 35 pictures in her account, come back. The new layout features a grid of big, high-resolution photos under a photo header. They also added a new slideshow option with enhancing software that finds the focal point of your photo and makes it better. The photos look great here because you can upload your pics at full resolution. You also don’t have to worry about running out of space because they’re giving everyone a terabyte of space for free. How much is a terabyte? “Well, you could take a photo every hour for forty years without filling one.” Flickr also added the ability to upload videos up to 3 minutes long and they redesigned their Android app to go along with the new webpage design. Wonderful, right? Of course not. There’s trouble in photo paradise as evidenced by this post from the management on the help forum. Hello again everyone. We’ve made some big, giant changes to the site, and it will take some getting used to. We are listening, and value what you all have to say. We are also committed to making sure the new pages are working properly, and will continue to make improvements as we hear more from you. Please do your part to make sure that people coming to the Forum for help or to report bugs and site issues get a chance to be heard. For those of you who have reported bugs or other usability concerns already, we’ll be working over the following days to take stock of ongoing issues and respond when possible. Finally, it should also go without saying that personal attacks against Staff or other users will not be tolerated, and may prevent your ability to take part in discussion here in the Help Forum. Bugs are to be expected with a big change like this but they have to tell people to stop attacking the staff? Wow. Part of the problem stems from the new pricing structure and, as always, ads. Previously, if you wanted to store a lot of photos, you could get a Pro plan for $24.95 a year. Now, all users can get for free what Pro users paid for only with ads. If you want to get rid of the ads, you have to pay $49.99 a year. The only other option is to upgrade to the Doublr account with 2 Terabytes of space and all it will cost you is $499.99 a year. No, I didn’t slip an extra 9 in there. That’s the price. The feedback on the site contains the word ‘hate’ more times than I can count. There are currently over 15,000 responses and I haven’t seen one positive note in the pack. You expect a certain amount of descent whenever you make a major change to a website but this is insane. If you’re looking for a place to archive your massive digital photo collection – the new free Flickr account is a bargain. Just don’t get too attached to the current look. I have a feeling it will change again very soon. There’s a song from the Lil’ Abner movie that comes to mind, it’s called “Put ‘em Back the Way They Was.”

Laila Takeh is Head of Digital Engagement at UNICEF UK, the children’s charity. She kindly agreed to tell us a little bit about her role. If you’re on the hunt for a new challenge then be sure to check out the hundreds of digital roles on the Econsultancy jobs board. Please describe your job! What does a Head of Digital Engagement do? My role has three main areas; leading the organisation's transformation to be digital first, leading day to day digital strategy and managing the digital team. The team works across disciplines - marketing, social, content and technology - so I can be involved in a wide variety of things across the entire organisation. Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to? We work in a hub and spoke model, maintaining a depth of digital expertise in the digital hub, but leading and consulting with the whole organisation so they can deliver digital as an integrated part of their work. So we're cross-organisational. In practical terms I report to the Deputy Director of Fundraising. What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?  I've always likened the skills set you need to that which a product designer would traditionally have. A broad understanding of technicalities, a focus on the product experience, and a good understanding of what will work in the market - then the ability to design and build to an extent. In a cross-organisational team you also need great communication skills to be able to talk to people at all levels of the organisation who have lots of different types of digital literacy and expectations.  A passion for digital is also helpful! In an area that is changing rapidly, it means keeping up with things isn't a labour… it's a love.  Tell us about a typical working day… Following an initial check of emails we start each day with a 10-minute digital team stand up meeting. We share each of our priorities for the day are and flag things in the pipeline or help needed. From then on, a day can be very different dependent on what we're working on and if there's an emergency. Right now Syria is a real priority as the situation is the highest level of emergency. So at least once a week I'm part of a cross-organisational senior team who review the situation, how our activity is doing and we agree next steps to take back to teams. I can then typically have one or more project meetings with team members and suppliers. Recently we've been working on mobile compatibility across the site so there have been a few meetings with Chameleon, Netcel, Clearleft and others at different stages.  When I'm not in meetings I am usually sat at my desk in the centre of the team, asking the team and others questions, responding to requests for guidance or coming up with strategies for our digital first transformation. In amongst all this I also check regularly on twitter (I'm @spirals) for the latest digital news and trends too! What do you love about your job? What sucks? On a personal level I genuinely love being even just a small part of the amazing impact UNICEF has for children all over the world. Even a 'bad day' isn't that bad when you put it into that context. However, it is hard knowing we're still far from every single child having what they need to survive and reach their full potential. On a purely professional level I love the challenges and variety my role throws at me. Sometimes when you first meet someone they can say 'how nice' it is that you work for charity: that sucks as it feels like they don't really understand that people who work in charity are still professionals, probably with less resources and more complexity! What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?  The ultimate goal is change for children, more children living and reaching their full potential. On a day-to-day level in UNICEF UK's work we measure this in fundraising and advocacy terms. How many people are we engaging in t

_kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_519caf81f21fb","Article link clicked",{"Title":"","Page":"How the “Disrupted Generation” Responds to Marketing"}]); _kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_519caf81f232a","Article link clicked",{"Title":"","Page":"How the “Disrupted Generation” Responds to Marketing"}]);In the summer of 2012, as I sat around with my colleagues in our conference room one afternoon, we were jolted by an “aha” moment.  We realized that the coming of age of the newest generation, the iGen (or generation Z) is right now and that there would be another disruption similar, but different, from the one of the past decade. It was time to hustle and really scrutinize this generation, which turned 18 in 2012. So we examined deeper… iGen is a generation born with consumer-driven capitalism at its core and altruism at its heart. Never before has there been a generation so globally plugged in and so informed. We learned that their patterns and behaviors are opposed to anything that has come before them and that they basically ignore messages from brands, unless those brands have earned admittance to their infinite touch points. It is simply in their DNA to listen to their trusted network, rather than controlled messages from brands. We recognized that iGen-ers only care about information if it is relevant to them and, since the power of brand-engagement is in the hands of the consumer, they will serve as their own gatekeepers, awarding relevant information by sharing it with their trusted network of peers and burying irrelevant information so it will be invisible to their peers. This trend is already evident in early studies: 60% of iGen expects relevant advertisements and 46% prefer funny advertisements. We noted that an acceptable bypass into iGen’s circle of trust is to leverage influencers that already have access to iGen’s touch points. These influencers can be anyone from individuals active on social media to just people with a lot of friends or it can also include the professionals in the communication industry. If a brand can ethically earn favor from influencers, then Brian Solis’ one-to-one-to-many process of communication is leveraged. iGen may not listen to brands, but iGen will listen to influencers they trust when they talk about brands. But that trust easily disappears if a voice is perceived as not genuine. iGen-ers do not like to be duped and, if they sniff it out, a brand could find themselves in a full-on public relations crisis. The result of that “aha” moment is my newly launched book, titled Disrupted, From Gen Y to iGen: Communicating with the Next Generation_kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_519caf81f2548","Article link clicked",{"Title":"Disrupted, From Gen Y to iGen: Communicating with the Next Generation","Page":"How the “Disrupted Generation” Responds to Marketing"}]);. It illuminates strategies and tactics on how brands can navigate this new consumer demographic and avoid pitfalls in doing so. It is a time to brace ourselves — and become very, very smart. About the Stefan Pollack: Follow @stefanpollack Stefan Pollack is president of The Pollack PR Marketing Group, an integrated public relations and marketing firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Since 2001, he has taught as an adjunct professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. Stefan Pollack’s book, “Disrupted, From Gen Y to iGen: Communicating with the Next Generation”. To learn more about “Disrupted” visit, www.disruptedbook.comHow the “Disrupted Generation” Responds to Marketing is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy