Einstein, Lincoln and Carroll: Still not crazy after all these years.
January 31, 2012 by Chris Amrhein · Leave a Comment
“Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.” — Albert Einstein
In other words, beware trusting your future to false conclusions drawn from real facts. If he hadn’t died in 1955, I’d swear Einstein was describing what passes for common knowledge or collective wisdom these days. Consider the following:
- Omega-3 fatty acids top every healthy eating list, single-handedly driving salmon to the top of the healthy eating food chain; except a massive recent study found they also create two and a half times the risk of men getting aggressive high grade prostate cancer ().
- Dark chocolate in modest amounts is great for you; until a recent study found so are chocolate milkshakes, milk chocolate, chocolate drinks – and the more the better!
- Wine was discovered to be good for you, delighting oenophiles everywhere and driving sales of resveratrol supplements sales through the roof – until a recent study found beer works just as well, delighting sports fans everywhere. Read more
The Myth of 24/7
January 24, 2012 by Rick Morgan · 2 Comments
When I speak with insurance agents and brokers, I hear a common belief that in today’s world, 24/7 availability is required to be competitive. And who can blame them? In our instant gratification society there is an expectation that consumers want full access to all information whenever they want it.
But what exactly does “24/7” mean and is it really necessary?
If you believe the argument that auto insurance is a commodity, then the 24/7 expectation is justified. Yet, what your customers are buying from you, the agent, is more than a quote or a policy—they also are getting a personalized service built on a trusted relationship. Perhaps geckos don’t sleep but living, breathing insurance agents need their rest. Read more
Going Up—The importance of an “elevator speech”
January 17, 2012 by askidmore · Leave a Comment
Can you describe your brand accurately? Can you do so in the amount of time it might take for a short elevator ride?
Only those who truly understand what makes their brand unique can deliver what’s sometimes called an “elevator speech”—that is, a descriptive couple of sentences that are clear, succinct and framed from the perspective of the customer. Not only should you be able to deliver this elevator speech, but so should everyone in your company.
Give it a try—it may be harder than you think. Ask those you work with what they might say too. In most companies, the answer will be different from person to person and department to department. If you find a dramatic divergence in answers, it may be time for some inside marketing so you can ultimately deliver a more powerful, consistent marketing message to the outside world as well.
We’re not talking about developing a clever ad campaign or a memorable tag line. In reality, those things should ultimately flow from some of the insight gleaned from a good elevator speech. Instead, the goal is to answer one of the most common questions in the book, “What do you do?”
To craft a truly engaging elevator speech you need to answer two basic questions:
- What do we do better than anyone else?
- How does it benefit the customer or client? Read more
Tebow This: Does Your Brand’s Muscle Memory Need Changing?
January 10, 2012 by Charles Wasilewski · 2 Comments
Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos starting quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner -- and rebranding lesson
Tim Tebow was the biggest brand in college football just three years ago. During a career at the University of Florida from 2006-9, he set records in career passing efficiency and total rushing touchdowns in the Southeastern Conference (considered by many football fans to be the most competitive conference in the country).
Tebow’s teams sported a 48-7 record during his four-year career and won two national championships. He won the Heisman Trophy, emblematic of college football’s best player, in 2007, when he became the first college football player to both rush and pass for 20 or more touchdowns in a single season.
Now, Tebow is among the biggest brands in professional football, in just his second National Football League season. His number 15 Denver Broncos jersey is the largest-selling among all NFL players. Last weekend, he threw a game-winning touchdown pass in the first play of overtime to capture Denver’s first playoff victory in six years — spawning a record 9,420 tweets per second, according to Twitter.
But the two Tim Tebows are totally different brands, even though both have been successful.
So, what would one of the most-successful college quarterbacks of all time even need or want to change? Read more
Zoo: Make Our Pet Project Your Own
Just before Christmas, Peter shared with blog readers five ideas to unwind. The Aartrijk humans—and probably a lot of clients and other friends—heeded the advice. When that happened, we, the members of the Aartrijk Zoo, sprang into action. We figured out how to surf the web, and started communicating with each other. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, including a post Mariane wrote a while back about supporting our communities.
While we were wandering online, we came across the Mozilla Firefox Challenge and its support of a fundraising drive by actor Paul Rudd to help Rolling Dog Farm. The farm, in northern New Hampshire, rescues and shelters disabled animals. Every animal that arrives at Rolling Dog Farm gets another chance to have a safe and loving home. Its residents include blind dogs, blind horses, deaf dogs, blind cats, and animals with other neurological and orthopedic disabilities.
All of this got us thinking. It’s easy to talk about contemplating what’s important and about giving back. But talk is cheap (unless you’re not on an unlimited cell-phone plan, but that’s another story.) So without getting any of my fellow zoo-mates in trouble (Peter is the one who made one of us Chief Security Officer), we put a plan in place for our own “pet project.” (ha ha, get it?)
We created our own fundraising page. And we started sharing on Facebook. We scavenged around the offices and cobbled together a donation. Because I lost an eye to cancer and because I live in Norther Hew Hampshire, I can relate to the animals at Rolling Dog Farm, so I made a donation of my own. We’d love for you to donate, too. Every little bit helps. Read more
5 Holiday Thoughts
December 23, 2011 by Peter van Aartrijk · Leave a Comment
Admit it. You tried to cram four weeks’ worth of work into the first two weeks in December.
Doesn’t matter if you were successful—the holidays now are here. It’s a great time to unwind, although you may have to work at it. Here are five ideas to do that:
Idea #1: Get to know the family again. Unplug the technology schmutz, turn off the cell phone, close that flap on the iPad—even move away from the TV. The family is the only thing you have that’s permanent in life.
Idea #2: For half a day before January 3, get out the office, get out of the house, and get out of the box you’re in. Take a pad of paper and pen with you. Jot down some ideas about where you’d like to go in life and business. Big ideas, big ideals, big things. You might sketch out some pictures of where you’d like to be with your firm, your job, or yourself. You might come up with a to-do list (tactics) after you think big (strategy).
Idea #3: This holiday season, make an effort to actually talk with people—in person! (I posted about that amazing concept earlier this year.) Read more
It’s Christmas Eve. Let’s Go to Grandmother’s House (on Facebook)!
December 20, 2011 by Charles Wasilewski · 1 Comment
“Over the river and through the woods,
To Grandmother’s house we go;
The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh,
Through (the) white and drifted snow!”
– traditional children’s song
Those who don’t get to Grandmother’s house by horse and sleigh (or airplane, bus, car, or train) are now traveling there via Facebook. They’re going to all kinds of places on the social networking site.
Facebook.com was the most-visited web site on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009, and on New Year’s Day 2010, according to data reported by Experian Hitwise. “Facebook” was also Read more
What’s Your Brand Anatomy?
December 12, 2011 by Peter van Aartrijk · Leave a Comment
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’”
—Dave Barry
That’s an excerpt from Dave’s birthday message to fans a few years back, in which he announced the “Sixteen things it took me 50 years to learn”. There are some other real gems in there.
I agree with Mr. Barry on meetings, so why in the world would Aartrijk pile on with yet another meeting—our Brand Camp? Don’t insurance and financial services pros meet enough? Of course, and that’s why we’re aiming to alter and improve the very essence of what we call a “meeting,” or for that matter, a conference, seminar, workshop, speech, etc.
If Aartrijk can contribute to changing the rules of the game, perhaps we can show how the future of face-to-face meetings could be in our industry. Because, let’s admit it, as human beings we need to meet—and we like to meet, especially if it’s fun. Read more
Black Friday: More Than Just A Deal
November 28, 2011 by Mariane Ceballo · Leave a Comment
On the eve of Black Friday, I found myself caught up in the chaos in hopes of scoring a 44” TV for a mere $199. I stood outside of the local Best Buy with a few thousand of my closest friends, huddling with some for warmth and avoiding others who apparently got their licenses in a gumball machine. Some tried to hold their place in line with a car, while others took turns with their friends who ran for coffee to keep warm. All for a TV!
As I stood there, feet going numb, wondering if I had any chance of landing my “prize,” I thought about my week at work, and specifically, about one of Aartrijk’s clients, the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), which seeks to help communities and enrich lives by combining the collective strengths of the industry to provide grants, volunteer service and leadership.
I thought: Wouldn’t it be amazing if instead of standing in an endless line at the hopes of purchasing a low-cost TV, thousands lined up to provide help and support for the communities in which they live? Instead of focusing on the “deal at hand,” can you imagine the impact thousands of people could have in a three to five-hour window, helping people less fortunate? Read more
Being a Man of Words in a “140 Character Limit” World
November 21, 2011 by Chris Amrhein · 1 Comment
I seem to be the “what’s old is new again” guy around these parts, what with once proclaiming Facebook to be just my Grandmother’s old front porch in digital form. And a recent experience leads me down that road once again.
It would appear that “less is more” has become the new given in communications. Multipage memos begat one-page faxes, which begat short voice mails, which begat one-paragraph emails, which began five-sentence instant messages, which begat 140 characters on Twitter.
And note that limit: “characters,” not “words.” I had a client ask me how to edit down his LinkedIn profile after what was thought to be room for 500 words turned out to be space for 500 characters. Makes me wonder if there is a high school English teacher somewhere now assigning term papers that must be “at least 5,000 characters in length”—including spaces, excluding footnotes. Or should I say “footcharacters.”
Sigh. Read more