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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – November 11, 2021 – 11/11 at 11
On November 11, 1918 at 11:00 am, a ceasefire agreement was signed ending World War I.
We call this Veterans’ Day in the US, but the day is also, celebrated as Armistice Day in some countries. In Australia, it’s called Remembrance Day.
Ten years ago, I had the opportunity to be in Melbourne, Australia on Remembrance Day, where there is an annual celebration each year at the Shrine of Remembrance. The Shrine is built so that at exactly 11am on November 11th a natural ray of sunlight shines on the Stone of Remembrance and illuminates the word “love.”
We were part of a large crowd of people who queued up to enter the Shrine as close to 11am as possible to see this phenomenon and participate in the annual ceremony honoring those Australians who were killed in various military conflicts, both before and after 1918. It was a powerful, solemn experience.
Here, banks and post offices are closed on Veterans Day. There are a few parades and tributes to those who served in the armed forces, and, of course, we have special Veterans Day sales.
At a time when we see so much conflict–both across the world and at home–it’s worth taking time out of our daily lives to remember the sacrifice of the men and women who died for their country so that we can enjoy our freedom and way of life.
Perhaps we can find a way to carry this ray of light with us throughout the year to come.
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 4, 2021: Supply Chain Scapegoat
Prices rising? Empty store shelves? Not enough new cars? Holiday deliveries delayed? Blame the supply chain–everyone else is.
We’ve been told shipments are delayed due to disruptions in the supply chain because of the pandemic. Factories aren’t able to have enough production–which impacts the supply chain. There aren’t enough people to unload container ships, drive trucks, or work in “essential jobs.” All of these disrupt the supply chain.
While it’s true that there have been disruptions in how goods get from manufacturing through distribution to the consumer, it doesn’t make sense to blame this on the supply chain itself. The real question is why is the supply chain disrupted?
We’ve turned cause and effect upside down: the disruption is the effect, not the cause. Eighteen months ago, the cause was sickness, death , and lockdowns caused by COVID. Now in addition to the fear of illness, we see people leaving their jobs because of low wages, frustration with poor working conditions, and stressful working environments.
Here’s the problem: You can’t change a situation by focusing on the effect. Instead of complaining about the result, we need to determine the root cause then take steps to fix those issues.
Much more effective than just blaming a scapegoat.
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 – October 28, 2021 – No Time to Die
Last week, a cinematographer on the set of a Western being shot near Santa Fe, NM was shot and killed by a gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin.
While the investigation into how this occurred is still underway, what’s been revealed so far indicates this movie set was an accident waiting to happen.
Union crew had walked off the set earlier that day to protest poor working conditions. The assistant director was careless with firearms (which caused him to be fired from his previous job). The armorer was a young girl who admitted to being new on the job. The gun in question had been used for target practice earlier that day, which is likely how the live round wound up in the chamber–yet Baldwin was told this was a “cold” gun (without ammunition).
Movie and TV productions have very stringent procedures to follow regarding firearms: Who is allowed to handle guns, how they are to be stored, how they’re to be cleared before being given to an actor, how ammunition is to be stored, etc. None of those guidelines appear to have been followed here. The result is one woman is dead and a second person injured.
There’s plenty of blame to go around here, and lawsuits are sure to be filed. There may even be criminal indictments for involuntary manslaughter. But there’s a lesson here for all of us.
While we all have a number of safety rules and regulations in our workplaces, most of us likely ignore them. When was the last time you paid close attention to the safety demonstration on an airplane? Yet, we ignore these safeguards at our peril.
In a workplace where safety takes a back seat to profit or time to market, bad things will eventually happen. Most of the time, this might result in only minor injuries, but the consequences could also be a lot worse. The time to reinforce procedures is NOW, not after someone’s been accidentally shot.
If the Rust production had paid closer attention to this, things would be different. Last week was no time for Halyna Hutchins to die.
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 – October 21, 2021 – How About a Little Pumpkin With That?
It’s October. The time of year when thoughts inevitably turn to shorter days, falling leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and. . . Pumpkin Spice Everything?
Pumpkin has always been associated with Fall, but we’ve moved way beyond Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween and even Pumpkin Spice Latte, to pumpkin spiced muffins, cookies, ice cream, butter, protein powder–even Cheerios!
Here’s the thing many people appear not to understand: Pumpkin spice has absolutely no pumpkin in it. It is, instead, the spices one would traditionally use with pumpkin–cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice–all rolled up into one nice neat orange-colored package.
But it’s much easier to order a pumpkin spice latte than one with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, etc. And since this is so trendy, food and beverage companies are rushing to offer every possible permutation they can.
Here’s the other important thing we need to remember: The fact that there’s no pumpkin in pumpkin spice is absolutely irrelevant to the general public. People associate this combination of spices with pumpkin and Fall, therefore that’s what it is.
How often do we see businesses fixate on identifying specific details of their product or service–often insisting that customers know exactly what’s under the covers–when the customer couldn’t care less about that level of detail?
Then there’s the reverse: The customer puts your product or service into the wrong category and all the rational explanations in the world don’t make a bit of difference.
Perception is reality. We need to understand what our customers already perceive, and start from that point. Otherwise we can waste a lot of valuable time and energy trying to separate the pumpkin from the spice.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
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