Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Communication Strategy, Culture, Experience, Loyalty, Luxury, Premium
So recently I was on a Delta flight when I was handed the menu.
I looked at the food choices but there was one thing that caught my eye above everything …
This …
That’s right … a premium heated nut mix.
Yes they were warm.
Yes, they were a variety of nuts in the small dish.
But premium?
Are they referring to the quality of the nut offered or – as I suspect – the ‘status’ that a warm variety of nuts conveys.
Either way, it smacks of utter pretentious rubbish …
Another example of a marketer who wants to appear ‘upmarket’ while actually demonstrating how desperate they are.
What with premium toilet roll, clingfilm and now nuts … maybe we all need a bit of a rest from this status inflation.
I get people like nice things … I get people will pay more for nice things … but the emphasis is on ‘nice’ and if people can’t tell the difference, then you have a problem and I can tell you Delta, I couldn’t tell the difference between your nuts [ahem] and any cheap-ass nuts I can find in a local pub except they were heated and served in a little dish.
Oh hang on, you probably read that ‘experience’ is better than ownership and so the heat and dish of your nuts were your way of offering a premium experience.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Audio Visual, Communication Strategy, Crap Campaigns In History, Design, Experience, Marketing, Marketing Fail
So I recently saw this ad for the new Philips OLED TV.
It’s a beautiful product and – judging by the description – full of fantastic tech to elevate the watching experience.
Or is it?
You see when I read the first line of the copy, I started to have some doubts.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not questioning the quality of a Bowers & Wilkins sound system – they’re incredible – I’m questioning if the rest of the TV matches B&W’s extremely high standards.
Why?
Have a read of the copy. Carefully.
If you can’t read it, it says this …
“Sound by Bowers & Wilkins for audio that lives up our OLED standard”
That’s right, they forgot to add the word ‘to’ between up and our … resulting in the sort of grammar you could expect from a 3 year old kid.
Or said another way, close … but not perfect.
I know it’s a small thing.
I know mistakes can happen.
But if you are trying to present your product as the highest of standards, it’s not a great look.
Hell, if they can let a word slip in their advertising, what standards have they let slip in making the product?
Philips may claim they’ve just launched the OLED+ standard … but judging by the attention to detail they’ve given their ad, it’s much more OLED-.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Experience, Hotels, Management, Marketing, Relevance, Resonance, Service
One of the places I find most hysterical in the World is San Francisco.
Yes … the entire place.
I find it hysterical because it’s often referred to as a liberal, hippy paradise when the reality is it’s one of the most expensive, exclusive and divisive places on earth.
Of course it wasn’t always this way, but the rise of tech has seen so much money coming into the place, that not only is everything hideously expensive, but the service industry – something America was once famous for – has seemingly given up making any effort whatsoever, safe in the knowledge they’re going to get people giving them money for stuff regardless.
No where is this attitude more prevalent than the hotel industry.
Because there are so many people coming into the place – hotels are almost always full.
What that’s resulted in, is even crappy hotels charging rates plush places in LA would balk at.
Case in point, the hotel I stayed in – The Taj – cost more for 1 night than the 2 nights I stayed at the Ritz Carlton at Marina Del Rey.
Which had a water view.
And breakfast included.
What I got at the Taj, was this …
Now I used to have Taj Hotels as a client.
I know their history and the way they approach their business.
Thanks to the Silicon Valley goldrush … the Taj San Fran doesn’t embody any of them.
In fact, I would say the only thing it’s suitable for, is a Martin Parr photo assignment.
For those who don’t know the brilliant Mr P, he is a photographer who specialises in brilliantly capturing the utterly mundane … usually in Britain.
With that in mind, I’ve written him a letter, dedicated to the experience I had at the Taj SF.
Dear Martin Parr.
If you’re looking for inspiration on what – and where – your next photo project could be, may I suggest The Taj Hotel in San Fran.
Not only does it have the depressingly bland interior design qualities of 1980’s middle England that I know you love love, but it comes with the price tag of a modern of Russian Oligarch.
Even when I came back to the room at 2:30am – after a long day at the office – I was reluctant to sleep there, for fear the rundown averageness of the place would do me irreparable damage in the night.
It is a photo exhibition waiting to happen.
Possibly your finest ever.
I even have a name for the shot … Expensive Beige.
You’re welcome.
Rob
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Emotion, Empathy, Equality, Experience, Management, Marketing Fail, Money, Perspective, Prejudice, Relevance, Resonance, Unfair Life
I know I said there’d be no posts while I’m away, but this is important.
As many of you know, a few weeks ago I wrote about a management style where the goal appears to be to systematically destroy the confidence and self-worth of their employees.
While I suggested a few possible reasons for their approach, the reality is – intentional or not – what they’re doing is abuse, pure and simple.
I am well placed to say this because – as I also wrote in the post – I had once been a victim of it.
Well that post hit a big nerve because within 72 hours, it had been shared thousands of times on Twitter and I received over 250 stories of abuse from people who previously thought they were alone in facing this cruel and debilitating experience.
I must admit I was initially shocked how many people had been affected until I remembered the reason this topic is so rarely talked about is because one of the ways the abusers get away with it is they make the victim feel so worthless, they believe it’s all their fault and so keep quiet out of shame for their supposed inadequacies.
Reading so many stories of pain made me both very sad and very angry and I knew right them that I wanted to do something about it, but the reality is I didn’t know what I could do.
Then I got an email from someone I used to work with …
Rather than tell me they had gone through a similar situation at work – or even their thoughts on my post – they asked if what I’d written was about them.
After telling them that if they feel guilt, then maybe they needed to take a look at how they conducted themselves [because at no point had I mentioned any names or places in my post] I then realised there was a way I could try and help stop this situation happening to others.
Let me introduce you to a site I’ve set up called Corporate Gaslighting.
Corporate Gaslighting [available at TheyTriedToKillMeButI.Live] is my attempt to try and stop this slow, systematic abuse from bad management while also hoping to help those who have been victims of it.
The goal is simple, but hard.
Simple because all I want to do is fill it with people’s [anonymous] stories of their abuse.
Hard because I know how damaging these experiences are and how survival often means burying them deep down inside and kidding yourself they don’t exist … even though you know very well they do and they’re eating you alive.
But the benefits will hopefully be worth it for two key reasons.
For management … my hope is they come and read the stories to be reminded of the responsibility they have for the people they manage. And if they end up reading something they think is specifically about them … then maybe it will force them to look at their actions and behaviours and – for their sake – start to change them.
For victims … my hope is that by either writing their story or reading others, they’ll not only realise they’re not alone in this slow, viscous destruction of self-confidence, but the reasons for it happening have absolutely nothing to do with them and all to do with their managers. If I achieve this, my hope is it helps removes the stigma of guilt and failure we are all made to feel we brought on ourselves … because then it will remove the power abusive managers have over us … allowing us start to valuing ourselves again and [hopefully] giving us the strength to take action rather than only take the abuse
But none of this can happen without stories which is why this post is directing people to the site where they can learn how they can get involved to help themselves and help others.
Corporate Gaslighting isn’t about revenge. It’s about change, help and encouragement.
With that in mind, it has been designed to be a safe place to be vulnerable.
No names. No comments. No judgement.
What happens next is up to you.
I am just here to help.
Thank you.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, Comment, Confidence, Corporate Evil, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Management, Marketing Fail, Money, Perspective, Prejudice, Relevance, Resonance, Unfair Life
So as you read this, I’ll be on a plane to NY.
Which means there’ll be no blog posts for a whole week.
Better yet, when I’m back, there’ll only be some rubbish for a few days because I’ll be going back to America for 10 days.
Seriously, I don’t know why I moved given I’m spending so much time there.
Oh hang on, yes I do …
Anyway, while I’m gone I hope to set up my response to the post I wrote regarding the systematic destruction of employee confidence and optimism by bad managers.
As I mentioned a while back, when I wrote that post, someone wrote to me asking if it was about them.
I told them that if they feel guilt, then maybe they need to take a look at how they conduct themselves because I mentioned no names or places in my post.
Which led to the idea of setting up a blog of corporate gaslighting.
I would love to fill it with anonymous stories of systematic corporate abuse so that anyone who goes there and thinks a story is specifically about their actions, they will be forced to look at their attitude and behaviours and hopefully change them.
As much as I was tempted to name names and destroy careers, the reality is that would just make me as bad as them.
I know that sometimes good people do bad things – often influenced by issues going on in their life we have no knowledge of – which is why my hope is that if they go to this site and recognize some of the behaviors that are being described, it might help jolt them back into the right frame of mind and actively work on changing their approach to their role.
And if it doesn’t?
Well then they’re not a good person and they deserve all they get … which, I hope, will happen more because this site will give the people subjected to this abuse the confidence and reassurance they’re not alone and can take a stand against it, with our backing.
Ultimately, I just want to try and change a situation that is happening much more than people seem to think. Part of this is because the people who subject others to this abuse, make them feel so worthless, they believe it’s all their fault and so reporting it would ultimiately be like advertising their own inadequacies.
Being told you’re wrong is fine when it’s done by people that you feel genuinely care about your improvement. But being told you’re wrong by people who are doing it to protect or further themselves – especially at the expense of someone elses self belief – is abuse, pure and simple.
I recently registered the domain for the website …TheyTriedToKillMeButI.Live
I hope people will help me populate the site and spread the word.
See you in a week.