GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

What percentage of people believe survey results?

Personally, I am skeptical about the proliferation of research purporting to tell us what people think. To me, it is not so much an aid to strategy as a substitute for it. We need to be cautious not to read too much into data when we don’t understand the context or methodology, or we don’t take a hard look at who is paying for it!

But, once in a while, a survey throws up some interesting tidbits – and so it is with the mammoth Gallup World survey that was conducted in 2005-06 and partially released in early July in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Diener, Ng, Harter, Arora). Gallup conducted 136,000 phone interviews in 132 countries in a bold attempt to resolve the “does money buy happiness?” conundrum once and for all. Except that it didn’t – at least not with the clarity Gallup may have hoped for.

Instead, the findings pointed to a clear distinction between two kinds of happiness.

When assessed against long-term measures of happiness – “I am meeting my life goals and living a successful life” – there is a strong correlation with material wealth or lack thereof. People who are well-off financially tend to feel pleased with how their life is going; poorer people are generally dissatisfied.

But day to day happiness – “I am feeling happy today” – is weakly correlated with how rich or poor you are. In other words, whether or not you wake up happy tomorrow morning will be far more influenced by the quality of your relationships and your level of job satisfaction than the weight of your wallet.

Another way to look at these findings is that money buys theoretical happiness but not actual well-being. While it is good to feel satisfied about your healthy bank balance, it is surely just as important to actually live a happy life in the moment.

Gallup made a lot of phone calls to settle on a rather obvious conclusion: money does not buy happiness, at least not on its own. But this is not an either-or proposition. Material wealth brings abundant pleasure and satisfaction, but only when it comes hand in hand with those things that make life worthwhile to begin with: friendship, family, work, love and passion.

Image Source: The Happiness Project

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Last week I posted a couple of homework questions from Lancaster Royal Grammar School’s InspirUS program. If you didn’t get them, don’t feel bad. These problems baffled just about every adult I showed them to. And just think: these are questions for students in grades 3 and 4! In case you don’t remember, here they are again:

1.) What Comes Next?

A E A P A U U U E _ _ _

U O U E _ _ _

P U U _

2.) The Next Line Would Be?

1
11
21
1211
111221

Still stumped? The answers require you to really think outside of the box.

Here’s a bit of explanation. For the first one, if you count the number of letters in each line (including blanks), you’ll notice that they are 12 – 7 – 4. Months, days of the week and seasons. A closer look reveals that these are the second letters of each month, day and season. jAnuary, fEbruary, sUnday, mOnday and so on. Just follow the pattern, and you’ll get:

A E A P A U U U E C O E

U O U E H R A

P U U I

The second one is even more devious. Each line describes the line before it. The first line is “1.” The second line describes that line. There is one 1, or 11. The third line follows suit, pointing out that there are two 1’s in the second line. The fourth line describes the one 2 and the one 1 of the previous line. This can go on forever! Here are the next few lines:

1
1 1
2 1
1 2 1 1
1 1 1 2 2 1
3 1 2 2 1 1
1 3 1 1 2 2 2 1
1 1 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 1

These gifted LRGS students are getting a first class education in creative problem-solving. Thanks so much to teacher Kathryn Page and LRGS Development Director Jenny Cornell for their exceptional work (and for sneaking me the answers!).

Image source: Cool Rewards

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

I’m a firm believer that early education is among the most important determinants of life success. As a high school dropout (actually, I was expelled), I’m well aware that I’ve beaten the odds by achieving success despite my lack of formal education.

And yet, all too often, young people don’t get the instruction and support necessary to help them develop their abilities to the fullest. Far too many young people, particularly those who are gifted, become jaded and bored with school early on, and suffer from a lifelong apathy about education as a result.

In fact, according to a recent study, one in ten Britons aged 15 to 19 aren’t in school. Only four other countries in the developed world have a higher dropout rate.

It’s for this reason that I’m a proud supporter of the InspirUS program at my alma mater, Lancaster Royal Grammar School. InspirUS is an innovative 10-week program aimed at motivating gifted young students to pursue excellence and challenge the limits of their abilities. It’s open to bright students in the Lancaster area in primary school grades 3 and 4, particularly those who are disadvantaged. (Jenny Cornell, the Development Director at LRGS, has written about the program here before.)

The program uses a variety of interdisciplinary lessons to get kids thinking outside-of-the-box. Instead of memorizing trivia or solving arithmetic problems, students engage in exercises that stimulate their imaginations through science, math, art, storytelling, and drama.

In one session based around water, for instance, students are challenged to explain why the percentage of the earth that is covered by water stays the same over time. Looking at a glass of water, students are asked to theorize about where that water might have been before it got to the glass. They’re also instructed to create works of art based on water, and also to strategize about ways to use less water. Not exactly the kind of classroom activities I grew up with!

One of the most rewarding aspects of the program is its focus on failure. It’s common for young people to fear failure so much that they avoid even attempting challenging tasks. InspirUS encourages students to embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and improve. In other words, it instills in students a philosophy of fail fast, fix fast, learn fast.

In January, 209 students from all over Lancaster entered the program. The results have been truly extraordinary. Just look at these parent testimonials:

InspirUS is Catherine’s highlight of the week at school. She is always buzzing when she gets home – we have difficulty getting her to switch off to go to bed! She would like everyday to be like her InspirUS days.

Marianne has enjoyed both the sessions and the homework activities. The challenges & topics used/chosen have really captured her imagination. Thank you very much to all those involved for making it so rewarding. She is hoping you will run more! A summer school week would be good!

Just imagine, kids are actually asking for summer school!

To give you a better idea of the kind of work InspirUS students are doing, I’ve included a two recent homework questions below, set by our inspirational teacher Kathryn Page. Take a crack at them, and I’m sure you’ll see how InspirUS is challenging students to solve problems through creative thinking. I’ll be sure to post the answers later this week.

1.) What Comes Next?

A E A P A U U U E _ _ _
U O U E _ _ _
P U U _

2.) The Next Line Would Be?

1
11
21
1211
111221

Image from the wonderful “internet therapy” website learn something every day by the UK design firm Young.

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Among the most effective ways of inspiring love in the hearts of consumers is through storytelling.

Stories play an indispensable role in the way we see ourselves. The philosopher Daniel Dennett has written extensively about how the capacity to tell stories is a key source of human consciousness. It’s also what makes humans unique from other animals. According to Dennett “our fundamental tactic of self-protection, self-control and self-definition is not spinning webs or building dams, but telling stories.”

Stories permeate our every thought. As psychologist David Schiffrin once wrote, “we dream in narrative, daydream in narrative, remember, anticipate, hope, despair, believe, doubt, plan, revise, criticize, gossip, learn, hate and love by narrative.”

So, it’s no wonder that stories have a seemingly magical power to captivate and inspire.

As technology has advanced over the centuries, our ability to use Sight, Sound and Motion to generate rousing narratives has advanced as well. And when it comes to telling stories that use Sisomo to create rich emotional experiences, Pixar is the uncontested king.

A recent Sunday Times of London story outlines the 10 surprisingly simple rules that Pixar follows when creating their modern masterpieces. The article is for subscribers only, but the rules are as follows:

1. Do Your Research
2. Stay True To The Materials
3. Never Compromise
4. Know Your Characters
5. Be Fearless
6. Make It Timeless
7. Consult The Experts
8. Keep It Simple
9. Ditch the Demographics
10. Break the Rules

For the Pixar team, the story comes first, and they will stop at nothing to ensure that the integrity of the story is protected.

Those who seek to create a Lovemark should take a close look at the Pixar rulebook. The way to inspire both respect and love in the hearts of consumers is to create something that isn’t just a commodity or a brand, but a profound entity with an engaging story behind it.

Just consider the difference between a commodity, like a drug store brand diaper, and a Lovemark like Pampers. When I think of Pampers, I’m brought back to the early days of eldest son Ben’s childhood in Casablanca – some of the most poignant and powerful moments I’ve ever experienced.

When a product can transport you to an emotionally significant place in your life story, it doesn’t matter what it costs or whether or not it performs better than its competitor. It will inspire the kind of loyalty that lasts decades and generations.

Image Credit: Psychology Today

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Nicholas Carr’s new book The Shallows has sparked a lively debate over how the Internet affects our brains. Carr believes that twitter feeds and blog posts have rendered us less able to concentrate on involved intellectual tasks like reading novels or watching opera.

In fact, many notable thinkers have voiced this concern in recent months. Playwright Tom Stoppard recently lamented that, as a result of our “world of technology . . . the printed word is no longer as in demand” as it has been in the past. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has warned that, in the Internet age, “information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment.”

Certainly the content explosion that the Internet has ignited can erode our ability to concentrate. But only if we let it. What makes the Internet such a liberating medium is that individuals can decide for themselves how they use it. If you’re looking to procrastinate, there’s plenty of content to divert your attention (I’m partial to Youtube.)

But the internet can just as easily be a tool for strengthening our minds by enabling us to sample from billions of sources and compile our own unique vision of the world.

For instance, I no longer rely solely on the New York Times for my morning serving of news and analysis. Instead, I read The Times, the NZ Herald, Arts and Letters Daily, The Huffington Post and a half dozen other publications and blogs before breakfast. I can weigh a variety of facts and opinions and use my judgment to decide for myself what to think about the BP oil spill and the Elena Kagan nomination.

In other words, the Internet is the perfect medium for the and/and world that we live in. We all crave substance as well as frivolity, and the Internet is a superb delivery system for both.

Overall, it’s hard to deny that, thanks to the Internet, consumers are now more empowered, informed and free than at any other time in the history of capitalism. Consumers don’t have to trust the potentially inflated claims of marketers and sales representatives. Now, anyone can instantly query a sea of people on Facebook or read product reviews on Amazon.com before making a purchase. They can gather information from company websites, consult message boards and read product review blogs.

It’s this wave of consumer empowerment that has made Lovemarks necessary. With all of this information at their disposal, consumers are no longer interested in the empty hyperbole that characterizes most brand marketing. What they are interested in is emotional experience. And, no matter how much content the Internet makes available to us, real emotional connection will always be in demand.

Image source: Neuronarrative

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

Time’s recent cover story on Thomas Edison, America’s greatest inventor, makes both instructive and inspirational reading.

Aside from patenting over 1,000 ideas in his lifetime, Edison gave birth to the modern ideas-driven organization. As the Time article points out, his Menlo Park “invention factory” was “the forerunner of every business-world creative cockpit, from the Ford engineering center to the Microsoft campus and Google’s Googleplex.”

I’ve always admired Edison’s seemingly endless capacity for innovation. But, after reading the article, I am even more in awe of how focused and productive he was. The Menlo Park laboratory, Edison famously claimed, would produce a minor invention every 10 days, and a major breakthrough every six months.

As if that weren’t enough, Edison’s invention to-do list was ambitious to say the least. It included, among other things, a long-distance telephone transmitter, an electric piano, a new version of the phonograph, and ink for the blind!

Edison is one of the greatest exemplars of the term “purpose-inspired, benefit-driven.” He very deliberately – not casually, not tangentially – sought to make the world a better place. He was an interventionist, a provocateur, a radical optimist.

Edison’s commitment to goal-setting can be directed at more than the future of the world. As I’ve written here before, I have found great success in creating 100 Day Plans. These short-term to-do lists keep me focused on the big picture and prevent me from getting consumed by the urgent at the expense of the important.

How many times have you spent an entire day dealing with immediate problems – sorting through email, going to meetings, straightening up your desk – without devoting any time to your broader goals? The 100 Day Plan is a simple antidote to this problem that only requires a pen and paper.

My 100 Day Plans always consist of about 10 items, each of which starts with a verb and contains no more than three words. This ensures that goals are simple and well-defined. What might be on the President’s 100 Day Plan: Fix Gulf oil. Stimulate jobs. Solve Iraq/Afghanistan. Solve Social Security.

Don’t underestimate the power of this technique. Many of the ideas that Edison wrote down in his notebook are now realities. And it all started with a simple to-do list.

Thomas Edison’s to do list, image source: The Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

What is it about Adidas sneakers that makes me so happy to wear them? Why does New Zealand’s mountainous landscape bring me so much enjoyment?

These sound like rhetorical questions, but Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom wants answers. In his new book How Pleasure Works, Bloom takes a crack at explaining the nature of pleasure. Considering the complexity of his subject matter, the answer he provides is actually quite simple:

“What matters most is not the world as it appears to our senses. Rather, the enjoyment we get from something derives from what we think that thing is.”

When an art collector is told that his favorite Monet is a fake, it dramatically reduces the amount of pleasure he derives from the painting. Even though all that’s changed is the way that he thinks about that work of art.

At the same time, everyday objects that have historical, sentimental, or symbolic significance can create immense pleasure, even though they are otherwise quite ordinary. It’s the reason why, as Bloom points out, a tape measure owned by John F. Kennedy sold at auction for $48,875.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s familiar with the Lovemarks philosophy. A can of Pepsi wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable if it was dispensed in a nondescript paper cup. The Pepsi can, and all of the things it evokes (childhood memories, care-free fun, youthful energy), add vast amounts of pleasure to the experience of drinking the soda.

It’s no wonder that, as Bloom observes, “children think milk and apples taste better if they’re taken out from McDonald’s bags.”

I can understand how many people will find this appalling, but it’s a reality, and Paul Bloom’s book gives me a much richer understanding of why that is.

Image source: The Virtual P.T.A.

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

When it comes to displaying your love for something – person, place, or even product – you can’t get much more extreme and long-lasting than a tattoo. That kind of adoration – a desire for an all-day, every-day tribute on your own body – is clearly Lovemarks territory. In fact, when we launched Lovemarks: The Designers Edition at the Frankfurt bookfair, we had master tattoo artist Adam Craft tattoo a “Loyalty Beyond Reason” design on several volunteers and tattoo aficionados (see the video).

It reminds me of a great quote about brand loyalty: “Retention is for wimps. We measure the percentage of customers who have our name tattooed on one of their body parts” (Harley Davidson annual report would you believe! See more below). These are the customers who plan to stick with you, no matter what, who literally have “skin in the game”. Who will pay to be a walking ad for what you stand for. Who want everyone to know how much you mean to them, how much they love you. The etymology of “branding” actually originates from a process closely linked to tattooing, back when farmers used to burn their mark into the skin of cattle to indicate ownership.

Martin Lindstrom explored the brand-tattoo phenomenon in his 2005 book, Brand Sense, sharing the results of a survey asking which brands people would most want to have tattooed on their arm. (And ask my youngest daughter Bex about Betty Boop!!!)Here’s the top ten:

1. Harley Davidson (18.9%)
2. Disney (14.8%)
3. Coke (7.7%)
4. Google (6.6%)
5. Pepsi (6.1%)
6. Rolex (5.6%)
7. Nike (4.6%)
8. Adidas (3.1%)
9. Absolut (2.6%)
10. Nintendo (1.5%)

Of course, choosing an option in an online questionnaire is one thing – getting inked up is another. Last year, Australian law firm and trademark attorneys Nicholas Weston conducted a survey with 20 tattoo businesses in Melbourne, asking them about the popularity of various brands:

1. Harley Davidson
2. Nike
3. AFL (Australian Rules) club logos
4. Vegemite
5. VB (Victoria Bitter – Australian beer)
6. Disney characters
7. Holden
8. Ford
9. Fox/Alpinestars (motorcross gear)
10. Triple J (Australian radio station)

Their results were significantly more local, but three names remain consistent: Harley Davidson, Nike and Disney. Perhaps it’s bizarre that Disney is up there (although that Mickey’s an iconic fellow!), but it’s no accident that the grand winner of both cases is Harley Davidson. The company has long known that the passion of their customers is more important than any figure on a spreadsheet, as evidenced by this extract from their 1997 Annual Report:

“Customers show their loyalty in different ways. Buying a product says one thing, customers tattooing their bodies with our Bar and Shield says quite another. We see Harley-Davidson tattoos on our customers (and some of our employees) 365 days a year. Our Daytona and Sturgis Bike Week tattoo contests recognize these lifelong customers. What greater evidence is there of the strength of our brand than a customer who wears our name like a badge of honor? Now that’s a passionate commitment.”

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

As anyone who’s ever cheated on a diet, bought an overpriced meal, or voted in an election can tell you, most of our decisions aren’t rational; they’re emotional.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, knows this all too well. His new book The Upside of Irrationality, takes a close look at the many factors that motivate irrational decisions.

The book is chock full of eye-opening insights into human behavior. Perhaps my favorite is something called “The IKEA Effect.” According to this idea, people overvalue the things that they helped to make. That IKEA coffee table you put together might not be worth as much as fine-crafted furniture, but it’s just as valuable to you.

According to Ariely, when instant cake mix was introduced in the 1950s, it wasn’t a popular product. Many housewives found the cooking process to be too easy. It wasn’t until Pillsbury began selling mix that required the home cook to add fresh eggs, milk, and oil that sales took off. This is truly irrational. Why would a consumer prefer a product that made baking more labor-intensive?

I realized when I read this that, with the IKEA Effect, Ariely has struck upon one of the key ideas driving our Participation Economy. Enabling consumers to participate in the creation of a product – whether it be sweetening their own drink at Starbucks or designing their own pair of Converse sneakers – is a way of making that product matter on an emotional level.

Only when a product engages a consumer and becomes a valuable part of that person’s life can it inspire loyalty beyond reason. IKEA may not be the furniture store that provides the best furniture for the lowest price, but it has become the world’s largest home furniture retailer nonetheless.

Like any successful company in the Participation Economy, IKEA’s secret is that it has found a way to forge an emotional connection with its customers.

Image Source: Ramiro Casó Blog

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GUEST POST from Kevin Roberts

In order to thrive in a Participation Economy, traditional media outlets like newspapers and magazines will need transformational ideas. Especially when it comes to creating revenue in an age of free content.

Of all companies, Starbucks might have happened upon just such an idea. Next month, the coffee giant will begin offering free wi-fi in all of its American locations. No big deal in this – but soon, Starbucks customers will also have unrestricted access to a variety of pay sites, including the Wall Street Journal.

This is an innovative way of avoiding the dreaded “pay wall,” without giving content away gratis. Publishers get paid for their content, Starbucks gets to offer an exclusive service that will surely help sell more coffee, and customers save potentially hundreds of dollars in subscription fees.

As we’ve seen, the emergence of the Participation Economy has been both good and bad for the media industry.

Today, anyone with an internet connection can access a wide array of content – from the Washington Post to their friend’s latest blog post, from the Drudge Report to the Colbert Report – and decide for themselves what’s worth their time. In fact, only 7 percent of Americans get their news from a single platform.

At the same time, technologies like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter allow every connected person to create, distribute, and comment on media without getting out of their pajamas.

Media of all forms has never been more engagingly diverse. But traditional media outlets, as we know, are in the lurch. The truth is, one way or another, high-quality content will need to be paid for.

Figuring out how to do that, without disrupting the dynamic media environment that free content has created, will require wild experimentation. If content producers are going to discover the breakthrough ideas that will keep mainstream media thriving for years to come, they need to adopt a philosophy of fail fast, learn fast, and fix fast.

Image Source: Paulino Figuerido DPP

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