"Virtually every type of expected tangible reward made contingent on task performance does, in fact, undermines intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, not only tangible rewards, but also threats, deadlines, directives, and competition pressure diminish intrinsic motivation because, according to cognitive evaluation theory, people experience them as controllers of their behavior."
—Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci
"Tell them the truth. First, because it is the right thing to do, and second, they'll find out anyway."
—Paul Galvin.
Ahh the truth. That thing to be finessed if you want to succeed in marketing ... NOT.
Singles, age 18-35, are a very large and growing population, particularly in metropolitan areas, even relatively small ones. This makes them a very desirable consumer target. They are also important because the habits formed during one's single life are tenacious and strong.
When thinking of games for museums it's hard not to let your mind think of hits like “Angry Birds” which had 200-million downloads by May 2011. Players worldwide spend 200 million minutes (=380 years) on the game each day. This demonstrates that people do love to play well-crafted snack food style games that have optimized game play mechanics (easy to learn, hard to master) that are addictive and fun. Should museums try to replicate or imitate this? Probably not.
Is your content useful, timely, relevant, needed? Is it adding something valuable to the MASSIVE conversation that is the contemporary internet?
It should be.
"To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All you have to do is swear off having ideas."
—Leo Burnett.
We make mistakes.
The trick, of course, is to learn—and to make process changes from that learning—so that on our next pass through that same or a similar gauntlet we exhibit more finesse.
We are certainly not the first organization to struggle with getting everyone to fill in their time sheets. We've tried a variety of methods. We have made it really easy with software. We have tried asking nicely, telling regularly, assigning a person to go check and cajole each and every day. Through all this somehow consistent compliance has always eluded us.
Enter the piggies.
We want to make the world better, and for us the way we can do that most effectively is through our clients. So it is important that we choose our clients well. These are the ten questions we currently ask ourselves when we consider if a potential client is likely to be the ideal client for us.
Written with a pen from the funeral home where my dad was cremated just two months ago, these are my mom's last words. They are written in her journal.
Some of you may have noticed last week that our website was new, easy, simple, blue.
Choosing NOT to continue under the persistent and powerful effects of "the cobbler's son has no shoes" syndrome, we forced the birth of a new Tronvig Group website.
My Monday night—the night Hurricane Sandy came ashore—was spent in my fourth floor apartment on Manhattan Beach. On one side I watched the ocean waves cover the roofs of the homes on the beach. On the other side, I watched the Sheepshead Bay canal waters rush in over cars and through buildings. As I saw all this I was wishing I had packed an inflatable boat in my "to go" bag.
It's day 4 after Hurricane Sandy hit, and I'm just as anxious as I was waiting for the storm. Fortunately, my home is located in a safe zone. Unfortunately, many of my friends' and loved ones' homes aren't.
Our rise from the abyss has brought us to clarity of vision: "Finding creative ways to help our clients make the world better." We are no longer doing poorly trying to do well. We are instead fulfilling a destiny that has us—to use the Quaker words of Ben Franklin—"Doing well by doing good."
A persona is a kind of mental model—an imaginary person with a name, history and story who has a way of doing things. A persona should have enough psychological detail to allow you to conveniently step over to the persona's view, and see your products and services from her perspective.
As marketers we must never be in a position where we are just throwing shit up on the wall to see what sticks. We should be applying our creativity and artistry in execution of a strategic hypothesis that is based on research and genuine insight.
