Category

Brands

Make it Better

By Associations, Brands, Inspirations, Strategic Thinking, Uncategorized No Comments

Here at MonkeyBar Management, we have (precious few) guiding principles.

One of them essentially is, “When we don’t do it right, we make it right.”
(Another is that we don’t work with bullies or jerks, but that’s the subject for another post.)

In case you missed it, in advertising news this week, Arby’s somehow had missed honoring a detail of their advertising deal with PepsiCo:  feature Pepsi alongside Arby’s food in two commercials. (That specification was likely in “the fine print,” and clearly it had fallen off of someone’s radar screen and it got missed. It happens.)

And someone at PepsiCo (rightly) called them on it.

Arby’s did three things:
1) they acknowledged the mistake
2) they collaborated with their agency to fix it in a way that didn’t jeopardize all their other creative efforts
3) they took a risk to be human

Their agency (Fallon) went out on a limb and suggested a new ad (if I had to guess, crafted by a probably exhausted and possibly frustrated creative team). An ad that could have been rejected by “the suits,” but one which the savvy humans on the team Arby’s (and then Pepsi) both agreed to run:

And it’s kind of brilliant*.

(*Brilliant, if you know the backstory.  But even if you don’t, it surely accomplishes MORE THAN the letter and the spirit of their agreement with PepsiCo, which surely was the primary audience for this “fix it” job.)

How you behave when you’ve screwed something up is a measure of who you are.

Do you reluctantly fix it, or do you go above and beyond?

Do you “blamestorm,” bluster, make excuses and generally become a pain to work with?

Do you awkwardly try to cover up the goof, or do you own it, ask for forgiveness, and make it right?

When you have the opportunity to make it right, make it memorable.

Don’t just make it right — make it better.

Who are you?

By Brands, Ethics, Real Life, Uncategorized No Comments

How do you behave when you don’t think anyone is watching?

That’s who you really are. You can dress up, behave well in a press conference, say what you think people want to hear when the boss (or the customer) asks, but how you behave in the moments when you believe no one is watching is what defines you.

In case you’ve missed the scandalous video of the week, Ray Rice (of US Football, NFL / Baltimore Ravens fame) basically knocked out his then-fiancee in an elevator as they were leaving a casino. They apparently were having a “spat” prior to this moment, and body language tells me it is plausible that she wasn’t saying loving things to him just prior to this action. In this moment on silent film, he was the one with the left hook. He hit her, her head hit the wall, and she hit the floor. And lay there, motionless, as the elevator doors opened. It’s difficult to watch.

I gasped when I saw it for the first time. I suspect many did.

But he didn’t appear to gasp. He seemed unfazed by what he had just done. His actions didn’t shock him into awareness, he didn’t bend down over her, apologizing, and scooping her up affectionately, cooing, “I didn’t mean it, sweetie…”
(To be fair, none of those reactions would have made the initial blow remotely acceptable … but they would surely have said something about his character. Anyone can “lose it” in a given moment, but his lack of reaction after that moment indicates a disturbing underlying callousness, raising suspicion of a pattern of behavior.)

Rather, he crudely shoved her lifeless body out of the elevator, stopping to pick up her shoe in what could be interpreted as a bit of disgust before stepping ahead and dragging her out. (That “outside the elevator” video is what originally went public.) But at least one – and likely both – of them knew what had really happened inside the elevator. Their “united front” press conference (post video #1) could have gone differently (and, I suspect, preserved his career and family): “we realize now that our once-loving relationship has developed into an abusive one, and we know that isn’t acceptable. We are using this moment to hold up domestic violence as an important issue in our society, and to say that we want to be better. We are going to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and we are actively seeking help to become better people and better partners to each other. We ask that you give us time and privacy to do that.”

But they (he) didn’t do any of that. (To be fair, she is the victim here, he is the celebrity, and I don’t know that she would have had much influence over his actions at that moment). Ray Rice lied by omission to the public, upon whom his family’s livelihood relies. And when they thought no one was watching, his employer (the NFL) tried to sweep this issue under the carpet, to hope that it wouldn’t detract from the pomp and circumstance (and massive revenues) of opening week. They surely hoped that it would go away, and that they wouldn’t have to address the fact that in some years, up to 20%* of their players on the field have been arrested or indicted of crimes ranging from fraud to domestic violence to homicide. But the carpet sweeping didn’t work. The release of the second video from inside the elevator showed us the ugly truth that the Rices (and surely others) already knew. And now, the hammer of public opinion has come down on the Rices and the NFL, as it should.

I don’t claim to understand the Rice’s relationship (relationships are complicated).
I don’t claim to understand the massively complicated issues attached to running a business like the NFL.
But I do understand what it means to do the right thing, especially when someone is watching. And the fact that everyone thought “none of us were watching” as this situation unfolded is as much an indictment on us as a society as anything. Hopefully the silver lining on this (if there is any good that can come from being hit in the face by your soon-to-be-husband) is that this public scrutiny provides the Rices with the opportunity to get help, and provides our society with an opportunity for an important conversation about domestic violence. Janay and Ray Rice could be any of us (abusive relationships can go both ways), and I fear for them. Humans are all animals, at our most dangerous when placed in corners and starved of resources. Ray Rice can still turn this around – for himself, for her, for their family. The NFL can use this opportunity to do great good, starting with cleaning their own house. But the clock is ticking, and it will take all the players here admitting who they really are.

How do you behave when no one is watching?
Do you do the right thing even when it’s the hard thing?
Who is your business when no one is “mystery shopping”?
What do you want cameras to catch you and your team doing?
Start doing it. Keep doing it. Even when it’s hard. Even when it costs you.
When it’s all gone wrong, step up to make it right.
Be a better person. Be a better company.
Someone is always watching.

 

*statistic from Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL by Jeff Benedict/Don Yaeger

photo credit: Pippalou from Morguefile

Everything Speaks

By Associations, Brands, Managing Change, Real Life, Retail, Stuff We Adore No Comments

How much would I have to spend at Macy’s in order to get a bag as nice as I just got to carry two $8  burritos home from Chipotle?

My husband asked last night (over the aforementioned takeout dinner.)

“$400? $500? I’m serious. I don’t think they even have an option anymore other than those cheap plastic bags whose handles rip before you get to the car.”

A whole brand experience, summarized in our snarky comments about a flimsy (and it IS flimsy) printed piece of plastic.

Not entirely fair, no. But accurate. And consumer perception is reality.

Macy’s has (apparently) invested an incredible amount of corporate resource to curate their “fashion brands” … (Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart, Trump, etc.) and yet every customer who walks out of the store with these “investment pieces” carries them in something (far) less durable than a kitchen trash bag? (A bag which is likely bundled up and carried through the last 1/4 mile of parking lot in a clenched fist like a cheap version of Santa’s sack when the handles pull through?) We’re not talking about the new brands they launched this season over dinner, we’re discussing the memorably-shoddy quality of the container used to carry out the merchandise.  (We’re dorks who spend a fair amount of time laughing over their painfully long 6-point-font sale exclusions policy language as well, but I digress.)

EVERYTHING about your brand sends a message to the customer.

(I offer for contrast the reuseable fabric bags I just lovingly folded up and carried home in my suitcase from  Lululemon and Hot Mama, both laden with inspirational messaging designed to resonate with their largely-female consumers, a consumer I presume they share with Macy’s.)

You know, it wasn’t always this way. I remember handled paper Macy’s bags from Christmases past, perhaps even with some sort of holiday messaging or – gasp – grommets and rope handles?  (It’s just dawning on me that I might have a bag fetish.) I must presume that somewhere along the line a cost-cutting decision was made at Macy’s. Has anyone looked at that decision recently with fresh eyes, asking “what does this say about us?”  and “is this consistent with the brand experience our customers expect?”

Brands are living organisms that exist in a complex and constantly changing ecosystem. I bet no one sitting in a ‘brand identity’ meeting at Macy’s today has any idea they are being compared with Chipotle, and yet they are. No brand experience lives in a vacuum. Your consumers compare the experience at your store (the products, the sullen cashier, the restrooms, the lighting, the music, and yes – THE BAGS)  to every other restaurant, hotel, store, that we’ve been in recently:  whether you see them as “your competition” or not.

When your fancy department store offers a less inspiring ending experience than a fast food transaction,

When your independent retail staff cultivates less project assistance or visual inspiration than a “big box” store,

When it is (far) less frustrating for a customer to order something online from you than to muddle her way through your in-store experience,

(And, lest you think I’ve forgotten the nonprofit organizations,) When your pricey annual association membership offers a less educational interaction or a less connected network than participating in a virtual group through Facebook, Linked In, or a magazine,

…  you’ve got some soul searching to do.

Everything speaks.  Are you listening?

 

HotMama

ChipotleLululemonphoto credit:  my bags, taken with my Android.  Apologies to Macy’s that their bag isn’t shown – it wasn’t worth keeping after the last trip.