How to Compete with Apple

By Craig Ballantyne


In today’s retail world we are being treated to one of the greatest exhibits in market domination since Henry Ford conquered the automotive marketplace. I’m talking about Apple’s control of the tablet wars.

Every day it seems the news is reporting on another company dropping out of the market. Recently, Dell and Hewlett-Packard have killed off some of their tablets, folded their tents, and gotten out of Apple’s way before they lost any more money or pride.

Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the ubiquitous Blackberry, might soon be going the way of the dinosaur too. Having sold only 200,000 of the expected 500,000 units of their Playbook for the quarter, RIM is being advised to pull the plug on their tablet. Only Samsung appears to be holding their own in the battle against Apple. But even then, almost seven out of every ten tablets sold around the world is an iPad.

Why are all these companies getting beaten? It’s simple.

“Every single vendor in the tablet space made the same mistake. Not a single one of them did anything different than the iPad,” said Maribel Lopez, principal analyst at Lopez Research.

There’s a reason why the book, “Differentiate or Die”, has remained so popular over the years. It’s simply because the message is one you can’t ignore, no matter what business you’re in. As the author, Jack Trout, says, “Consumers today have an endless number of choices among products that are virtually identical. Short of slashing your prices and wrecking your margins, differentiating is the only way to gain market share and win.”

Unfortunately, many businesses default to slashing prices as the only way to stand out in their marketplace. But when asked, “What’s the secret of selling against fierce competition?”, Jeffrey Gitomer, the author of “The Little Black Book of Networking”, said, “Differentiate with value, or die with price.”

If you simply try to be the lowest priced option in your market, eventually your business will die. Someone will always be able to come along and be cheaper than you, cutting out your profit margins and killing your business.

You need to differentiate the products and services you sell based on a unique selling proposition. What can you bring to the marketplace that hasn’t already been done – or at least done well enough?

The problem of differentiation extends to all industries, and a great one to watch is the battle among the big pizza chains. Domino’s gets credit for one of the greatest differentiating marketing strategies in history, for their promise of delivering fresh, hot pizza to your door in 30 minutes or less. However, most differences will only last so long.

Today, Pizza Hut is experiencing tremendous success by offering not just pizza, but pasta. This has allowed America’s biggest pizza company to hold off Domino’s. Incidentally, Domino’s is now trying to differentiate their business by specializing in adding chicken to their menu.

You can never stop being different. You must always be looking for a new way to differentiate yourself from the competition. After all, Apple didn’t just stop with the iPad. They improved the iPad2, and rumor has it the iPad3 is not far away. Surely, they’ll continue their market domination if they keep making their product better and different from all the copycats.

Today’s homework for you is to identify your area of expertise that allows you to be different in your market. This might apply to your online business or simply to your workplace where you’re competing for a promotion with several other candidates. You must identify what makes you different and better. Once you do, make sure everyone knows about it.

One of the first authors who taught me about differentiation was Bob Serling. I bought his $97 manual, “Info Millions” back in 2003 when I was running my fitness information business out of my bedroom – while working full-time as a personal trainer.

I read that manual from cover-to-cover four times that summer, and each time it showed me a new way to make a few thousand dollars. I credit Bob’s manual with helping me build the foundation of the business that allows me to live the American Dream lifestyle today.

How to Manage Different Generations

Managers are increasingly grappling with generational differences in their work forces. Problems can arise from differing mindsets and communication styles of workers born in different eras. The frictions may be aggravated by new technology and work patterns that mix workers of different ages in ever-changing teams.

Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are competitive and think workers should pay their dues, workplace consultants say. Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1977, are more likely to be skeptical and independent-minded. Gen Ys—also known as Millennials—were born in 1978 or later and like teamwork, feedback and technology.

The key is to be able to effectively address and take advantage of the differences in values and expectations of each generation. But experts say managers must be careful not to follow blanket stereotypes. Managers must also take care not to disadvantage older workers, even inadvertently, or risk retention problems and legal headaches.

Here are some strategies:

Send your managers to class so they can learn to recognize generational differences and adapt. It’s important that managers change rather than trying to change the staff.

Facilitate mentoring between different aged employees to encourage more cross-generational interaction. Younger employees should learn to seek the experience and wisdom offered by senior employees. Older employees should learn to be open to the fresh perspectives offered by younger employees.

Offer different working options like telecommuting and working offsite. Focus on the results employees produce rather than on how they get it done. This will give employees some flexibility on how they want to work and put everybody, regardless of where they spent most of their time working, on the same scale to measure success. Telecommuting can also encourage Boomers nearing retirement to stay on staff longer since the option allows them to ‘gear down’ their workloads.

Accommodate different learning styles. Baby Boomers may favor more traditional and static training methods like Power Point presentations and handbooks, while younger workers may gravitate towards more interactive, technology-based forms of learning.

Keep employees engaged. Provide regular educational and training opportunities as well as career advice to keep all workers interested in the company. Fuel the high expectations of ambitious Millennials with special assignments that are outside of their job descriptions. Consider putting them on a task force to solve a problem or establishing a regular presence on social networking sites for the company.

Open up the office. Millennials generally don’t work well under rigid management structure. They prefer open collaborations that allow employees to share information and for everybody to contribute to decision-making. Assign work to teams of employees and have them present finished product to the entire department. The idea is to take advantage of the Millennials’ preference for teamwork and to encourage more solidarity throughout the workplace.

Toss the routines. Experts say Millennials and Gen Xers dislike the formality of regular meetings, especially when there’s nothing to discuss. Limit meetings to when there’s a real need.

Create recognition programs. Even simple gestures like a pat on the back or positive email congratulations can help boost productivity with Gen Xers. Boomers may seek status so may respond best to an office-wide memo that announces that they are meeting or exceeding their goals. Millennials may seek validation and approval so will appreciate increased responsibility and additional training opportunities. To this end, Millennials may also prefer more frequent employee reviews.

Accommodate personal employee needs. Different generations of employees will be in different stages of life and may require that employers offer some scheduling flexibility to manage their personal time. But maintain parity so other employees don’t feel alienated. Boomers who are thinking of retirement, for example, may want to cut the number of hours they work in exchange for reduced pay. Gen Xers who need to leave work early to attend a parent/teacher function can agree to make up lost time at another date. Support Millennials who may want to pursue another degree part time and extend the same educational opportunities to other employees.

Give all employees a voice. Regardless of age and tenure, give all employees a forum in which to present ideas, concerns and complaints. Department heads should facilitate open communication throughout the office and set aside time to provide honest feedback.

Don’t apply a blanket communication-method policy. Boomers may prefer to communicate by phone or in person. Millennials grew up being in constant communication with peers and coworkers so are accustomed to emailing, texting or sending instant messages.

Don’t confuse character issues like immaturity, laziness or intractability with generational traits. Whereas Boomers may see a 60-hour work week as a prerequisite to achieving success, many hard-working Millennials may prefer a more balanced life that includes reasonable working hours–with occasional bouts of overtime–and weekends off. The latter may also voluntarily choose to make up the time in unstructured settings like working at a Starbucks on weekends.

What You Can Learn About Entrepreneurship From World-Class Bikers

Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey."

By Dwain Deville

Ever since writing The Biker's Guide to Business, I get one question more than any other: "Dwain, what the heck do biking and business have in common?"

To me the answer is obvious in that bikers and entrepreneurs are a similarly bold lot. We're independent, strong willed, adventurous, and intolerant of fences. We go for it by harnessing our passion in order to excel.

Both biking and entrepreneurship have inherent risk attached to them. But riding a motorcycle scared is a fast ticket to the hospital - and you darn sure can't run a company scared. Those who know this, the champions, get that it's not about overcoming fear. Instead, it's aboutunderstanding and embracing reasonable and controllable risk.

As an entrepreneur, it is not a question of if you're going to face hard times and challenges, it's a question of when. This article is about how to prepare yourself for the inevitable - five ways to tap into your "inner biker" that will get you through whatever obstacles come your way.

1. Yield

When faced with a business problem, our first inclination is to push harder... to fight back. In my experience, that's the wrong reaction. The first thing you have to do is fully understand whyyou're in that position.

You need to find a way to clear your head of the background noise, including all the advice coming at you from well-intentioned friends and colleagues. You have to take the time to get off the merry-go-round that is business. That may mean finding a quiet place to just sit and think. It may mean hiking, riding a bike or a motorcycle, going boating, or gardening. Whatever works for you.

It is easy to blame a problem on a recent decision. But use this time to dig deeper. Was the problem based on a bad decision made earlier? Did you take your eye off your company's core values? Did you move away from what got you passionate about your business in the first place?

2. Focus

Once you have figured out the source of your problem, it's time to get back in the game. And you must have total focus. You are either all in or you're not. There is no half-steppin' in business.

You must focus on more than just your business goals. You must focus on what you want out of life. Reason being that, in the beginning, your main business goal is simply to survive, often pushing your life goals aside. Over time, you grow and prosper, and your life and business come together to form one long road trip with many exits along the way.

The key is to figure out which exits are the right ones for you to take in order to achieve success. Don't make the mistake of chasing one opportunity after another, simply because they look good. Just because you have a clear and open road doesn't mean it's the right one.

3. Sweat the Small Stuff

Any businessperson can tell you where they are today, and most can paint a rosy picture of where they want to be. But only the winners can also describe the in-between.

When you're on a motorcycle, that's the part of the ride that fills your senses with sights and smells. BUT it is also extremely dangerous if you fail to pay attention to where you're going. Getting to your destination safely depends on your ability to watch out for the potholes between here and there.

In business, it's also about watching out for little things that can get in your way. Successful entrepreneurs know that when navigating the in-between, there should be few if any "Aha!" moments. They take the time to map out their road to success. And they pay particular attention to the small stuff, the little things they deal with on a day-to-day basis.

4. Plan Ahead

Entrepreneurs hate to plan. We've all been through at least one 2- or 3-day strategic planning session that produced a "detailed plan" - only to have it end up on the shelf in a month or two.

But we have to do it. And the process doesn't have to be painful. It doesn't have to take days or weeks. And it doesn't have to result in a huge binder of information sitting there collecting dust.

Instead of trying to plan for months or even years down the road, you need to focus on your immediate strategy - The Tactical Plan. Begin by setting a one-year goal for your company. Then identify the day-to-day, week-to-week, and monthly tactics to get you there.

5. Sharpen Your Skills

In business, you are here but need to be there. And in order to get there, your business has to grow. The only way that this will happen is for you - and your employees - to grow along with it.

There are many ways to promote advanced business skills throughout your company. Consider the fundamental areas of:

• Professional Development
• Mentors
• Workshops/Seminars

Remember that achieving excellence in anything requires passion - and passion can thrive only in an environment where things are accomplished. When you've figured out what it is that drives you, everything else will begin to fall into place. Any and all obstacles you face along the way will be merely learning opportunities on your way to your goal.

Just keep the rubber side down... and enjoy the ride

What Steps Have You Taken Today Toward Reinventing Your Career?

"Action expresses priorities."

Mohandas Gandhi

By Peter Fogel

I don't know how to say this any clearer: Most people are lazy. (Not you, of course. I am talking about other people.) Being lazy is part of human nature. A body at rest, stays at rest... A body in motion, yada, yada, yada...
Anyway, the reason I am bringing this up is that I want to know what you are doing today toward reinventing your career.
I know, you have family commitments... work commitments... people tugging at you. And sometimes you think you don't have enough time to work on your personal goals.
But you know what? It's not true. It's just a matter of making better use of your time.
First off, you have to be clear about what you really want. Are you thinking of venturing out into a completely new career? Or are you thinking of reinventing yourself at your present job and getting more out of what you do?
Once you know what you want to accomplish, you can determine the actions you need to take to make it happen. Nothing will happen unless you take ACTION. But, of course, you have to prioritize those actions. What has to be done immediately... tomorrow... the day after?

Today, for instance, I have to finish work for a client and then work on promotional materials for my new book. The weather is gorgeous. And I'd love to go to the beach. But nnnnnnnnnnnnnno. I will NOT. Going to the beach is not a priority. Getting the work done is.

Prioritizing allows you to get the biggest ROI from your time and resources. In marketing, for example, if I do X and it does not bring me Y or Z (leads or income), I have to change X.
The same applies to your reinvention. If an action you take doesn't pay off the way you expect it to, you have to redirect your efforts to get the results you want.
Whether you are reinventing yourself into a brand-new career or at your present job, the main thing to keep in mind is that you are in charge of your own time and resources. If your reinvention isn't working, you have to re-examine your priorities.
Yes, you will have to make sacrifices in order to move forward with your reinvention. Reinvention takes time. There are steps you have to take. You will have to retool, repackage yourself, and perhaps learn new skills. But if you take small steps each day, you will not get overwhelmed. And you will soon see measurable results.

How to Turn Any Hobby Into a Saleable Photograph
By Lori Allen

During his time off from grad school, Danny Warren takes trips with his wife and friends to hike, camp, and climb in the woods and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. It's one of his favorite things to do.

Plus, it pays for his camera gear.

While he's hiking and camping, Danny takes photos along the way and sells them on the stock photo website iStock.com. By doing this, he makes a nice side income... and helps fund his next adventure.

Like Danny, indulging in your favorite hobbies can really pay off - literally.

Here's a tip for getting started:

Don't just photograph your hobby. Photograph everything surrounding it.

For example, if you love keeping a flower garden, don't just take pictures of flowers. Flowers are an overdone subject. And to take saleable flower photos, you've got to be one of the best.

But you can easily take marketable shots of flower gardening by focusing on everything AROUND the flowers, or by photographing them in a unique way.

The Language Perfectionist: Mixed and Mashed Metaphors

By Don Hauptman

It's been a while since I wrote about mixed metaphors in this column. So let's review.
A mixed metaphor is a combination of figures of speech that unintentionally results in an incongruous or impossible image. This anecdote supplies a perfect example of the error:
A sportswriter interviewing a basketball player asked how his team was doing. "The ship be sinking," he replied. How far could it sink? "Sky's the limit."
Here are a few other mixed metaphors, culled from my routine reading:

• "I'm going to milk the gold rush as long as I can."
• "This will take the edge off the nail biting."
• "Flying under the radar, we don't do everything with a splash."
• "By 2011, Mr. Robinov plans for DC Comics to supply the material for up to two of the six or eight tent-pole films he hopes Warner Bros. will have in the pipeline by then."

Another sort of mistake is equally common, although it can't literally be described as a mixed metaphor. Consider these quotations:

• "I'm the last of the Mohicans and I'm hanging on by a thread."
• "We saved for a rainy day, but... the depth of this emergency means there are no longer any sacred cows."
• "I had issues with the DNA of the project... there were so many chefs in the kitchen."
• "Just before the ax fell, lightning struck and my life changed...."

See the difference? The specimens in the latter group don't display blatant incongruities. But they're still problematic. They sound awkward; they use cliches that collide; they create ludicrous mental images. So perhaps examples in this genre should be dubbed clashing metaphors - or, to preserve the alliteration, mashed metaphors.
In your writing and speaking, be sure to avoid mixing or mashing your metaphors, lest you produce embarrassing results like those above. Aside from that caution, feel free to "push the envelope out of the box"!

What's Your Constraint?

"There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become."

Orison Swett Marsden

By Brian Tracy

The starting point of great success has always been the same. It is to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important than to begin by fantasizing about what you can become, have, and do.
But there are obstacles along the way to achieving those dreams.
Business management expert Elihu Goldratt explains this with what he calls the "Theory of Constraints." In accomplishing any goal, he says, there is a bottleneck that serves as a constraint on the process. This constraint sets the speed at which you achieve the goal. But he has found that if you concentrate on eliminating that limitation, you can speed up the process.
Let's say you want to double your income. What is the limiting factor that's holding you back and slowing you down?
Well, you know that your income is a direct reward for the quality and quantity of the services you render to the world. This tells you that if you want to double your income, you have to double the quality and quantity of what you do for that income. Or you have to make a change so that your time is worth twice as much.
Let me give you an example...
A friend of mine is one of the highest-paid commission-based professionals in the United States. One of his goals was to double his income in three to five years. When he analyzed his client base, he discovered that only a fraction of them contributed the majority of his profits. He also found that the amount of time he spent on a high-profit client was pretty much the same as the amount of time he spent on a low-profit client.
So he very carefully, politely, and strategically handed off the low-profit clients to other professionals in his industry.
He then put together a profile of his top clients and began looking exclusively for new clients who fit that profile. And by taking on only clients who could become major contributors to his profits, instead of doubling his income in three to five years, he doubled it the first year!

Find Out Why This Mystery Man Has the Major Networks Worried

He came over to the US from England just a few years ago, with nothing but a suitcase. No contacts. No established business. Nothing.
This "online wealth activator" put him on his feet. Today, he earns over $12,000 per month as a direct result.
Even major television networks are worried that this "online wealth activator" could spell disaster for them in the not-too-distant future.
To learn more about this "mystery man" and why he has major networks worried, click here.

Three Keys to Living Without Limits
So what is holding you back? Is it your level of education or skill? Is it your current occupation or job? Is it your environment or health? What is setting the speed for achieving your goals?
Remember, whatever you have learned, you can unlearn. Whatever situation you have gotten yourself into, you can probably get yourself out of.
To live without limiting what you can achieve, you must recognize your constraints and then act to expunge them. To do that, you need clarity, competence, and concentration.
#1. Clarity
Clarity means that you are absolutely clear about who you are, what you want, and where you're going. You write down your goals and make plans to accomplish them. You set priorities and do something every day to move yourself forward.
The more progress you make toward accomplishing what's important to you, the more self-confidence you have and the more convinced you become that you have no limits.
# 2. Competence
Competence means that you begin to become very good in your chosen field. You dedicate yourself to continuous learning. You never stop growing. You realize that excellence is a moving target. And you make a commitment to do something every day that enables you to become better and better.
# 3. Concentration
Concentration means having the discipline to focus on one thing, the most important thing, and stay with it until it's complete.
It's knowing exactly what you want to be, have, and do. It's persevering, without diversion or distraction, in a straight line toward the things that can make a real difference in your life.
When you allow yourself to dream big dreams, abandon the activities that are taking up too much of your time, and focus your energies on alleviating your constraints, you start to feel an incredible sense of power. As you focus on doing what you love to do and becoming excellent in a few areas, you begin to think in terms of possibilities rather than impossibilities. And you move ever closer to the realization of your full potential.

Are You Still Stuck on Affirmations?

"If you ask the wrong question, of course, you get the wrong answer."

By Noah St. John

Traditional success coaches are big advocates of "affirmations" - repeating statements that you'd like to be true. For example, a classic "affirmation" is: "I am rich."
Okay. Try it. Say "I am rich."
What just happened? Did you hear a voice in your head that said: "Yeah, right!"?
The problem with "affirmations" is that they don't work for most people. Why? Because you're trying to convince yourself of something you don't really believe.
Have you ever been persuaded to try "affirmations"... and then had... absolutely nothing happen?
Me too. And about a billion other people.
Well, one morning in April 1997, I was taking a shower and thinking about how the human mind is always in the process of asking and seeking the answers to questions. For example, if I were to ask you "Why is the sky blue?" your mind would start searching for the answer.
So I asked myself a logical question: "If the human mind is always asking and searching for the answers to questions, why are we told to repeat positive statements we don't believe? Instead, why don't we ask ourselves empowering questions - questions that will force us to change our thought patterns from negative to positive in order to answer them?"
Take a statement like "I am rich" - to which the brain replies "Yeah, right!" What's the empowering question you should be asking instead?
That question might look something like this: "Why am I so rich?"
Try it. Ask yourself "Why am I so rich?"
Do you know what your brain is doing right now? Searching for a positive answer to that question!
The staggering realization I made that morning in April 1997 was that you create your reality in two ways: by the statements you say to yourself and others, and by the questions you ask yourself and others. Until then, no one had fully realized, or shown how to harness, the awesome power of what happens when you ask the right questions.
I named my discovery The Afformations Method.
The 4 Steps to Creating Afformations That Change Your Life
Step 1: Ask yourself what you want.
You can use a goal you've previously written down or start from scratch. You decide.
Please note that traditional success coaches stop right here. They tell you to "set your goals" and then say "affirmations" in an attempt to convince your brain that you will have what you want... sometime, somehow, somewhere.
Let's use Brandon from Utah as an example. He wanted to make more money by doing something he loved. He was an insurance salesman who'd spent $30,000 on every "how to succeed" program out there, with no results. So for his goal, he wrote: "I want to be all I can be in life."
Now, the breakthrough step...Step 2: Form a QUESTION which assumes that what you want is already true.
Forming a question which assumes that what you want is already true is the key to creating Afformations that change your life.
Your life is a reflection of the subconscious assumptions you make. That's why Step 2 of The Afformations Method is to change your communication with the world inside yourself. Afformations are the fastest, most effective way I've ever seen to immediately change your communication with the world inside of you AND the world outside of you.
So Brandon began afforming: "Why am I allowed to be, do, and have all that I want in life?"
Step 3: Give yourself to the question.
The point of Afformations is not to find "the answer" but to ask better questions. When you ask better questions, your mind automatically begins to focus on what you have as opposed to what you don't have.
Once Brandon began to afform what he wanted, his mind automatically began to search for the answer. He started doing things a little differently and talking to people with new confidence.
Which brings us to Step 4 of The Afformations Method - the one you MUST do to get optimum results...
Step 4: Take new ACTIONS based on your new assumptions about yourself.
Even though Brandon had spent thousands of dollars on every "how to succeed" program out there, he subconsciously assumed they wouldn't work for him. So they didn't.
After reading my book, he realized that this was what was keeping him from what he wanted. So he began to take new action on the very programs that had not worked for him.
He began calling more people. He followed up with more confidence. By focusing on what he had instead of what he lacked, positive results naturally followed.
Once Brandon followed the four steps of The Afformations Method, his sales tripled in 30 days. In less than nine months, his income increased 560% and he was named Agent of the Year.
The point of Afformations is not to find "the answer" but to change your questions. When you follow The Afformations Method, you will form empowering questions that immediately change your subconscious assumptions.
For example, Andrea had been trying to get pregnant for more than a year but had a huge mental block. She thought she didn't deserve it, her body couldn't do it, and so on. After her psychologist told her about Afformations, Andrea began asking herself "Why do I conceive so easily?" and "Why am I so fertile?" Within a month, she was pregnant. Now she's asking herself, "Why do I carry my babies full term?"... "Why am I free from morning sickness?"... and all kinds of other questions that are making her feel great.
Omar, a car salesman, was selling one or two cars a month and making less than $600 in commissions. Then he started afforming "Why am I so successful at selling cars?" And in just two days, he sold four new cars, three used ones, and made more than $1,800.
Judy, a 55-year-old grandmother from Texas, wanted to lose weight but told herself she was too old. In November 2008, she joined my Platinum Weight Loss Club. I recommended that she start asking questions like "Why do I lose weight so easily?" and "Why do I love eating healthy foods?" During the holidays, while most of America was gaining weight, Judy lost 24 pounds. And by February 2009, she was down over 30 pounds and feeling fantastic.
Can you see how this process must, by definition, change your life? Using Afformations, you can take conscious control of your subconscious thoughts . Change the questions, change your results, and change your life!

Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving."

By Howie Jacobson

A 50-year-old comedy and improv school/theater in Chicago called The Second City has produced an alumni list consisting of many of the world's most talented and successful comics.
A short list would include Tina Fey, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell, Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, John Candy, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Joan Rivers, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, and Dan Castellaneta. Doh!
The Second City: Testing Ground and Launch Pad
Tina Fey wrote about her experiences with The Second City in her book Bossypants:
"[Second City] was like a cult. People ate, slept, and definitely drank improv. They worked at crappy jobs just to hand over their money for improv classes.... In the touring company we were paid seventy-five dollars per show plus twenty-five dollars per diem...."
The touring companies play for post-high-school prom shows, drunken college audiences, charity auctions, corporate meetings devoted to telling employees that their health benefits have just been slashed, and lots of other rough crowds. After months of this, the best performers are invited to join one of the main companies and earn a living wage and get noticed.
From there, the best writers, directors, and actors get snatched up by Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Conan, or they go to Hollywood to make funny movies. It's understood that anyone who survives The Second City gauntlet is just THAT GOOD.
So what can The Second City teach us about Google AdWords?
Three things:
1. Just as The Second City touring gigs were the hardest places to get laughs, AdWords is one of the hardest places to compete for customers.
2. The Second City and AdWords are both the best places to develop your A game.
3. Once you've made it with The Second City or AdWords, your success is virtually guaranteed in every other relevant medium.
The Second City, like AdWords, is a testing ground and launch pad. Nobody aspired to a career whose pinnacle was Second City's Mainstage Company. For that matter, Saturday Night Livewas itself considered a launching pad for movie careers and not an end in itself.
AdWords is also a testing ground and launch pad.But here's the crazy thing: Most people treat AdWords as if that's all there is. People ask me all the time, "How can I make enough money with AdWords to make a million dollars a year?" Or whatever number fits their vision of having "made it."
Yes, it's possible to make a lot of money using AdWords. But two things are true for every business that does that successfully:

• They use AdWords traffic to systematically and obsessively test, refine, and improve their marketing.
• They can multiple their AdWords profits by 1,000-100,000% by leveraging their AdWords experience into other media.

And those two things are true of many successful businesses that make their fortunes by leveraging their AdWords tests into a marketing machine everywhere else.
In marketing and in comedy, creative improv plus rigorous testing is an unstoppable formula.

"Consumers are statistics. Customers are people."

Life: Once Complicated, Now Easy 

By John Forde

It's often said that you can use certain sales messages over and over because, let's face it, your target market is a marching army. Over and over, they revisit the same points in life... they discover the same needs and wants. You show them how to satisfy those needs and wants... and the cycle repeats.
That may be only half true.
While a lot about selling never changes, consumer expectations can change quite a bit. Take today's "lifestyle" cutbacks, thanks to the economy. What feels like "cutting back" to today's crowd is actually a step up in living standards when you roll back to nearly 30 years ago. On a more subtle level, that's even true when you roll back to just 10 years ago... or five years ago... or a couple of years ago.
Modern consumers expect more. In some ways, they also expect to work less hard to get it. This just goes to show you that the promises you'll make in your sales pitches can't remain static. They have to keep getting bigger. Or at least sounding bigger.
Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I can't tell you. After all, innovations happen when everyone from big companies to mom-and-pop outfits are pushed to compete.
On the other hand, it can go only so far. There's only so much luxury and service we can sell before the expense of it breaks us... or drains the consumer's bank account.
So what happens when no marketers can afford to offer more... and no customers can afford to pay more?
A while back, two marketing experts saw a whole new consumer trend coming down the pipeline. After the wake-up call. After the bust. After the recovery.
The boomers, they predicted, would sideline their ambition for a life of luxury and convenience... and start yearning for something a little beyond the material. When they said that, I figured they'd gone a little loopy. But now I'm wondering... could they be right?
In his landmark book Breakthrough Advertising, Gene Schwartz wrote that people's superficial desires weren't all that tough to spot.
But only the best marketers knew that all people share an even deeper, second "secret" desire.
It's the desire not just for products, services, or pitches we "like"... but a deeper desire for products and services that help us flesh out our own idea of who we are. Not to mention who we could be. And maybe most important of all (to us), who OTHER people think we are.
I've long said - and I wasn't the first - that the deepest desire shared by most prospective customers (a.k.a. people) is the desire to be loved and respected. Or at least respected.In good times, when it feels like everyone is getting richer and living larger than the next guy, respect comes from living like a king. Piling up stuff. Earning luxuries. Getting pampered.In tougher times, character starts to matter as much... or more. Austerity becomes honorable. Excess, an embarrassment. Security, prudence, sound judgment - those become the hot sellers.
We start rolling back to the fundamentals. Looking for answers. Or at least looking for people who seem like they have the answers... and the substance to back them up. Credibility, always important, becomes even more so.
Could it be that this is where the boomers - the biggest market in the history of capitalism and the driving force behind more than six decades of economic growth - are headed next?
Maybe.
Look, for instance, at how many things have trended back toward fundamentals. People walk more, use glass instead of plastic, cook at home, eat healthier, cut up their credit cards.
It might well be out of necessity. Yet even necessity has a way of wooing her bedfellows. By simplifying, we may very well find ourselves in a position to rediscover the things that matter.
Is that why advertising hype is dead? Is it why "relationship marketing" has become the most powerful force online? Is it why so many marketers love to talk about "brand," not realizing that brands don't matter until a consistent relationship of quality has been established?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Personally, I'm guessing yes.