Improve

I want to congratulate Mary Schneider, Julie Heller and the rest of the MakeMusic marketing and web development team on the launch of the new SmartMusic.com.

It’s been a long time coming and lots of hard work over the last few months, but I had an incredibly enjoyable time creating a new look and feel, and a whole new shopping experience for SmartMusic.com And a shout out to Roy Neal of Straight Line Theory for consulting with me and facilitating our usability testing sessions. Nicely done all around!

It’s all well and good to redesign your look, whether that’s your logo or website or advertisement or packaging. But make sure you don’t completely confuse and piss off your loyal customers in the process.
Case in point: Tropicana. When I first saw their new cartons of OJ on the grocery store shelf, I thought, “Oh, boy, that’s bad. That’s just confusing.” Looks like a generic or bargain brand. And then of course I proceeded to take home grapefruit juice instead of the OJ that I wanted. I like grapefruit just fine, but I found out that I need to be prepared for it — that first swig was quite pucker-inducing! I couldn’t tell the difference between one new carton and the other. Lousy designs!
And I’m not the only one. Went online and found anti new-Tropicana groups on Facebook. And all kinds of posts on Twitter.
Well, time and good luck for me, Tropicana is now switching back. There’s even an article in the NY Times today.
So, good for Tropicana. They heard the social media roar. So I say, yes, innovate, move forward, but listen to your customers.

(FYI – We’ve updated our online portfolio. Check it out.)

Once upon a time, it was said that Content Is King. I’m here to tell you, the King is dead. In today’s world of online marketing, speed is the new king and content is the queen. Corporate marketing departments need speed to succeed these days as we consumers flit about, adopting new digital media as fast as my kids mess up their rooms.

Don’t believe me? Read on…

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The new web site for The Rake magazine went live yesterday — design by yours truly. Congrats to Cristina, Tom, Matt, and the team at Gorton Studio for so translating my design work into such an elegant and beautiful site.

Congrats, Andrew. Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal honors our very own Andrew Eklund in it’s 40 under Forty issue. It’s been a long time coming.

I’m going out on a limb regarding traditional media. I’ll probably take some arrows. I might catch serious flak. But it’s my blog, and I’ll cry if I want to. Read on…

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Over the past couple of days, PR agency Edelman — and Richard Edelman in particular — has been embroiled in a modern day game of “who said, he said.” Recently, the agency launched a blog campaign for Wal-Mart in which a couple travel the country visiting Wal-Mart stores. What wasn’t disclosed was that the couple had relations with the agency, and were not as independent as the campaign would indicate.

End of story? No. What I find wonderfully refreshing is Richard Edelman’s mea culpa since he was one of the standard bearers for the WOMMA’s standard for transparency. This comment thread is fascinating, and I believe all executives can learn from his example.

Here we are — 2006. We’ve just celebrated the 15th anniversary of the very first Web page. (Aaaawwwww…You almost want to pinch its cheeks and snap a photo.) Think of those 15 years. Wow. I started my career pasting up and keylining corperate newsletters. And now. Well, now, I just push a little “SEND” button like I did a moment ago.

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Tim O’Reilly has an awesome, long, and very encompassing article on What is Web 2.0, and what is means to be a company that embraces the potential of the web, what it means for business models. He explains 7 principles of web 2.0 companies.

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Sometime in June you and I all witnessed something horrible and gruesome: Tom Cruise losing his mind on the Oprah Winfrey show. Sure, sure, I wasn’t at home mid-afternoon, sipping a Sierra Nevada, and channel surfing daytime talk shows. But being a member — as you are — of the newly emerging Consumer Generated Media generation, it seemed as though I couldn’t avoid the spectacle of Top Gun’s “Maverick” going completely nuts in clip after clip, then spoof after spoof, of him professing his love for quasi-starlet Katie Holmes.

We tip a congratulatory glass of champagne in their general direction.

Losing one’s mind is a daily project here in marketing world.

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Kraig Larson, Founding Partner at Ciceron, and Karl Pearson-Cater, Web Director at City Pages, have labored intensively to unleash upon us the new, improved, streamlined, and just plain fabulous new CityPages.Com web site. Congratulations to all involved!

In the Blue Oyster Cult ’70s classic “Don’t Fear the Reaper” lead singer Eric Bloom sings “40,000 men and women everyday… redefine happiness”. The song goes on to explain the grand possibilities of human unity, love, tranquility, and so forth, if we would just learn to “not fear the reaper.”

That’s right. I just started this blog entry with a Blue Oyster Cult reference. Read on. How can you not?

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We believe the Internet is a sleeping giant of trademark and intellectual property infringement, and it is our goal as advisors to our clients to protect them from rogue competitors. In response to this growing threat, Ciceron has formally launched its Online Trademark Policing service.

This past weekend I bought a new pair of pants. When I tried them on this morning, I was horrified to learn that they have — and bear with me now — an elastic waistband. It’s bad enough on my psyche that I’ve switched to a larger pant size. It’s darn near the end of time itself for me that I’m wearing a pair of pants that screams “That’s right. You’re fat. Put me on.”

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My eyes popped open at 1:41 AM this morning. For someone who’s always had a somewhat tenuous relationship with sleep, this is normal. Most nights I lay awake a few minutes thinking about the day ahead or my kids or the business or my demons. You know, the norm. Then I go back to sleep.

This morning, however, I wrote this newsletter in my head.

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Wow. It’s open season on site redesigns. What’s up?

Theory: Frustration and uncertainty.

On one-hand, we want bells and whistles but can’t afford them. On the other, we just want leads. Plain and simple. So as the thinking goes, why not start with the existing web site that has so far accomplished neither?

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Since my article on blogging appeared in last month’s newsletter I’ve talked with many folks about what’s truly possible when it comes to organizations being “able” to have anything other than a purely impersonal corporate voice. Almost to an organization I found that most marketing departments could not have a blog on their web site because “corporate legal would have a tizzy.” Or “we can’t talk about our products or future products or even our opinions. We really just can’t talk.”

Seriously? 

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New sites seem to be a recurring theme this wek. We just launched the a redesign for long-time client, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. New logo, beautiful new look and much more user-friendly and readable. This is a fantastic education resource for keeping your heart healthy. Kudos to designer Chris Mclaren, and to programmer Michelle Miles.

We launched a new web site today for Hilton Head Health Institute. A beautiful new design (no more frames!), but also lots more keywords, meta tags and targeted content to boost natural search engine rankings. Check it out at www.hhhealth.com.