Three Blind Men
The following story comes up a lot at seminars, marketing and business case studies, and by anyone trying to explain perception to a general audience. Folktales communicate this concept pretty well because we're more apt to remember stories than case study specifics.
One day, three blind men happened to meet each other and gossiped a long time about many things. Suddenly one of them recalled, "I heard that an elephant is a queer animal. Too bad we're blind and can't see it."
"Ah, yes, truly too bad we don't have the good fortune to see the strange animal," another one sighed.
The third one, quite annoyed, joined in and said, "See? Forget it! Just to feel it would be great."
"Well, that's true. If only there were some way of touching the elephant, we'd be able to know," they all agreed.
It so happened that a merchant with a herd of elephants was passing, and overheard their conversation. "You fellows, do you really want to feel an elephant? Then follow me; I will show you," he said.
The three men were surprised and happy. Taking one another's hand, they quickly formed a line and followed while the merchant led the way. Each one began to contemplate how he would feel the animal, and tried to figure how he would form an image.
After reaching their destination, the merchant asked them to sit on the ground to wait. In a few minutes he led the first blind man to feel the elephant. With outstretched hand, he touched first the left foreleg and then the right. After that he felt the two legs from the top to the bottom, and with a beaming face, turned to say, "So, the queer animal is just like that." Then he slowly returned to the group.
Thereupon the second blind man was led to the rear of the elephant. He touched the tail which wagged a few times, and he exclaimed with satisfaction, "Ha! Truly a queer animal! Truly odd! I know now. I know." He hurriedly stepped aside.
The third blind man's turn came, and he touched the elephant's trunk which moved back and forth turning and twisting and he thought, "That's it! I've learned."
The three blind men thanked the merchant and went their way. Each one was secretly excited over the experience and had a lot to say, yet all walked rapidly without saying a word.
"Let's sit down and have a discussion about this queer animal," the second blind man said, breaking the silence.
"A very good idea. Very good." the other two agreed for they also had this in mind. Without waiting for anyone to be properly seated, the second one blurted out, "This queer animal is like our straw fans swinging back and forth to give us a breeze. However, it's not so big or well made. The main portion is rather wispy."
"No, no!" the first blind man shouted in disagreement. "This queer animal resembles two big trees without any branches."
"You're both wrong." the third man replied. "This queer animal is similar to a snake; it's long and round, and very strong."
How they argued! Each one insisted that he alone was correct. Of course, there was no conclusion for not one had thoroughly examined the whole elephant. How can anyone describe the whole until he has learned the total of the parts.
Source: Kuo, Louise and Kuo, Yuan-Hsi, Chinese Folk Tales, 1976, Celestial Arts: Millbrae, CA, pp. 83-85.
Digital Media in the AWS Cloud
One day, I'll take the hint and stop signing up for these webinars. Ten minutes into it, my brain glazed over because the content dramatically shifted from being marketer friendly to heavy hardcore IT. All I managed to ascertain from this one were the benefits for hosting media on Amazon's cloud. However, this isn't any different than prior AWS webinars.
- speed (improve agility and time to market)
- scalability (scale up or down depending on resource requirements)
- lower maintenance costs (see previous bullet)
Hog prices: Up or Down
When evaluating market data, especially to promote a product or industry, it's important to look at data in context. A friend in Idaho had grumbled about the recent rise in menu prices at Five Guys Burgers, where a mere bacon burger and fries costed more than $13, and swore off visiting the restaurant ever again. I thought that maybe it's because of how much gasoline costs. Last time we were above $4.35/gallon for gas, food prices went way up at grocery stores. This is largely because distributors pass along prices to their customers, the grocery stores who then pass on those costs to consumers.
So take a look at this graph, which shows the month-over-month rise in hog prices from March to April of 2.9%. When data is laid out like this, it looks significant to us laypeople since we have no context for it nor do we know what factors are driving this rise.
In the following chart, I've expanded the chart to show hog prices for a year:
Quite a big difference, don't you think? Except, what online and traditional media outlets will report is the rise in pork prices but without the context that these prices are in cents per pound of what is sold in the US wholesale market. It then begs the question, why does pork cost about $7/lb at the grocery store. It's okay to blame marketing and advertising for this. Remember the 5 P's of marketing...it still costs money to bring various pork products (or any product) to market.
So take a look at this graph, which shows the month-over-month rise in hog prices from March to April of 2.9%. When data is laid out like this, it looks significant to us laypeople since we have no context for it nor do we know what factors are driving this rise.
In the following chart, I've expanded the chart to show hog prices for a year:
Top US States that Benefit from Trading with China
The US-China Business Council (USCBC) released 2011 numbers recently. From the year 2000 to 2011, exports have risen quite a lot--from a mere $16.2 billion in 2000, to $103.9 billion in 2011. The percentage change is simply amazing, considering the exchange rate between these two countries (1 yuan = 0.1584 US$).
[PDF] Top US State Exporters to China, 2011:
[PDF] Top US State Exporters to China, 2011:
| US State | 2011 Exports | 2000 to 2011 %Change | Top Exports to China | |||
| 1 | California | $14.2 billion | 300.00% | computers and electronics, waste and scrap, transportation equipment | ||
| 2 | Washington | $11.2 billion | 489.00% | transportation equipment, crop production, waste and scrap | ||
| 3 | Texas | $10.9 billion | 653.00% | chemicals, crop production, electronics | ||
| 4 | Louisiana | $7.3 billion | 690.00% | crop production, chemicals, waste and scrap | ||
| 5 | New York | $4.5 billion | 472.00% | waste and scrap, machinery, chemicals | ||
| 6 | Illinois | $3.9 billion | 631.00% | machinery, waste and scrap, crop production | ||
| 7 | Pennsylvania | $3.5 billion | 1177.00% | chemicals, machinery, minerals and ores | ||
| 8 | Georgia | $3.2 billion | 873.00% | paper products, transportation equipment, waste and scrap | ||
| 8 | Oregon | $3.2 billion | 936.00% | computers and electronics, chemicals, waste and scrap | ||
| 9 | South Carolina | $3.0 billion | 2261.00% | transportation equipment, waste and scrap | ||
| 10 | Ohio | $2.7 billion | 838.00% | machinery, computers and electronics, transportation equipment | ||
| 10 | Michigan | $2.7 billion | 1169.00% | transportation equipment, machinery, chemicals | ||
| 11 | North Carolina | $2.6 billion | 651.00% | machinery, computers and electronics, chemicals | ||
| 12 | Alabama | $2.3 billion | 1324.00% | transportation equipment, chemicals, crop production | ||
| 13 | Massachusetts | $2.1 billion | 316.00% | computers and electronics, machinery, waste and scrap | ||
Coffee & Pinterest
Today I stumbled upon a random infographic about coffee on Pinterest. I'm glad the graphic's author included his details on the graphic because I'm finding that it's rather hard to track relevant content from that site without being an active member. I had to scroll down several pages after site searching on the coffee keyword, sifting my way past multiple re-pins of the same content. I'm debating whether or not it's a good thing that the site has culled back its open user registrations. Look at what happened to Google+ when registrations were throttled back. It really hasn't had the momentum we all expected the webapp to gain after beta.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
There are a lot of choices for consumers with how they interact with favorite restaurants, coffee shops, pubs, and other local retail stores. A lot of press has been on daily deal sites and the widespread appeal they have for using online communities for word-of-mouth advertising. The truth of the matter is that there hasn't been a slowdown of print ads either in the weekly circulars. My physical mailbox is just as stuffed with BOGO offers as it was before all the hype, thanks to the 3rd party marketing offers the US postal system delivers to every household in a region.
What we have now is a paradox of choice, as Barry Schwarts puts it, where all the choices we are given as consumers causes decision paralysis and unhappiness rather than liberation. Simply put, people choose inaction because there's less friction by doing so. In the event that a choice is made, consumers end up less satisfied with the result of the choice if there had been fewer choices to choose from. He suggests that the key to happiness is to have low expectations. Well, that's the suggestion for consumers.
For marketers, we have always been focused on profit-maximizing behaviors instead and opting for marketing methodology and strategy that meet business expectations for ROI. What makes a consumer or end-user happy with the product or rendered services has little to do with the choice that was made, but rather how that choice was fulfilled.
What we have now is a paradox of choice, as Barry Schwarts puts it, where all the choices we are given as consumers causes decision paralysis and unhappiness rather than liberation. Simply put, people choose inaction because there's less friction by doing so. In the event that a choice is made, consumers end up less satisfied with the result of the choice if there had been fewer choices to choose from. He suggests that the key to happiness is to have low expectations. Well, that's the suggestion for consumers.
For marketers, we have always been focused on profit-maximizing behaviors instead and opting for marketing methodology and strategy that meet business expectations for ROI. What makes a consumer or end-user happy with the product or rendered services has little to do with the choice that was made, but rather how that choice was fulfilled.
Urban Summit 2012
I met a lot of interesting people at Portland's Urban Summit today. I also found that Mercy Corps NW hosts business seminars (and has visitor parking at their bldg on Naito Parkway). The summit was styled like mini-TED talks with speakers covering topics such as cultural intelligence, elevator speeches, business storytelling, and business development.
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- Marketing is about relationships (between the business owner/company and everyone else--vendors, partners, customers--for the best possible experience (speaker: Veronika Noize)
- Have a powerful, clarifying message (elevator speech) when someone asks you what you do
- Ask for the sale; Offer a prospect the opportunity to discuss if you might work together
- Say "thank you" or appreciate the rendered service to make clients super loyal for choosing you
- Business storytelling is a lot like word-of-mouth marketing (speaker: David Vanadia)
- It can be positive or negative; it conveys energy to others
- The "about me" page on a website is the most important part that helps build the brand and your story; it should answer what is the value about what you do
- Portland resources for SMBs (speaker: Kent Lewis, Anvil Media)
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