The story of eggs

While discussing The Omnivore's Dilemma at my book group a friend noted that fresh eggs were available at the farmers market in Copley Square (Boston) this year. Another recalled getting fresh eggs from a semi-crazed farmer near her summer home and the buttery flavor that the fresh eggs contained. And yet another recalled how the taste was unparalleled to that of commercial eggs. After digesting this information I left with a mission – to get my hands on some fresh eggs.

After three weeks of visiting the farmers market and being told “sorry, we sold out an hour after opening,” my lucky day arrived (the beauty of scarcity, three weeks later and I was still excited about eggs). There was a refrigerator full of fresh eggs awaiting me. I paid my $4 for 6 eggs and was on my way. The next morning I toasted and buttered some bread, cooked the eggs ‘over easy’ and sat down at the table with pure anticipation, only to become completely under whelmed. The eggs tasted just like the eggs I routinely buy at the grocery store (and only pay $1.59 per dozen for).

The story I was told about fresh eggs was that of taste and quality, incomparable to commercial eggs. The eggs I bought at the farmers market didn’t live up to that story. And the farmers market offered no alternative version. The story I should have been told was that of sustainability, local support and famers’ pride. Essentially, by spending the extra money on fresh eggs at the farmers market I can make a difference in my community and receive a product produced with care.

The moral of this story – when marketing your product, make sure you offer a story that’s believable and lives up to the experience. Otherwise you under whelm and your brand under performs.

Image by cobalt123

Social media's role in transparency and learning

A surgery went very wrong at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) last week. A patient went in for one procedure and ended up having the procedure performed on the wrong body part. To the hospital’s credit there are no excuses being offered, after all there’s no excuse that could justify the mistake. Rather BIDMC is taking a more human approach and social media is playing a large role.

Paul Levy, author of the blog Running a Hospital and CEO of BIDMC shared on his blog an email that was circulated to all BIDMC staff after the event. The surgeon and his team acknowledged and accepted the mistake and apologized to the patient. Readers have offered thoughtful comments and shared their own personal lessons. But the most compelling story is BIDMC’s willingness to publicly share their mistake, to let others learn from it and to being completely transparent about the entire ordeal.

Without social media this couldn’t have happened. This mistake would have been one more in a series, covered up by legal departments and offering no learning experiences. Paul Levy has done a great service for his community. He’s opened another line of communication and has encouraged others to learn from the story. If social media can help us all be a little more transparent, to put our pride behind us and share our stories so that others can leave more knowledgeable after reading them than we all stand to gain from it.

Image by ortizmj12

Philippe Stark making wind power cool

Philippe Stark, best known for his whimsical designs of everyday household items and his strangely uncomfortable looking large plastic garden chairs has proclaimed design is dead. However, it can’t be too dead as he’s resurfaced from that proclamation with another design twist on a not so ordinary product – the wind turbine.

Fittingly with his TED Talks presentation on the mutation leading up to the human race, Stark seems to be rethinking his previous contributions of useless design (his words) and mutating toward design for good. That is, putting his stamp on a seemingly utilitarian object whose goal is to better the earth.

As far as green efforts go, the world could use more first class designers, such as Stark lending their well recognized names to the advancement of a greener lifestyle. Here’s to Stark’s next transformation.

Image from Inhabitat's website

Happy 4th of July

Although the sky is gray today and the air is cool, Boston's 4th of July celebration will be sure to please. From the fly over to the cannons blasting during the 1812 Overture to the fireworks adding sparkle to the sky above the Charles. The 4th of July is a time of celebration and remembrance. And Boston provides the perfect backdrop. With this I wish you a happy and safe 4th of July.

Image taken on Comm Ave. Take a peek behind the flag.

Tuned In book review

We all have books in our summer reading que. Some are business related, some are to help us escape reality and others are the carryovers from last summer's reading pile. Among the books in my que are The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles recommended by John Moore, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing (I realize I'm behind the curve on this one, as evidenced by the bargain basement price of $5.49 on Amazon) and Tuned In , which I received as part of a blogger outreach post on Web Ink Now.

Summer also coincides with my company's planning session so Tuned In made it off the pile first. I was hoping to find some inspiration to get the brainstorming started and in some aspects I did. Though like many who will read this book I realized there is a lot more work to be done before becoming "Tuned In."

Tuned In is a new book on the market written by Craig Stull, Phil Myers and David Meerman Scott. It "argues that the key to business success lies in understanding and connecting with what consumers and markets want most." It's a quick read and gives a good overview of what companies need to embrace to become tuned in. To give you an overview of the book I'll share with you the book's Top Ten Actions to Create a Tuned In Culture.

1. Get out of your comfortable office and talk with buyers about their unresolved problems.
2. Identify your buyer personas. In order to make them real for you and your colleagues, name each buyer persona, build a profile for each and cut a representative photo from a magazine to represent them.
   
3. Define your distinctive competence. Make certain everyone on your team understands what it is.
   
4. Don't go to an internal meeting if you're only going to give your own opinion. Instead, be the person who goes to the meeting armed with data.
   
5. Always ask where "facts" come from to disqualify mere opinions from your decision making process.
   
6. Map your products and services on the Tuned In Impact-Continuum. Build a plan to increase the impact.
7. Communicate directly the problems you solve for customers, not what your product or service does.
   
8. Count the number of times you say "our" and "we" on your website. Write for your buyers by using "you" and "your" instead.
   
9. Remove corporate gobbledygook such as mission statements from your external communications.
10. Become a thought leader in your market and industry.
    

If this list has peaked your interest or if you're unconvinced by anything on the list then pick up the book. Or start with a free excerpt from the Tuned In website.