Being Stephane Dion

I had recently sent this op ed to some prominent newspapers in the country in the hopes that it would get published. The official opposition leader, Stephane Dion has had a rough year and I thought it would be beneficial to air some of my creative marketing ideas he might find useful to know.

Incidentally the major news makers weren't interested in hearing what I said. I only realized this after I had sent this piece off, that newspapers are really mass communication devices. In other words they are the total anti thesis of my blog - which serves a much smaller niche market (see I am a human). My ideas are less likely to spread in mass market newspapers so should that stop me from attempting to spread my ideas?

Absolutely not. Hence why my creative article appears below for those wishing to take a gander:

On How Stephane Dion Can Spread The Message

It is no secret that the Leader of her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is one of the toughest on Parliament Hill. Stephane Dion has been in the job for no less than 12 months and there are already rumblings from his own party that he has to go.

Attention span of consumers (translate: voters) has gone down over recent history. It used to be that party leaders had three kicks at the can before being given the boot, now it looks like Dion may only have one shot at - and only if he agrees to go to polls sooner rather than later.

Stephane this message is directed towards you. Other party leader and politicians alike may read this but this advice I'm about to give you is no more relevant than to you:

1. You were elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. As Donald Trump would say, it doesn't matter how much your opponents lost by, they lost and you won. Do not take this a zero sum game (your Dream Team notion is remarkable). Understand that the buck stops with you.

2. Stop reacting to Stephen Harper's story and start changing it. I know you have been trying very hard to do this but, he has set traps all around the Liberal boat, and you don't have to play his game - unless you want to. This also includes the media. The media loves to cover winners and castrate losers. Right now you are a loser in the media's eyes. This will change if you start changing the story into a winnable idea.

3. Right now you suffer as not being seen as a front runner among voters. Why keep playing that game with media, and your opponents? So why not change the game? Instead of waiting for a TV network to invite you to an interview, why not make your own TV show? Debate Jack Layton and other opponents in public - start in Calgary . Broadcast the whole thing on YouTube, Myspace, Facebook. When you're done, challenge the Prime Minister to debate you, one on one. On your channel. What are they, chicken?

4. Harper has tried to control the message very carefully, and to somewhat of a success. Voters don't care about the "Ottawa Bubble" (i.e. Harper's dislike of the media and vice versa) but they are very concerned about where our planet, economy, and health is headed. Appeal to voters with emotion and senses rather than logic and rational. Please note this is not a trade off of substance for fluff. Find a way to invoke your substance into quick easy to understand sound bytes for Canadians to consider. This is crucial as voter's attention span is at an all time low. Make a "Dion souvenir" that is practical but informative for Canadians to remember you by. Give them to party members across the country to hand out.

5. Your Dream Team idea is excellent. Find ways to create to create other remarkable ideas (see #3) that can be turned into stories that can spread to Canadians. Further you need to get your dream team front and centre, allowing each of them to use their own strengths, and talents, to complement each other and make your leadership even stronger. Parade them around the country as a force to be reckoned with. Find ways to use non traditional ways of communicating with your target base. Hint: not traditional media.

6. Make it a point to visit as many university campuses as possible. After all this is your comfortable turf, and there are countless numbers of Young Liberals and other progressive voters who would love the opportunity to meet you and hear your ideas. Universities are a great marketing tool to engage not only students but many community members as well. If cost is an issue, do a webcast (Think: Alan Greenspan at the Sheraton Centre). Have a funny (but serious) mannequin stand in.

7. Speaking of youth, get the Young Liberals more active. No political party has a more active youth wing (the Conservatives disbanded theirs). Ottawa is full of so many old (and sometime grumpy) people. Surrounding yourself with tomorrow's generation will not only show you as progressive ("and with it"), you might actually learn something from them. They are best source for market research. Make all events free for them. Have senior members to subsidize their involvement in the party. Don't worry those young liberals will turn into regular members who will return the favour down the road. By making this a liberal tradition, it will create a sense of excitement and party engagement that the party has been looking for after throwing the Old Boy's club out.

8. Don't let your perceived lack of charisma become an Achilles heel. Sure you'll never have the charisma of your predecessors, but playing to your strengths (geeky but fun) will make you a more authentic individual in the long run. The party didn't vote for your charisma they voted for your leadership and substance. Play to that. Everyone said Harper was Canada's youngest old man with no personality; It's obvious this is not a prerequisite for the keys to 24 Sussex.

9. Keep your message consistent. And it should be a message that Canadians can remember outside of (and during) an election. Again having the Young Liberals and your Dream Team spread this message is key. It is crucial that you give them the proper marketing tools to do so. Don't assume they can do this on there own - all the more reason to visit them (see #6).

10. Finally don't give up. You are in a Dip but Not on a cliff, understand the difference. People who are in the Dip with perseverance can get out of it. People who quit midway through are never seen or heard from again. Read the Dip by Seth Godin (it's short and easy to understand). Keep Mrs. Dion around for Support, let's see more of her. And most of all never stop smiling, you do it so much better than Stephen Harper. I think he's jealous.


Garrett Saunders is Founder and Agent of Change, of Canadian Beaver Consulting, a Marketing Service Firm in Waterloo, Ontario. He can be reached at marketing.change@gmail.com

On Cell Phones

I used to work for a cell phone dealer (I won't tell you which one), and one thing I learned very quickly was the name of the game for the Big Three (Read: Bell, Rogers, Telus) confusion and staying within the legality (but not spirit) of the law. We always tried our best to explain everything including extra charges, terms and conditions and such, however the game kept changing and customers were more infatuated with their phone then worry ing about the contract they just signed.

This has been shortcut for higher profits for the telecommunication's industry. But no more. CBC.ca has a new special on Cellphones which can hopefully lead to a consumer revolution and a serious market correction.

Using shortcuts and confusion will not lead you to marketing success in the long term. Just ask JetBlue.

On Learning

Recently I went to Toronto to visit a few friends. One of them was my former boss when I worked as an Executive Assistant for the UW Federation of Students. He gave me a tour of his new job (he's a Urban Planner for a Hospital), and two things struck me while conversing with him.

1. His story (read ideas and ambitions) have not changed. In fact they have been very consistent and authentic in terms of his ideological predispositions on society. This is extremely important for personal marketing (and branding) if you wish to effect greater social change.
2. He had difficulty answering a basic question: What is the most important thing you've learned in your position? His non verbal communique suggested I put him in an uncomfortable position. That this type of question is too weird (or worse shouldn't be asked).

After much reflection and thought he came up with an answer - but it didn't seem authentic. You've heard it many times a response just to kinda shut you up and move on. Don't get me wrong I'm pretty sure he's doing an excellent job in his field, but why is it so difficult for people to answer such basic questions? Because they perceive them as loaded questions, and are used to verbose answers with lots of stilted language.

I think answering this fundamental questions is one of the most precious ways to not only market yourself, but help those around you make sense of the world. As Seth Godin puts it: "Being Safe is Risky", remarkable ideas, things, or people don't come from being safe - quite the opposite.

Educating others can be one of the most profitable and rewarding things that you can do. When was the last time you educated someone? Try it, (it doesn't have to be long) short and simple will do just fine in this attention deficit economy.

If You Sell Bubbletea...

Too often many small businesses create loyalty cards to create, well "loyal" customers. This can be done in a variety of ways with a wide range of "strings" attached.

I currently visited my local Bubbletea shop "Sweat Dreams" and I noticed that you don't get a stamp on your "loyalty card" if you order a small size; stamps only apply to large drinks.

Nowhere is this "string" idea told or communicated to the customer. It's only after you make your purchase is the bad news told to you.

Loyalty is created when everyone has an equal opportunity to be treated unique (in this case free bubble tea after X amount of purchases). By creating a double standard or encouraging people to pay more for a size they don't want, you are effectively killing many opportunities for loyalty.

Keeping strings to a minimum or better yet - not hiding them from the customer is just plain good ethical marketing.

Bad ideas spread much faster than good ones.

How are you ensuring that the good ideas are spreading in your organization?

Federal Elections

Political parties rarely (if ever) win because of their international agenda. Rather it's the domestic agenda that really brings the voters to mark an X beside your name.

Why is that you might ask?

Because space and time make it less tangible for the voter and the voter likes tangible items. They want to see things that they can see and touch without having to wait. This is why items like the GST cut are so popular, as the voter sees the immediate savings. Yes I know what your thinking GST cuts aren't the way to go when income taxes are still too high, but how many times do you file your taxes a year? Oh yeah, thats right, only once. How many times do you go buy items at the store with your disposable income? A lot more times than you file your taxes!

So whats a political party to do?

Especially since one needs to demonstrate leadership on the international stage in order to gain power. The answer: campaign about domestic issues, and less about international issues, ensuring a generalized plan for your international platform. Canadians will remember what you promised domestically, and less internationally.

Regardless of the savings and benefit, space and time matter. A LOT

If Your Conrad Black

First stop should be the prestigious Nordstrom to pick up some blush to replace all of the blood that has disappeared from his pale face.

This was an extraordinary case with some pundits claiming this as the trial of the century. It is interesting to note that the public at large was not hurt due to Mr. Black, but rather private shareholders. Yet he himself is facing a long prison term similar to other disgraced corporate figures that not only robbed the piggy bank but stole from mom and pop's pension.

I do not believe Conrad, received a fair trail. The whole notion that the prosecution gets the last word through a final rebuttal of the defense's closing statement, with the idea that they must sit 2-3 times further away from the jury, provides a strategic advantage to the prosecution. Patrick Fitzgerald's assertion that the prosecution deserves this due to the burden of proof being higher for the state, means that they forget that some one's liberty is at stake, and this trial is the result of their (the Government's) actions. Not being able (or willing) to follow the same rules as the defense is indicative of a weak prosecution case, and should raise a reasonable doubt in anyone's mind.

Understand that trial by juries are based on emotion and senses rather than on logic and rationale. This is exactly why the whole idea of corporate perks were constantly thrown on the table for the jury to engulf in. Perks that these low incomers will never ever in their lifetime enjoy, is a classic yield of resentment at its best.

No matter how hard one tries to be logical and rational, they will fail in that act, not because of their effort or intelligence, but due to the simple fact that they are.......(wait for it) a human being. If your a child sex offender your better off with a judge who must employ more logic and rational (otherwise appeals become more frequent) than a jury of mothers of father (who do not have to explain their rationale). In Black''s case the jurors present were not truly reflective of his peers as the social/income disparity was so great, I can't help but wonder if this had anything to do with his conviction.

With that said, this case came down to credibility. Many of the star witness (Radler and the Audit Committee) were completely discredited, with it coming down to who do you believe? The government who wants to bask in the limelight of fighting for the little guy (in this case the shareholders) or the pompous arrogant Black who had made his lifetime story based on cheating (selling exams at Upper Canada college) to deceitfulness (getting the old ladies to sign away their inheritances) to deviance (defying a court order) to another court judge ruling that Black's credibility is as good as the bully in the schoolyard.

It is interesting to note that when talking to any legal scholar or prominent lawyer on this case, there is no consensus of opinion. Just as many thought he would be found guilty, as innocent, and just as many thought Kipanis would walk free, instead of heading to the jail cell.

As you can see Conrad Black has come full circle - From getting expelled out of private school, to using other people's money to fund his empire, to becoming a media magnate, to revoking his Canadian citizenship. to the House of Lords, to his decline and criminal charges. He has led a colourful life that is nothing short of remarkable, and has led to his reputation being shredded into confetti.

It is interesting to note that he has held many anti-Canadian views and seen as sorts, as an American apologist whereby Canada should be absorbed into the U.S. Now he conveniently wants his Canadian Citizenship back and wants nothing to do with the U.S., and according to his lawyers wants to stay in Canada awaiting his sentencing hearing. It remains to be seen though as he is a British citizen if he will be allowed to serve his sentence there instead of in America. There is no doubt he will not be barred from Canadian Citizenship due his conviction. This is Poetic Justice at it's best.

I don't believe Black is done with his life, where he'll just go sit in some Jail cell and start knitting. He is known for his defiance and going against the grain of society and therefore we can expect to hear more from him in the future. Whether this be in new publishing's or in the appeal courts, he is truly the anti-thesis of boring.

On Firing Your Customers

Customers fall into two general camps: angels and devils. Angel customers are people who apologize for wasting the organization's time when they call in, or better yet don't complain. They pay their bills on time, and have nothing but good things to say about their provider.

Devils on the other hand look for any crass opportunity to seize upon. They will call up demanding credits, questionable refunds, and have no problem wasting the organization's time. They have an axe to grind and are looking out for any new potential victim, where exploit their unfair tactics.

Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes. Cause for concern becomes an issue when one moves from one end of the spectrum to the other (especially Angel to Devil), where one should evaluate getting rid of the "Devils".

Recently Sprint has announced the firing of a 1000 or so customers off their cell phone system, due to excessive inquiries and demands.

So whats the idea here?

I guess Spring thought they (the bad customers) were were costing more money than they were actually worth. Seth Godin's article on Sprints flawed logic is bang on, where the 1000 customers complaining too much is a symptom of an even bigger problem.

What companies need to be worried about is moving customers from being Angels to Devils due to their psychopathic/neglectful customer service.

The story that those 1000 "devil" customers had been telling about Sprint, all of a sudden just got that much bigger.