Category Archives: Business & Marketing

Business (and life) is like an extended road trip

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“…we believe that the core of our business is to transfer knowledge from people who have it to people who need it. Yes, we are in business to make money, but this is a kind of housekeeping, not the purpose of the business.

I like to compare business (or life for that matter) to an extended road trip. Say you want to travel America by the back roads. You need gas for your car, food and water for your body. Especially before heading across Death Valley or the Utah salt flats, you’d better be darn sure that you have enough gas in your tank. But you certainly don’t think of your trip as a tour of gas stations! What’s the real purpose behind what you do?”

— Tim O’Reilly on making money

Celebrex, Nexium, Prevacid.

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Why are the big drug companies advertising on network television? In many instances, they don’t tell you what ailment the drug is supposed to help, and you can’t get it without a prescription anyway. One of the hosts on the new, “liberal” radio network, Air America, offered a theory last week (I think it was Randi Rhodes).

If Pfizer or Eli Lilly is spending millions with your network, you’ll be less likely to report negative stories about them. The purpose of the ads is not to move product, they’ve got that covered. It’s to keep a leash on the news departments. I’ve been thinking about that for days, asking myself if it could really work. Of course it could. It has. It does.

Then I asked myself if it could happen at our company. We operate several radio news networks and during my 20 years with the company, there have been several instances where a big advertiser threatened to pull business if we didn’t lay off or change a story. The owner of our company, who started as a reporter, didn’t hesitate. Advertisers don’t control editorial content. That happens in the newsroom. Period. Everybody back to work. It still gives me goose bumps to recall those very brief meetings in the corner office.

But the last few years have been a little tougher for our news networks and some of the players have changed. Would we take the same ethical/expensive stand today? Or would we try to find a way to “keep the business?” Search for a compromise. Would our news directors risk their jobs for this kind of journalistic principle? They’ve got house payments. What would I do?

It saddens me that I even wonder about these things. Ten years ago I could have said, with absolute certainty, we would tell the advertiser we would not, could not, be pressured. We’d stand by the story and live with the consequences. And it might still be true today. I hope so.

Accidental Death Remediation

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One of the ten thousand billboards blighting Interstate 70 reads: Homicide, Suicide, and Accidental Death Remediation. Barb and I speculated about the services provided and she got it first try. I couldn’t get past, “Who the hell would be willing to do such a job?” I found the answer on their website:

“It’s a job no one else wants to do: cleaning up human blood and tissue and getting rid of the stench that often follows death. But a Menifee mother and daughter have started a business to do just that. Calling their business Crime & Trauma Scene Specialists, Debbie Haar and her mother, Shirley MacNeill will clean up homicide or suicide scenes, homes where someone has died a natural death or even what they call “pack-rat” homes that need special care. The two are also trained to do extensive cleaning of medical offices and funeral homes and can remove tear gas or pepper spray from inside buildings.”

Faith Popcorn on future of advertising

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I’m looking for an interview with Faith Popcorn that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The question/answer that I found most interesting was:

WSJ: What do you think about the advertising business today? How will it evolve?

Ms. Popcorn: I think it’s on its way to extinction. In three to five years you will see consumers rejecting advertising-which will cause agencies to scramble as they try to make a living. Right now, they are opening trend departments, public-relations arms and viral-marketing departments. It’s about trying to reinvent themselves — but they are very late to the game.

The mop goes here!

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In 1987, Jeff Salzman co-authored a little book entitled: Real World 101: How to Find a Job, Get Ahead, Do It Now, and Love It! A year or two later, Salzman spoke to a small group of our company managers and told what I think might be the best management story I ever heard.

It’s the story of a Tastee Freeze, the man who cleaned it and his boss. To insure the Tastee Freeze was cleaned properly, the manager made a list of all the necessary cleaning products and tools; drew up a little chart showing where everything in the supply closet went (color coded); and made a numbered list of the proper order for cleaning the Tastee Freeze. He couldn’t understand why the cleaning guy had trouble following his carefully thought out plan.

One day a new manager showed up at the Tastee Freeze and asked the cleaning guy what he did at the Tastee Freeze. The cleaning guy showed him the precisely organized supply closet; the list of approved mops and buckets; and the printed list of steps for cleaning the Tastee Freeze.

The new manager immediately tore up the lists and told the cleaning guy, “Look, I just want the cleanest Tastee Freeze in town. I don’t care how you do it or what supplies you use. If you run into a snag, let me know and I’ll try to help.”

I must confess that I was too often the first type of manager during the 25 years I “managed” others. All I really wanted was a clean Tastee Freeze but it was so much fun to pick out the mops and make the lists. Alas.