Two Ears and One Mouth.

I teach business communications every so often at a local post secondary institution. I have sat through thousands of meetings in my 27 years in business. I have heard it all! Yet I am still amazed how many leaders can not listen well, and are really just waiting for people to stop talking so they can begin to talk.

As many people have said before me, we have two ears and one mouth, so we should be listening twice as much as we are talking.

This short little brain dart from McKinsey is a healthy reminder of three simple things all of us can do to be better listeners.

1. Show respect to your audience.

2. Keep quite (the two ears point)

3. Challenge assumptions.

I believe so much great insight is left on the table because people do not listen. I am guilty of this now and then, and this was a timely reminder to me to every so often, just shut up and listen.

Enjoy the read.


McKinsey's article on being a better listener.

Play It Again Samsung

Recently IDC's Worldwide Phone Tracker research found that "Samsung closed 2011 as the year's top smartphone manufacturer with 94 million units shipped and a market share of 19.1 per cent". This fact took me back to 1986-87 when I was part of a team that launched Samsung into Canada. Samsung was just a new brand from Korea that was trying to get in the face of Japanese power house brands Sony and Panasonic. Their native domestic competitor Lucky Goldstar (now LG) was also starting out in the Canadian market making TV sets, VCR players and other low cost consumer electronics for Canadian consumers who felt they were paying too much for Japanese and, still at that time, US product.

Samsung's success is a great story and tribute to the power of branding perseverance. Samsung went through a few CMOs and logos (as you can see from one of the Canadian launch ads I was part of back in the mid 1980s), however they never lost faith that they would build a brand of quality and eventual world leading relevance.

Samsung Canada launch ad in 1987 by Toronto based Enterprise Advertising.

I look at what Hyundai and KIA have been doing in the car market in the last 10 years, and I see the same strategy unfolding for them. I hope they have walked down the street in Seoul and thanked their friend at Samsung for showing them they way.

Thank You 2011

As I sit here on the last day of 2011, I look back on a great year for Bamboo Strategy. The firm continued its relationship with one of Canada's leading innovators in the natural health products industry, by providing Afexa Life Sciences with initial insight services leading to this year's launch of Coldsore-Fx. We added Canada's largest privately owned recruiting firm (Design Group Staffing Inc.), and Alberta's largest Credit Union (Servus) to our client list. As well, long time client Trixstar Productions brought William Shatner's one man show to thousands of his fans across Canada.

On top of this wonderful activity, I merged Bamboo Strategy with IMC, the world's only management consultancy dedicated to the resource industry in Western Canada. This new relationship as a division of IMC, will provide Bamboo Strategy with resources in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, and deeper access to businesses in what is undoubtedly the economic driver of Canada. In return IMC deepens its service offering and positioning as the resource industry's trusted resource.

So as I say goodbye to 2011 I say thank you and look forward to 2012 as a year of tremendous growth and opportunity. May your 2012 be one that thrives as well.

Blogs Live Longer

Obviously I write a blog. So whenever the discussion about the relevancy of blogs comes up I listen. Well Brain Solis has published his annual State of the blogosphere that shares some interesting insights.

State of the Blogosphere 2011

1. most blog writers are from Gen X and Gen Y but everybody reads blogs.
2. brands are getting blogged about more and more
3. blogging has proved valuable in building the company who has blogged
4. blogs live longer that tweets and status updates.

There is much more data in the article but for me point 4 above says it all. In a world of 140 charcter updates, when you find a trusted source that goes deeper... you tend to go back to that well.

Make It Simple

I am working with a group to locate a new CRM and web system and the choice is full of complexities. One of the potential suppliers gave me a great little piece on simplicity. A short simple read that is so true.

Click on the link and enjoy the read.


http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/28/easier-is-better-than-better/

Testimonial: Afexa Life Sciences

“Finding and working with Don was a wonderful experience and everyone involved was extremely pleased with the outcomes. Don brings a wealth of experience and applied it to get into the minds and hearts of a completely new category for us. His global CPG background is a skill set unique in the Edmonton district. Conducting consumer market research outside of Toronto, Montreal, & Vancouver breaks the traditional CPG mould and gave everyone a sense that we were getting fresh insights.”

Timothy Lee

Director, Marketing Innovations

Afexa Life Sciences (Cold-FX), Canada

Coors Light Flashback

Recently in Canada, Coors Light overtook Budweiser to become the number one selling beer in the land. This amazing fact (amazing because domestic brands Blue and Canadian held this cherished territory for years) led me to dig into my creative vault and want to share the TV creative that started the shift to the current mountain lifestyle position that Coors Light in Canada still sits with today.

You see in the early 1990's Coors light was being consumed by many but few were admitting to it. The brand had a yuppie image that was no longer relevant to the larger group of drinkers that just liked the silver bullet because it was easy to drink and left them clearer to get on with living life...an active outdoor life. So the ad agency FCB Toronto, where I worked as an account director on Molson brands, including Coors Light, led a repositioning plan with the great brand team at Molson and an amazing insight firm from San Francisco called Tattoo.

The video below was the launch work we developed for the first two years of the campaign that began to reposition Coors Light in line with its mountain heritage and the powerful Canadian beer drivers of boldness and refreshment. Clearly the position was relevant then, and remains so today.