Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

Mini Bikes, Tape Recorders, Leisure Suits and Yellow PagesThe Las Vegas Hilton, 2003: The stagehand said, “This is the stage where Elvis appeared when he played Vegas.” He was helping me set up to speak to the managers of all the local, county and state fairs in the English-speaking world.When my stage buddy said we were good to go, the floor attendants opened the doors and the crowd washed into the room, thick streams of people jamming the aisles, then branching into little rivulets as they chose specific rows of seats. I went backstage to get last-minute instructions from my hosts.The chairman of the board looked at me and said, “You’ll be speaking to about 16 hundred members and delegates from the US, Canada, England and Australia. They’re looking for ways to boost attendance at their fairs.”The board of directors then filled me up with everything they felt I needed to know. When they had finally spent themselves, I asked, “What does your organization do, exactly?”The chairman answered, “The main benefit we offer our members is a monthly magazine that reports the gate attendance of all the different fairs. We also report which performers and attractions were the biggest draws. The manager in Des Moines whose fair is about to begin wants to know what happened at the Chicago fair that just ended.”We started walking from the green room toward the wing of the stage when we heard the emcee begin to welcome the crowd.“But doesn’t it take a long time to gather all the information, print it and get it to the members?” I asked.“Yes, and that’s a big frustration among the membership. They say the magazine is mostly old news by the time it arrives.”“You don’t have a website?”“Son,” he said as he stopped abruptly, “the average age of the people you’re about to address is 72 years old. Many of them are over 80. There’s no one in the house younger than 65. These just aren’t internet people.”At that moment, the emcee flung his arm toward me and shouted, “Roy H. Williams!” With a final glance at the chairman, I walked onto the stage and quietly took off my shoes. Standing there in my socks, I studied the crowd a minute. They looked at me as I looked at them.Then I raised my hand and said, “How many of you have used a search engine in the past 7 days to research a purchase you were considering?” Sixteen hundred hands went up simultaneously.I looked offstage at the chairman. The man was openly stunned. I think he may still be standing there.Pennie and I found a plastic bag at the end of our driveway last Tuesday. In it were 3 different Yellow Page books. This triggered a discussion between Pennie and me about icons of the past. We recalled the famous Yellow Pages ad of 1962, “Let Your Fingers Do The Walking.” We talked about all the different tape recorders we’d owned. I told her about the J.C. Penney Golden Pinto mini-bike I coveted in 1970. And then I dropped the bag of books into the garbage.The next morning I received an email from my client and friend, Vess Barnes:Roy,When do you predict the demise of Yellow Pages and their brand-associated websites? Is money spent there basically wasted? Have a great week.Aloha,VessShort Answer: Yes, money spent in the Yellow Pages (and their associated websites) is basically wasted.Have you ever Googled a product or service and had the search engine direct you to the online Yellow Pages listing for a company? I’ve never once experienced it. Search engines elevate the most commonly clicked links. Think about what this implies. (Okay, I'll spell it out for you: if people were using the digital Yellow Pages, those online Yellow Page ads would rank higher on Google and the other search engines. The ads don't rank high on Google because most people never see those ads.)During the past few years, a number of our service company clients (foundation repair specialists, plumbers, HVAC companies, etc.) have taken our advice and abandoned the yellow pages completely, moving virtually 100 percent of their ad budgets to the radio. They already have websites, of course. These businesses, without exception, are outdistancing their competitors in the area of new customer acquisition.I’m fairly certain my position will generate a firestorm of emails from people who feel passionately that I’m wrong. But there are others who will know I’m right.Are you in that second group? Do you have the courage to slash your Yellow Page budget? Would you like to learn how to craft ads for radio and the internet that will gain and hold the attention of a far-too-busy public? Join Chris Maddock, Jeff Sexton and me for a business-altering 2-day course at Wizard Academy, January 27-28: How to Write Ads for Radio and the Internet.Early birds will get the last of the free rooms in Engelbrecht House, Wizard Academy’s spectacular student mansion. Birds who are slow to decide will have to stay in a hotel. But don’t worry, we’ve got a list of good hotels nearby. Get details from Tamara at (512) 295-5700.It is within your power to make 2010 a much better year than 2009. Are you going to do it?Do it. Come to Wizard Academy.Roy H. Williams

Ask the wrong question and you will get the wrong answerMost businesses target an imaginary customer because someone – probably an advertising salesman – once asked, “Who is your customer?”Ask any businessperson, “Who is your customer?” and he or she will likely answer with a singular customer profile. Something like, “My customer is a career woman between 28 and 44 years old, college educated, making at least $45,000 per year. She has exceptional taste and style and wants to express her individuality through her purchases.”And her favorite author is Danielle Steele and she likes to take long walks on the beach in the moonlight, right?Ill-advised questions like, “Who is your customer?” must find their answers in that shadowland where memory meets imagination.Although it may seem logical on the surface, “Who is your customer?” is a dangerously worded question.Yes, I said “dangerously” worded.Your whole life you’ve been told, “We remember more of what we see than what we hear.” But it isn’t true. In fact, clinical tests have proven quite the opposite: the precise wording of what enters our ears profoundly alters what we see in our mind.The question, “Who is your customer?” conjures the mental image of an individual since “customer” isn’t plural. Ask that same business owner, “How many different types of people do you serve?” and you’ll get a radically different, far more valuable answer.So now you’re going to tell me the 28 to 44 year-old female customer profile you gave me was the average customer, right?Dr. Neil Postman, the celebrated Chair of the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University, has this to say about that: “We must keep in mind the story of the statistician who drowned while trying to wade across a river with an average depth of four feet. That is to say, in a culture that reveres statistics, we can never be sure what sort of nonsense will lodge in people’s heads… A question, even of the simplest kind, is not, and never can be unbiased. The structure of any question is as devoid of neutrality as its content. The form of a question may ease our way or pose obstacles. Or, when even slightly altered, it may generate antithetical answers, as in the case of the two priests who, being unsure if it was permissible to smoke and pray at the same time, wrote to the Pope for a definitive answer. One priest phrased the question ‘Is it permissible to smoke while praying?’ and was told it is not, since prayer should be the focus of one’s whole attention; the other priest asked if it is permissible to pray while smoking and was told that it is, since it is always permissible to pray.”In a Loftus & Palmer experiment reported by Dr. Alan Baddeley in his 1999 book, Essentials of Human Memory*, a group of people were asked to watch the video of a collision between two automobiles. Viewers who were asked, “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” gave answers averaging 40.8 MPH and reported having seen broken glass. But viewers reported speeds averaging only 31.8 MPH and remembered no broken glass when asked, “How fast were the cars going when they made contact?” Keep in mind that each group had seen the same video only a few moments before these questions were asked. Control the question and you control the mental image it conjures.Create your marketing plan around the question, “Who is my customer?” and you’ll soon bump your head against a very low ceiling. The true profiles of “your customer” are like the characters in a Fellini movie; an unimaginable circus of people with conflicted personalities and unconscious buying motives.Proponents of hyper-targeting are quick to say, “You’re using the shotgun approach. I believe in putting the customer in the crosshairs of a rifle.”But we’re not hunting just one customer, are we? Hyper-targeters believe in fishing with a hook. But for best results, I suggest you find a net.If you want to grow your business, don’t target age, sex, income or education. Target according to buying motives. The question isn’t, “Who is my customer?” but rather, “Why does my customer buy my product? What does it do for him or her?” The answers to these questions will tell you exactly what to write in your ads.Congratulations. You found your net.Roy H. Williams

You want an example?Romulus Whitaker is saving the rainforest in Tamil Nadu, and with it, dozens of species of animals. The problem is complex, but so is Romulus Whitaker.Tim Bauer is fighting air pollution in the Philippines with a 2-stroke cylinder head that reduces hydrocarbon emissions by 89 percent. Thousands of engines must be retrofitted. The work is rugged, but so is Tim Bauer.Gomel Apaza teaches villagers about sustainable food production high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. His techniques are reliable, so the villagers live happier lives.Reliable. Rugged. Complex. Apaza, Bauer and Whitaker: making a difference.Making the world better for everyone.And the watch they wear is a Rolex: Reliable. Rugged. Complex.Because time is important to people who get things done.Your Rolex is waiting patiently for you to come and pick it up at Nevland Jewelers. I’m Dave Nevland and I’ve got a Rolex… for you.I wrote that ad for the “we” generation of 2009. Spotlighting the selfless servant as modern hero, the ad begs two questions:1. “Do you want to make the world a better place?”2. “Are you the kind of person who gets things done?”If so, you should be wearing a Rolex. Hand Dave Nevland some money.You might remember a quite different ad I wrote for the “me” generation 14 years ago:You are standing in the snow, five and one-half half miles above sea level, gazing at a horizon hundreds of miles away. It occurs to you that life here is very simple: you live or you die. No compromises, no whining, no second chances. This is a place constantly ravaged by winds and storm, where every ragged breath is an accomplishment. You stand on the uppermost pinnacle of the earth. This is the mountain they call Everest. Yesterday it was considered unbeatable. But that was yesterday. As Edmund Hillary surveyed the horizon from the peak of Mount Everest, he monitored the time on a wristwatch that had been specifically designed to withstand the fury of the world's most angry mountain. Rolex believed Sir Edmund would conquer the mountain, and especially for him they created the Rolex Explorer. In every life there is a Mount Everest to be conquered. When you have conquered yours, you'll find your Rolex waiting patiently for you to come and pick it up at Justice Jewelers. I'm Woody Justice and I've got a Rolex… for you.This ad features the individualist as hero and asks very different questions:1. “Are you the kind of person who wins against impossible odds?”2. “Can you take a minute to come pick up your trophy?”That Mount Everest ad was hugely successful 14 years ago, but We, the People, have changed. Have you noticed?Our transition from the Idealist “me” mindset to our current, Civic “we” way of thinking began right on schedule in 2003 and was essentially complete by the end of 2008.Right on schedule? Yep. We shift from one mindset to the other every 40 years and we've been doing it with the precision of a metronome for more than 4 centuries.Want to make your ads work better? Abandon the idea that your customers should reward themselves. Quit saying to them, “you deserve it.” Tell them instead that your product “makes a difference,” that it “helps,” and use the word “give” in a variety of applications, such as, “Give it a chance.”Sadly, the Apaza, Bauer and Whitaker ad won't be given a chance.Rolex didn't approve it.Sigh.Roy H. Williams

It's beginning to look not like ChristmasThey say you can never go home again, just like you can’t step into the same river twice. Things change.Have you ever been to a class reunion?“Cigars had burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they had believed they had.”– James Hilton, Lost Horizon“My town had grown and changed and my friend along with it. Now returning, as changed to my friend as my town was to me, I distorted his picture, muddied his memory. When I went away I had died, and so became fixed and unchangeable. My return caused only confusion and uneasiness. Although they could not say it, my old friends wanted me gone so that I could take my proper place in the pattern of remembrance – and I wanted to go for the same reason.”– John Steinbeck, Travels With CharleyYou’re probably thinking, “Roy and Pennie must have gone back to their hometown for a High School class reunion.”Nope. The last class reunion we attended was nearly 20 years ago.I’m not writing these things for me. I’m writing them for you.We Americans have idyllic, Norman Rockwell-type expectations of the holidays.A TV show about a bar in Boston began with a theme song, “Where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came.” And when overweight, unemployed, nothing-special Norm Peterson walked into that bar, everyone looked up and shouted “Norm!” Each of us secretly wants to be Norm Peterson. We want to be known. Cheers became one of the most popular shows in the history of television.“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”– Maya AngelouIn his book, The Architecture of Happiness, Alain de Botton describes “home” as we tend to remember it:“The house has grown into a knowledgeable witness. It has been party to early seductions, it has watched homework being written, it has observed swaddled babies freshly arrived from hospital, it has been surprised in the middle of the night by whispered conferences in the kitchen. It has experienced winter evenings when its windows were as cold as bags of frozen peas and midsummer dusks when its brick walls held the warmth of newly baked bread. It has provided psychological sanctuary. It has been a guardian of identity. Over the years, its owners have returned from periods away and, on looking around them, remembered who they were.”We go home with an idealized memory of a place where everyone listens and cares and loves us for who we are, a place where we're known and everything is okay.And what we find when we get there is our family. We’re never quite prepared for the selfishness of Carol, the laziness of Lee, the assertiveness of Sarah and the insensitivity of Bob. And Gary, well, he’s just a jackass.Pennie says Chapel Dulcinea receives a large number of wedding cancellations right after the holidays. Evidently, “meeting the family” was enough to break the engagement. Then I heard Dr. Grant tell a roomful of students that clinical psychologists see a spike in requests for counseling right after the holidays as well.But then Dr. Grant said something profound: “The opposite of depression isn’t ‘Yippee!’ The opposite of depression is gratitude.”So this year I have a plan: Rather than trying to have a good Christmas, I'm going to make sure that everyone around me has one. My plan is to be silently thankful. Constantly, consciously thankful.I'm going to see past Carol's selfishness and like her anyway. I'm going to accommodate the laziness of Lee. l plan to submit to the assertiveness of Sarah and understand the insensitivity of Bob. I'm even going to seek out Gary and show an interest in whatever he wants to talk about.If my plan is to serve rather than be served, and to give understanding rather than receive it, how can I be disappointed? Are these things in my nature?No. Not at all.Might I crash and burn?Absolutely.Will I tell you how it all turns out?Count on it. Monday, December 28 in the rabbit hole.Wish me luck.Roy H. Williams

Tom Hennen has a line in his poem, The Life of a Day, that says,“We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, ‘no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for,’ and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real.”That line is a little bit frightening because you read it and realize you’re guilty. You’ve been waiting for that day when your life will start “for real.”The trouble with life is that it’s just so daily.I share this with you because I’ve been thinking about my two grandfathers who are dead and my father who is likewise and I’ve come to the obvious conclusion:Live while you have the chance.“Papa was a rolling stone. Wherever he laid his hat was his home…”– The Temptations, 1971In the final moments of his life, my father scribbled a note for me to find. In barely legible pencil he scrawled, “All the little things in life add up to your life. If you don't get it right then nothing else matters. It gets lonely in the promised land by yourself.”My Dad died lonely, I think, because he never made deep commitments. My father’s confession of his loneliness makes me sad, but his scribbled note tells me he wanted me to learn from his mistake.I meet a lot of people who sigh deeply and tell me they’re looking for their passion, something to set their souls on fire and send beams of light shining out through their eyes.But the people with light shining from their eyes know this:Passion does not produce commitment.Commitment produces passion.Solomon, that wise king, spent years of his life searching for passion. In chapter 9 of the chronicle of that search, the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”People read that and think Solomon is saying, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die,” but that's not it at all. He's saying, “Throw your whole heart into whatever you do. Live while you have the chance.”This is my Holiday gift to you,I hope you will receive it:Find something that needs to be doneand throw yourself headlong into it.Let todaybe the dayyour life beginsfor real.Roy H. Williams

Peg the Needle on the Relevance Meter If You Want to See ResultsAds are often written under the assumption that we can get people to care about things they don’t really care about. But this approach rarely succeeds.Traditional ad-think says:1.   Target the right people2.   Leverage the right media (visual media for visual products, etc.)3.   Use creativity in delivering your message.But nontraditional ad-think gets far better results:1.   What you say matters most of all. Speak to a felt need. Good advertising isn’t about the product or the company that sells it. Good ads explain how the customer’s life will be different.EXAMPLE:Don’t say, “Dr. Bill Dipweasel was voted gentlest dentist in Saginaw County.”Say, “Get your teeth fixed. You’ll be more attractive and your confidence will skyrocket. People will treat you differently.”2.   How you say it is critical. Clarity is more important than creativity. Talk like people. People don’t say, “I’ve elected to have cosmetic dentistry.” They say, “I’ve decided to get my teeth fixed.” (Dr. Bill Dipweasel will give you push-back on this because he doesn’t think “get your teeth fixed” sounds professional. Also, he wants the ad to be about him.)3.   Deliver your message using whatever media offers the best psychological environment. In what moments would a candidate for cosmetic dentistry be most open to the message we crafted about being treated differently?Advertising works best when it speaks to what customers already care about. This is called “speaking to a felt need.” I've never met anyone that's had a secret, unmet desire to go to the dentist. But tens of millions of us secretly wish we were more attractive, more confident, and that people treated us differently. Capiche?Good ads aren’t about the company that’s paying for the ad. Good ads are about the reader, the listener, the viewer of the ad. This is especially true when writing classified ads for employment.A man attending a class at Wizard Academy confessed that, working part time, he had made more than $850,000 in employee placement fees as the direct result of a single chapter he had read in my second book. I congratulated him on having had the perception to recognize the potential in that chapter.Last week I received an email about that same chapter in my second book from William, an Acadgrad living in St. Petersburg, Russia.Dear Roy,I received an email from my business partner (Thatcher) earlier today, telling me that we had found the perfect applicant for an opening we have in our company. I crafted the job ad based on one of your chapters in the second Wizard of Ads book.This is what I replied to him: “She's perfect. The Wizard of Ads is a genius, and this girl is just what we want, don't you think? I mention the Wizard because I used an article of his on writing job ads for that one. He said the person we were looking for would recognise themselves in the ad, and we wouldn't be swamped with tedious junky mass-applications. And indeed that's what happened.”So thank you, Roy, for all your amazing free advice; I have yet to meet this girl, but judging by the application, I think she should fit in well.Eternally gratefully yours,WilliamThat chapter, by the way, is called “Writing Classified Ads for Employment.” It's chapter 76 in a 101-chapter book called Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.Here's an example of the strange type of classified ad that always gets superior results.William, I'm glad you found the perfect employee. I look forward to your next visit to Austin.Yours,Roy H. Williams

Big Brother is Alive and Well My son’s cell phone rang. He answered, “Hello?”“I’d like to speak to Booty Williams, please.”“This is Booty.”[long pause] “Is your name really Booty Williams?”“That’s right. Booty Call Williams.”“That’s awesome.”The call was from a telemarketing firm that had purchased my son’s contact information from a magazine to which he had subscribed. My son is among the millions of Americans who see questionnaires as an opportunity to create prize-winning fiction.That incident happened 14 years ago, yet Pennie and I continue to receive mail addressed to Booty C. Williams. Booty’s evidently-Irish twin brother, Shenanigans Williams, also resides at our address.According to the data purchased by the telemarketers, Booty and Shenanigans are both are highly educated and incredibly wealthy.I finally signed up on Facebook. Sort of. Do you remember giving Facebook your cell phone number? In return for giving it up to them, you no longer had to type those twisted, hard-to-read security words, proving that you were a person and not a computer. Call me paranoid, call me crotchety, call me Rod Wilson (Facebook does,) but don’t call me on my cell phone. I trust the privacy policy of Facebook about as far as I can kick a watermelon.I will, therefore, continue to type those twisted security words, thereby proving that I, Rod Wilson, am a person (albeit an imaginary one,) and not a computer! God bless America.What happens in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas.In the futuristic society described by George Orwell in his book, 1984, everyone is under constant surveillance by the authorities. Citizens are reminded of this by the phrase “Big Brother is watching you.” Immediately upon publication of that book in 1949, the term “Big Brother” entered into general usage to describe any overly-inquisitive or overly-controlling authority figure or attempts by the government to increase surveillance.Friend, Big Brother is alive and well. And he is us.Who needs private investigators and background checks when you can gather eyewitness accounts, signed confessions and photographic evidence with just a few clicks?Kirsten Valle writes, “The line between private and work lives is blurring in an era where blogs, social networking sites and party photo sites are increasingly popular. Employers are scanning the Internet for information on job applicants and even checking up on existing employees. Companies worry about photos showing drug or alcohol abuse, racially offensive comments and revealing clothing – anything that could damage a company's reputation.”People are losing their jobs and their marriages because of things that are posted on social media websites.On a more positive note, I mentioned in last week’s memo that Twitter and Facebook had lifted online research to a whole new level. Here’s a bit of Twitter eavesdropping I did – without even meaning to – while researching Facebook’s highly touted, hyper-targetable online ads:RT @danmartell: Facebook has a crazy awesome TARGETED ad platform. If you don't use it – you're kind of crazy! http://www.facebook.com/adsDrewmack responded:Facebook ads are a great way to invest your ad $ if you aren't one of those people who care about results. http://bit.ly/2Nb50qThat link provided by Drewmack proved interesting. You should click it later.Advertisers are hungry for trackable, direct-response “cause and effect” advertising. Deep down, their fantasy is to be able to say, “Every time I spend (x) dollars on advertising, I make (x) dollars in profit.” Advertisers like to think of advertising as a giant gumball machine: “You put in your ad budget, you crank the handle, and out come the results.”And advertising salespeople have convinced most advertisers that “reaching the right people is the key.”But success is more often determined by how you crank the handle.Specifically:(1.) How relevant is your message?Are you talking about what people actually care about, or only what you wish they would care about?(2.) In what psychological environment was your message delivered?EXAMPLE 1: Everyone knows that more people listen to the radio during morning drive than at any other time during the day. But people during morning drive are thinking about what awaits them at work. It’s during the drive home that they’re thinking about what awaits them at home. Consequently, radio ads tend to work better during afternoons and evenings.EXAMPLE 2: Facebook ads allow you to target with laser-like precision the customer profiles you want to reach. But you’ll get better results with keyword-targeted Google adwords because Google ads appear when the imperfect customer is in looking-for-answers mode. Facebook ads appear when the perfect customer is in connecting-with-friends, wasting-time mode.I realize it’s counterintuitive, but “When” is often more important than “Who.”Quit looking for the right people. Instead, dig deep for a message worth shouting from the housetops. You'll be surprised how many people become the right people when you finally begin saying the right thing.Roy H. Williams

Back when I was an advertising salesman, business owners would often dismiss me by saying, “I believe in word-of-mouth.” Then with a smug, self-satisfied look, they’d say it again, as though the words made them feel fine and righteous. “Word of mouth is the best form of advertising.”I almost opened The Word-of-Mouth Advertising Agency in 1984. My plan was to hire people to ride up and down in elevators of tall buildings and say things like, “Have you tried that new café over on Third Street? I hear it’s really good.”My fantasy response was to say to business owners, “You believe in word-of-mouth? Great! That’s what I sell!”Today you can invest in a form of quasi-advertising similar to my elevator plan. We hear about it everywhere we go: “Social media is the new marketing.”But it isn't true.Lest you think me out of touch, let me remind you that I accurately predicted the impact of social media in my “40-Year Pendulum of Society” presentation in December 2003, long before Facebook, MySpace and Twitter came into being. In January, 2004, I made the same presentation in Stockholm, Sweden, to the great advertising agencies of Europe. From there I took it to Sydney, Australia, then on to Canada and the United States.Social media is not “the new marketing.”Now before you get all worked up and send me an email explaining why you respectfully disagree, give me a moment to share my definitions for 3 commonly used terms: (I've learned over the years that many disagreements revolve around the lack of any definition of terms.)1. Advertising is what you buy from the sales department of any media.2. Public Relations are what you get for free from the news department of any media.3. Social media is word-of-mouth empowered by internet and cell phone technologies.(Based on these definitions, the purchase of targeted ads on Facebook would be classified as advertising, not as social media.)REUTERS – Oct 8, 2009: “Three-quarters of small businesses say they have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads or expanding business in the past year, according to a survey conducted for Citibank Small Business of 500 U.S. businesses with fewer than 100 employees.”If you haven't yet invested a few hundred hours in a social media campaign for your business, let REUTERS and me save you the time: Three-quarters of the businesses who have tried it were disappointed in the results.Are there business examples of success using social media? Of course there are:1. Using Twitter, businesses are building lists of bargain hunters who want to be the first to know about new offerings. Announce a highly desirable product at a highly desirable price – or free – and you can draw quite a crowd. But that’s always been true, hasn’t it?2. Barack Obama’s skillful use of social media helped propel him to the presidency. His secret? From the beginnings of their campaigns, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were both sending tweets on Twitter. The difference is that when Obama had 44,596 subscribers following his tweets, he was following 46,252 others. Hillary was following no one. Imagine how those 46,252 people felt: “Hillary Clinton wants me to hear her opinions. Barack Obama wants to hear my opinions.”3. Feasibility studies are hugely enhanced by social media. A single question, “Who likes the flavor of bacon?” resulted in 35,000 possible customers, 10,000 inquiries and 3,500 sales of Bacon Salt.4. Entertainment has always triggered word-of-mouth. People will stand in the lobby and text their opinions to their friends before ever leaving the theater. Hollywood studios are realizing that opening day is the only day that can be helped by advertising. After that, the movie's future is in the hands of the viewers. Are you in the entertainment business?Bottom Line:1.   Not every business is equally suited to leverage social media.2.   Many businesses are jumping onto the social media bandwagon without understanding the limitations of the vehicle. 3.   Social media is not a replacement for advertising.4.   The most universal benefit of social media is that you can search your own company name (on Facebook, etc.) and find out what's being said about you.5.   The business benefits of social media often fall short of an acceptable return on the time invested.   6.   Create ecstatically happy customers and they’ll spread the word through social media. Create disgruntled customers and they’ll spread bad word even faster.7.   Focus your attention on your customers. Social media will take care of itself.Now go get ready for Christmas.Roy H. Williams

In 1869, Monet was painting at La Grenouillere when he realized that the color of an object is modified:1. by the light in which it is seen,2. by reflections from other objects, and3. by contrast with juxtaposed colors.Monet translated his observations into the glowing phenomenon we know as French Impressionism.Remember: “The color of an object is modified by the light in which it is seen.”Sunlight contains the full spectrum of visible light waves. When full-spectrum light falls on an object, the pigments in that object absorb (subtract) all the light waves except the ones you see. An orange appears orange because the orange light alone is not absorbed, but reflected back to your eyes.The primaries of Subtractive Color Theory (reflected light) are red, yellow and blue. This is useful when mixing paints, pigments and ink. CMYK is Cyan (blue) Magenta (red) Yellow (yellow) and K (black.)So why do televisions and computers have adjustments for red, green and blue? What happened to the yellow?AProjected light doesn’t use pigments, but creates color by adding light waves together. Red light and green light combine to make yellow light. Go figure.The primaries of Additive Color Theory are Red, Green and Blue. (Click the thumbnail of the RGB wheel to see enlarged RGB and CMYK color wheels along with a short, introductory video on color relationships.)Pennie and I met Nathan Bludworth while we were climbing a mountain of boxes at a wholesale electrical supply company whose owner had skipped town. If we could just figure out what we needed for the academy's new tower, we could buy it from the landlord for pennies on the dollar. But we had no idea what we needed.Noticing our confusion, Nathan – the only other customer in the place – said, “Do you guys need some help?”He looked friendly enough and he seemed to know what he was doing, so I blurted it out. “There's a certain kind of light above the tables at Houston's Restaurant that put a pool of light on each tabletop, but leave the chairs mostly in the dark. Those lights create an an amazing atmosphere we've never seen anywhere else. We're just trying to figure out how they did it.”Nathan smiled and stuck out his hand. “I'm Nathan Bludworth. I designed and installed the lights at Houston's.”Nathan Bludworth paints with light, just like Monet painted with color.The Color Rendering Index (CRI) measures color rendering from light sources with respect to natural sunlight. Natural sunlight equals 100 CRI, the best light available. So the closer the CRI number is to 100, the more closely colors will appear as they do in sunlight. Lights with the highest CRI numbers produce the clearest, most vibrant and natural-looking colors.Electric lights can vary in “color temperature” between 2,000 degrees Kelvin (warm) and 9,500 degrees Kelvin (cold.) Low-temperature lighting is progressively warmer (more red/yellow), while high-temperature lighting grows progressively colder (more blue). Natural sunlight – 100 CRI – is 5,000 degrees Kelvin.If the light contains no red wavelengths, the objects on which that light shines will not be able to reflect red back to your eyes…Monet was right. “The color of an object is modified by the light in which it is seen.”By using different bulbs – 2700 K, 3500 K, 5000 K and 6400 K – and shining them from different angles, Nathan Bludworth makes nature dance and glow and change colors as you move through it.Nathan is one of those people that Wizard Academy Cognoscenti call, “our brand of crazy.”You might meet Nathan during your next trip to Wizard Academy. If you're lucky, he'll teach you how to use light to give your customers whatever feelings you want them to have.Do we have the coolest business school in the world, or what?Roy H. Williams

Business midgets focus on profit margin, “I can sell these for double my cost!” But business giants focus on turn, “How many more would I sell if I lowered my price?”Retailers call it “inventory turn.” Restaurateurs call it “table turn.” Either way, it’s a measurement of how efficiently a business uses its assets.Inventory turn tells the retailer how many times he sold and replaced his inventory over a period of time. Table turn tells the restaurateur how many times he emptied and filled his restaurant during a single mealtime.Turn is Sales divided by Inventory.Bob and Samantha are competitors. Bob makes a 100 percent markup on everything he sells. Samantha adds only a 50 percent markup. Which of them has the better business?Your instincts tell you Bob makes more money but actually, it’s Samantha. Bob carries an average inventory of 6 million dollars and sells each of his items an average of once a year at twice the price he paid for it: 12 million dollars in sales with an annual gross profit of 6 million dollars. Bob “turned” his inventory once.Samantha carries an average inventory of just 1 million dollars. She sells and replaces each item an average of 12 times a year, adding only a 50 percent markup each time. Samantha does 18 million dollars in sales and her annual gross profit is 6 million dollars, exactly the same as Bob’s.But Samantha turned her inventory 12 times.Both retailers made 6 million dollars but Bob is slowly going broke. Samantha is quickly becoming rich and powerful.Bob invests 6 million to make a gross profit of 6 million a year. This means Bob has to make a 6 million dollar investment every time he wants to open a new store. And Bob’s inventory is getting out-of-date because he has to sit on it for a whole year before he can replace it. This problem compounds itself each year.Samantha invests just 1 million dollars to make 6 million. She can open a new store with just a million dollars invested in inventory. But wait, it gets better.Bob bought only 6 million dollars worth of product last year. Samantha bought 12 million. And Samantha is opening new stores. Lots of them. This is what makes Samantha powerful. Soon the suppliers will be charging Samantha lower prices than they charge Bob because Samantha is a much better customer. And the suppliers will give her 90 days to pay but Bob must continue paying immediately.Do you realize what just happened? Not only can Samantha open a new store with an investment of just 1 million dollars in inventory, she can sell that inventory for 1.5 million dollars each month for 3 months – putting a total of 4.5 million into her bank account – before she has to pay the first million dollars for the first month’s inventory. This leaves 3.5 million dollars sitting in Samantha’s bank account, allowing her to inventory 3 new stores, each of which will be able to fund 3 additional stores in just 90 days. Samantha has opened 12 stores in just 6 months. If she keeps it up, she’ll have 432 stores at the end of the year. And Samantha started with just 1 million dollars in inventory while Bob started with 6 million.Bob likes to boast that he offers “6 times the selection,” but the public knows Bob charges $100 for the same item Samantha sells for just $75.Care to make a guess how this is going to turn out?The moral of the story is this: you can’t get a high inventory turn without offering the public what they really want. In my opinion, the person who selects a company’s inventory is the most important person in that company. I could be wrong.But I don't think so.Roy H. Williams