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For most companies this economy is raising lots of concerns and rightly so.  Along with the silent majority, I share the optimism that we are experiencing a market correction, masquerading as a recession.  Anytime you hear the word greed in play, a correction will ultimately be required.

Unfortunately greed is never a victimless sin (note I didn’t say ‘crime’ as there is a much higher price to pay).  Someone always pays the price, and this time it is significant enough that an entire nation has felt the blunt of the blow.

Regardless of  doom and gloom everywhere you look, the economy is still alive and breathing.  Someone, somewhere, right now, is buying from someone else.  That’s a fact.  Those who maintain during difficult times are the ones who are well positioned in the marketplace.  Now is the time to spend dollars on market exposure.  BUT, don’t waste your time and money if you are not well positioned, so the market will pay attention.  This means proving you are…

1. UNIQUE  from the alternatives!   What makes your products and services special?  How are you differentiated?  What can only you accomplish that few others, without your collective of resources and expertise provide?
2. COMMUNICATING your accomplishments!   Customers want to see demonstrated results that they can measure their expectations by.  Are you telling your story in the marketplace?  The age-old human tradition of storytelling is more relative than ever before.  And the best are repeated over and over again.
3. ESTABLISHED for the long term!   Consumers are attracted to winners.  Is your sustainability evident to others?  How may financial institutions are now being questioned solely on the basis of sustainability?  What are you doing to offset any concerns in your market?  Often overlooked, sustainability will evermore prove to be the greatest ’symbol of significance’ that most brands struggle to overcome.  (e.g. Apple, circa 1992)

When you are uncertain about your market, it’s time to examine your market-ing.   Unsophisticated companies tend to place blame on what they believe to be the  obvious, sophisticated companies realize they are the obvious.  Be proactive and prevent borrowing against your future to simply survive today.  Instead, invest today for your future.

I saw these words on a sign recently at a restaurant.  How bold?  If you depend on spellchecker like I do, it should give you pause for affirmation and belonging.  Even a perceived weakness can be presented as a strength - when connected with a group.  Especially when the group is being called to community (or unity in this case).

Connecting with a group of like-minded believers is a basic human need we all share and seek.  Affinity is easily identified when it connects people by brand or activity, but what about individual talents or even challenges people face.   These attributes pull people into community as much as any favored brand or activity.  Misspelling wouldn’t really be considered an activity.  Neither would dwarfism, but annually little people from around the world gather for a week of fellowship, fun, and dialog.  I think this is affinity at it’s best, especially when it has nothing to do with choice.

Does affinity run deeper when it evolves from lack of choice?  Would this be an alternative view for the basis of our laws on discrimination?  (At minimum, a deeper appreciation for people that are different.)

Don’t take this wrong, I’m not suggesting misspelling is on par with little people or race or religion for that matter.  Whatever be our individual challenges, interests, or strengths, affinity can usually be found in even the most basic of human trait.

Have you ever seen one of those stories on TV where two children with a really rare disease meet for the first time?  That is affinity.  The look on their faces. The feeling of, “connecting with someone just like me”.  Where they can “belong” and “connect”.

Brand Affinity is strongest when it begins with community.  And it is the ultimate position for any brand: to be the catalyst or connector between like-minded people who share interest.  Does your brand provide a place of community: where people untie?

Harry Truman once said “its amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”  This is the same guy that ordered the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, which led to the end of World War II.

It seems a real hunger for authentic leadership avails in today’s uncertain economic environment. When it seems there are no real answers, it is time to look for real (authentic) leadership.

Authentic leadership looks toward tomorrow and considers the condition of the world to come rather than the world present.  When most people are seeking answers for their present condition, authentic leadership considers the long-term interest and moves as quickly as possible.

I am privileged to live near Kansas City where President Truman remains a hero and is honored for his contributions to society.

This article was written by Warren Buffet and printed as an op ed piece in the New York Times today.

BUY AMERICA. I AM.

By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Published: October 16, 2008

THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So … I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.

Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.

Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”

I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.

Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.

We regularly receive calls whereby the caller is seeking a digital space marketing solution.  Great!  We can deal with the fact that we are known for providing those, along with some fairly sophisticated strategy and expertise for marketing affinity brands.  And we’re pretty good at it.  But before we can begin to pre-qualify the caller we recognize their motivation is based on one thing.  The digital space has taken away their excuses, and they cannot procrastinate any longer. They have to get something done - now.

What gives them away is the use of the words “I promised my boss…” or “I know exactly what I need”.  (Interestingly, this also tells us they are not the real decision-maker - nor the real client.)  For some, it is obvious, their job depends on it.  It’s time they deliver, or else.  The error of self-diagnosis is usually a dead giveaway.  And anyway, if it were accurate why would they need us?

Clients needing effective solutions that deliever, seek out experts, and value their opinions.  Effective digital marketing solutions cannot be accomplished by any one person.  It’s too complex and requires to many areas of expertise to rely on one mind.  Effective web is only accomplished by a meeting-of-the-minds (and expertise).

The digital space has taken away the excuses, but has also pressured results.  Unfortunately, it’s also why there is so much crap on the web.  Every time you cannot find what you are looking for on the web, you are probably wading through someone else’s idea of “no more excuses”.  They had to get something out there quick.

I read this article recently and want to share an excerpt…

On the Road to a New Effectiveness Model: 

By: Anca Cristina Micu of Sacred Heart University &  Joseph T. Plummer of The Advertising Research Foundation

Consumers bring there own stories, experiences, and associations in their memories to ads, and may substitute their own elements into the unfurling drama to help it become more relevant or meaningful.  Testing with images and with verbal material has shown that consumers often remember elements in an ad that were not in it, and miss elements that were present.

The story the ad tells engages the consumer’s emotions and triggers stored associations, personal stories, brand experiences and images and generates that first emotional imprint in the brain.   Emotion involves the consumer and the ad’s story gets integrated in the mesh of memories and  schema in the consumer’s long-term memory.

Memories have a deep association with storytelling. To tell a story is to remember an important idea – we remember by telling stories – it is something we virtually have to do.   As agents of the larger society, stories help consumers create memories and hence define their self-identities and interpret cultural trends and rituals.

Companies use storytelling to shape the memories which consumers record and recall. Hence, the memory and meaning assigned by the consumer to a
brand is one co-created by the advertiser and the consumer themselves.