rehumanize

What it's like to wear Google Glass.

Adding to my previous post about the #HandsFreeWeb. One user's experience with Google Glass.

The hands-free web.

Three innovations seem to be signaling the future of how we will interact with technology. We may want to call it the #HandsFreeWeb.

Google Glass, Apple's Siri and now Leap Motion's gesture controller all point to a similar future, but are getting there by different roads.

Google Glass enables us to "wear" the internet, having it always on and within sight. Siri signals a future in which we may have Siri-enabled homes that allow us to access the web with simple voice prompts (and we can only hope a later version will understand that "find restaurant" does not mean "blind astronaut"). And now Leap Motion's gesture controller takes us one step closer to feeling like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, controlling technology through intuitive hand movements.

Glass still involves the presence of a physical object to access the web – ie, the glasses. This technology is pointing toward a cool future, but I don't think it's the final destination. My hunch is that future will be "touchless" – the web will surround us and require no physical objects or interaction – and will be accessed through a combination of voice and hand gestures. Of course, that is until we have a chip embedded at birth.

Rethinking Apple's culture.

Today a judge found that Apple conspired to raise the price of eBooks in collusion with the leading publishers.

Brands are often an extension of a company's culture. (Think Harley, Oakley, Wal-Mart, etc) That is why I believe Apple's challenge won't be solved through advertising. The company must rethink its culture – be the company that democratizes great things instead of being elitist and evil. (Wasn't that the moral of Apple's epic 1984 spot?) Culture shapes values and behavior, which in turn shapes a brand's persona.

We fell in love with Apple because of its values, and because it always seemed evident that company's actions (product, pricing, promotion, etc) were in sync with its values. In real life, when a person's words and actions are consistent, we call that credibility. So too in brand marketing. (Remember: what's true in life is true in marketing.)

My greatest hope is that Tim Cook will invest more time getting Apple's culture right again. Because we know how inspiring Apple can be when its values and behaviors are in sync.

Creativity for left brainers.

Over the last two days I led a live case study for MBA students at the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. Their challenge was to identify a new flavor for Dasani Drops that is relevant to the brand and could drive incremental sales. I am grateful for the hard work shown by all 12 teams and am excited to get two teams in front of my friends at Coca-Cola.

Beyond evaluating the soundness of each team's research and findings, I was also looking for signs that they were willing to color outside the lines.

In the innovation workshop I run for left brainers, I explain that creativity is not a dark art – it is simply counter-intuitive problem solving. Yet if corporate whiteboards could talk they would tell tales about the three most common creativity killers:

We accept assumptions and end up solving the wrong problem.
We know what we know and narrow our thinking within well-trodden mental paths.
We aren't comfortable pursuing multiple solutions and lock in too early on a solution.

The innovation framework I teach exhorts left brainers to embrace four catalysts for creativity:

Define: As Norman Berry once said, "Give me the freedom of a tightly defined strategy." Challenge the definition of the problem you've been asked to solve. Create a ruthlessly well-honed problem statement. A more accurate definition of the problem will inspire more specific, imaginative and effective solutions. (The design team tasked with creating a better water bottle for bikers recast that challenge as creating a better way for bikers to hydrate. The outcome was the Camelback.)
Know: Michelangelo is said to have tweeted, "A man paints with his brain and not with his hands." Creativity flows from knowledge, not guessing. Category knowledge is essential. But limiting our knowledge to this can stifle fresh ideas. New information from other categories and seemingly unrelated trends will disrupt preconceptions. For example, a few of the Dasani teams looked beyond water to examine trends in flavored vodkas and emerging culinary taste profiles.
Invert: Not to be outdone by Michelangelo, Einstein once quipped that "Imagination is more important than knowledge." The process of inverting a problem requires that we pick it up, turn it upside down, and see it with fresh eyes. If we are in the hotel business, let's solve the problem as if we were in the entertainment business. If we are in the packaged good business, let's ask ourselves how Apple might solve this problem. By inverting the problem we free ourselves from the ankle bracelets that trap us within the conventions of the category in which we work.
Collaborate: One of my favorite maxims is "We > Me." The era of the lone genius is dead. The biggest ideas result from the collision of disparate ideas, perspectives and people. Collaboration isn't about brainstorming with people who are similar to you; it works best when you're brainstorming with people who are dissimilar to you – people from disciplines outside of marketing; people with a different lifestyle or upbringing; people who might look at the problem from a very different perspective. (For example, if you're brainstorming products for kids, don't limit brainstorming to parents – throw in a few teachers who actually spend more time with these kids than parent do.)

Demystifying Creativity: a handbook for left brainers. from David Murphy

Apple rediscovers the power of empathy.

Empathic Marketing is a model for integrated marketing that I developed from a simple human observation – what's true in life is true in marketing. It was inspired by my observations over time and across categories that the ways in which we form personal relationships mirror how we form brand relationships. The 4Es of relationship building – empathy, experiences, endorsement and energy – shape our best and most lasting relationships, both in real life and with the brands we embrace.

Apple has long mastered the 4Es. At its launch, it struck an empathetic bond with creative souls everywhere who yearned to think different. Its stores, not to mention its its design and packaging, created experiences that transformed perceptions into deeply-held beliefs. Its legions of fans created a peer-to-peer endorsement network. And Apple's steady cadence of new products created a aura of infectious momentum and energy.

However, I believe that Apple's advertising lost its emotional stickiness years ago, probably around the iPhone launch when it's communications focused more on app functionality. The new iPhone campaign fixes that. It artfully reminds us of its intimate and irreplaceable role in our life, not through app functionality, but through authentic emotional empathy.

Why I love teaching.

One of the reasons I love teaching at Chapman University and UC Irvine's Merage School of Business is having the opportunity to inspire just one student to pursue a profession that pays you to connect the dots between business and almost everything imaginable (technology, art, social trends, pop culture, media...). It's a huge investment of time, but this feedback from that "one" student makes it all worthwhile.

Liberating marketing from old vocabulary.

In my recent talk to the students at Chapman University's Internet Communications Program, I exhorted this next generation of marketing ninjas to help liberate marketing from the antiquated vocabulary that fosters silos in how we think and act:

We must reject tired distinctions such as "traditional vs non-traditional" marketing. (There is only traditional thinking...and this is punishable by irrelevance!)
We must admit that terms such as "new media" represent old thinking. (If you want to make anyone under 25 laugh, refer to mobile as "new media.")
We must not allow "offline and online" to live in separate silos. (In a world of QR codes and second screen viewing, is anything truly "offline"?)
We cannot restrict "brand advertising" to mean TV and print. (The Internet is the most powerful branding tool ever. Storytelling. Sight, sound, motion. Peer endorsement. Experiences.)
We must embrace media as a source of creativity. (How and where a brand appears is as important as what it says.)
We need to enthusiastically embrace metrics, both hard and soft. (Ignore store traffic and nobody will care about the awareness gain. Similarly, click through rates at the expense of emotional relevance and differentiation will not matter if the brand degrades to commodity status.)

Finally, we must break with the past. Old branding models are out of step with the way in which people consume media and interact with brands. Instead, new models such as Empathic Marketing build brand relationships by mirroring the ways in which people tend to form real, human relationships. These 4Es of real relationships – empathy, experiences, energy and endorsement – form a clear and measurable brand planning model to help marketers create more customer-centered brand platforms. After all, what's true in life is true in marketing.

Introducing Empathic Marketing.

Yesterday at Chapman University's Internet Communications Program I shared my approach to Empathic Marketing, the integrated marketing model I developed from a simple, human observation: What's true in life is true in marketing.

Empathic Marketing was inspired by my observations over time and across categories that the ways in which we form personal relationships mirrors how we form brand relationships.

Forces such as empathy, experiences, endorsement and energy help shape our real life relationships. Think about the people with whom you enjoy your most lasting relationships. It’s likely those individuals who “get you” because you share the same values, sense of style, point of view or sense of humor; these same people are likely those with whom you've enjoyed truly memorable experiences; they are likely the people you trust most because their reputation is consistent; people who always seem to be up to something new and interesting.

What’s true in life is true in marketing.

These 4Es of real relationships – empathy, experiences, endorsement and energy – form a clear and measurable brand planning model to help marketers create more customer-centered brand platforms.

Empathic Branding – aka, what's true in life is true in marketing. from David Murphy

Lessons in leadership from an accidental CEO.

One of my favorite quotes is in Tom Peters' book, Re-imagine – "If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance even less." This quote always serves to remind me that life, let alone our careers, is a journey of learning and growth.

Today I was invited to give a talk on leadership to the Executive MBA program at the University of California Irvine's Merage School of Business.

My lessons in leadership are a work in progress. They are skills I've learned through trial and a lot of error; skills that I'm constantly refining; skills that I hope will inspire these Merage students to develop a style that is tailored to their unique talents and personalities.

I often refer to my self as the "accidental CEO" because I never set as a goal occupying the top box on the org chart. Instead, my goal has always been to take on new challenges and to keep learning and growing. Years ago, when I was President of Y&R in Southern California, a friend of mine shared with me this quote: "Those on top of the mountain didn't fall there." I've kept this on my desk for the past seven years as a reminder that the harder I work the luckier I get.

Lessons in leadership from an accidental CEO. from David Murphy

Seven universal stories all marketers should know.

I've written frequently about the power of archetypes and storytelling in creating enduring branding strategies. After all, archetypal personalities tend to transcend time, cultures and geography. We are hard wired to understand the Ruler, the Jester, the Magician, et al. Defining a brand in archetypal terms will resonate more deeply with consumers than surface level "tone and manner" statements. As for stories, I think we can all agree that stories convey meaning, and in the media saturated world in which we live, meaning trumps information every time.

This piece published in Adweek offers a very helpful insight into the seven archetypal plot lines told in literature and movies. Every brand marketer should know these time-tested narratives.