A razor blade business

I hate to use the word "hate." But one universal hate is arriving at the copy machine only to find it out of paper. Anyone I've seen in this situation swears the name of the prior user as "lazy." As much as I abhor filling up the copier I've found a new machine that's a joy to fill. Over the holidays my wife purchased a Keurig single-cup coffee maker at Costco. (Yes, it was actually ON her shopping list.) The coffee tastes great, there's no waste, no mess and it's fun. We've been happily tasting our way through the K-Cup samples. On a day where the Detroit temp might hit a high of 4 degrees I can't underestimate the warming factor. And our house smells great, too.

What to post AND what not to post

I spend my time racking my brain with what's appropriate (appropriately pithy) to post on this blog. Yesterday I got into a conversation with a couple of attorneys (thankfully they weren't charging me by the hour) about what's ok to post. The question was, "does your company have a formal policy?"

We do not have a formal Twitter/Blog policy at SMZ. Although the inquiry inspired addressing the matter. In doing some research (online of course) I came across a two-word policy that says almost all that needs saying: "be professional."

I have had frequent discussions with my daughters reminding them never to post/text/tweet anything about their friends that they wouldn't be comfortable saying face-to-face. Or for that matter that they wouldn't want their parents to see. That advice seems reasonable in business communications, too.

And since my mom is an occasional reader of this blog I'm practicing what I preach.

The Wine Arrives

The traditional gift of a bottle of wine is one of the holiday "joys" in the advertising business. Recently I read a piece in Running Times Magazine that connects wine and running (two of my passions) in a fashion beyond the "a glass a day is good for your heart."

While years of experience can give you great insight into your terroir, one of the dangers is that we become stale, mentally and physically, just as the soil in an agricultural terroir can when used to grow the same thing year after year after year. Change, either small or great, may reinvigorate your running.

Applies to our business, too. Might I suggest thinking about it over a nice glass of merlot.

Good to the last drop

The other day I asked my sister-in-law a trivia question? Who is credited with Maxwell House's famous line, "good to the last drop." She didn't get a chance to answer me yet given that she's been swamped at her new job. That's at Kraft, seller of Maxwell House.

But all that trivia ceased to matter hours later when my wife rang me from the pediatrician's office. Our daughter Brooke, who's 14 years-old had developed a serious infection on her leg. Later that evening we found ourselves rapidly admitted to Huron Valley-Sinai hospital. Within 90 minutes my daughter had received an I/V and started on a course of antibiotics. She was in the hospital for three days receiving wonderful care every second. Those antibiotics may have saved her life and, while contributing to the high cost of health care, they were certainly good to the last drop.

To bring all of this together, our coffee sloganeer made national health insurance one of the major planks of the Progressive party during the 1912 presidential campaign. If you answered Teddy Roosevelt, you're right on both accounts.

Being a Givergetter

While working on holiday ideas for the Michigan Lottery we had a simple strategy: good to give, great to get. That approach held true as SMZ looked for a way to commemorate our 80th year in business.

The article from the Oakland Press tells the story best.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2009/12/05/business/doc4b1a54e0486dd329319111.txt

The Fortune Cookie Game

Remember sitting around the table at a Chinese restaurant and the fortune cookies are served? Someone invariably reads their fortune and adds, with a giggle, the words "in bed" to the printed fortune. (Example: Tomorrow will be a great day in bed.)

Imagine accenture's surprise when this ad appeared in Forbes Magazine earlier in the week. (Maybe it was in "Fortune" too?) Play the fortune cookie game and the Tiger Woods double entendre takes on multiple meanings. I am NOT jumping on sensationalist tabloid speculation around a private issue. Rather, as an ad guy, I'm simply recognizing that celebrity spokespeople are fraught with danger regardless of how squeaky clean they might appear. The spokesperson can represent something one day and something entirely different the next. So be careful who you allow your brand to get "in bed" with. You might just end up OB (that's out-of-bounds to the non-golfer).

Breaking The Cycle

My friend Mike Fezzey, president and general manager of WJR Radio in Detroit tells a story.

I have a new neighbor. He just moved here from Chicago and he's excited about the move. So my neighbor goes to the dry cleaner and tells the woman at the counter that he just moved here. "Why would you do that?" she says. He goes to the supermarket and the same thing happens.

Here's a guy who relocated his business and employees to Michigan to take advantage of our skilled workforce, low cost-of-living, quality healthcare system and world-class educational institutions. And the very citizens of his new community are asking him why he came here. So Mike got fed up. And rightly so. That's why he's using his radio station to launch a bold initiative called Breaking the Cycle.

Breaking the Cycle will recognize Detroiters who are doing something to break the chain of negatives about Detroit. These are individuals who otherwise wouldn't be recognized for their efforts. I'm behind this initiative 100%. If we don't have internal champions for the Detroit Metro area, how can we expect anyone to be an external champion.

Whenever the chain comes off my bike I think that fixing the cycle is hard. What's really hard is breaking the cycle of negativism that surrounds Detroit. But I have my helmet on and am along for the uphill ride.