I hung in there when they raised prices. I didn’t cancel or change my subscription package (until today), but this new development just made me not want to deal with two companies, separate billings, and what I can only assume is coming, a loss of seamless, one-stop-shopping for my video rentals. Sorry Netflix, count me in for streaming, but Qwikster, not interested…

“Pork: Be inspired”

Are you kidding me? Inspired by what? Inspiring who? The whole thing to me is so insipid that it physically makes me mad. It baffles me so much that I am right now struggling to find words to articulate why this bothers – no, practically offends – me so much.

The first time I heard about the rebranding of pork I think I had a hard time because I think the “other white meat” campaign was so brilliant. It really opened up the door for people to see pork for what it could be, a potentially leaner cut of meat for those bored with chicken and a more affordable and more healthy choice to some cuts of beef.

I got it. I understood it. That inspired me to buy pork. It really did. I never bought pork or cooked pork before, but once I saw that it could be a healthy choice, I learned a few easy recipes, and would even order it out sometimes.

Maybe as a marketer myself, I always critique (consciously or not) the connection a tagline has to its brand. Maybe I just don’t see the connection, or maybe I envision a bunch of corporate pork guys (yes, I picture them as guys…) sitting around a conference table throwing out ‘ideas’. But maybe, just maybe, what truly bothers me is what this article touches on: the concept of fake authenticity.

With so much in the news today about the rise in childhood obesity and the evils of trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup, it makes perfect sense that food companies need to find new ways to market. I get that. But to me, I think it is that sense of fake authenticity that the article speaks about that is really what bothers me. That along with fact that I find the tagline to be the exact opposite of ‘inspiring’ to me.

Maybe ‘the other white meat’ was so brilliant that I feel it truly changed the perception of pork, and the idea of abandoning that brilliant piece of marketing for something so lame is frustrating to me as a marketing professional. It sure worked on me, and I am a skeptical one when it comes to marketing and advertising just by nature.

But now I just think that the root of my anger towards this campaign is that fact that it feel fake. Inauthentic. Random words thrown together to package something in a ridiculous wrapper, which to me is bad marketing. I even hate the new font! Now I know that that is part of what marketing is – packaging something in a particular wrapper – but to me this feels insulting. Not just to me, but to that other white meat. The one that everyone got to know a little bit better and maybe gained a little more respect for. The other white meat got dissed big time, yo.

I will say that I was happy to see that on the National Pork Boards’ web site www.porkbeinspired.com, (catchy URL, right?) there was a section devoted to my old friend ‘the other white meat‘. Perhaps they knew that others might feel the same way I did about seeing such an iconic and smart campaign pass the baton to something new.

And perhaps they knew somewhere deep in their hearts that there was something not-so-inspiring about ‘Be inspired’.

I can’t help but think that our old friend Charlotte the spider might just love this new brand. It just might save a new bunch of potential porcine friends the way her webs branded (oops, I mean saved) her friend Wilbur…

Yesterday I came home from running errands and my back lawn had been cut (really, in December?) and the last round of leaves had been vacuumed up. Now, you might think that it would have been a nice surprise to home to a nice, neat backyard.

But I was furious. And part of it was my own fault. I had been dissatisfied with my lawn guy’s service all year but I never made an effort to tell him what I was unhappy with. I kept waiting to see if he would step up on his own to do work that was up to my standards.

My dissatisfaction started back in the spring when, after the first or second beautiful, meticulous cut, I called him to ask him to quote on some additional planting and landscaping work. It took him two weeks to call me back. He told me that someone would email me the estimate. I’m still waiting for it. I would up hiring someone else to do it, but kept the first guy on to keep cutting my grass. I chalked it up to lawn guys being busiest in the summer and him just not having time to work up a quote.

But then the cuts started getting messy and off-schedule. I never knew when they were coming, and they never left any evidence – other than a freshly cut lawn– that they were there. No bill in my mailbox, no little calling card left on my screen door. Just a cut lawn.

And piles of sticks.

I have two big, old trees in my backyard and they frequently shed small to medium-sized branches onto the lawn. The lawn guys had never picked up any of the sticks, and even worse, either simply ran the lawnmower over them, or threw them into the planting beds that surround the lawn.

Now, still, I never called him to express my displeasure. I just assumed after the first time it happened that it wouldn’t happen again, or maybe they had to rush through my lawn to finish up their day’s work. But it kept happening, and I kept reminding myself to call and tell them to please clean up the sticks.

They also never left or sent a bill, so in the back of my head, I thought “well, maybe I won some lawn-cutting lottery”, and should just ignore the sticks.

But I hadn’t won the lawn-cutting lottery, and about a month ago I received a bill in the mail for the full summer service, as well as the first couple of times they came to clean up the leaves.

Leaves that they had inadvertently blown into my sunroom through the screen door and created a huge mess that I had to clean up. That happened twice, the second time being yesterday which prompted this blog post and what will now be the ultimate firing of the lawn service.

After I calmed down, I started thinking about all the customer service implications that this situation had brought to light. And what I realized was that we were both at fault. And over time what was a really a minor service issue, had blossomed into full-on fury.

What was the lawn guy’s fault:
1. They took two weeks to call me back when I inquired about additional services.
Never, never, never do that. It sets a tone of apathy and sloppiness from the start. CALL YOUR CLIENTS BACK, especially if they want to give you more work.

2. He never followed through with the estimate when he finally did call me back.
Again, if a client wants to give you more work, FOLLOW THROUGH with an estimate in a timely fashion.

3. I never met the owner face-to-face.
I spoke to him on the phone a total of three times when I first hired him and then never heard from him again. STAY IN TOUCH and ASK FOR FEEDBACK. If I had any inclination of who this person was, I might have felt more of a connection with him and would have been more likely to tell him what I was unhappy with in the first place.

4. They were inconsistent with scheduling and billing.
I never knew when they were coming, and when I got the giant bill a month ago, I didn’t really have any way to match up the charges with the days that they actually came because they never left anything behind except a cut lawn and piles of sticks. BILL CONSISTENTLY and KEEP YOUR CLIENTS INFORMED about the amount of work you are doing for them. Don’t stick a client with a huge bill at the end with no way to cross-reference work.

5. They delivered sloppy work.
This for me was the ultimate deal killer. They threw the sticks in my planting beds, and they left a mess in my sunroom – twice. DON’T DELIVER SLOPPY RESULTS and NEVER, NEVER, MAKE MORE WORK for your clients. Just don’t do it. Not only will this service lose my business, I will never refer them to anyone else.

What was my fault:
Basically, I failed as a client in this situation because I never clearly expressed my dissatisfaction with their work at the beginning. I should have told him that I had hired someone else to do plantings because I never got a quote from him. I should have called him the first time the sticks were discarded improperly or the first time the leaves got blown into my sunroom. I also never clearly outlined what my expectations were when it came to what I wanted done, how I wanted to be billed, or what level of service I expected. I took a passive role and just let the dissatisfaction build and build. I assumed the lawn service knew what I wanted and what I expected, which never really works out in the end.

So, lessons learned on all ends. It provided me some good insight into how I can be a better business, and how I can be a better client. Unfortunately, it is also providing me a way to become a better leaf-cleaner-upper, as I’m off to the sunroom to clean up their mess – for the second time.

Huge misstep by the Gap marketing team and their agency, Laird & Partners? Brilliant PR campaign to use crowdsourcing to gather new ideas for free? Or maybe just a good old-fashioned “any PR is good PR” move.

Having recently been part of national, award-winning rebranding campaign, and understanding first hand how much work and research goes into that process, I find it a little hard to believe that Gap truly thought their “new” logo was A. good, and B. an effective evolution of their iconic blue box. They claimed, in a statement made by Marka Hansen, Gap North American president that “We chose this design as it’s more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward.” The company not only took hits from their customers on their new look, but from industry professionals who looked at the request for fans to send in their own logo ideas as a means to collect ideas for free.

Gap has a strong social media presence, and is savvy with its use of Facebook and Twitter, which is where much of this drama is playing out. We may never know what the true motivations behind the logo release and subsequent reversal, but in my head it does raise a few questions about what their true objective was. Would a struggling brand, which Gap has been for a while now, go out on such a limb to create buzz for their company? Would they create an obviously not-so-great new logo, not only expecting, but hoping for such a backlash? Would they then invite the community at large to send in their own ideas, only to rescind that offer five days later and revert to the old logo claiming they made a mistake and were now listening to the masses? Would marketers who truly believed in their process and their path ever give in so quickly if they truly believed their new direction was the best move for the brand? Could they have been so brilliant to concoct this entire plan just to get some media play?

Like I said, we may never know, but what we do know is that people are certainly talking and writing about it and have brought some passion back to the Gap brand.

And isn’t that what marketing is all about? Inspiring passion? Creating conversation? Increasing awareness?

Epic fail, or calculated move? You decide.

Every morning I do a quick check of the news sites as I have my coffee and get my day started. This morning I came across this story on Yahoo News, and it made me both chuckle and cringe. And then I realized I was really more cringing than chuckling. Everyone has heard these terms, and has probably used them at one time or another. But to see them all listed in a row really made me realize how many meetings I’ve sat in over the years where the use and ultimate overuse of these phrases have dominated. I’m sure many of you can picture a similar scenario.

If nothing else, this list serves as a reminder to me how important clear and concise communication is, and how mundane, robotic, and dare I say lazy, relying on some of these clichés can appear to be.

The next time you catch yourself using one, stop for a second and ask yourself what you are really trying to say. And then think for a about second how the person you are speaking with might view the words coming out of your mouth.

I know I’ll be listening.

After gaffe after gaffe from those leading the charge, news that BP was buying Google keywords to divert attention to their own sites, a disastrous appearance in front of Congress, the “small people” comment, a flip-flop on whether or not Hayward has been relieved of his duties as the public face of the company, now we hear that he’s off yachting in the Isle of Wight.

Yes. Yachting. Or watching yachts. Whatever.

Hey Tony, you need a day off? Need some downtime, some R+R? How about taking in a movie? Maybe a massage. A wine tasting even. But a yachting event? Seriously?

One would assume that climbing up the company ranks requires at least a glimmer of intelligence. Compassion, debatable. But intelligence for sure.

Then how, how I ask, can they possibly let him go watch a yacht race – on the water – while the pipe is still gushing oil? A luxury sporting competition on the water. Unbelievable and to be honest, quite callous and crass.

BP’s PR department, once accused simply of missteps and poor crisis management handling, has truly sunk to new lows. Whether they like it or not, perception is reality and brand value and reputation is difficult to repair once its been destroyed.

Kind of like the Gulf.

Have a great and productive week!

Entrepreneur DNA from Both Sides of the Table

How Freelancers are Using Social Media for Real Results from Mashable

Turn Free Advice Into Clients from Freelance Switch

10 Keys to Career Success and Personal Happiness from bizmore

12 Creative Office Spaces from Fast Company

How to Kill Conversations and Suck the Life Out of Your Blog from Hubspot

Tracking Success with Social Networking from Java Social Networking

Branding Starts With a Purpose from Processed Identity

Are You an Investment Employee or Entrepreneur? from WomenEntrepreneur

How to Boost Your Personal Brand with Social Media from Social Media Examiner

It has made keeping up with my reading much easier and much more organized, Inevitably, there are certain stories that stand out and stick with me more than others. I’ve decided to compile them here, to share them with you each week, and hopefully you can gain from them as I have. There are some very talented people out there, just waiting to help you. This week’s favorite posts (in no particular order) include some inspiration, some tips and tricks, and some info on this week’s Facebook changes.

Here’s to a productive and creative week…

An Angry Letter From Your Big Idea from Mildly Creative

The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers from copyblogger

5 Ways to Keep the Social Media Buzz Going After an Event from Eventbrite and Charlene Li

How Facebook’s New Features Could Help You from Inc.

The Age of Facebook from TechCrunch

Don’t Confuse Your Client’s Goals With Your Own from Freelance Switch

Learn to Let Go: 8 Sharing Sites That Will Expand the Reach of Your Content from Hubspot

High Fliers: Top 50 Women-Led Companies from The Wall Street Journal

11 Work-Related i-Pad Apps That Mean Business from ITBusinessedge

Who Judges Your Work from Seth Godin

I’m talking about his return to Madison Avenue.

On Wednesday night, the night before his much-watched and much-dissected return to professional golf, Nike ran a new ad starring Tiger. And his dad. His dead dad. Or, really his dead dad’s voice tossing out questions to the golfer such as “did you learn anything?” and comments like “I want find out what your thinking was”. Hmmm.

Creepy? Yes. Controversial? Yes. Tasteful? Debatable. Effective? Probably.

The real question revolves around the effect that the commercial will ultimately wind up having. Will it help his image? Will it place Nike in a good light for sticking with him? Will it help sell more Nike products? The sedate black and white. His unwavering gaze faced directly into the camera. His solemn, seemingly humbled, almost sad expression. His worshiped dead dad’s disembodied voice. Will people buy it? Will people begin to see him as they used to and not as a selfish, narcissistic, spoiled celebrity?  Will people be touched and sympathetic?

Or will people be turned off all over again at this latest attempt to rehabilitate his image post-rehab and obligatory televised “apology”?

Being in the field I am, I really try to view these types of communication methods from an objective perch. Having a strong understanding of how advertising and PR works, I usually can stay objective and see both the positives and negatives of campaigns. I also try to stay objective with regard to Tiger and his situation as a whole. Do I agree with what he did? Of course not. But would anyone really have cared if he had been a single guy? Of course not.

This time however, was different, and the effect this whole thing has had on me came quite surprisingly. I ran into a female friend late last week who was wearing a Nike logo t-shirt. I had a strong and immediate reaction. Turns out seeing the brand was having an effect on me. Could it be that their advertising was working?

In my head it sounded something like this: “Oh my God, how in the world can she be wearing that? I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a Nike logo slapped across my chest. I wonder if everyone who sees her is thinking the same thing. I wonder if anyone has said anything rude to her?“

That really caught me off guard and really made me think. Really made me think about what the effect of the Tiger situation and Nike’s loyalty to him was really accomplishing. If I, the objective observer, and non-judger had such an immediate and strong reaction to the Nike brand, what were others thinking?

And now that they had us thinking, would we now think twice before reaching for – and purchasing – the Nike brand?