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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – December 9, 2021 – We Can Do Better Than This
Last weekend, the CEO of Better.com laid off 900 people, nearly 10% of his workforce.
This is certainly not the first big layoff we’ve seen during the pandemic. However, it was highly unusual to do this kind of layoff in a 3-minute Zoom meeting that told people if you’re on this call, you’re the unlucky person being laid off–so long.
This is not a company in financial trouble–they have nearly $1 billion in funding. It’s also not a company known to be kind to its people–former employees talk about previous rude emails from the CEO berating them for being slow and as stupid as dolphins (which is strange–since dolphins are one of the smarter mammals in the sea).
He did apologize for the manner in which he handled this–telling people he was sorry if he embarrassed them. Talk about tone deaf! It was not the people on the receiving end of this who should have been embarrassed!
Sometimes it’s necessary to deliver bad news to your staff. Most of us have been laid off at least once. Stuff happens. But we all remember how we were treated–with respect and dignity, or like excess inventory that has to be jettisoned as quickly as possible.
Perhaps the company name should be changed to wecandobetter.com. Certainly, the rest of us can do better than this in the future.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – December 2, 2021 – Shooting the Messenger
This week we learned of another COVID-19 variant: Omicron.
This new strain appears to be much more transmissible than previous versions, but may not cause as severe disease–it’s too early to tell. It was first identified in South Africa, but has now been found in a dozen or more countries–including the US and Canada.
So what did many countries do? Shut down travel to/from Southern Africa immediately. The problem is that by the time scientists realized this was a new strain, it had already spread to just about every continent. Shutting down borders now is like locking the barn door after the horse has escaped.
This is not only not useful, but it’s punitive for the medical personnel in South Africa who very astutely recognized a new variant and promptly shared their findings with the world.
If we punish those who expose new variants, how likely is it they’ll continue to serve up new information as received–only to be slapped in the face for doing so?
Many businesses talk about being learning organizations where failure is encouraged and not punished. But, in reality, too often the natural instinct is to take out bad news on those who are brave enough to call it to our attention.
The only thing worse than hearing bad news from a messenger is not hearing anything at all–because the messenger was shot down previously.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – November 25, 2021 – With Gratitude
Top of Mind Thursday – November 18, 2021 Whose Ad Was That Anyway?
No one wants to see another boring ad.
We are inundated with thousands of messages a day–most of which aren’t worth our conscious attention. So it makes sense that businesses and brands would try to create memorable spots that burn their images into our brains.
The insurance industry, in particular, has taken this to heart. We have the GEICO gecko, Flo from Progressive, Jake from State Farm, and now the Liberty Mutual LiMu emu.
How effective are these? Well, we do remember them and talk about them. Jake is even in his second lifetime for State Farm.
But now we have an entity called Meta. Meta is the new parent company for Facebook and its assorted businesses. It’s short for the Metaverse, which is the latest virtual reality/computer-generated environment being pushed by the company formerly known as Facebook.
Meta has a new set of ads featuring animated jungle animals chanting Meta in the background. I’ve seen them a number of times now and I still can’t figure out what the message is, what action (if any) I should take after seeing them…and, most importantly. whose ad was that anyway–Meta, who?
Entertaining the audience is fine, but successful branding and marketing builds awareness, consideration, purchase, and preference. It also creates champions who evangelize your product or service to others.
But to do that, I first need to remember who you are and what you’re offering. That’s a metaprinciple to remember–no what what multiverse you’re occupying.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com