Christopher's Slightly Neglected Blog

Please read this Tim Cook

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Christopher Stemborowski

Apple and Tim Cook, you are on notice. You’ve just released the new iPad, and according to all accounts, the sales of this product are going strong. Your stock continues to be the darling of investors. But, you need to be careful, because you’re jeopardizing all of your success.

One of the keys to all of the success Apple has experienced in the past decade is the Apple brand that has become a global icon that stands for intuitive technology, thinking differently, customer service and creativity above sameness. In 2012, the Apple brand seems to stand for:

High stock price
Labor law violations in China
A poorly named product
An embarrassing tagline (Resolutionary)

The devil is in the details. I know that you can’t have a “3″ in the name of your company’s first mobile device that takes advantage of 4G LTE technology, but you have to do better than “the new iPad.” And, there is no excuse for taking a branding mark that has been used flawlessly for years and deprecating it with a tagline like “Resolutionary” and treating the logo like this:

Apple logo distorted with tie dye effect.

I said that Steve Job’s departure and passing would not impact Apple for several years. I assumed that there was healthy and innovative product line in place (TBD), a smart and seasoned CEO in waiting with a mastery of supply chain management and several markets eager to get more Apple products. What I didn’t consider was that Steve Jobs may have been the only individual who cared about Apple’s brand. Tim Cook, if you do not take your brand seriously, no one else will!

I don’t know if Apple has a brand guidelines document or if that was just Steve. But, I am a firm believer that every brand needs one. You need to know what your brand stands for, what it looks like, what it sounds like and most importantly all the things that your brand does not do. One of the nicest, publically available brand guideline documents that I have seen recently is Foursquare’s. This organization is clear on how it wants to be represented in the world and Apple appears to be loosing the clarity that has existed for so long.

Once people cease to take the brand seriously. Once it is just another consumer electronics company. Once Apple is no different than Samsung, I fear for the company. I fear for its stock price. I fear that without being the powerhouse brand Apple doesn’t succeed in China, India, Brazil and other emerging markets. Tim Cook and Phil Shiller, you’ve got to get the brand right. Thus far, you haven’t. That said, I believe there are too many smart people at Apple not to recognize this and address it quickly.

Posted in branding | Leave a comment

Pinterest is Going to Stick Around

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Christopher Stemborowski

Pinterest won’t be the Quora of 2012. Between combining adoption and usage rates, integrating to an existing social graph, and generating immediate results Pinterest is doing what other social networks haven’t been able to do for a few years.

While many people want to praise the beautiful layout and highly-visual design that make Pinterest a wonderful user experience I want to focus on what makes Pinterest different from Quora, Google+ and Path. All of these networks are beautifully designed, but so is Pinterest. Pinterest is different. The factors that make the latest hot social network different are:

It has adoption and usage rates
It is integrated to an existing social graph
It is generating results … already … in beta

So what does this mean, and why do I think that these three simple points mean that Pinterest is going to do what many previous ‘next big thing’ social networks haven’t? Put simply, Pinterest has found a way to do one thing well and made it incredibly simple for people to use. Let’s take a finer look at each of these points.

Pinterest has adoption and usage rates: Google+ is fast approaching 100 million users. The impressive adoption rate for Google+ has been powered by some well-crafted TV spots, a summer’s worth of buzz (yes, that pun is on purpose) and Google pushing this product harder than Steve Jobs pushed the first Macintosh team.

The problem is, Google+ is only being used by a very select (though important) group of people.

While Pinterest is reported to have just fewer than 12 million users, during the final week of January, it had more US pageviews that Google+. Not only are folks signing up for Pinterest, they are addicted to it… I mean, using it. But, ‘Why?’ Read on, the second point speaks to why people are using Pinterest a such an astonishing rate.

Pinterest is built onto an existing social graph: Seth Priebatsch stated in July 2010 that the social layer was essentially built. We had a robust Facebook and a burgeoning Twitter and he was largely correct. People want simpler ways to do more with their social networks, not more social networks that simply do one thing. – And here, we could digress into a conversation of what is a social network versus what is an app, but that’s for another time. –

Pinterest allows users to connect via Facebook or Twitter and imports some of your basic information to establish a profile. But, Pinterest doesn’t want to be a new social network that replaces the way you use Facebook or Twitter. Pinterest wants to be your new Farmville. It is a welcome distraction that allows you to share things your interested in easily with your friends.

The social apps that have taken off over the past few years have been the ones that serve to augment the existing social graph, not replace it. Foursquare gave users something nice to add into their mix of Tweets. It gave us all a subtle way to brag about where we were travelling or where we had dinner. But it worked because while we could add our friend on Foursquare, we didn’t have to. Zynga has shown us time and again how to do this with Facebook. Give people something entertaining to do while exporting that experience to their friends’ New Streams and you could make quantum physics go viral.

Google+ wants to replace Facebook. It thinks that because it can help you organize your friends more naturally that you and all your fiends will be willing to make that effort. It’s not turning out that way yet. One notable exception is Instagram. It was handy for Tweeting from iPhones before iOS 5, but it didn’t get meaningful integration with Facebook until December 2011. What Instagram did successfully overlay was the iPhone community. Similar to the ecosystems and echo chambers that have been created on Twitter and Facebook, iPhone users can transform well-designed tools into highly used apps.

But, you may rightly be asking, how is that different from Quora. Quora was beautifully designed. It had adoption and high usage for a time. It wasn’t trying to replace Twitter or Facebook, and was integrated to your existing social graph. So what went wrong? Why did people stop using it? Usage of Quora declined because it only generated anecdotal results. Quora is fantastic don’t get me wrong. I look there for answers occasionally, but it wasn’t driving people to connect with me on LinkedIn, or converse with me on Twitter. It was fun, but I didn’t have anything to show for my time. Pinterest, however…

Pinterest is showing results … already … in beta: A variety of Pinterest users are seeing results in a variety of ways on Pinterest already, and it is still in beta. Brands are seeing additional traffic. In fact, in Q4 of 2011, Pinterest drove more traffic to retail sites than Facebook. That’s why brands like Gap are there, because Pinterest means big business. Bloggers are seeing Pinterest as a reliable way to boost traffic, so they are using Pinterest heavily too.

Finally, Pinterest is showing results for Pinterest. Through entrepreneurial, if aggressive, thinking Pinterest is adding affiliate links to some pins that do not have a user’s affiliate link in them to begin monetizing the site. The fact that this site is monetizing, while in beta, should not be overlooked. It is the harbinger of profitability, which is necessary for longevity.

So to concisely summarize, since Pinterest is highly-visual, is heavily used, is augmenting not attacking the existing social graph and is showing results, it is going to be big in 2012 and beyond. What are your thoughts? Do you think I’ll be standing by this post in six months, or will I need to be explaining why I was wrong?

Posted in communication, social media | Leave a comment

Super Bowl Giants (of advertising) Chrysler Repeat as Champions

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Christopher Stemborowski

Last year, in my obligatory Super Bowl Ad Review, I crowned Chrysler and its Imported from Detroit ad champion of the 2011 Super Bowl Ad contest. This year, I’m giving Chrysler the nod again. I have a sense that few will agree with me. Many will say that it was a rehash of last year and some did on Twitter during the Super Bowl. But, before I delve into why I’m crowning Chrysler repeat champs, watch the ad here:

I recognize that it was not as novel, but this spot did what advertising should do. This two-minute long spot had three elements that caused me to describe it as “perfection.”

Mission: One of the most compelling things about Apple’s advertising over the last decade is its concerted effort to sell you more than a product. Apple’s goal is to not only tell you about a product, but also why the company created the product. It is this why that permeates the best and most compelling advertising of our day. Chrysler is telling America that it builds cars because it believes in Americana. With Clint Eastwood narrating and the gritty mid-western scenes one intended message is clear. When you buy from the Chrysler family of brands, you’re buying into America and American ideals. You’re buying apple pie on a grander scale.
Empathy: How does a company who was bailed out with billions, has been given license to write-off massive amounts of its debt and is now profitable not get crucified by the American public? I contend it’s by showing a genuine understanding of the reality for most Americans.“It’s Halftime in America.” This ad was a rallying cry for a nation. A rallying cry that said, ‘we’re America and last year was an improvement, but we all want better, so we’ll do better.‘ It may not resonate with all the advertising junkies that tune in and watch just for the ads. We’re all drooling over the new Acura NSX or thinking about trading in our two-year old german cars. To the ad folks that may say it wasn’t that great, think about who the real audience is … it’s not us.
Heritage: This spot had heritage. It was bonafide. It paid clever homage to the 1984 Reagan/Bush presidential ad. But it also fits as a natural extension and iteration of the 2011 Chrysler ad that won wide acclaim. Despite watching this ad for the first time tonight it had a level of faint familiarity that comes from smartly referencing last year’s success and playing off one of the most historic ads.

I said earlier that this spot did what advertising should do and I say this because this ad positions Chrysler as a company that any American would proudly include in their lives. It makes Chrysler a company that understands the struggles they have. If people’s first thoughts about your brand lead them to have an affinity for it, you’re halfway there.

On a side note, it was also incredibly smart to maximize the ‘Halftime in America‘ concept by airing it during halftime of the game. Kudos to Wieden + Kennedy not only on a great concept, but on strategically placing it.

Now it’s your turn. Tell me, do you think Chrysler scored another touchdown, or did I drink the kool-aid? Leave a comment below or tell me (@cjstem) what you think via Twitter.

Posted in branding, communication | Leave a comment

Should I get the iPhone 4S ? | S is for software

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Christopher Stemborowski

On a very somber note, as I was writing this post, the news that Steve Jobs passed away broke. It saddens me. Steve Jobs inspired me. His life was detail-oriented, a relentless pursuit of excellence and above all PASSIONATE. We should all be so bold. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

The rest of this post is about Apple’s introduction of the next iteration of its smartphone. With the introduction of the iPhone 4S, apple has disappointed many and underwhelmed some. With the exception of Sprint customers Apple made very few consumers ecstatic.

So just what does that “S” stand for anyway? What’s new about the 4S? And, should you get the 4S?

Let’s tackle these questions by starting with the “S.”

Some would say it stands for silly, as in this is a silly name.
Some might suggest that it represents Siri, the new voice-controlled personal assistant that comes with this new iteration.
I would suggest that “S” is for software, because the star of this device.

As I’ll get into when we look at the what’s new in this for the iPhone 4S, the new operating system and some of the native apps will make this like a new phone just by updating to iOS 5. But, here is why I say “S” is for software. It has been clear to me since WWDC this year that Apple has crowned software as king for 2011. We have seen Lion released and will soon have iOS 5 released to the public. Meanwhile, Apple has chosen evolution not revolution for the hardware on both the iPad and iPhone. And if you ask me, that’s just fine. I love the deep integration of Twitter, the Reminders app is something I have always wanted and (yes even though Android had it first) organizing all the notifications on the home screen is useful.

Let’s take a fuller look at what items are new for the 4S model. In total, Apple tallies 200 new features, here are four highlights:

Processor – Apple will put the A5 processor in the new model, which is up to two times as fast.
Camera – A new camera that shoots at 8 megapixels and records video at 1080i makes this device competitive with other smartphones in this department.
Integrated Twitter – Apple has blessed Twitter, by giving it deep integration and meaning that native apps with share features will include the option to Tweet. I for one can tell you that I have made big use of this, especially with photos. Sorry Instagram.
Siri – This feature was the “one more thing” for the keynote introducing the 4S. It is a voice-activated personal assistant that will schedule meetings, text friends and even tell you how many days until Christmas. (This feature is only available on the 4S model and will not be a part of iOS 5).

Now, should you get a new one? I can’t make that decision for you, but I’m inclined to say that if you’re contract renewal is due, then yes. If you are in the middle of a two year contract or just got the iPhone 4 in the last 6 months, I’d say wait, because we all know there will be future innovation.

I for one, will only buy a new one if I can find enough change in my couch to buy it without the contract, because I think the next version will have these must have features:

New Design
Near Field Communication
4G/LTE Capabilities

And I wouldn’t be surprised if the next version showed up next summer.

Posted in technology | Leave a comment

Overlook Overlaps

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Christopher Stemborowski

It was my genuine pleasure to be a part of PodCamp Philly 2011 this past weekend. I was happy to share my thoughts on some lessons that marketers can learn from bloggers and vice versa. While these two communities have many shared lessons already, some key opportunities to learn from each other are going unrealized. I took a look at these areas and used case studies from each community to chronicle and share important overlaps that may be going overlooked.

The opportunities I identified that marketers could learn from the blogging community are:

Series - Bloggers will make a series out of just about anything … marketers should look for more opportunities to do the serialize content.
Relationships - Bloggers don’t need a reason to make friends … marketers are still learning it is best to make friends before you need them!
Risky Business - Bloggers are much more likely to take risks and try something new … marketers should seek to push the boundaries more often.
Being Unique - Bloggers experience more license to be themselves, highlighting their unique qualities, while marketers still struggle to give their brands space to breathe and be unique.
Syndicating Content - Syndication is about using the same content multiple places, and thereby gaining exposure to multiple audiences. And marketer should borrow this trick from the blogging community!

The opportunities I noticed for bloggers that are currently practiced in the marketing community are the following:

Campaigns - Marketers love a good campaign. Campaigns get the juices (and egos) flowing. A good campaign can make a beautiful case study and can even win an award on occasion. Maybe bloggers could start to capitalize on this too!
Checks & Balances - We’re good, maybe even great, but nobody is perfect. That’s why agencies have everything proofed. I suggest bloggers team up in pairs and participate in reciprocal proofing.
Editorial Calendars - Smart agencies use editorial calendars to plan content ahead of time. It helps you organize thoughts, be prepared, and cover the right topics … bloggers should consider planning their content out a few weeks.
Tracking KPIs - Select metrics that matter, and track those. Just because you can measure what countries your traffic is coming from, does not mean that is important to you. These are your KPIs.
Measuring Results - Having metrics is step one. Deciding what measures indicate success is step two. Refining what you’re doing until you get what you want from your efforts is step three.

I hope you find some of these suggestions useful, as many folks did this weekend! I am not trying to say there are no marketers aren’t doing taking advantage of these opportunities, or that there are no bloggers capitalizing on the suggestions I’ve made. I am saying that I think they are under-utilized and there is a lot of area for each community to still learn from the other. Additionally, in response to a question Mayra Ruiz asked during the session I lead, I think we will continue to see the convergence of these two communities. The best is yet to come!

You can view the presentation that accompanied my session embedded below, or on Slideshare.

Overlooked Overlaps

View more presentations from Christopher Stemborowski

What are you thoughts?!? Are there yet more Overlaps that even I Overlooked? I’d love to read you thoughts in the comments section.

Posted in branding, communication, social media, technology | Leave a comment

Facebook Changes: What to make of it all …

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Christopher Stemborowski

Last week, a series of changes came to or were announced for Facebook. And, as will happen when a service that has 800 million users makes changes, there was a lot of media attention and many responses. You can read about how Facebook added a Ticker to the home page, which allows users to see what their connections are up to in real time. There were articles about added services, including Facebook’s Spotify integration, allowing users to share what music they are listening to with their friends. Finally, and potentially most intriguing, you can also read about Facebook’s big announcement from f8, Timeline. But throughout the week, my News Feed and Twitter stream were inundated with viscerally negative reactions to the changes.

Here is my reaction to Facebook’s changes:

Users and brands should not waste time complaining or asking irrelevant questions, but should instead react quickly to take advantage of platform changes.

Social media platforms are always changing. And that brings me to the first portion of my reaction, when it comes to Facebook overhauling the News Feed or User Profiles complaining is futile, despite how many reacted. Facebook has a process for concepting, designing and then testing its new ideas, that to date has proven to be effective. So I don’t know that Facebook will change that pattern now. Instead, I think Facebook has taken a page from the Apple playbook. Specifically the page where Steve Jobs says:

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

Once the complaining subsides, one important thing for me is to make sure I am not loosing precious time asking questions that may not have answers. In a room full of social media practitioners and strategists the day after f8 I kept hearing the same question: “Where are they going with this?” This question struck me as another potentially distracting activity, because this is it. This is Facebook’s big idea … for now. Facebook will roll these features out, let users get comfortable with it, and observe how the platform is being used. After figuring out how users behave in what will be the new normal, Facebook will then, and only then, figure out what is next. This is just how the iterative innovation process works. As far as where they are going, Facebook will do what I see as its two main goals, which in order are:

Build a platform that helps people translate their relationships to an online network
Monetize that online network by selling ad units

So enough with what I am tired of seeing, and reactions I have found unproductive. Here is how I try to approach change. And, I hope I apply this mindset to Facebook, Twitter and any other platform out there. I want to view change as an inevitable opportunity. Viewing change as an inevitable opportunity requires three principles:

Be open to change – embrace it, get in early and be willing to make mistakes
Leverage changes – for your own benefit
Be nimble – find ways to proactively prepare for the next change

So, with that in mind, I dove in and got started on my Timeline.

So far I find Timeline highly engaging, and visually pleasing. You can get a jump start on yours by following a few steps to activate Timeline for your account here. Once you have activated Timeline on your profile, you can take a look at what others are doing with theirs.

Ultimately, I think we can use our energy and time to bemoan change, or we can get busy getting familiar with the new. What’s your approach to change?

Posted in social media | Leave a comment

A look at Generational Media Consumption Patterns

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Christopher Stemborowski

This infographic about Generational Media Consumption Patterns is stunning and jam-packed with quality insights that can inform communication efforts across many practices. This data visualized here looks at how generations consume media throughout the day. I hope you find some information that is useful for you in here, but I have a pulled out four insights that stood out to me.

Radio Wakes Us Up: Among all age groups except teen millenials, radio is the most consumed media during the 6 – 9 a.m. time slot. I for one listen to NPR as I wake up, get dressed and commute to work. Many others must too, and maybe some listen to morning radio shows. But it is an interesting insight that radio still commands such attention.
TV Still Gets Us Glued: Across three time slots (5-8 p.m., 8-11 p.m. and 11 p.m. – 2 a.m.) every age groups number 1 platform for media consumption is TV. While this is a powerful insight, it bears remembering that more and more people are watching TV with the filter of the DVR applied.
Adult Millenials ‘Like’ Facebok the Most: Facebook consumption pattern for 18 – 29 year-olds shows that Facebook is either the number 1 or 2 platform for media consumption in all but one time slot. Apparently between 8 and 11 p.m. a few actually step away from their computers to go do something IRL, like watching TV.
Everyone Want’s to be on Facebook: Shockingly, the iGen generation, those 12 and younger, have Facebook as one of the top 5 consumption platforms for all time slots. This is surprising given Facebook’s Terms and Conditions state you must be 13 to join. I suspect that some of this is kids being given access to their parents accounts to monitor crops and earn coins FarmVille. Chores have gone online. And, unrelated, this is the first time I have seen this age group referred to as “iGen” and I am in a word, jealous.

Well enough about what I found interesting, dig in yourself and let me know what stands out to you!

Created by: MBA Online

Posted in branding, communication, media | Leave a comment

9/11 : Always Remember

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Christopher Stemborowski

This blog post is about communications and remembrance. Compelling imagery and captivating stories are the foundation of the marketing industry.

But for this story … for this topic … I am not going to tie my thoughts back to marketing principles. That is somehow crass and disrespectful in my mind. Instead, I want to simply discuss the power that narratives and photos possess because there is no more authentic example of the power that images and narratives possess than the ones by which we remember 9/11.

What is undeniable is that we live in a storytelling society. We gather with friends to tell stories face-to-face, we post, tweet and blog as many stories as we can cram into our lives. But the most compelling stories, the ones that touch and move and change lives cannot be forced. And they are not the result of a raucous night on the town. They are narratives about life-changing events.

9/11 was a nation-changing event.

Over the past week NPR and StoryCorps have been airing some of the most compelling narratives about 9/11. I remember the raw emotions of that day through these stories told by others. Whether through the story of John Vigiano who lost both his sons, one a firefighter and one a police officer, or one of the many others these stories give me chills and make me cry. They make me feel and remember that day.

In addition to the narratives that I have been hearing, there are images that tell the story in an altogether different way. The vivid and striking images remind me of how I reacted watching the television that day. The images themselves tell a story. The content is tragic and awful, but the power of the images associated with 9/11 is undeniable.

It is through photos and narratives that I will always remember 9/11. And for me, there is a difference between ‘never forgetting’ and ‘always remembering.’ When it comes to 9/11, I will always remember. For me the difference is subtle but significant. When you remember something, you recall the emotions and the context of the event. ‘Always remember’ means that you proactively choose to keep the memories and the narratives alive; you relive the day and revisit the images of it. When you ‘never forget’ you cannot shake the images, stories and emotions connected to an event, but if you could, you might. So on this most somber of days, we will all never forget. But I will also always remember, and I hope you take a moment to do the same.

Posted in communication | Leave a comment

The Power of the Right Line

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Christopher Stemborowski

We all know just how powerful the right line can be … whether a pick up line or a really clever tweet. When you say something just right the benefits can be amazing. I got to thinking about this principle yesterday, when I discovered this YouTube video from LivingSocial.

I love this piece. It is well executed, a great concept and generally does a great job of introducing the the site’s concept to London. So I asked myself, what do I like about this spot so much?

Was it the English accents? Maybe.

Was it the resemblance to Cash Cab? Probably helped.

Was it the diverse range of people represented? It couldn’t hurt, it is always smart to have a balanced mix of people in a spot like this.

But in the end, I realized it was one line from the driver that made all the difference. After asking the passengers in his taxi he announces,

“Right now, you have a choice to make. You can either continue to your destination or you can role the dice and go for a mystery LivingSocial experience.”

This line makes the ad for me, because it does a few things really well. First, the language of this copy puts an emphasis on the decision being yours. Second, it is subtly more than just about the cab ride. We as consumers have a choice to make. We can continue buying as we always have, or we can branch out and take some chances. For me, this line speaks to so much than just the lucky passengers in a London cab that day. For me, this line speaks to an often unspoken truth that advertisers should tap into more regularly.

As consumers, we have thousands of choices to make every day. What do I buy for lunch, should I stop and spoil myself at Starbucks, will I purchase that new album from iTunes. We can make purchases online, in-person and from our phones, so the statement, “right now you have a choice to make,” has never been more true.

What do you think of this spot. Does you think it works for another reason, or do you think I’ve fallen for the sonorous vowel sounds of an English accent?