All posts by Mary Yolanda Trigiani

Experience: professional services, boards, strategy, accounting, consulting, investment management, banking, technology. Ethic: urgency, efficiency, candor, humor, spirit.
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A valentine from New York [the magazine]

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For several years now I’ve been trying to articulate, for myself, mostly, what it is that has unnerved me since the turn of this new century.

I thought maybe it was the move to San Francisco, which is part Tony Bennett song, which is what seduces you, and part American Avarice 101, which repels me.  I just figured that along with great invention comes great [and often tacky] displays of wealth.  While I’m still not used to it, I can talk myself down from the ledge when I must.  And most of the time, it’s pretty wonderful here.

What I’ve discovered is that I finally understand the danger of an evaporating middle class.  As exhilarating as life is among the startups just beginning the stories that become brands, it can be most exhausting — because I cannot relate to the things that make many of the people here happy.

So the best valentine I received is not from anyone I know or even love.  It’s from the writer of an article in this week’s NEW YORK.  [The issue is about what is viewed as inevitable belt tightening, courtesy of the "no it’s not a recession" recession.]

The article, "The Upside of the Downside," by Joel Lovell, assures me in every paragraph that I’m not nuts.  While I’ve always marched to a different drummer, I’ve had moments of feeling everything from obsolete to irrelevant to clueless for seven or eight years now.  Mr Lovell, by sharing his own thoughts candidly and often hilariously, conveys the reality of American urban life and why we must confront it now.

I have never purchased anything to impress another human being.  I have never wanted anything that someone else had.  My ambition has never been associated with doing better or having more than anyone else.  [This doesn’t make me perfect, by a long shot.  I’m just saying that it has taken me my whole life, apparently, to figure out that some people will stop at nothing, including a body in their paths, to do these things.  It’s human nature, and my faults are in other areas, OK?  Just not this one.]

It finally dawned on me that our current age defines all of these qualities as the root cause and the reward of success.  No wonder I’ve found myself a bit dazed at dinner parties and on Muni.  [Like the guy on the bus tonight, whose voice hasn’t even changed, who had just run into a buddy and was describing his fabulous career trajectory since they graduated from college two seconds ago.  No, not a techie — an "investment banker" turned real estate mogul.]

We’ve always had our elitists, and our neighbors who always had to be doing better than you at something, as Mr Lovell points out.  But more of us seem to have caught the bug, and I’m scared.  Our society is caught in the grip of something that can extinguish the very thing that differentiated American society from all others. 

Run, don’t walk, to this article.  In the very least, it will make you think.  If you’re like me, it will reassure you that what you’ve been witnessing is not the musings of your own diminishing intellect.  If you’ve fallen into the trap set by the real "me decade," the 1990s, you may recognize yourself.  Either way, it’s time to reflect and focus on the true nature of accomplishment.  And embrace the recession.

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Defining clutter

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The Unclutterer blog is a useful resource for ways to make life simpler.  It had a post today about a new book that clarifies the relationship between consumption, clutter and health, specifically the issue of weight.

This got me thinking.  Besides the obvious question of what the voracious consumer must do with all the clutter that results from purchases, I’ve come up with my own theory as to why we’ve been so materialistic since the new century began.

You won’t find any blame getting laid strictly at one doorstep here.  Not even Osama bin Laden’s.  Although it’s abundantly clear to me that his actions were the straw that broke the camel’s back.

If we are in fact going to see a change in the way brands must interact with people [see previous post], I think it’s got to do more than address the impact of the Internet.  That heartbreaking day in 2001 triggered a quintessentially American response to pain:  go on with your routine and do the bad guys one better.  Go out and buy or eat something. 

We Americans see some sort of life affirmation in the act of a purchase or a bite of food — moreso than any other culture.  So when the unimaginable happened, instead of letting ourselves feel the depth of the pain — and make the requisite sacrifices consciously — we began to bury ourselves in stuff.  We heightened our pursuit of pedigree, whether that meant clubs, college educations, pre-schools, neighborhoods or physical attributes.  Anything to distract us from the reality that this most blessed nation was despised enough that a deranged gang would try to bring us down — just because we cannot be controlled.

I’m sure the psychology and psychiatry professionals could provide a list of the resulting afflictions.  However, most of us could probably just stand in front of a mirror, look ourselves in the eye and ask if we are really happy or at our personal best when we compare ourselves with the neighbors or eat twelve cookies instead of two.  Twenty minutes after dinner.

More in the next post, especially about how a work project is shedding light on what constitutes clutter.

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Whispering your brand

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Just yesterday I was discussing the various ways to build a brand.  With an attorney. 

He has a client who, as a plaintiff, is not being taken seriously by the arrogant, macho defendants.

The story has an all-too-common turn.  My friend’s client did a
large part of the thinking about how to revitalize the out-of-date
product of a proposed startup, built the business model with the CEO and crafted a business
plan that attracted the attention of some whopper VCs.  Now, of course,
the defendants are offering the client only half of the fee owed and deny that they are using intellectual property for which they haven’t paid.

Besides the common issues of not understanding how to value positioning expertise and refusing to believe that anyone other than themselves could rescue their five-year-old business idea and monetize it, I detected another problem in this story.

I asked the attorney if the defendants knew anything about the client’s reputation or the impact of the client’s work.  Apparently, the client has an underground reputation for skillful competitive analysis and positioning, distinguished by a facility with messages — but prefers a quiet sort of self-marketing.

I suggested to the attorney that his client’s case illustrates the downside of leading a productive professional life in the age of Egos that Suck the Oxygen Out of the Room.  Looks to me as if these defendants would have valued my friend’s client far more if a hyped-up image were part of the picture.  They probably buy the marketing style of the past ten years, as exemplified by the obsession with Hollywood celebrities, celebrity CEOs and in this case, the self-proclaimed uber-marketers of our little silicon centered valley. 

People like that can only act respectful when they’re intimidated, and my friend’s client prefers avoiding bullies and bullying.  Doesn’t waste of lot of time greasing big shots at big ticket schmooze
conferences.  Not a member of the incestuous little circles that
populate the industry.  Not on the radar screen of the World’s Most
Powerful Tech Law Firm.  [Will probably change after this case.]

In spite of the fact that this is one ugly story, the many high-integrity, down-to-earth players in high tech outnumber the creeps. 

And there’s more good news.

It appears that the valuation of branding talent and skill — and challenging adversaries — based on loud, in-your-face promotion of self or enterprise is going to be a whole lot less effective in the coming era.  According to Faith Popcorn, the fact that the world is going to feel unsettled in 2008 will shift several trends — one of them being the "shouting" around brands and marketing.

Popcorn forecasts a new trend, "branding in whispers." 

  • Instead of logos on every conceivable piece of anything, consumers will expect luxury brands to return to their roots of letting quality of design and construction speak for brands.  [I think this will manifest itself in other ways — companies will feel less of a need to pay exorbitant exec salaries or name-drop chic-chic suppliers.  Reputations will be built on performance again.]
  • Instead of out-promoting their competitors to get buyers’ attention, savvy players will see that their buyers want to be in on the discovery of their brands.  Products that introduce new functionality will attract the attention of these buyers.
  • Instead of soothing their world weariness by trying to keep up with the Joneses, people will start to recognize the medicinal powers of simplicity.  And they’ll look to other people to benchmark new sources of personal contentment.

In other words, as it has so many times over the centuries, human nature will rebel against its tendency to overdo by turning to quality, not quantity; to listening and watching, not competing for attention; to community, not competitiveness.

Boy, I hope Ms Popcorn is right.  [She usually is, because she studies what people actually do.]  Maybe we’ll enjoy a decade or so of having people in brand and marketing positions who understand the nature of authentic connecting in the marketplace.

In the meantime, I hope my friend teaches those carpetbaggers a thing or two.

 

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Johnny Depp: Three for three

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  • Johnny Depp, the brand:  Puts his talent to serving the character he portrays — authentically.
  • Johnny Depp, the player:  Builds upon his track record — skillfully.
  • Johnny Depp, the startup:  Tries something new with every role [this time, it’s singing] — fearlessly. 

And this morning, he’s nominated for an Academy Award.

Is this just an excuse to make my first post of the new year about Hollywood doings and the very fine movie, Sweeney Todd:  The Demon Barber of Fleet Street?  No.

But I realized as I sat through the movie [eyes shut during the authentic blood spurts] that efforts like Mr Depp’s — as well as the vision of Timothy Burton and the prowess of his entire cast — inject our lives with the artistic version of what every one of us should do and find in our own work.  Not how to get rid of annoying colleagues under the guise of a haircut and a shave or deal with competitors by turning them into pot pies.  I mean how Burton & Co look at their work and how they deliver.

The whole brand thing has been overdone when it comes to personal branding, but there is something to knowing who you are and immersing it in the task at hand.  The personality part — for people and companies — comes to how you choose to build a relationship with your stakeholders. 

In Mr Depp’s case, his stakeholders are diverse.  The camera, the scriptwriter, the composer, the director, the cast, the audience.  When you go for the truth, it’s much easier to perform — and the more you find new ways to convey the truth, the more powerful the message for all the stakeholders.

Many experts would say that players and startups have a long way to go, as groups, with striking upon a true brand for themselves.  Let’s say those experts are correct.  Seems to me the one thing that bears trying is learning from each other.

For players, it would be shedding the years of tired, cliche marketing to get back to the original idea behind the company.  For startups, it’s realizing that the patina of experience and being part of the system doesn’t have to mean old or old school.

For both, it is recognizing that brands begin with the desire to create something that works for the organization and for the community — and they end when things start getting phony, lazy, complacent or too expensive.

The next time you go to the movies and feel that the exorbitant ticket price was completely justified, think about the factors that made it so.  Those very same elements have parallels in every other kind of business, not just "the pictures."  A desire to dedicate oneself to the story and its characters.  An interest in community, not just quarterly stats and whipping the competition.  The capacity to innovate and act like a startup every day.

A leader that has the talent and focus of Johnny Depp?  Couldn’t hurt.

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A new trend in advertising?

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According to Harvard’s John Deighton, in a paper he co-authored with Leora Kornfeld, the digital advertising revolution is generating landmark change in advertising as a whole.

The great tradition of exaggeration is giving way to authenticity, courtesy of empowered buyers.

Read a brief about the paper here, which will take you to a link for downloading the entire document.