Yahoo CEO Terry Semel Resigns

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A little disruptive consumer intelligence could go a long way to helping Yahoo tackle and topple google. Unfortunately, incumbent resources are wed to "specially designed" methods of gathering and measuring data. No one told them that you can't measure or "quantify" success into existence.

New on Heads Up! On Organizational Innovation

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Joyce Wycoff an innovation igniter ignited me (no pun intended) to think about a conversation I had with the head of HR at Adidas - the running shoe company - the other day. Read Joyces piece. Here were my thoughts to her.

"Bottle Neck" is an interesting term. Where does it begin and how does it snuff out innovation?
I was in an interesting conversation with the head of HR at Adidas the other day. He'd just returned from a conference of HR professionals discussing how to innovate in HR. The net net conclusion was that there is no recruiting innovation because all of these companies sort and sift talent the same way. When you get right down to it (for example) a vice president in marketing puts in a request for a marketing director to be hired who has very similar credentials as the requestor. Intellectual incest insues and innovation in the company grinds to a halt. Like a trend that starts on the east or west coast - what's "new" takes 20 years to emerge in the midwest.
Genetically speaking, hiring someone completely different would strengthen the genetic gene and innovation pool because a quant-jock can't measure innovation, creativity or invention into existance. It takes a gregarious process, not someone professing writing some ideas in a box, and others outside the box.

Yet, insanity prevails. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Certainly (in a Matrix - Keannu Reeves sort of way) companies can claim to innovate. But in reality (what the don't or don't want to see), they more often converge on the same positions as rivals saying and executing essentially the same things their own ways with the slices of difference so small as to be measurably inconsequential in the business world. You can redesign a running shoe, you can turn a mop into a Swiffer, but at the end of the day, you have not sold an incrementally greater number of mops or running shoes. So what innovation was there? Making the old look new takes a lot of effort for sure. Pat yourself on the back for putting an old product through plastic surgery. But don't give yourself a reward. Since neither increased margins (GMROI) or market share there were no gains. So this innovation was a toothless tiger.

People over use the word innovation. Like Clara Peller said in the old Wendy's Hamburger ads, "Where's the beef?"

Disruptive Technology

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It is said that trends take 20 years to reach the midwest once started on the east or west coast. It is also said that teachers take simple things and make them complex, while communicators take complex things and make them simple. When I arrived as an undergradute scholarship track athlete at Indiana University in 1973 from Greenwich, Connecticut I was wearing cuffed khaki pants. Everyone on campus asked me where I got them and why was I wearing them. The polyester stretch Levi cord bellbottom culture had never seen baggie khaki pants before. It has taken Harvard Business School's Professors Clayton Christensen and YoungMe Moon (Disruptive Technology and Reverse/Stealth/Breakaway Positioning respectively) 25 years to discover the concepts and respin the disruptive Abstract Dimensioning (tm) and and Multi-Dimensional Creativity (tm) practices that fueled Procter & Gamble's consumer information, innovation and invention for the past quarter century. How about some homage to us? Thank you.

Calle Company: Miller High Life Goes To Saatchi Saatchi

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Calle Company and Miller Brewing teamed to develop Cold-filtered Miller Genuine Draft - arguably Miller's most popular brand. No one at agency or client level has developed as popular a brand or strategy since. Here again it sounds like someone on Madison Avenue threw a dart at the strategy telephone book and got lucky. The agency CEO says "OK, now we've got 'something' that works so we're going to expand it." Clinging to the account for the perilous ride, I'd have trouble sleeping at night not knowing how to find an even better strategy. But there are at least 500 ways to better position the brand found by utilizing the disruptive information creation techniques we've proven at Miller, Procter Gamble Pepsi and Frito-Lay. By the way, never used "LIFE is my favorite beverage" outscored every other tested strategy for intent to purchase via BASES when developed by Calle Company for the brand at the same time we developed MGD. Cavemen averting extinction by having a brainstorm insight on how they'd divert an asteroid heading toward earth won thunderous applause. www.callecompany.com This is one execution in a series as to how LIFE disrupted Budweiser and became everyone's favorite beverage.

Disruptive Data Technology

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Disruptive Data Technology ®
How to succeed without asking consumers any questions.

Disruptive Data Technology ® is a proprietary data-creation tool exclusive to Calle & Company. www.callecompany.com The revolutionary data-creation process stimulates consumer minds with over 10,000 Product Potentials®, eliminating the pitfalls and poor traditions of question-based marketing. This proven system of invention, innovation, and information makes companies more valuable by generating proprietary marketing intelligence that can help you launch more successful new products and brands and get a foothold in new markets when tackling and toppling market leaders. Project owners charged with creating sustaining innovations profit from new not commoditized data, a distinct advantage over a company’s normal diet of day-old data-salad. Do you like to feel the thrill of insight when a solution that had eluded you, or straightforward problem solving suddenly becomes obvious? Here are many other good reasons why top companies employ exclusive Disruptive Data Technology.

· Jump Start! The process exposes target audience consumers to over 10,000 Product Potentials®. It gives everyone so much more to talk about than what they already know.
· Confidence! More CEOs are satisfied with their innovation ROI.
· Proven! By 100 companies including P&G, J&J, Pepsi and Frito-Lay.
· Experience! It takes less time to learn everything for the first time.
· Effective! Pound for pound marketing solutions deliver more-bang for the buck.
· Excitement! The process releases right-brain top-line creative and strategic endorphins.
· Collaborate! The process quickly builds conviction and consensus with everyone on the same page.
· Enthusiasm! We reveal deeply hidden, never before seen product features, functions, benefits and category attributes.
· Resurrection! DDT® turns poor concepts, bad ideas and line extensions into mega-marvels.
· Clean Sweep! DDT® is a proven clutter buster and differentiator for advertising and positioning strategists.
· Communicate! Americans fear public speaking. Exclusive Consumer-Creative® materials ensure everyone’s 100% participation.
· Work Out! The process exercises creative muscles that otherwise get flabby.
· Accountability! By asking consumers no questions they can tell you no lies.
· Level the Playing Field! The process eliminates focus group leaders who try to impress by pretending to be smart.
· Culturally-Influential® Insights! Reach far beyond linear trend, brand map, laddering, needs segmentation and agency reviews.
· Integrity! Consumers create. Someone else does not do the work or thinking for them.
· Awe! Answers are so obvious they’re not obvious. Solutions are abstract and more engaging, not forced or contrived.
· Freshness! DDT puts you a day ahead of consumers, not a day behind. In-Market solutions stay fresher longer.
· Allegiance! Consumers will not surf past ads as if they were 10 years old before they were new.
· Smart! The process won’t waste money reconfirming or reinventing the things you already know.
· Forward Thinking! Gathering and measuring data about things that have already happened is reactive. This process is proactive.
· Inquisitive! We all ask questions. We all ask the same questions. We rarely ask new questions. Afraid of looking dumb younger marketers won’t ask questions. Are we asking the right questions? When you ask questions you don’t get the voice of the consumer you get the voice of the inquirer through the question being asked, a form of bias that will lead you astray.
· Time Saving! A career’s worth of experience can be had in six weeks - much less than a lifetime.
· Patents! Deliverables are proprietary, not syndicated. There are no contracts. No retainers. No obligations for free proposals.
· Pragmatic! We don’t believe the words “SELL” and “SUIT” are 4-letter words.
· Work Ethic! DDT® proven faster and less expensive than any other business development activity. It gets things done.
· Commitment! Few people are pragmatic top line right brain creative thinkers. They need the help of our proven Abstract Dimensioning® and Multi-Dimensional Creativity® stimuli materials to jump start innovation.
· EASY TO REACH! 714.244.9511 24/7

Email: future@callecompany.com Web Site: www.callecompany.com

Clutter Polution Solution

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Oh my God. Stop pointing fingers. When you do, remember that three fingers are pointing back at you. If you want to create effective ads that people pay attention to you must stop asking questions and start stimulating consumer minds with 10,000 product potentials offered by my firm. It will give you far greater learning latitude than you've ever peviously enjoyed! Why stop asking questions?

1)By the time you ask a question, it's too late. It's already happened and you are a step behind the consumer - that's what bores them - you are reactive.

2)Most Americans never went to college - your ads are above them, or beneath them - but because you are an expert, and they are not, it's hard to hit the target when you don't know where it is.

3)Rip a page out of sales training. When you are new at sales you do great, because you are new and enthusistic - then you become an expert and go into a slump - happens all the time. Net net. Too many "experts" make ads.

Why else should you start stimulating minds and slashing budgets with IRI, BASES, NIELSEN, etc.?
4)It’s faster and less expensive than gathering and analyzing data.
5)Consumer attention spans are shorter than 500-word USA today articles.
6)It gives everyone so much more to talk about than what they already know.
7)It’s proactive, not reactive - you create exceptions that become the rules.
8)It won’t reiterate the things you already know.
9)It sets sights beyond needs, segmentation, product features, functions or benefits.
10)It defeats commoditization.
11)It turns mature earnings brands and companies back into rapid growth businesses.
12)It focuses consumers on your objective, not their fears, worries and suspicions.
13)It increases consumer’s attention span. Dollars become more effective.
14)The yields are fresh, not soft and too ripe to ship to market.
15)Results are proprietary not syndicated.
16)No other company does this.

Question based marketing: Pitfalls or a Poor Tradition

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What's wrong with research? There is no "Ultimate Marketing Question." When you ask questions, you are always a step behind the consumer, never a step ahead.
(Background context: You can find plenty of smart, talented, successful people who are able to take their business only so far because of the limitations of their leadership and vision. Your organization's ability to grow is directly tied to your ability and desire to become a smarter, more talented and successful leader. That is the Law of the Lid. If you want to reach new level of effectiveness in your job, raise your lid. If you want to grow your company, grow your lid. If you want to increase shareholder value, increase your lid. Excerpt from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell)

Prologue: It’s been 47 years since Calle & Company rocked marketing by creating a brand, Chunky Soup, by stimulating consumer minds with 10,000 Product Potentials - and without asking consumers a single question. Great ROI. Since then, the proponents of question-based marketing and analytics have pulled the wool over everyone’s eye – arresting the speed and development of the consumer product industry.

What’s important about finding marketing solutions without asking consumers questions? You are more likely to win more hands and eliminate bluffs. Imagine you are in a poker game facing 5 category rivals. You are dealt five cards: IRI, Nielsen, BASES, Landor and JD Power. You have a wild card, an advertising agency up your sleeve. You want to discard Landor hoping to draw a McKinsey, Bain or BCG, but realize, “Despite solid balance sheets and healthy profit margins, the US$ 2 trillion consumer packaged goods industry has lost much of its glow. Revenues and market values are flat, and executives wonder where the growth will come from.” None of the above have answers. So you fold – because the definition of failure would be to continue to do things the same way and expect different results.

Most CEOs report disappointment with their innovation return on investment. Most new products fail – because your company has been drawing data from the same deck for years - And when you ask questions you don’t get the voice of the consumer - you get the voice of the inquirer through the question being asked – a form of bias that will lead you astray.

14 REASONS why Calle & Company stimulates minds with Product Dimensions®

Calle & Company doesn’t ask questions. We invent information specializing in new product and product positioning innovation. Our 10,000 Product Dimensions give you far greater learning latitude than you’ve ever had before. Why do we stimulate consumer minds?

-Most Americans never went to college.
-It’s faster and less expensive than gathering and analyzing data.
-Consumer attention spans are shorter than 500-word USA today articles.
-It gives everyone so much more to talk about than what they already know.
-It’s proactive, not reactive - you create exceptions that become the rules.
-It won’t reiterate the things you already know.
-It sets sights beyond needs, segmentation, product features, functions or benefits.
-It defeats commoditization.
-It turns mature earnings brands and companies back into rapid growth businesses.
-It focuses consumers on your objective, not their fears, worries and suspicions.
-It increases consumer’s attention span. Dollars become more effective.
-The yields are fresh, not soft and too ripe to ship to market.
-Results are proprietary not syndicated.
-No other company does this.

Do you like to feel the thrill of insight when a solution that had eluded you suddenly becomes obvious? For thousands of years people have said that insight feels different from more straightforward problem solving. Experience this thrill more often. Contact Calle & Company. http://www.callecompany.com -
email: future@callecompany.com

Brand Mapping the Presidential Candidates - Courtesy of John Moore's Excellent "Brand Autopsy" Blog

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Eisenhower and Truman were the first Presidential candidates to use the new mass media of television effectively. The utilization of media has matured to the point that you now need to BE a celebrity to get elected. The difference between Regan and Bush is that Regan could speak well. Most candidates today are not only unable to impress when on stage, they can't think on their feet. As Dale Carnegie said, "If you've lived through it you've earned the right to talk about it." To me, it appears that Bush "slept" through it. When I was a child the word "competent," as a standard, was used to denote "one step above moron." Now things have gotten so watered down that the word "competent" means you're pretty good. "Average" has become so horrible in America that you can practically go to the head of the class just by showing up. No wonder gas prices are so high. The world is scared to death! So you be the judge. Is Bush competent, or average?

To continue, the type of research employed to compare Bush to Kerry here is the type of work that perpetuates the commoditization of knowledge in consumer packaged goods - transforming rapid growth businesses into mature earnings businesses. This is the type of work that commoditizes positioning strategies and consumer perceptions - that bankers at Washington Mutual wear jeans and flannel shirts while those Wells Fargo wear suits. Similarly, that smoked sausage manufacturers at Kahn's/Hillshire Farm wear blue jeans and flannel shirts while competitors at Swift-Eckrich wear (what else) suits! When will marketers and strategists wake up and realize that branding firms such as Landor take them for a ride? Excellent con men one and all! I can forgive the young MBA, they are still learning everything all over again for the very first time. But the politicians are supposed to be our representatives. We are their leaders. And they, and their strategists actually digest this ... stuff! What's worse, they pay for it with our tax dollars.

March Madness

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Follow Indiana every game to the Final Four.

Jennie-O Stilted Style Stumble

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What is it about young consumer packaged goods MBAs and creatives who fashion advertising in the food sector that compels them to depict the contrived models, hairdos, clothing, postures and serving suggestions that they would never be caught dead with in real life? Surely these are not the arbitors of the consumer experience and innovation CEOs believe drive the future growth of companies. Is this ad based on rich, robust and proprietary insights so often touted in the trade! You could just as easily put a Maytag Washer in this model's hands. What a waste of money.

Starbucks Gets It

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Hooray! Starbucks gets it! The ground roast coffee category shifted the battlefield from flavor and aroma to caffeine more than 20 years ago! This is the first ground roast coffee ad, since Folger's "Best Part of Waking Up [is caffeine in your cup]" (my strategy), to figure out that heavy ground roast coffee users, the 20% of the audience that account for well over 80% of the category volume, drink caffeine in the morning day part to "THINK EARLIER." Other insights from the work of Calle & Company that enabled Folgers to wrench the category's icon lead and status from Maxwell House include the fact that caffeine enables heavy ground roast coffee consumers to "WORK AND PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS" (very Dale Carnegie: "How To Win Friends and Influence People". Heavy ground roast coffee consumers also perceive that they need to drink caffeine when they get to work because the caffeine helps them show their boss that they "SEE THINGS OTHERS MISS." Caffeine helps them become more alert! It has taken 25 years for this rich, robust and proprietary arabica and robusta bean breakthrough to migrate from Cincinnati to Seattle...but that's marketing in America. It takes a long time for young MBAs and creatives to learn everything all over again for the very first time. How else might the consumption of caffeine enable you to influence others? Thinking outside of the box, might it make you a better leader? Improve your ability to influence others? When you turn around,is anyone following? Now Folger's has Starbuck's on the same strategy. The next commoditization of knowledge in the category is about to ensue.

If you are a ground roast coffee marketer, there are many other ways that can help your brand defeat commoditization, improve the human condition and beat up on rivals. Contact Calle & Company!

How Starbucks Strayed

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A lack of imperfection is how Starbucks lost its soul - and coffee house experience. It is now officially the McDonald's of its business. Starbuck's, and its classically trained leadership has turned Starbuck's once powerful brand equity into a "Milder Dimension." The brand is on the brink of being totally perceptually sanitized. No different than the conflict between Swift-Eckrich smoked sausage and those of rival Kahn's Hillshire Farm. Kahn's products are made by farmers in blue jeans and flannel shirts while Swift-Eckrich products are made by lab technicians in starched white coats ... according to in-depth consumer studies, this fate also befalls Wells Fargo versus Washington Mutual. Wells bankers are "the suits" while WAMU "neighbors" are the nice guys from Seattle in jeans and flannel shirts. How many times does history have to repeat itself before companies have to stop learning things all over again for the very first time?

Measurement Obsession Stymies Media Players

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Procter & Gamble's Stengel - Four A's Conference Shines Light on Divide Between Marketers and Agencies

Upshot: People don't ask questions when their products sell well. Non-commodity positions solve the problem with the expression of most positions that are just too obvious, or too contrived.

Taco Hell: Rodent Video Signals New Era in PR Crises

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Don't they eat rats on sticks in Thailand, live monkey brains in Japan, dogs in China? This just yanks our cultural chain.

The people at Taco Bell Restaurants, and at YUM BRANDS go to work today, the same way they did yesterday, and expect different results - same way as everyone does at The Home Depot - but there they paid CEO Bob Nardelli $210 million to retire! We're OK with rats. They're a natural part of the NYC landscape - found in all the best restaurants - and in the worst. Like President Richard Nixon, the only problem is - Taco Bell got caught. No wonder Yum Brands Does Little Even as Rats Spread Across Web, TV. See the Video. Will these pets receive their talent payment from the ad agency? Monolo just loves those little shoes! CLICK HERE! http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=533258434

Starbucks Smells the Death of Its Brand Experience

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Starbucks started going downhill the moment they launched "New Milder Dimensions." If I'd wanted Maxwell House I would have gone to the grocery store. That's how you water down "the experience" and the brand equity.

No wonder the article says CEO Howard Schultz Wants To Confront The Missing Aroma of Fresh-Roasted Coffee In His Stores. He's hired a few too many people from McDonald's, and needs to reintroduce a little old fashioned Imperfection - that would be an interesting Selling Dimension ®! Howard Schultz, if you are reading this, go to our web site http://www.callecompany.com.

SURVEY: Marketers Can't Grade Agencies but Fail Them Anyway

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More news about people who don't know what they want, and who don't know how to explain it. If anyone on the client, or on the agency side knew how to grow the business, don't you think they would? As the article concludes: Most Clients Can't Measure Advertising's Exact ROI Yet Feel 'Vague Disenchantment'.

However, we can cure Madison Avenue's heart failure. Visit: http://www.callecompany.com

Stengel Exhorts 4A's: 'It's Not About Telling and Selling'

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P&G's CMO lifts a page from Zig Ziglar's sales 101 course on building relationships - people buy things if they like you. Why don't more of P&G's ads get you to like them? Because the ads are long on features functions and benefits wrapped in engaging creativity - and very short on Selling Dimensions ® and Product Potentials ® - Special User Effects ® - that give a product or brand real personality and character. Anticipation is not a feature or a benefit, but it is a hidden selling dimension unlocked by Calle & Company that led to Heinz's famous "Anticipation" ads with Leo Burnett - a strategy later lifted by Jeff Goodby to author, "Got Milk?" Ya gotta love those hidden Selling Dimensions ® and Special User Effects ® ! All by products of Calle & Company's proprietary Abstract Creativity ® and Multi - Dimensional Creativity ® Systems of Invention that increase a mature product or brand's Viability Envelop ®.

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Hans Martin Eric Calle, Jr.

New CMO Plans to Clip the Aflac Duck's Wings

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Leo Burnett created The Marlboro Man, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, etc. Marketing by celebrity character is now not something new. It's old school. So Kaplan Thaler Group created, "The Duck." While Chunky Soup enhanced the equity of Campbell Soup as a soup company ( the brand was going to be launched as a stew) - the duck says Aflac is quack. Mr. Herbert is smart to focus on his equity, strength and identity - to inform and motivate his customers to switch brands and to stop listening to agencies short on real ideas according to Advertising Age columnist Jonah Bloom.

Farewell, Bon Voyage

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I realize that farewell and bon voyage are two goodbyes with completely different meanings. I return to the office next week from the funeral of US President Gerald Ford, and from Atlanta, called there to provide succession marketing, management and PR counsel following the departure of top dog Bob Nardelli.

To a great President we bid farewell. To Bob Nardelli we say bon voyage...after all, wouldn't you quit for $210 million?