by Asia Matos | Jan 6, 2013 | Marketing
I arrive to work at Arke Systems this past Wednesday and I see a huge pile of magazines and a book on my desk. There’s a note from my boss, and it tells me to read the book by January 29th. Apparently, there’s going to be a class on it and they might send me. I know that anything my boss gives me to read is going to be a good one, so I immediately embrace the assignment. The book is bright orange – certainly eye-catching. It’s a color that I would never brave myself to use in a painting, but still pleasant to see. It’s a “happy” color. I pick the book up and thumb through it, unsure of its contents or its nature. I just know it’s called “Made To Stick” and these two Heath brothers wrote it. I decide not to read while I’m at work. (I’ll wait until I can take it home). I read the introduction – and the first story it opens with is the infamous kidney-harvesting story. I had never heard of it before – and if you haven’t I won’t spoil it for you – but it’s shocking. You find out later that it’s almost entirely untrue, but you don’t know that to begin with. The Heath brothers then guide you on a journey on the fundamentals of sticky ideas. Why do we hold onto sticky ideas? What makes them sticky in the first place? What are you doing to make your ideas un-sticky? They break it down into an acronym: SUCCES(s). Clever, right? It stands for: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible,...
by Asia Matos | Jan 4, 2013 | Marketing
There was a moment the other day that I realized just how much retail lacks great leaders. Retail is an industry that sees a lot of turnover. It’s tough dealing with people everyday. The pay isn’t great. The hours can be unpredictable and rough – especially around the holidays. Everyone has their own walk of life and their own experiences – and not all of them are great. This becomes even more apparent when working in retail because you have to remind yourself of this fact. Everyone is different, so expect an array of shopper behavior. You can imagine just how much harder it is for businesses in retail to find great leaders, and keep them. But when they do find and keep, I notice that these leaders all have something in common: they dive. Great leaders don’t shy away from trouble. They don’t tiptoe around situations. They aren’t shy about taking charge. They dive in. Great leaders almost actively find trouble. Not the kind of trouble that puts them in the corner, but they search for problems they can fix or guide. I think of the elegant diver: poised, confident, twirling, and falling so beautifully before penetrating the water – separating it, parting it. There’s a moment of decision and determination. A moment where the diver thinks, “Alright. I’m doing this. Remember your form.” Am I saying you have to twirl around while helping an angry customer at the register? No (but it might be pretty funny). Have you ever watched an Olympic diver? It’s stunning, and swift. That’s how leaders should be – and some are. Olympic divers don’t...
by Asia Matos | Dec 24, 2012 | Marketing
by Asia Matos | Dec 24, 2012 | Marketing
Digital ego is the beast you encounter when no one likes your statuses. It’s what provokes people to post every gritty detail about their day on Twitter or Facebook, even when the Internet doesn’t seem to care. It’s what keeps people coming back to SecondLife. It’s what has teenagers saying, ” I deserve to be recognized and applauded for my online efforts” in more or less words. It fueled the “like my status if you like my status” phenomenon (apart from a particularly viral video). Digital ego, in a sense, keeps people coming back. It’s also why many of your friends have tried – and failed – to quit social media. When Facebook re-invented social media (remember LiveJournal, AIM, MySpace?), it created a new way for humans to interact with each other. What makes Facebook different is that it caught on with the world. Since October, Facebook hit 1 billion users. That’s 10% of the world’s population, and its popularity is growing. I remember when Facebook blew up. Now, my entire family is on Facebook, and some of my younger family member will have spent their whole lives on social media, assuming something else doesn’t come along the way and beats Zuckerberg’s brainchild into the dust. Even still, children will literally grow up with a separate version of themselves on the Internet. A whole new ego to cater to. Am I saying that its bad? Not at all! At least not yet. The problem with ego is that it has to be fed. Ego is great – it gets you places, brings you drive when you need it most,...
by Asia Matos | Dec 24, 2012 | Marketing
This just happened to me recently. I was researching a security system for my new apartment. I just moved in and have been thinking it wise to invest in some type of alarm in case of intrusion. So I embark – and what I find initially doesn’t seem too terrible. Every website I visit asks for my information so they can provide me with a better quote. I only receive two calls from two different companies – one I recognized, and the other I did not. Not bad right? After visiting Clark Howard, however, I decide that it might be best to wait until I can afford the system that I truly want. I tell this to the two companies and they seem to understand. Three months later, and they still call me twice a day. I was hoping they would take the hint after two weeks of no answer, but no. I’m going to have to answer and explain to them again that I don’t want their service. At all. I can confidently say that I will never recommend either of these brands strictly because of the frequency of the calls and the sheer persistence. It then dawned on me just how dead cold calling is. Most people I know don’t have house phones anymore. The only way to get in touch with someone is to call the cell phone. But imagine how disruptive that is. Almost invasive for some. When I receive a call from a company, I automatically get defensive. It reminds me of when my teenage brother was explaining to me that his friends only...
