Business English blog with interesting Articles, Videos, Podcasts and Marketing info for executives

Snow-covered Palm Trees...poolside

JoAnn Lauterbach — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:41:00 GMT

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, this time, the snow was seriously gaining momentum. I know many people were inconvenienced and stranded yesterday, as Barcelona simply isn´t the sort of city in possession of a fleet of snow removal vehicles. No need...when apparently the last time Barcelona saw snow was about ten years ago. But hey, aside from the chaos, wasn´t it simply breathtaking?

Here´s a shot from my window last night.

Schools were called off today....what a joy for the kids (and some of the parents too!)...because the snow is already almost all gone. I hope you enjoyed the unusual event and I bet you laughed at some point today while sharing a crazy story from yesterday.

Fixing Davin´s Grammar

JoAnn Lauterbach — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:49:00 GMT

Those of you who wanted to check whether you spotted all of Davin´s grammatical errors...this one´s for you!

I made ten changes to his status update; here´s my version.

Davin says to remember that when you´re good at something, there are probably 1,000 people better than you are, and if you become better than they are, there´ll probably be one left who is still better than you!

Grammar mistakes....American style!

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:58:00 GMT

Yesterday was National Grammar Day in the US, and to celebrate, the Huffington Post posted photos of some remarkable examples of poor English grammar (by native speakers!). Here´s a shot of the worst example in my opinion. It´s a screen shot of a status update on Facebook. How many errors can you spot in this one?

Incredible, right? So yes, take heart, many native-speakers have problems with English grammar too.

A quick pointer....their, they´re and there are all pronounced exactly the same, but have very different meanings as you probably already know. See my short sentence below for a reminder.

They´re making their presentations over there.

Unfortunately for Davin, his grammatical problems didn´t stop there. Let me know how many mistakes you´ve found on this one and if you want a challenge, go to

yesterday´s post to try spot the errors in the ten other examples. Good luck!

If you have problems spotting the errors, let me know, I´d be happy to go through them with you.

Look out for the corrected version in the next few days, to find out if you spotted them all!

10 Emotional Triggers for your Marketing Messages

JoAnn Lauterbach — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:15:00 GMT

BrAndIng

If you´re involved in creating the marketing message for your brand or company, you already know the importance of appealing to your consumers´ emotions. You want your customers to feel something and then act on that feeling, right?

Here´s something for you.....an excerpt from a post on Entrepreneur.com yesterday which lists ten common emotional triggers. All triggers give examples and some also include common phrases. I couldn´t help but think of other brands (whether political, religious or consumer brands) who have used these triggers very successfully. What about you?

¨Once you identify the target audience for your marketing messages, you need to consider which emotional triggers you can connect to those messages. Following are 10 common emotional triggers that you can tie into your marketing messages to make the sale.

Fear: Fear is an emotion that can be used in a wide variety of marketing messages. Insurance companies often appeal to the emotion of fear with messages like "Don't get caught with too little insurance."
Guilt: Consumers are easily affected by messages that trigger emotions of guilt. Nonprofit organizations use the guilt trigger effectively in copy such as "Don't let them suffer anymore."
Trust: Trust is one of the hottest trends in marketing, and every company seems to be trying to jump on the trust bandwagon in their marketing messages. Financial companies are leading the way with messages like "no hidden fees."
Value: Value is another hot trend in marketing, and many promotions appeal directly to the emotional trigger of getting a good deal. For example, promotional messages that say "If you find a better price for the same product, we'll match it" are effective in piquing feelings related to value.
Belonging: Few people truly want to be alone. Human nature dictates that most people want to feel like they belong to a group, and customers often purchase products in an attempt to feel part of a specific group. Many companies effectively appeal to consumers' desires to belong, using copy like "You're part of the family."
Competition: The old adage of keeping up with the Joneses is an adage for a reason. Many consumers are affected by a competitive desire to feel equal to or better than their peers. Copy like "Make them drool" is a great example of a message that elicits feelings of competition.
Instant Gratification: We live in a world where people expect instant gratification in all aspects of their lives. Messages that cater to a sense of urgency are well-received by consumers who already desire instant gratification. Use words like now, today, in one hour or less, within 24 hours, and so on to appeal to the emotional trigger of instant gratification.
Leadership: A lot of consumers want to lead the way in trying new products, and this audience responds strongly to marketing messages that appeal to their feelings related to leadership. Messages that make them feel like they're first or in control are powerful for this audience. Phrases such as "Be the first on your block" effectively appeal to the emotional trigger of leadership.
Trend-setting: Many consumers want to feel cool or trendy, so appealing to those emotions in copywriting is fairly standard. Variations of "all the cool kids are doing it" are commonplace in copywriting and can be used to market a wide variety of products and services to an even wider audience. The famous Gatorade ad featuring Michael Jordan and the copy "Be like Mike" is a perfect example.
Time: In the 21st century, people are busier than ever. As such, they desire more free time to pursue personal interests, spend time with family and friends, and so on. Marketing messages that appeal to that desire for more free time are extremely effective, such as "Cut the time it takes to vacuum your house in half."¨

There are many emotional triggers that you can use to evoke feelings among your target audience and move them to action through your marketing messages. People see a lot of marketing messages every day, so you have to give them a reason to digest yours by making them feel something when they see or hear it. Feelings are powerful, and copywriting offers a unique opportunity to tap into that power and leverage it for your business's gain.

GLOSSARY:

messages that trigger: messages that cause

jump on the trust bandwagon: join/ take part in a popular trend

hot trend: something that is very fashionable for a period of time

in piquing: in arousing

The old adage: the old saying

expect instant gratification: expect to immediately have ones´ needs met

The Buzz on the Bloom Box

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:11:00 GMT

Essentially the Bloom Box (or the Bloom Energy Server) is an electricity-generating device that takes fuel and air and turns it into power. The buzz is building around the device because it works. Companies like Google, Walmart and eBay are already using them, it is a green technology (low emissions), and it has the potential to power an entire home with a box that can fit in your hands.

If you want to learn exactly what this box is about and more about Bloom Energy, the company behind it, check out the 60 Minutes video embedded below:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

How to SEO Optimise your Linkedin Profile

JoAnn Lauterbach — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:07:00 GMT

Like many people, I find LinkedIn to be an invaluable tool for my business, as it´s such a great way to connect with people in my market. But I knew that I was not using it as effectively as I could..... so I went looking for help, and found it at Hubspot. I just downloaded Hubspot´s eBook How to Use Linkedin for Business which is full of tips that I found helpful. Maybe you will too? For a sample of their advice, check out the embedded video of Mike Volpe from Hubspot explaining a few ways to SEO optimise your LinkedIn profile.

For many more useful tips and advice on how to leverage LinkedIn, download Hubspot´s free eBook How to Use LinkedIn for Business here. That´s all for now...I need to make some changes to my LinkedIn profile!

Facebook and the future of Web Portals

JoAnn Lauterbach — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:41:00 GMT

If you have been wondering about the possible future implications of Facebook surpassing Yahoo, to become the second most visited site in the US, Check out this excerpt of a recent post on Six Pixels of Separation´s blog. The glossary at the end will help you to decipher the jargon in the piece.

¨That's big news, and most people focused on the numbers (nearly 134 Million Unique Visitors in January 2010, amazing engagement and thoughts about whether or not Facebook can eventually trump Google's position at #1), which is an important part.

But there's something bigger happening here.

It's easy to call this the death of the portal (and it might be), but that comment would be somewhat displaced if you looked at the numbers and how the rest of the Compete list plays out. What is happening is that as more and more people who are connecting online - and are building their profiles in spaces like online social networks - are much more inclined to make those personal pages their homepage.

That is a really big deal.

What people are saying is, "my space is more important than your space." Sure, portals can lay the pages out with edited, aggregated and curated news, but nothing beats the news that is created by friends, followers and those we know. Even Yahoo! has changed the game a little earlier this year with their new campaign that focuses on making your Yahoo! homepage more personal, but it's still not the same thing as ones Facebook profile. This is not a fad, but rather a huge shift in how we first engage and connect when we go online. The new homepage is slowly shifting away from the portal model and into the personal model. This was not possible a few years ago, but as these technologies, platforms and channels continue to evolve, having your homepage be your own, personal river of news from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Posterous, or whatever is becoming much more commonplace (and what people seem to want as their home destination).

The Web is becoming ever-more real-time.

And as this shift happens beneath our feet (and though our mobile devices), we're able to capture and connect more to real people - who really matter to us. So, the big question becomes: what are these mass media-like portals going to do to compete against people switching their homepages to their own personal profiles? Maybe a better question is: is there anything the portals can offer up that can trump that?

As we connect more and more, we're clearly looking for something more personal and personalized.¨

GLOSSARY:

eventually trump: succeed in passing

would be somewhat displaced: would be disproved

much more inclined: more likely to

nothing beats: nothing is better than

changed the game: made significant changes

a huge shift: a major change

shifting away from: moving away from

Privacy, what Privacy?

JoAnn Lauterbach — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:12:00 GMT

I just came across the Post on Doublethink, and I have reposted it here for two reasons. One, I can´t believe that people have actually signed up with this ¨service¨. And two, the data possibilities are nothing short of astonishing! Please read.

¨Probably the most talked about new company at TED was Blippy. This audacious start-up can be thought of as a Twitter linked to your credit card. The idea is similar to Facebook’s disastrous Beacon feature, where purchases members made were automatically posted.

If this sounds like an invasion of privacy, it is – gloriously so. To join you simply register your credit card with the site and then all of your purchases are automatically posted. Blippy already has agreements with three online retailers (iTunes, Amazon and Zappos) which allow to cross reference other purchases. If you want to purchase something privately, you have to use another credit card.¨

¨Founder Philip Kaplan, describes this as “passive sharing”, which is a provocative idea. It reminded me of my favorite quote on privacy, from Scott McNealy of Sun Micosystems: “You have zero privacy anyway, get over it”.

Blippy sits at the intersection of commerce and social networking and is an attempt to exploit Jeff Zuckerberg’s insight that friends are the ultimate source of product recommendation and somewhere, somehow, there must be a way of commercializing that. (Mustn’t there?)

Because it targets some of our most private information, Blippy points to a world of full transparency. It actually provides a much more revealing record of someone’s doings that Twitter. If you track Kaplan’s (Pud’s) own purchases, you see that he is a “loyal” Shell customer, but only a “frequent” purchaser at Slicehost. You can see when and where he saw Crazy Heart and what his friends thought of that movie.

Perhaps more importantly, you can also see what people paid for different purchases. This may inhibit differential pricing strategies, like the one Amazon pursued a few years ago.

And of course, it’s the aggregated data that Blippy collects that is presumably the real money maker. With a big enough base, you could look at spending patterns by region, retailer or any other number of cuts.¨

Jamie Oliver speech at TED 2010

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:59:00 GMT

Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef, anti-obesity activist and the winner of the TED prize for 2010 made his impassioned plea to teach our children about food at TED this week. Here´s the video. Jamie is from Essex, England and his way of speaking could easily be described as emotional and conversational. After the video, you might wish to review the glossary of idiomatic expressions used in his speech.

GLOSSARY:

fairly tirelessly: without taking many pauses or breaks/ almost nonstop
binds us to the best bits of life: connects us to the best aspects of life
we´re in a tipping point moment: we are at the point where lots of small changes will combine to produce a big change (Malcolm Gladwell)
The thing is...: What´s really important is.....
He´s fed up, he´s sick of it: He is unable to take much more of.....
Let´s be frank: Let us be truthful
You know the rest of the story: It´s nothing you haven´t heard before
It ain´t happening: It isn´t occurring
To arm us with the tools: To be provided with the means to achieve something
Before I crack into my rant: Before I begin to speak extravagantly or with excessive emotion
I´m not slagging them off: I am not being disrespectful towards them
Can´t duck & dive: Can´t be creative

Google Buzz

JoAnn Lauterbach — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:40:00 GMT

I have been away from my computer for the last few days, and wouldn´t you know it, Google has come out with yet another new service. If you were equally perplexed when you opened your gmail account recently, then you may want to check this video out. It´s Ben Parr from Mashable talking about Google Buzz on G4´s Attack of the Show. He´ll bring you up to speed on the service in a few minutes. I just watched it and I am undecided...what about you?

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Video Game - E3 2010 - The Loop

Pesi or Pepsi ?

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:44:00 GMT

¨Pepsi-Cola's intriguing insight from Latin America that many Spanish speakers can pronounce the brand's name more easily and phonetically without that pesky second "P," has arrived in Spain. In a new commercial-within-a-commercial, hunky Spanish soccer star Fernando Torres gets fed up when the director keeps correcting the way he says "Pesi" on camera.

After the English-speaking director yells "Cut" through 189 takes, Mr. Torres rips the letter "P" from a Pepsi sign behind him and boldly tells the director that in his neighborhood, it's called "Pesi."¨

Originally posted Advertising Age - February 4, 2010

What do you think about this?

As a marketer and an English Coach in Barcelona, I must admit that I am absolutely fascinated. All opinions on this matter are welcomed - please tell me what you think about Pepsi´s campaign.

There´s a facebook group with more than 1200 members, when I checked this morning, and their Advertising Agency, La Despensa created a site which features this ad and spin off activities involved in the campaign.

When the Amazing becomes the Expected

JoAnn Lauterbach — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:22:00 GMT

¨Today, if you go to an important meeting and the other people haven't bothered to Google you and your company, it's practically an offense. We're about to spend an hour together and you couldn't be bothered to look me up? It's expected, no longer amazing.¨
Seth Godin post ¨What´s expected vs. what´s amazing¨

Check out this short TED clip which is appropriately filed under jaw-dropping, to see how the physical world may interact with the data world. Now it´s amazing, I wonder when it will become the expected?

If you want to see more, go to this more recent TED video with Pranav Mistry.

Check out the flip side!

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:30:00 GMT

This post is for you all to enjoy, but especially for my good friend who will be boarding a plane tomorrow. Destination: India.

Alessi Spring 2010 - sneak peak

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:25:00 GMT

On this cold Friday in Barcelona, might I suggest that you take a break for a few minutes to check out the slide show of Alessi´s hot home goods for Spring 2010. Here´s my favourite. What´s yours?

Obama´s 1st State of the Union Speech

JoAnn Lauterbach — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:06:00 GMT

Yesterday really was a huge day for public speaking. First up was Steve Jobs, then Barack Obama. YES! Embedded below is President Obama delivering his first State of the Union Address in its entirety. It´s just over an hour, so when you have the time to watch it, do enjoy and learn from one of the best pubic speakers of our time.

Below are a few highlights from the speech, but if you want to follow along the whole speech, click here for the full transcript.

On the US economy:
Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis. It was not easy to do. And if there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.

But when I ran for President, I promised I wouldn't just do what was popular - I would do what was necessary. And if we had allowed the meltdown of the financial system, unemployment might be double what it is today. More businesses would certainly have closed. More homes would have surely been lost.

So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took the program over, we made it more transparent and accountable. As a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we have recovered most of the money we spent on the banks.

To recover the rest, I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. I know Wall Street isn't keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.

On Global Competitiveness:
From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious - that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for awhile.

For those who make these claims, I have one simple question:

How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?

You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China's not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany's not waiting. India's not waiting. These nations aren't standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs.

Well I do not accept second-place for the United States of America. As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it's time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.

On Partisianship:
Now, I am not naive. I never thought the mere fact of my election would usher in peace, harmony, and some post-partisan era. I knew that both parties have fed divisions that are deeply entrenched. And on some issues, there are simply philosophical differences that will always cause us to part ways. These disagreements, about the role of government in our lives, about our national priorities and our national security, have been taking place for over two hundred years. They are the very essence of our democracy.

But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent - a belief that if you lose, I win. Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can. The confirmation of well-qualified public servants should not be held hostage to the pet projects or grudges of a few individual Senators. Washington may think that saying anything about the other side, no matter how false, is just part of the game. But it is precisely such politics that has stopped either party from helping the American people. Worse yet, it is sowing further division among our citizens and further distrust in our government.

So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics. I know it's an election year. And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern. To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let's show the American people that we can do it together.

Apple iPad

JoAnn Lauterbach — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:47:00 GMT

Were you following the Apple iPad launch real time yesterday? Call me crazy, but in our house, we had 2 or 3 sites up that were live blogging the event. The marketer in me found the whole thing crazy, hyped and exciting! Today, though, after the hype dust has settled and the order lead time of 3 months has been noted, I wonder what the future will hold for this insanely anticipated product. Below take a look at Apple´s promo video for the iPad and then after, there are a few links that are worth checking out.

Mashable posted an extensive review of the iPad on their blog yesterday. Excerpted below it the synopsis.

¨On multiple occasions, Steve Jobs spoke about creating a new category of devices that would fill the gap between the smartphone and the laptop markets. He slammed netbooks for “not being better than anything.” He wanted something that would be better than a laptop at browsing the web and that could play games, movies, YouTube videos and more.

The answer to that gap, at least for Apple, is the iPad. It’s essentially a giant iPod touch/iPhone with a 9.7-inch screen, 16 to 64 GB of memory, and the ability to run almost every iPhone app in the App Store. It can connect via USB to sync with your PC or Mac, play HD video, act an ebook reader and a lot more.

While there are a lot of functions, all of which we describe below, its killer feature is by far the price. While many predicted it would cost $1,000, the starting price of the iPad is just $499. For comparison, the Kindle DX, which also has a 9.7-inch screen, costs $489, only $10 less than the iPad.¨

Looking at the situation from an eBook perspective, check out Techcrunch´s post yesterday . In this article you are asked to imagine what Amazon´s competitive response should be. After you´ve read that, tell me what you think? It made me think back to a story of a launch response I read a while back on Andy Swan´s blog.

Here is it for your reading pleasure.

In Evansville, IN (where I grew up), there was basically one fast-food restaurant downtown….odd for a city of 100k people but it’s a city that is pretty spread out, and downtown wasn’t exciting.

Anyway, the one down there was a McDonald’s. It did awesome lunch business and was extremely well-run. One of those McD’s where even if the drive thru line went all the way to the road (which it always was at lunch), you still knew you’d be through in 10 minutes and your order would be right.

Of course, this kind of success attracted competition, and a Wendy’s was built very close-by. It was to open on a Tuesday.

So what did McDonald’s do on Wendy’s big grand opening day?

Run a special and try to steal their thunder?

Bring out the clowns and free fries to defend their turf?

Nope…..

McDonald’s shut down that day without notice….repaved the parking lot.

At lunch time, 100s of cars that normally zip through the McD’s in a couple hours were essentially redirected to Wendy’s. A brand new Wendy’s. A Wendy’s with a staff that had absolutely no experience dealing with heavy lunch volume.

Of course, it was a disaster for Wendy’s. Customers that were used to moving through a drive-thru (McD’s) in 7 minutes were honking horns and leaving the line after ordering. The staff was rattled and probably had some defections.

By shutting down, McD’s overwhelmed their competitor into paralysis. They gave all of their normal customers a chance to try the new guy (which they would have anyway)….all at once….on his worst day.

I’m sure that first impression of Wendy’s stuck for a while. I’m sure the next day, a lot of people were VERY glad to see the McDonald’s they had taken for granted back open again.

Win.

Apple´s Event 2010

JoAnn Lauterbach — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:47:14 GMT

So it´s here....the day of Apple´s latest unveiling! The world still has a few more hours to go, and the excitement and anticipation have reached epic proportions. This is the stuff marketer´s dreams are made of, right? I want to see the latest from Apple too, but I am also really looking forward to seeing Steve Jobs in action. I certainly don´t know what exactly is coming, but I do know that Jobs would have practiced his presentation to perfection and he is ready to put on a show for the world! The event starts at 7pm (Barcelona time) and you can click here for live coverage of the event.

Here are a few links to some of the chat.

Fast Money´s Apple Tablet timeline...starting way back in 2002

Seth Godin´s post from yesterday

NYT´s expectations

More on this later....for sure.

Strategic Thinking - Bottlenose Dolphin style

JoAnn Lauterbach — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:14:00 GMT

In a challenging environment, tweaking your strategy is probably not going to do it. Break away from clichéd thinking and the industry´s accepted ¨proven solutions¨. Instead, really examine the factors at play, create a radically new and innovative approach and take it to your market. Need a case study? Check this out!

Social Media at its best - details from some Big Brands

JoAnn Lauterbach — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:10:58 GMT

The importance of Social Media is old news, right?

Unfortunately, what isn´t old news though, is examples of companies rushing into this space, without a clear notion of how best to go about it. Below, is an excerpt from an excellent post on Hubspot titled Five Big Brand Case Studies that Every Marketer Should Know.

Southwest Airlines: Personalize your brand

Southwest Airlines has effectively used social media to highlight what makes their company unique. From promoting a viral video of a rapping flight attendant on YouTube to informing customers of flight delays on Twitter to uploading customer photos on their blog, Southwest Airlines has developed their image into a friendly, unique, and personable brand, with which customers can build a long-lasting relationship.

Southwest encourages emoployees to be creative! David Holmes, Southwest's famous rapping flight attendant became famous after rapping the safety instructions one day. A customer filmed David and put it on YouTube. Southwest thought it was fun as well as a good branding opportunity, so it promoted the video on its traditional and social media channels.

Since the video was published, David has been on Oprah and Leno, representing Southwest. Here's the original rap:

Southwest is a fantastic example of a company that does not limit its social media activity and community engagement, regardless of the company's large size. (You can follow Southwest on Twitter @southwestair.)

VP of Inbound Marketing Mike Volpe sat down with Paula Bergs, Manager of Emerging Media to ask her a few questions. Below is her interview.

At Southwest, the Emerging Media team manages the company's social media presence. Each person owns a particular channel and decides how they can best vocalize Southwest's messaging to fit the channel.

Nothing is regulated by the corporate legal sector. Instead of discouraging employees with rules and regulations, Southwest empowers employees to represent the company well.

PowerPoint 2010

JoAnn Lauterbach — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:16:00 GMT

PowerPoint 2010 is coming and by the looks of this presentation created for Microsoft by Duarte Design, they have made some big changes. Check out the embedded video to see the type of cinematic presentations you´ll be able to create with the new Powerpoint and get 5 tips in the process.