More news coming soon re my Dialogue with Nancy Tag, Associate Professor in the Media & Communications Arts Department at The City College of New York, CUNY and author of the recently published, Ad Critique. Nancy and I met through The City College of New York where she interviewed me to be an adjunct in 2009. We’ve continued to stay in touch post my teaching at CCNY (albeit I could do better) and she agreed to the Dialogue- how exciting!

More about Ad Critique by Nancy Tag as pulled from SAGE Publications website:

Ad Critique teaches advertising, marketing, and management students—both the “suits” and the “creatives”—how to effectively judge and critique creativity in advertising. This textbook is an instruction manual, a facilitator of dialogue, and a companion piece to classroom content. Its lessons result in actual skills that enable students to look at the creative product and embolden them to say something constructive and worthwhile.

http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book234424

Cowgirl:

Over the centuries, differences in terrain, climate and the influence of cattle-handling traditions from multiple cultures created several distinct styles of equipment, clothing and animal handling. As the ever-practical cowboy adapted to the modern world, the cowboy’s equipment and techniques also adapted, though many classic traditions are still preserved today. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy)

Pirate:

Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). The term has been used to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. Historically, offenders have usually been apprehended by military personnel and tried by military tribunals. Today the international community is facing many problems in bringing pirates to justice. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy, www.piratesinfo.com/cpi_pirate_history_of_pirates_piracy_510.asp)

Marketers are struggling to foster deep social media connections with consumers. Perhaps it’s time for a little strategic planning. Here’s the deal-

1) Behavior is based on motivation.

2) Despite the proliferation of social media options, social behavior has not changed. I speak to folks a lot about this. IMO, social media behavior reflects actual social behavior tendencies. The person that is inappropriate on social media is inappropriate in other social settings (ever ‘Linked’ with a biz associate on LinkedIn only to learn they talk about their wife or relationships or bodily funtions… given a little ‘time in’ with this person, you’ll see this is how they are in other biz based social situations).

3) We’re not reinventing the wheel in understanding social behavior because of social media. At the present time social media ADDS to existing social tact by enabling communication to be faster, easier, in real-time, and with more reach. In the future, social media will likely be much ‘deeper’ as these attributes get richer/obtain more ‘depth’. No use looking at the future though if we can do better at understanding where we are today…

4) Maslow’s Hierarchy provides a good base (below). Add this to an insight based construct and we’re getting closer to understanding social behavior and motivations in today’s social media world:

(click to enlarge)

5) Taken one more layer in we can use the AlixCompany ‘Me’, ‘My’, ‘Why’ construct to formulate a plan for deeper consumer connectivity:

(click to enlarge)

6) Reach –> Engage –> Convert

More about our deliverables via the About AlixCompany doc-

On Thursday, I attended a small business event which inspired me to create a brief run-down of 2011 progress, wins, lessons, and AlixCompany goals for 2012. I see great things for AlixCompany in the coming year and do hope you will continue to read and join me as it happens.

Progress:

The year started off with LLC registration and a new AlixCompany brand identity communicated through a new website, Twitter page, blog banner (and moved from Blogger to WordPress), business cards, postcards, and thank you cards.

AlixCompany expanded deliverables to include quantitative research analysis, integration management, and Articulation™ services. Clients have continued to call on AlixCompany for qualitative research services and Planner for Awhile (PFA) reflecting the start-up sell and success of those two deliverables.

Other signs of growth and progress include hiring several contractors for AlixCompany project work and booking three projects at one time in one instance and a few double bookings. I’m reminded of some research completed for Office Depot where we spoke with small business owners and learned about various growth progression points. It truly is an exciting time as I personally experience some of those mentally tagged moments.

My interest in giving back through teaching continued through two classes- Market Research and Strategic Messaging with non-profit BiGAUSTIN. In addition, I presented Understanding Consumer Audiences to a few folks through the Austin American Marketing Association chapter.

Lastly, I hired an attorney to register the trademark for Articulation™. It is most certainly an interesting time for business and I think Articulation™ is the perfect way to describe the optimization and implementation of strategic business plans. Clearly, it’s no longer (just) about advertising or social media, or mobile, or digital, or and or and or… It’s about the Articulation™ and providing the best channel connection(s) through an in-depth understanding of the consumer, marketplace, and product dynamic. Center on strategy. Articulate in a strategic fashion.

Wins:

Business has reflected networking efforts and shows both repeat and new customers in the advertising and marketing sectors. A good portion of my business this year came in from Austin and for this I am grateful.

Areas of wins included healthcare, finance, education, footwear, auto racing, beverage, turkey meat packaging, insurance, animal rights, and beef jerky.

Lessons:

I must plug the leadership class taken through SMU’s Cox Executive Education program. I took the 16 week course 2009 and it has truly put another notch in my professional communication belt. Over the course of the year I have needed these tools on occasion. It is so very nice
to have such tools and the proper training for effective communication as I build my business.

Two specific lessons include:

• There’s real value in understanding the perspective of others. Folks do things based on their center. Centers vary. Often times to communicate in business two parties have to find a new center. Perspective helps here. The ability to take a few moments to understand the other person’s viewpoint is imperative for quality conversation.
• Policy change:  AlixCompany now uses, “We work with you to book our own travel”. A couple of experiences this year in this space highlighting the need for a change. If you travel a lot for research you book travel (and travel) differently. When you’re actually doing the traveling– it’s different. Working with our clients to book our own travel is a win-win for the client (cost) and for the qualitative researcher (getting preferred flights).

Goals for 2012:

I look forward to the potential of new business growth in 2012. Specific goals for 2012 include:

• Firming my international offering- more new news coming on that in the coming months.
• For the Dialogues of this Dialogue blog, I’d like to interview Nancy Tag (who is writing a book on “how to deconstruct ads in order to building better advertising”) and John Gerzema (who is writing another book like Spend Shift exploring the macro shifts of consumer behavior).
• I am working through the materials for a new Articulation™ class at BiGAUSTIN and I’d like to get that in order for a first class early in the year.
• I’d also like to buy some office space if having contractors in one spot provides to be an imperative.

Thank you for your readership and for a fantastic year in 2011.

A few Thursday thought-space shares:
– What does “throw away the garbage” mean today?
– It’s all indexable: Google now indexes public comments made on websites that use Facebook, Disqus and other add-ons
– The cost of ‘free’ // you get what you pay for and ‘for free’ is costing more