Aliyah Marr Interviews Sean Kelley for Parallel Mind

Excerpt from Parallel Mind Blog:

Sean Kelley is an artist / designer who designs and curates art exhibits in San Diego. Recently I interviewed him for my tutorial, Designers with Double Lives, for Graphics.com. He generously gave me more information than I could put in the tutorial. So I decided to post the rest of the interview here as inspiration for readers of Parallel Mind.

Read rest of article here: http://parallelmind.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/interview-with-artist-designer-sean-kelle/

 

Designers with Double Lives

I produce tutorials for graphic designers for Graphics.com/learning. My topic has evolved over the last few months to be more editorial and inspirational than instructional.

The latest tutorial is entitled, “Designers with Double Lives.” It is about designers who follow a dual career: graphic designer and fine artist. I think that my editor was thinking of me when he proposed the tutorial. Anyway it’s posted here:

http://learning.graphics.com/eLearning/Video/37829

I have published 7 tutorial topics for Graphics.com since last December; at 6 movies per topic, that makes 42 movies in all. It’s getting easier, and more fun every time.

 

The Art of Interactive Design

I am both a designer and an artist. That is to say, I was educated as a fine artist, and later went into design. Design started out as a coping technique and then grew into an amazing medium for my art.

I was part of the dot com bubble in the late 90’s. At that time I was working as Sr Art Director at Digitas in New York City and freelancing for several design firms with major clients. Interactive design became a passion; I even designed and programed game interfaces. I led seminars in multimedia and trained others in software. I worked in video and motion graphics, but my real passion was interactive design.

At the heart of this design form are the twin concepts of non-linear and user-choice. In contrast with most of my colleagues, I never think of interactive design as something which tells a story, rather, I have always conceived it as being a series of moments, strung together by user choice.

I know that most people strive to make a story even where there is none, but a time is coming when we will no longer need a story that leads the user down a predefined path to the same conclusion. User choice will be paramount.

You can see how I play with interactive media, story, and user choice in my artwork at: www.radi8.org. My video piece “Subtitulo” remakes two films, by taking out the story and dialog. Is it still a film? What makes a film a film? Is it the story, or is it the linear basis of the medium?

In my piece “Exfoliate” I did the opposite. I took a video that had no story and gave it one retroactively. I had video-taped the cutting up of a magazine. A simple documentary of artistic process that had no story whatsoever. So I created one to satisfy viewers:

In this piece a woman who feels unattractive and unloved idolizes the faces and lives of the models she sees in the media. She believes that the answer to her problem of identity and self-love can be found in the very media that has convinced her of her deficiencies.

She attempts to discover a younger and more beautiful self in a woman’s magazine by cutting into the magazine and peeling away successive pages, but she can never fully identify with the idealized women before her. She continues to search, digging deeper and deeper as the magazine before her becomes a complex and fragmented composite of images and identities.

This piece explores the cultural obsession with youth and beauty. The idea of exfoliation is to strip away layers of old dead skin until a younger, more beautiful self is revealed. To the artist the practice of exfoliation is a weird form of self- archaeology.  It is as if we think that each layer of skin represents a physical strata of years and that if we can just strip away enough of it we will eventually reveal a better version of ourselves that is sure to lie somewhere below. What happens if one takes the idea of exfoliation too far?

As an artist I work in any medium that seems appropriate to the piece and, as an artist, I enjoy the freedom of not adhering to any standards (as I do when designing). I like to throw away design and art principles on a regular basis so that I can begin with a beginner’s mind to each piece.

My work has become more and more virtual. I have been engaged in writing for the last two years. Writing my first book, Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity was a sheer joy. My next book, again on creativity, can be seen in the musings of my blog of the same name.

Copyright Aliyah Marr

Links in this blog:
Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity
Parallel Mind Blog & Newsletter
Radi8.org Art Website

Twitter with me, I’d love to hear from you.

 

Sales Principles at the Heart of any Marketing Stategy

Good sales principles are the heart of any marketing strategy. Here are my top ten:

1. Know  your product / service.

2. Know the needs of your customer.

3. Give them exactly what they need now, and for their near future needs.

4. Present the features (and limitations) of every item / service you sell clearly, so the user can make an informed decision.

5. Assist the customer in making the right decision for them, even if you send them elsewhere to make their purchase.

6. Educate the customer on their purchase — now and in the future.

7. Allow them as much follow-up as needed for them to enjoy their purchase.

8. Allow them to return the purchase for any reason.

9. Allow the customer a way to share your passion for your product or service with others.

10. Always consider the customer a long-term client, and think first of him, rather than of the individual sale.

Please feel free to add whatever you feel is a good sales principle as a comment on this post.

A more complete discussion of ethical marketing and sales principles may be found in my articles about Feel-Good Marketing.

Copyright Aliyah Marr

 

Tips on How to Build an Online Presence

Whether you are selling a product, promoting a business, trying to find a new job, or building your own brand, you need to know how to promote these days. The rules have changed. No longer can we advertise directly — look at all the resumes listed on Monster and the millions of websites out there — we have to show that what we do is unique and valuable.

Advertising has a bad name these days. Probably because, as children, many of us were force-fed inane commercials while waiting for our favorite inane TV shows to come back on. Then, on the internet we waited again while the intro movie played, and now we wait through the commercials in front of our online video content.

For this reason, I think that real content is now the king of promotion. Yes, it is slow, because you are building your audience by providing them with content that is valuable to them.

How do we go about building our presence online? I thought I might list a few of the more effective vehicles that I have discovered here.

When I started my own efforts a few years ago, I started with the idea that I needed to put out as much information on the web as I could. What’s more, I had to “control” that information as much as possible. I started out promoting my artwork because that was my focus at the time. I submitted my imagery to as many places as possible.

Fast-forward a few years. I had moved to California and my focus was shifting every day, it seemed. I couldn’t decide on one, so I decided to create what I called a “constellation” of websites, each site reflected one of my interests at the time. I have since given up most of these websites, but a few remain: my art site, my design site, my book’s site, and my personal site.

Next, I discovered blogging. As I was writing a great deal, this seemed an ideal way to instantly publish my ideas. In fact, I published my book in a blog for a full year as I wrote it. But the blogs multiplied, and soon I was overloaded.

My interest in multimedia and publishing led me to publishing my seminars and articles in audio and visual format. At this point, I started to see that I needed a clone of myself, or a way to lessen my workload. I was spending all my time in self-promotion. An escapee from YouTube restrictions, I found ways to cross-distribute my content.

So here are my tips to promoting yourself through content online. Be advised that this can take a great deal of time. I add people slowly to my free newsletter on creativity as it is a totally opt-in service, and I don’t like spam anymore than anyone else. Where I have a presence, I have included my link to show you how I am using these services.

WEBSITE

1. If you are a business, spend your money here on the best design you can get.
2. If you are a personality, or want to be, get a website with a domain name the same as your name: i.e. www.aliyahmarr.com
3. If you aren’t a personality or business, skip the website, don’t pass go, don’t collect $100, and get a blog instead.

BLOG

1. A must for anyone who can write and has something to say.
2. Choose a niche, not something too broad. Hey, there’s a guy in NYC who blogs about the junk food he eats (don’t laugh, he makes money on his blog)
3. You must update your blog at least every week.
4. The blog can be fed into your website as a way to update content. See my site FreshAsylum to see this feature in action.
5. I recommend WordPress.com for the beauty of its templates. The service does have a few quirks though.

NEWSLETTER

1. This can be connected to your blog, meaning your blog can feed the newsletter. The feed can be set to deliver whenever you post to your blog.
2. Do not spam people, don’t buy lists. Add people only when they know what they are getting.
3. Target your newsletter’s content to your topic and to the personal brand you are creating. What is your expertise?

SOCIAL NETWORKS

1. Facebook: seems to be where everyone is, I have a presence there, but I focus on professional networking instead.
2. LinkedIn: great place to professionally network. The reason why this works is because it is more restricted, therefore you really have to know the people you link to.
3. MySpace: discredited, don’t bother unless you are a musician.
4. Twitter: another way to promote your expertise or brand. Check out TweetDeck to manage your tweets.

MEDIA PUBLISHING

1. YouTube; be aware that there are restrictions on size, length, etc.
2. Other video services are available, however you will want a video editor, and you will need to tweak it to take audio format.
3. ITunes: what can I say, it’s great.

So where is my personal promotion campaign these days? As of today if you Google my name thus, “Aliyah Marr,” you get over 1300 actual links to my work online.

My name is linked with certain concepts and keywords (such as “creativity” and “innovation”) not because I have created a SEO campaign, but because of the relavant content linked with my name on diverse online URLs. While some of this content was created by me, other content was not (see Renderosity interview).

Your content registers as relevant with search engines when it comes from domains you don’t own. People get hung up on SEO, but ultimately, the spiders are just robots to help people find you. People who read your content create buzz when they know what you offer, and want what you offer. First you have to prove your worth by offering free, relevant and targeted content.

The best part of (almost) all of these services: they are free to use. Just count on putting in a lot of sweat equity and make sure that you always give value first, and have no expectations on any one venture. The results come from the net result of all your efforts, and that may take a while, depending on who or what you are promoting.

Copyright 2009 Aliyah Marr

(If you need help managing/publishing your content or your brand — personal or otherwise — feel free to contact me at: myfullname@gmail.com)

Free newsletter on personal development and creativity (subscribe under the image of the book):
http://www.parallelmindbook.com

 

Marketing for “Dummies”

I have always disliked the titles of the Dummy series, even as I know it draws attention (and makes sales). I am not a dummy, but I will pick up a book with that title, just because I know it always covers the subject at a 101 level.

So I thought a good title for this post would be “Marketing for Dummies,” because it is for those who either are lost in the forest of dry statistics, or for those who understand that marketing is creative, and haven’t seen much creative marketing for quite a while.

Here is my “Dummies” list of marketing commandments:

1. Know thy brand / product.
What are the features and benefits?

2. Know thy customer.
Paint a portrait of your customer from memory.

3. Great design is shown in how your customer relates to you.
Target your design to your customer.

4. Use great copy and content.
Ditto above law for content and copy.

5. Tweet that headline. Less is more.
Communicate in as few words as possible.

6. Allow drill-down.
Great site architecture or content management allows additional information to be stored where the user can find it, but not where he can trip over the non-essential data.

7. Remove obstacles to the sale.
Too much information, cloudy content, unfocused site architecture.

8. Exile the statisticians from the drafting room.
Statistics aren’t creating any brands or selling any products. Their job is to track results and keep the creative people on track.

9. Empower, don’t frustrate. Remember Aliyah’s 3/2 rule.
Three seconds is the attention-span of the average user. Pages should be designed with a maximum two-click link to the user’s desired (expected) outcome.

10. “The Buzz is the Brand.”™
Engage and involve your users, until they become loyal customers, and flock together in an organic community.

Common sense concepts for a complex field.

Is that an elephant I see in the living room?

Copyright 2009 Aliyah Marr

 

Turn Your Customers into Loyal Clients

One of my first jobs was in the camera department of a large department store, which taught me a great deal about sales and marketing. My manager, who I will call “Abe,” showed me how to turn one-time customers into loyal clients. He never sold anything to a customer that he didn’t need. Abe followed every sale with free education about the equipment. He allowed returns. The most amazing thing about him is he did all this without thought of material reward.

Unlike many salesmen, he did not sell a higher-priced camera to an individual for the sales commission. He tried to ascertain the needs of the customer, and fit those needs with a camera that would not only meet those needs, but allow the individual to grow and learn about photography.

This man had a passion for the art of photography, a knowledge of technique and equipment, and a true concern for the individuals who came to him. I don’t remember his name, but I will never forget the lessons I learned from him. I have found these principles of honest, ethical salesmanship to be the foundation of a good marketing strategy, and a general life philosophy.

What is the difference between a customer and a client? A customer is someone who walks into your store and buys something from an indifferent clerk. He could buy the item from anywhere, and next time probably will, because his experience was indifferent. He is buying convenience, and nothing more. If another store is more convenient, he will buy there.

A client is the potential customer who wanders into a store and has a positive experience — he gets a great product that he loves, and feels a rapport with the salesperson. He comes back for help, and eventually buys more product or services. This customer is now a client.

What is at the base of the customer v.s. client difference? Relationship. People have a need for community. The very thing that our consumer-based culture denies us, is what we crave the most. A community begins with a simple friendship between two unrelated people. Micro relationships are at the very basis of society, and are why anything works at all.

Looking at a microcosm inside a petri dish of molecules or even quantum particles, we can see clearly how like likes to group with like. On a bigger scale, we can see how like birds flock together, how people gather wherever they can: coffee shops are about so much more than coffee.

We cannot quanitfy these tiny little relationships. They won’t show in any marketing analysis. Social networking is successful today because of the way that people naturally group themselves. Yes, we can try to monetize these tendencies, but wouldn’t it be better to reward the Honest Abe who is making those relationships that change peoples’ lives?

You can’t force relationships or communities. People will go where they will, forming new pathways connecting Point A to Point B. We can, however, change our focus, from a sterile consumer-based society into a rich culture of relationship and community. We do this by rewarding those hardworking relationship-builders on the front lines;  let their philosophy and ethics run the company instead of letting the company run them.

We can do this by making the company “culture” one that encourages long-term relationships between employees and clientele. We can do this by creating a favorable environment for the growth of community and relationships. I leave the details to your imagination and creativity.

Copyright 2009 Aliyah Marr

 

The Art of Nonconformity

Recommended reading:

For the chronically non-conformed, Chris Guillebeau’s blog on independent thinking, The Art of NonConformity.

Chris and I have a lot in common. Like the inclination to contrariness, and the inability to be a cog-in-the-wheel, remember inconsequential trivia, or follow directions. In dance classes, we go right when the instructor goes left, and for higher education we continually choose the University of Hard-Knocks.

Rock on Chris!

 

Seth Godin’s Head: Bald as a Brand

As a designer, marketer and all-around thinker, I must say that I love Seth Godin. But it is not his trim physique that attracts my attention, it is his head. Particularly the top of his head.

There it is in every photograph, in every video, like a shining beacon of intelligence and humor. I wonder if he has ever had hair, or perhaps he has a full, luxuriant growth that he has to secretly mow everyday or it would destroy his image.

Seth Godin has made a brand out of baldness.

For this image to work as an icon he has to be totally, unabashedly, and completely bald. Not a glimmer or hint of living follicles can grace the top of his cranium, or he would lose his brand. He has to be proud of being bald, no hiding it by combing long hair over this pate. No, he has to put it out in full view as the remarkably immaculate image he so carefully maintains.

His head resembles a light-bulb.

I am sure he knew — being an idea-man — that the best way to show that he is a genius was to have his head look like that icon of idea-generation: a light-bulb. When a man is truly bald, he cannot help being noticed. Why not use baldness as a way to take over the (marketing) world?

The whole thing is probably a plot by Seth to gain ascendancy as the marketing genius of the modern age. He might have used Yul Brenner as a model for his nefarious marketing plan. Good ol’ Yul wasn’t “remarkable” until he shaved his head. Shaving his head made Yul an icon in the movie world, and it made him somehow irresistible to female fans, but it didn’t convey the idea that he was the Mensa of Marketing.

How did Seth ever hit on the brilliant idea of turning what most men might think of as a liability into a memorable brand? I like to imagine a thought bubble emanating from his celebrated cerebellum:

“Now, what can I do to make my image remarkable?” “How can I convey that I am a marketing genius just by using my head?”

The solution is now history.

Copyright 2009 Aliyah Marr

 

Seth Godin Talks About Tribes

Seth talks about how tribes are replacing kings in our society. (See my article, The Funeral of the King below.) Leading and connecting people and ideas due to the explosion of mass media. Technology hasn’t homogenized society, instead it has given us the opportunity to create “silos” of interest. You can connect with your special interest group now worldwide.

Tribes, not money, not factories, not politics will change society. Find something worth changing, and assemble tribes to make a movement. You don’t need everyone, you need just a thousand people. It is not a mass thing, its about finding the true believers.

It’s not about persuading people, it’s about finding those who need to be connected.
These tribal individuals are heretics who say, “I cannot abide the status quo, I want to change things.”

 

The King’s Funeral

In olden days, when a king died, it was custom among many cultures to bury the whole court along with the king. The current financial “crisis” was brought about by the greed of a few “kings” who materially benefited from the rape of the land, and the exploitation of resources and people. It seems that these leaders want us to be convinced that everything will fall apart when their profits go down. Are we to be buried with these kings when they fall?

America’s profit-kings or robber-barons were the ones who have increasingly benefited from a society with a great number of middle-class and poor consumers. They could make products that hurt the environment, cause disease, encourage violence, or are simply a poor value. They were allowed to do it without impunity. If people in the United States made too much noise about the environmental impact, the danger to the workers or about low pay, they simply moved the factory or business to places with no regulation like Bhopal.

But the greed of the robber-barons and kings is the cause of their own demise: they exploited their profit system until they finally killed it.

A consumer-based society needs a larger and larger base of consumers to support growth, without profit growth, the society collapses. The structure of such a system is based upon the income of workers inside corporate-profit fiefdoms, but when these corporations fire workers or outsource jobs in other countries, the corporations ultimately lose their customers. No one without money can participate in such unchecked consumerism.

Henry Ford’s philosophy of building an automobile that his workers could afford is the only way that consumerism can work. We have long passed this point of rationality in our present impasse.

There is a natural cycle, even in man-made things. The corporations and organizations today are like an old forest of huge trees, which have been blocking the light on the forest floor, preventing new growth. Many of those trees have reached the end of their natural life-span.

People are waking up to the exploitation and are not only no longer willing to be exploited but are also unwilling to become an exploiter. It will be soon seen by the mass of people that it is criminal to make products that exploit people, harm life on Earth or pollute the environment. At a really deep level such activity and the resulting profit is inhumane and unethical.

Clearly, the old growth of the huge forest needs a little clearing. The new shoots on the forest floor have been starved of light for too long. But, some of the huge trees are dying of natural causes. There are great people, and great organizations already here and others waiting to emerge.

Today’s consumer-based society is spiritually poor — it separates people from each other into selfish little fiefdoms without a sense of belonging, purpose or fulfillment. Without a sense of community or natural values, many children turn to drugs or to crime. What is lacking is a sense of value for each individual. This cannot happen in a society that is based upon profit, but it is natural inside a community based upon common values and interests.

Who knows what kind of incredible new society will result when people finally overcome their fear of the profit-mad robber-barons and corrupt kings and start visualizing a new, sustainable system. This can be a wonderful opportunity for those with vision and a sense of responsibility. Will you be one of those who decides to lead the way?

We need your creativity, your vision and your insight. Together, we will create a future that can benefit all of us, not just a few. Instead of having a heirarchical society that places all the power and benefits into the hands of a single King, we all become Royalty, citizens of a sacred land held in health and trust for future generations. We will be all be finally equal in the eyes of all, valued and revered for our individuality, creativity and contribution.

The Kings are finally dead. Long live the US of America.

Copyright 2009 Aliyah Marr

 

Are You a Designer who is Also a Fine Artist? I Want to Showcase Your Work on Graphics.com

Graphic Designers, Do You Live a Double Life as a Fine Artist? I want to interview you and showcase your work on Graphics.com/learning.

—-

My name is Aliyah Marr. I am an artist, author and designer. I produce tutorials for designers on creativity and design for Graphics.com/learning, a subscription-based online learning center for designers. 

My editor and I want to profile a number of graphic designers who are also visual artists (read visual fine artists: painters, sculptors, video artists, multimedia or digital artists) in my upcoming tutorial for Graphics.com/learning. Why? Well, he knows that I myself am both a fine artist and designer, so who better to interview the elusive designer/artist chimera and make sense of their strange language?

The artists/designers will be chosen based upon the quality of their work, and  on their ability to articulate and show their process. Can you spin a good story about how your art inspires your design and how your design skills feed back into your art? This is an interview that will be seen by hundreds of thousand subscribers. I will include a link to your work online.

Send me links to your work online: I need to see examples of both your design work and your artwork. (Sorry, no writers or musicians can be included, due to the nature of my assignment.) 

To apply, email me the links to your design portfolio and fine artwork:

myfullname [at] gmail.com 

(this is a test to see if you have been paying attention to the requirements above If I don’t get your email, obviously, you haven’t passed my test. This is also my way of avoiding spam in my mailbox)

 

—– Background Information below ——

www.graphics.com/learning  (search for my name, Aliyah Marr)

http://freshasylum.wordpress.com  (my blog)

http://www.freshasylum.com  (my design site)

http://www.parallelmindbook.com  (my book on creativity)

http://www.radi8.org  (my multimedia fine art site)

http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=524497 (subscribe to my newsletter on creativity)

 

Can Artists Save the World?

Check out Aliyah Marr’s newest creative concept: The Thetawave Project.

“The Thetawave Project is a think-tank about social change and sustainability. It is a place where creative idea originators will be able to develop and nurture ideas about sustainable, socially-conscious development and finally share these ideas with those who can help them make their dreams a reality. Now is the time for creative people from every part of the world to collaborate to create a new paradigm of cooperation, shared resources and sustainable development.”

 

Creativity at Work Seminar

Aliyah Marr, author of Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity offers a new seminar on “applied” or practical creativity. She will show participants how to apply the creative principles to specific problems and situations at work.

Following is a copy of the abstract:

<——>

PARALLEL MIND, CREATIVITY @ WORK

Do you have a need for creative thought or innovation at work? How do you generate truly out-of-the-box ideas?

This seminar leads you down the rabbit-hole of creative thought. Author and creative director Aliyah Marr brings in her experience as designer, artist and author to bear on the practical aspects of the creative experience.

“Creativity at Work” is a seminar on how to think creatively, even while under the pressure of a deadline or intense competition. True creativity and innovation cannot be achieved by staying within a rigid problem-based structure. This seminar enables you to escape the structure so you can do your thinking outside the box.

Aliyah Marr has engineered a unique “envisioning process” that is a key component of her free-style form of brainstorming. In addition, she has a more analytical approach that enables participants to take the techniques that she demonstrates and implement them immediately for fast results.

Marr teaches creativity from an experiential standpoint: members have the opportunity to participate in an “envisioning session” and brainstorm a solution to one or more of the members’ actual problems. She uses a unique and fun visual and metaphoric approach to define and describe the creative process, which help to cement the process in the minds of the participants.

Topics:

• The envisioning process
• Levels and kinds of applied creativity
• General principles of practical creativity
• Practical creative techniques
• How to apply the right kind of creative thought in every situation
• How to facilitate a brainstorm session
• How to create an internal think-tank

Benefits to Members: Members of the conference will be able to think outside the box at will, discern which kind of creative thinking is needed at what time, and how to apply a brainstorm process to a problem at hand.

This seminar is for business people and entrepreneurs who wish to understand the nature, value and process of creativity; for those who, while they may not need to be creative themselves, need to understand how to evaluate, hire, and nurture creativity at work.

Biography: Aliyah Marr is the author of “Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity.” She has taught design and marketing for over 15 years at top design schools in New York City: Parsons, The New School, Pratt Institute, and The School of Visual Arts. Marr has led seminars and corporate training events for over 10 years. She has produced tutorials for Nautilus CD Magazine, and Graphics.com/learning, and authored articles for trade magazines on self-development, design and marketing. Currently the creative director for an action-sports TV show, she has worked in print, video, film and interactive media for a Fortune 100 client list.

Aliyah Marr
author / speaker / imaginator
creative consultant and coach

Author of “Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity
www.parallelmindbook.com
www.freshasylum.com (design firm)

Aliyah Marr on LinkedIn
Facebook: Parallel Mind

For more information, contact Aliyah Marr at:

herfullname [at] gmail [dot] com

 

Interview of Jim Moriarty, CEO of Surfrider.org

Aliyah Marr interviews Jim Moriarty, CEO of The Surfrider Foundation on the state of the environment today and about how we can all help. See the interview at:

Blip.tv

The Gaia Paradigm

 

Aliyah Marr Starts Seminar Circuit on Creative Development

Aliyah Marr speaks on personal development through the practice of art. Videos of the first part of the seminar are on her blog and on iTunes.

 

Comic Relief for Document Overload

When you have had enough of the paper-full (the opposite of paper-less) office, try the following amusing quick-fix:

http://www.the-unloader.com/

Swedish agency FarFar teamed up with Acne and Perfect Fools to launch this site for Nokia promoting the E71 and E66 phones. This site will take any irritating document that you send them and destroy the pesky thing for you. You are given a choice of the means by which this massive, room-sized machine will dispose of your nemesis; make your choice carefully, as this process takes a while.

I think that the original video of a blank document “tarring and feathering” was filmed using the robotic equipment, anything that you send to them gets “pasted” digitally onto the print, so the unloader is now virtual. Only one piece of blank paper was destroyed, in other words, but the satisfaction of destroying boring, useless paper lives on and on in this brilliant interactive social site. At the time of my viewing there were nearly 3000 documents sent to the unloader, at a rate of about one per second. For every 100 documents unloaded, Nokia says it will plant one tree in Brazil.

In case you have any environmental or animal rights concerns, there is a recycling logo at the bottom of the screen throughout the process, along with a disclaimer, “No real documents were harmed in the making of this web site. Any resemblance with existing documents is purely coincidental.”

 

Seminar on Creativity at The San Diego Chat Club, Jan 23rd

Starting her seminar circuit in her home town of San Diego, Aliyah Marr will give a talk based upon her new book, “www.parallelmindbook.com.” See the Parallel Mind blog to see the entire announcement, including directions to the event.

“Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity” can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and at: www.parallelmindbook.com. Copies of the book, and the author’s Transformational Tarot interactive game will be available to attendees.

 

When Did Marketing Become a Desert of Statistics?

Business and money do not create anything. Inventors develop new products, and creative marketers communicate the value of those products to customers. In the end, the only thing that distinguishes one widget from another is the creative branding or a creative difference in the product itself. The only thing that the business people can do is change the price or show consumer statistics. But statistic and metric watchers are not creating new products or marketing them

We need to wake up; we are losing our creative class, the ones who made this country great. (Read David Heenan’s book about the flight of the creative class from America, “Flight Capital.”) Creative people engineer new ideas and paradigms; when business people step in and take over, they often devalue the original creators and reduce the brilliant concept to “business as usual.” As a result, we are losing our creative edge as our most creative people lose their jobs and our entrepreneurs and consultants are unable to support their creative ventures.

If you look at marketing job descriptions these days, they look like they were written by an accountant or CFO, and probably were, because these are the people who hold the money and only value statistics. However, statistics are not creative; companies such as Facebook and Linked In have been successful largely because of innovative ideas and creative marketing. Statistical marketing can only track statistics, not create new ideas and new paradigms.

When I read the job descriptions for “marketing professionals” I know why the economy is in such trouble: we have allowed the most conservative, least imaginative people to lead us. I suppose it is only natural: after all, we witnessed incredible idiocy on the other side of the spectrum during the dot-com bubble where kids straight out of college were given unbelievable amounts of free venture capital. These kids’ arrogance and lack of business sense caused the dot-com collapse and the flight of investment capital from innovative businesses.

So the pendulum has shifted: no one trusts creative people, everyone is afraid for their jobs, no one can speak up for innovation without a stack of dry statistics under their butt.

However, statistics and metrics are not going to save us from our fear or keep our underachieving businesses from failing. Why does it surprise anyone that American car manufacturers are in trouble today? It has absolutely nothing to do with the business and everything to do with creativity. They stopped innovating years ago!

Think back: when was it that an American car brand was a better product than a Toyota or a Honda? I can’t remember. I do know that I buy only foreign cars, not American cars. I can’t afford to buy an inferior product.

I saw a commercial on TV that lauded an American car manufacturer who is making a hybrid SUV that gets — get this — an amazing 20-mpg! A beat-up 1987 Honda Prelude with 300,000 miles on it gets 34 mpg today. The old forest of American car manufacturers do not need a bailout, they need a complete overhaul in their business divisions — replace some of those statisticians with creative marketers and innovators.

Statistics do not create, metrics do not brand. Marketing analysts do not know how to communicate the value of your product to a consumer. Take a step in the right direction: hire a creative person today, and listen to what (s)he says.

In the old days, a king would place himself on a human-sized scale: the tax due was the balance of his weight in gold bunion on the other tray of the scale. Now truly is the time to put creative people on that scale; pay them well, for they are worth their weight in gold.

Copyright 2009 Aliyah Marr, Author of Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity

 

Prescription for Corporate Success Using Parallel Mind Techniques and Principles

“Parallel Mind, The Art of Creativity” launches Aliyah Marr’s speaking tour on the subject of the creative empowerment in both the personal and professional realm. Now, as never before, everyone, from stay-at-home mom to Fortune 100 CEO needs the information that this book provides.

“Parallel Mind is the first in a series of books on the power of creativity. In it I introduce the concept of ‘pure’ vs ‘applied’ creativity. Pure creativity is the essence of true creativity, because it is practiced as a form of unlimited play. It is what all artists know how to do.

Applied creativity is the art of applying the pure form that one has learned to a practical need. It is what most people think of as creativity, but it is necessarily limited to the limitations of structure. Most people who have only practiced applied creativity do not know how to ‘think out of the box.’ In fact, they are afraid to propose wilder ideas for fear of criticism. Parallel Mind gets people beyond those fears, and allows them space to imagine a new horizon.

Right now, there is a crying need for true creative thought in industry and government; unfortunately, the established systems do not provide the kind of environment for original thought. Parallel Mind and my corporate seminars on “applied creativity” can start the change from a system that doesn’t work to one that does. I am available to corporations for custom system restructuring, and consulting work on how to promote creativity and positive change from the inside. When corporations implement my structure, productivity goes up, employee loyalty goes up, and client satisfaction improves.

This translates to the bottom line as well: as the effects of job satisfaction promotes good viral marketing effects. My systems work at a social level, where viral marketing exists; they do more than make happy employees talk positively about where they work, they make it possible for clients and customers to feel as if they are part of a larger community, one where their voice is heard, where ‘everyone knows your name.’ Everything is built upon sound new principles that I call ‘natural ethics.’”

Articles about building community:

http://freshasylum.wordpress.com/2007/11/07/building-a-community-with-natural-ethics/

Here is seminar /speaker series proposal on the subject of creativity.

Copyright 2008 Aliyah Marr

 

Must Have Book for Marketers: “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port

Michael is a great marketing coach. He encourages his clients to achieve success while following their dreams; in this, he is an example of what I call “natural ethics.” I recommend this book for anyone who has to market themselves. See the review on my other blog:

http://selfpromotion.wordpress.com

Aliyah Marr, author of Parallel Mind, the art of creativity

 

Advertisers: Be Impeccable With Your Word

Honesty in advertising has become more imperative than ever before. The advent of viral marketing has increased the power of the consumer, and your word better equal his experience.

This is nowhere more apparent than on the web. Marketers still try to fool search engine spiders by writing blogs and pages to achieve top search engine rank. However, the words used must equal the true content of the page, or you will be tagged by the search engines as a “spamindexer.”

Marketers sometimes forget that the final client is not the spider or even the human-powered search engine, but the consumer. Your content has to be not only good, it has to be relevant to the viewer. If the viewer searched for “virus protection software” and gets a page of baited links instead of what he expected, you can bet he will not only go elsewhere, but the spider will soon debar your content from its index as well.

You can’t fool Mother Nature or the omniscient web spider for long. Be honest, present your product or service in the clearest way possible, and make it easy for all of us to “vote” for you with our attention and wallets.

For more information on how to write effective promotional copy, go to my other blog and read the following article:

http://selfpromotion.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/write-promotional-copy-for-seo-robots-and-for-people/

Also, see my website FreshAsylum.

– Copyright 2008 Aliyah Marr

 

Who Could Resist Buying Shoes and Doing Good at the Same Time?

I couldn’t resist the concept behind this company. It seems to be a true example of feel-good marketing as described in former articles in this blog. Read this article on TOMS Shoes in Foam Magazine:

http://www.foammagazine.com/featured/toms-means-one-for-me-one-for-you/#more-451

Blake Mycoskie blends philanthropy with a grassroots business model that is truly inspirational. I like to think that the reason why he sold an astounding 10,000 pairs of shoes in his first three months of operation is because people want to do good.

“While traveling in the South American country two years ago, Mycoskie noticed a couple of things. First, the easy, basic style of footwear local farmers wore. And second, that many of the children in the North had no shoes on and were suffering from foot infections as a result.” So he decided to start a company that would make shoes and donate a pair to these poor children for every pair sold… The company name TOMS stands for “Shoes for Tomorrow.”

Let’s see if TOMS Shoes adheres to the principles of Feel-Good Marketing as outlined in article two of this series:

1. make it easy for them to buy your product–remove the obstacles to sale
– the website makes it easy to buy online or from a store.

2. make your product stand out as the clear choice in a sea of choices
– it is clear what the product is; apparently the appeal is the humble origins of the design and the chance to do good by buying the shoe. On second look, the TOMS shoe design is not much different from the familiar Chinese cloth shoes — canvas uppers and plastic soles. There is a leather insole, which adds to their perceived value while contributing to their comfort.

3. make them confident of your company (“image” branding)
– the brand seems to be based mostly upon the “do good” image.

4. let them see your product in terms of its value to them
– again, mostly the idea of doing good. I like the shoes, but the t-shirts and hats simply sport a simple, and rather dull logo, not the height of fashion.

5. understand the motivations of your customer
– it is easy to see that the founder underestimated his customer’s desire to do good; he wanted to sell 250 pairs of shoes and ended up selling 10,000.

6. make them feel good about their choice post sale
– I don’t know from my perusal of the website and the article in Foam Magazine if the customer feels good about the shoes post sale. Perhaps some testimonials are in order?

7. offer them a chance to do good with their purchase
– this brand certainly does that! My only concern is the environmental impact of the materials from which the shoes are made: canvas and EVA. According to Nicholas Narsavidze, owner of Legend Clothes, cotton is an enviromentally damaging crop, and my research on EVA doesn’t reassure me. Perhaps it is recycled EVA? I can’t help but wonder what happens to the shoes when they are thrown away.

I wonder if it would be a good opportunity for Legend Clothes (see my article on Legend Clothes in my other blog: Alternative Everything) to partner with TOMS to help with the ecological concerns of the product.

Suggested improvements:

1. Include a way for the user to get involved using Web 2.0 tactics and community building (see my articles on Community Building in this blog) Some ideas:

– allow users to design their own shoes and give them to friends. The best designs could then be licensed by the company for sale online and in stores.

– allow people who buy shoes to automatically become community members with various benefits.

– the community members can contribute ideas to help the philanthropic arm of the company. Credit the members with the ideas; give a reward of shoes or merit badge to the winning members with the best ideas.

– for more ideas of how an online community can be built and used for viral marketing, see my articles on Community Building on this blog.

2. Find a way to get better, more fashionable design into the product line.

– I am not seeing anything that makes me want to go out and buy the shoes, based upon their curb appeal. Why can’t these shoes be more fun and trendy? Polkadots and stripes? Come on! There is so much more that could be done with the design of this shoe. Pay good designers to come up with something that will sell these shoes on their own merit. Or, if you want to market to the younger crowd, give new designers a chance to have their work showcased. As defined in my article on Community Building, credit the designers at least. Better yet: credit them and pay them. I don’t see this on their website.

3. Explore materials that are eco-friendly; both in the manufacturing process and in the trash dump, where, let’s face it, all shoes eventually do their walking.

Entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie proves that you still can start a company in the USA from your apartment, and do good for impoverished people. All, in all, a very inspirational story about how someone started with an idea to do good and is making a profit as well.

– Copyright 2008 Aliyah Marr

(this article may be reproduced as long as credit to the author(s) is maintained and links to the original content is provided)

 

Promotional Copy that Sizzles

Your copy can make or break your website; the content on your site should support your product, company or service. When it doesn’t, sites don’t work. Common content errors include:

Endless Sand and not a Drop to Drink.
Lost in an unending desert of words and the endless scrolling page, your readers expire from exhaustion before they can reach the oasis of truth.

The Three Second Countdown Extended to a Twenty Second Download.
On the web we have three seconds to grab someone, but your page takes a full twenty seconds to download.

Your Readers Feel Like They Are on a Bad Date.
The user can’t figure out why they should stay on your site. It’s so boring that they can’t wait to leave.

…Or on a Blind Date.
The keywords on your page do not reflect your content. The search engine sent them here, but they don’t know why they are here. There is no “duh” page that lets them know that they are where they want to be: with YOU.

No, Toto — We’re Not in Kansas Anymore.
The search engine landed the user in your website, otherwise known as Terra Incognita. Nothing resembles anything on THEIR map of familiar landmarks, and desired vistas. They are disoriented and decide to leave quickly before the flying monkeys arrive.

“Lost In a Dark Forest Wandering.”
Meandering, pointless phrases or countless buttons confuse your reader with too many choices. They are lost in a forest of choices.

You Have Too Many Keys to the Same Door.
On the other hand, the writer who tries to fit in as many keywords as possible makes a meaningless mash for the human viewer.

Confronted with A Maze of Information, the Player Gets Discouraged and Leaves the Game.
A reader gets tired easily from information that is not presented logically and from the user’s point of view.

Other articles on promotion:
http://selfpromotion.wordpress.com

—- Copyright 2008 Aliyah Marr

 

Making a Business Based Upon Sustainability

It seems that eco-awareness and sustainability is on everyone’s tongues these days. A year ago I created two blogs on these subjects:

http://gaiaparadigm.wordpress.com
http://alteverything.wordpress.com

Little did I suspect that I was just a nose in front of the pack. Since eco-awareness and sustainability are of great interest to me since childhood, I naturally look for evidence all around me. Recently I had the honor of meeting two young entrepreneurs at the Action Sports Retail show: Nicholas Narsavidze and Corey Watkins of Legend Clothes, LLC.

I asked them for an interview, and posted the interview on an article directory and here:

http://alteverything.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/dress-like-a-legend-bamboo-clothes-from-legend-clothes-llc/

To me, the idea that one can run a business based upon this kind of model gives me hope for our society. I am sure that these guys are going to be more than just successful business leaders, they are going to be legends.

 

Vision of an Interactive Future

THE FUTURE
The Emergence of Interactive Media and the Democratization of Communication
As a culture we are evolving from left brain bias to a more balanced mode. We are increasingly becoming more right brain — we are becoming a picture-based society, and learning / communicating / interacting is becoming experiential and iconographic. This revolution in thinking and visualization is being led by graphic designers, information designers and advertisers.

Much of today’s population in the U.S. has grown up in a game-playing environment. Increasing sophistication is changing the expectations of the user. As we train the user to use the games/interfaces we create, we are changing our own culture in every area of life. From cell phones to GPS systems in cars, the expectations of the user are ported from other, more established media (TV and games) to these new interfaces. This makes our job of training the user a bit easier, but it is a kind of house of cards for anyone who has skipped some of the “training” — for example, an elderly person who has never played an online game may not know how to program a cell phone or use the GPS system in their car.

INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION
Interactive, non-linear media is the tool that reflects and molds this developing culture. Interactive media is democratic: power is being given back to the individual. This is influencing us on every level as a culture, and it is going so fast that most people don’t see it. I do see it, and I like to be aware of it as I work as an artist, as a designer, and as a teacher.

Corporations and advertising firms are losing revenue because many of them are behind the times on this issue; they continue to try to use outmoded forms of advertising and communication. Since the user is no longer a sitting duck for the bullet of the advertiser, the advertiser has to change his methods. The user can choose his experience and is sophisticated in the use of his new-found freedom. So the advertiser has to become increasingly more sophisticated in how to deliver his message, he has to clothe it in interesting content and deliver it in an engaging interface.

DEMOCRATIC MEDIA — Social Networking
When the average user has the ability to express his thoughts via a blog, put up a video of his daily activities, and make or break a brand via his search engine “vote”, the landscape of interactive media has changed. Personally, I find it very exciting.

It is up to us as interactive designers to create ever new ways of engaging, communicating with, and informing the user. What is different is that we have to listen to the user more than ever before.

MY VISION
I envision the following as the future for interactive design, some of this is already in process:
– interfaces that change “on the fly”, adapting to the user
– interfaces that educate the user seamlessly
– interfaces that enable the user to “design” his own interface
– interfaces that allow the inclusion of more networking abilities
– interfaces that connect more pieces of the user’s life with control from a central location
– interfaces that organically “grow” on their own, past the vision of their designers
– interfaces that are open source
– more shared content in an open source environment
– the formation of networks of special interest groups and the linking of these networks
– interfaces that expand and collapse, according to the needs of the user
– the increasing use of z-space in interface design, not necessarily expressed as traditional 3D
– the emergence of new kinds of collaborative experiences
– interfaces that address learning and engagement of both sides of the brain

– copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

Feel Good Marketing–Article 3

This last article on feel-good marketing focuses on customer service: that part of the company that most advertisers and marketers seem to ignore. It is, admittedly, the hardest part of any business. The employees may not be well-paid or sufficiently trained to deal with customers. This is the front line of any business, and it merits a great deal of attention. Since your service people represent your company, it is imperative that they do a good job.

There are several ways to ensure this: good training, good pay, perks, benefits, a reliable support system from the company to back them up, and innovative ways to relieve the inevitable stress of dealing with customers all day. Allow them some latitude in dealing with the customers, something that they can provide (a benefit to the customer, monetary benefit, reimbursement of fees paid, etc.) to ensure that the customer walks away with a positive experience.

Above all, let them know when they have done a good job. Give them promotions, time off, or other perks at that time, let them know that their feedback is appreciated, and you take their view seriously.

As a consumer, and commentator on corporate culture, I make sure that the manager of a good customer service representative knows when they have done a good job. In this month, I have written two letters to the PR departments of companies extolling their employees. I am always curious as to whether they tell the employee about the letter.

The first letter was to Virgin Mobile (mentioned in the last article), and the response they sent me:

—–

Hi,

My name is Aliyah Marr. I am a new customer of Virgin Mobile, and just wrote in one of my blogs about my positive experience with VM and US customer service (phone number transfer) manager Ron.

http://freshasylum.wordpress.com/2007/12/07/feel-good-marketing-article-2/

I hope you can thank Ron and the others at VM who helped me transfer my number from a recalcitrant Cingular service. Please feel free to quote me; you may link to the article or use my name. I write several blogs; don’t be surprised if I do it again!

Aliyah Marr

—–

Hi Aliyah,

Thanks for your email!

We are so happy to receive such great feedback! We hear from customers often, but not all as you can imagine are as complimentary to Virgin Mobile or our super Advisors!

We will be happy to share your great news with those within Virgin Mobile! Thanks for taking your time to let us know we did a good job!

Best of all we are here 24/7 to help you out! Simply call us at 1-888-322-1122. We’ll be delighted to assist you.

Melvin
Virgin Mobile At Your Service

—–

The second letter I sent was to a storage company; the manager, Ram Khan, reported to me that they forwarded on the letter to him:

Subject: Queens Storage Manager Ram Khan
To: WebCustomerIssues@extraspace.com

Hi,

I just wanted to tell you that your manager Ram Khan … is the best! He is so helpful, efficient and kind. I have had a storage space with you since 2005, and every time I call I ask for Ram, because he knows me by name, and has helped me from the beginning.

In an industry where customer service is often ignored, he steps to the plate and goes the extra mile. I can tell you that I might have gone elsewhere to store my stuff, if it hadn’t been for Ram. It is the people who make a business, and it is people like Ram who keep customers. Every business man knows that the best customer is the one you already have.

I write a blog on marketing and design; the last article talked about how good customer service gives the customer value, and allows him to feel good about doing business with your company.

http://freshasylum.wordpress.com/

Thanks again, and tell Ram I called!

Aliyah Marr

—–

It is the customer service employee as representative of the company who is your company to the customer. Treat him/her well because it is these people who make or break your business.

When a customer has a positive experience with your company, they are likely to talk about it. Through viral marketing, your company is advertised for free. This article advertises the Extra Space Storage company and they haven’t spent a dime.

Now this company is smart; they are already using a form of viral marketing: they will knock off some money on a customer’s rate if one of their friends becomes a customer. OK, this might cost them a little in the beginning, but they haven’t laid out any money to get this advertising beyond the initial flyer they put in the bill’s envelope. Long-term, word of mouth is the cheapest form of marketing there is.

The point is that the whole key to viral marketing is the recommendation of one customer to another. Traditional advertising is a whole lot more expensive. One positive experience may translate to a lot more customers and more business, depending on the reach of that customer. So you leverage the positive experience of one customer to get more customers.

Viral marketing only works if the word out on the street about you is good, and that is the lesson: use feel good-marketing throughout your entire business process, from advertising to customer service. And don’t forget your employees.

(Mention this article and my name if you decide to store your stuff at any Extra Space Storage facility to kick back a rebate to me. This is also a good test of the power of viral marketing. Thanks!)

—- copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

Feel Good Marketing–Article 2

In the first article, Feel Good Marketing, I talked about how a company can get and retain customers by generating a “feel good” experience for the consumer throughout the entire business process; from marketing, through the sale, through post sale, on to continuing business.

I recounted an example of poor customer service by way of example of how a company may be able to sell a customer on their product, but fall down during the post sale experience. As a balance, I want to show a couple of examples of how a company can do well through the entire process.

To review, in the first article I outlined a few basic principles of great feel-good marketing:

1. make it easy for them to buy your product–remove the obstacles to sale
2. make your product stand out as the clear choice in a sea of choices
3. make them confident of your company (“image” branding)
4. let them see your product in terms of its value to them
5. understand the motivations of your customer
6. make them feel good about their choice post sale
7. offer them a chance to do good with their purchase

Recently, I bought a new cell phone with Virgin Mobile and had a great experience with this company. I’ll go though the principles above, one by one, to see how VM has racked up a 10 in my scoring system so far.

1. make it easy for them to buy your product–remove the obstacles to sale

OK, Virgin Mobile has a variety of phones in Target, a place where I shop for a variety of other things. The packaging allows me to see that the process looks easy, and I have some choice (but not so many that I am confused). The process was clear: buy the phone and follow the easy instructions inside the brochure (the distressed typeface and red/black/white color scheme is not the clearest, but fits the company’s young image) to set up the phone, transfer the number, buy minutes. Easy, no obstacles there.

2. make your product stand out as the clear choice in a sea of choices

I had a variety of choices in Target, from the Go Phone — which was my first choice, if only because I was with Cingular at the time, and I wanted to transfer the SIMM card. The other choices were rather poor — the Go Phone offered only a couple of phones. No other company offered the camera phone I wanted at such a low cost as VM. The other pre-paid companies didn’t have the coverage of VM (which uses the Sprint network), or had expensive phones.

3. make them confident of your company (“image” branding)

The image of the company is that of a hip young alternative to the expensive post-paid phones. Who doesn’t want to be hip? Certainly, I am confident of the company, being in the Virgin family. When you call them to set up the phone, a young girl called Simone answers. The voice is not that of the bland vanilla corporate voice mail operator, but someone you or I might already know. Although, I got pretty tired of Simone’s patter after trying to get to a live operator for a couple of days, still I appreciated her friendly tone and verbiage, even when told I had to wait yet again.

(Wouldn’t it be great to have Lily Tomlin alias Ernestine as the voice on the phone? “One ring-a-dingy, two ring-a-dingy…”)

4. let them see your product in terms of its value to them

The brochure was clear in that I could control my costs easily, without overage charges. The camera phone was only $59. as opposed to a comprable AT&T phone at over $200. (the free phones come with a contract). Obviously, one of these companies is either living in the past when this technology was new, or is looking for another way to gouge the consumer. Or worse, lock him into a contract with a “free” phone.

5. understand the motivations of your customer

The copy on the brochure and packaging was targeted directly to someone like me, who has been burned by post-paid charges — I once had a $700. bill with Cingular — and wants to not only keep their costs down, but keep their current number and have flexible plans.

6. make them feel good about their choice post sale

Now, this gets interesting. I had a problem switching my phone number from the Cingular / ATT post-paid service to Virgin Mobile. I started the process with a call on Friday; the issue was not resolved until the following Tuesday. The third-party vendor, San Diego Wireless, who was in control of my Cingular monthly account claimed that Cingular would not allow a number transfer between post-paid and pre-paid service. The manager at Virgin Mobile, Ron, said that that was not true and that they were able to transfer such numbers all the time. For an entire day, I made calls between the two companies, trying to resolve the problem; I started to feel like a ping-pong ball in a match.

Until that day, I had been very happy with San Diego Wireless, and I had made a point of telling them so. The tech people had been very helpful, and I liked being able to have a phone service without a contract. As the day wore on, I contemplated what it would mean to me to lose this number. I was finally resigned to my loss, but by 10 pm that night, I got a message from VM that I had retained the number.

I was surprised, and pleased. I am not clear whether it was though the efforts of VM or the techs at San Diego Wireless, or even Cingular who came through. I would like to thank whoever it was. However, my point is that during this process I got to talk quite a bit to the people at VM, Ron, the manager, specifically.

Ron told me that he, himself, has a VM cell phone and is pleased with it. He started to outline some of the features that are not apparent at first glance. Some of these appealed a great deal to me, such as the ability to switch on the fly between plans. For instance, if you are on a monthly plan, and want to go on vacation, you can switch to a pre-paid until you get back. He made me feel that I had made the right choice to buy from a company that not only offers me the kind of flexibility I desire, but good, knowledgeable service, and people who obviously were willing to go the extra mile for me.

Most companies do not sufficiently reward good employees who go the extra mile for their customers. Perhaps they don’t understand the first two principles of business — that the satisfied customer is your best advertisement, and that the customer you already have is your best customer. Retaining that customer saves the cost of going out and getting a new customer. A happy customer does your advertising for you (see my articles on viral marketing).

I encourage consumers to make sure to report when they are well served by someone in customer service, to thank these people “on the front lines” when they do a good job (sometimes despite the regulations) when they make you feel good about yourself and about your transaction/interaction. These people are often not paid well enough for taking all that flak in the name of the company. One of the ways to pay them is to tell them and their superiors about how good a job they have done for you. (Since writing this article, I have emailed VM to tell them what a great job Ron and the others did for me.)

7. offer them a chance to do good with their purchase

During the many calls I made to Virgin Mobile, the hold contained a message from Jewel about the many homeless kids on the street, and about VM’s effort to give phones to them. The package the phone came in contained a postage paid envelope for shipping used phones to the company for recycling or as gifts to the homeless. I used the package to mail my used Cingular phone (good riddance!) to VM; I hope someone can use it to help themselves.

The entire process of buying from Virgin Mobile makes me feel good: I feel good that I made a good purchase. I got exactly what I wanted: I kept my number, I got a camera phone, I have a flexible plan with a company that provides excellent customer support. Best of all, Virgin Mobile helped me do good by recycling my old phone by giving it to the homeless.

– copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

Feel-Good Marketing — Article 1

Feel-Good Marketing

Marketing is all about getting the customer to buy your product. To that end here are a few simple guidelines:

1. make it easy for them to buy your product–remove the obstacles to sale

2. make your product stand out as the clear choice in a sea of choices

3. make them confident of your company (“image” branding)

4. let them see your product in terms of its value to them

5. understand the motivations of your customer

6. make them feel good about their choice post sale

7. offer them a chance to do good with their purchase

Speaking from a designer’s point of view, the art of marketing is a matter of branding, image and point of sale. The science of marketing is best left to those who study the analytics.

This article is about how and why people buy, and specifically the less obvious motivators in current trends. I will focus on the guidelines listed above, meanwhile expanding on the definition of feel-good marketing.

Here is one definition: “Feel Good marketing involves promoting products that make people feel good about themselves because they are helping to make a better world for all.” — Steve Gillich CTM, President of the Canadian Institute of Travel Counselors http://login.greatbignews.com/UserFiles/118/May152007.htm

Now, a company that only does this kind of feel-good marketing may fail because it is not watching the bottom line, or because the primary motivator — “how does buying this item benefit me?” — is lacking. The company may fail because they did not fulfill the guidelines listed above, or because of other more quantitative (field of marketing analysis) reasons.

A broader definition of feel-good marketing is that the customer should feel good about buying your product / service from the start of the buying process to the sale, through the life of that product / service. Every businessman knows that repeat customers are the best customers. A repeat customer is one who has had a positive experience with the company.

I recently experienced inept customer service from a company: funneled to customer service in India, I ended up speaking to the supervisor. In our lengthy conversation, he implied that I was stupid and irresponsible. His unwillingness to understand or offer to help was shocking, and his supercilious attitude was outrageous. I was wondering who trained this individual, so that he might think it was in the company’s best interest to insult or belittle customers. Even if there was nothing that the representative could do for me, he could have used courtesy and diplomacy to make sure I walked away with a positive feeling. Instead, the net effect of my conversation with this person was negative. Therefore, my desire to deal with this company is severely impacted, and the value of their service to me has dropped.

A company should be concerned with customer retention, through a sustained positive experience. They might have sold me something once, but I won’t continue or buy again if I have had a negative experience. Worse, through viral marketing, a disgruntled consumer has ever more power to affect other people’s opinions than before.

Each step in the marketing guidelines outlined above can be seen in terms of feel-good marketing:

1. make it easy for them to buy your product–remove the obstacles to sale

This is best done by good design: if on the internet, make the path to the sale obvious and intuitive to your buyer. Give him access to plenty of rationale to back up his decision to buy your product, not in the top level of the site architecture where it may confuse him, but in the lower levels . Other media has to be even clearer and succinct. (I will cover design criteria in other articles.) A user feels good about the buying process because it is easy and clear. The last thing you want to do is to confuse him with too much information, clutter, and lack of information hierarchy. If the potential buyer is confused, he feels stupid, and is much less willing to buy.

2. make your product stand out as the clear choice in a sea of choices

Again, this is the job of the designer. A good designer makes the value of the brand clear to the consumer. Even if the brand is more expensive than the competition, the user feels good about buying this product over another. The direct benefit of buying a brand has to be clear. Why would a person buy designer jeans when any pair has the same function? Cachée, image, good design, fit, etc. It all falls under the heading of “feel-good” — the buyer wants to feel good about his choice.

3. make them confident of your company (“image” branding)

Building an image is a careful process of using good design to inspire confidence and trust in a company. Customers buy for many reasons, but once they have been burned by a fly-by-night, here-today-gone-tomorrow company, they are cautious of trusting their money to unprofessional-looking businesses.

4. let them see your product in terms of its value to them

This is the same as in point #2: the customer has to be sure of how the product is going to benefit them. They want to feel good about its value.

5. understand the motivations of your customer

Part of the process of design-marketing is determining the “portrait” of your consumer, so that you may target your marketing their way. Understanding what motivates someone to buy your product is a key part of the early design-marketing process. One of the prime motivations is the desire to feel good about not just what they purchase, but about themselves as a consumer.

6. make them feel good about their choice post sale

Make them feel smart, and savvy through good customer service, and support. The repeat customer and longtime client is your best, least expensive form of advertising (see my articles on viral marketing and community building on this site). Nonexistent or poor customer service is a form of very expensive negative advertising for your business. I predict that, in the near future, companies will rise and fall due to the power of the consumer and buzz marketing. Make sure that the word out on the street about you is not negative.

7. offer them a chance to do good with their purchase

Lastly, although this is not a prime motivator for most people, this will be an incredible boost to your company if you can offer your consumers a way to feel good about themselves through altruistic action. Make it easy for them to “do right” and to feel that their purchase, although made primarily for their own benefit, can do something for others or for the environment. In this way, people can feel good about being part of a larger community of people with high values. More information on how to generate good feelings in people who feel part of a community of like-minded individuals is covered in my articles on community building on this site.

Copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

– this article may be reproduced; just write me first at:

myfullname@gmail.com

 

Building Community, Article 3

This series of articles is about building a virtual community based upon what I call “natural ethics” (see Building a Community, Article 1), and upon an internal system of “tithing” as a reward system for the members of the community.

I can build a virtual community that is of benefit for all within the Community and for the Company which is providing the infrastructure. Following is the summary of the previous articles and an outline for how I would achieve this project.

What am I selling to the Company?

- a network of Special Interest Group communities based upon “natural ethics”
- the idea of a social network where the creative input of each member is rewarded by the Community
- structure / design of the umbrella Community
- set up various initial SIG communities
- viral dissemination techniques — proven and innovative
- possible implementation of viral dissemination and SIG communities
- representation of Community as head curator for Company’s umbrella Community
- marketing/PR of the Company and of Community to various communities / schools / businesses

How do I plan on getting the word out?
- viral / buzz marketing
- associations and sponsorships
- cult sharing
- texting
- cool “goodies” with logo
- school touring
- trade shows
- PR/seminars/training

Company provides
- servers
- development / design of Community (wiki-based?)
- development of the internal “tithing” structure
- access to marketing / sales / management for brainstorming / branding and implementation
- industry contacts/support for speaking engagements / interviews (trade shows, seminars, press)
- support from sponsors
- funds where needed as agreed upon by Community

What do I want beyond my consulting fee?
- as described in “natural ethics” — benefits from my creative ideas:
- financial renumeration from Company for additional work
- credit in the press and in all company publications for my ideas
- “tithing” for what I create within the Community just like any other member

What does the Company receive?
- one of the first online Communities based upon “natural ethics”
- cult following
- website views
- possible revenue from sponsors
- possible revenue from “tithing” as a benefit for Community employees
- lots of marketing / design ideas from within the Community
- feedback
- satisfied user base
- press regarding the innovative Community we are building
- spin-off PR effect: PR about Aliyah Marr mentions Community and Company

– copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

Other articles on Building Virtual Communities:

<– Article 1 :::: Article 2 :::: Article 3 –>

 

Building Community, Article 2

This series of articles is about how to create a virtual community using the principles of “Natural Ethics” as outlined in article one. This new kind of community benefits all members, according to the individual’s creativity and effort. The infrastructure for a synergistic community such as this can be created by a commercial entity. The entity can benefit from the size and cohesiveness of the community once it grows.

This concept is already proven in each of its parts in several existent communities today. I am taking as model the following websites/communites: Wikipedia, Ebay, Amazon, Craigslist, UTube. Wikipedia for the involvement of dedicated volunteers: writers and editors. Ebay for the rating system of the sellers and the successful business model. Amazon for the book reviews/book lists from readers. Craigslist for the self-policing of its members. UTube for the democratization of input from users.

The one thing that is missing from all these sites, is a reward system for members of the site for creative input/work. So I am proposing a system called “tithing.” Wikipedia defines tithing thus:

“A tithe (from Old English teogoþa “tenth”) is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a (usually) voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a Jewish or Christian religious organization. Today, tithes (or tithing) are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes could be paid in kind, such as agricultural products. Several European countries operate a formal process linked to the tax system allowing some churches to assess tithes.”

So a tithe is a voluntary contribution to support an organization. The difference in what I propose is a system where members tithe or reward other members for their work or creativity. The system will be policed and run by the community itself, in the manner described above. If someone does not adhere to the rules set by the community: i.e. steals intellectual property, does not tithe the creator for a service or product, then the community can “throw out” that member. I would imagine that the blogging part of the community would form a kind of reporting system to keep members in line, kind of like a neighborhood community “watch” system. Simply not allowing perpetrators to get away unseen is a great deterrent; the in-house media system made up of individual bloggers acts like a natural system of checks and balances.

Below is my outline for such a community:

General Principles
- benefits for members come from the Community itself, not from company
- “Tithing” is defined here as a way of giving back to the originator of a concept/design
- Tithing can be done:
- between members, the buyer and the seller
- between communities
- the funds from Tithing can be given to:
- a member
- a Community employee (defacto member, expected to participate and benefit)
- a SIG Community inside the Community
- a charity inside or outside the Community
- Company builds infrastructure for Community
- Community manages itself (see below)
- ethics are resolved within the Community thus:
- respect for intellectual / artistic property
- win / win — everyone benefits, no one is exploited for their creativity
- input from everyone is encouraged (people see that their contributions are valued)
- lateral structure / non-hierarchical
- democratic — everyone is heard equally
- credit given for input by members (also financial / or goodie renumeration where appropriate)
- content and structure is related to Community platform, but not exclusive to the platform
- Community is self-managed/self-policed

What encourages people to use/belong to a Community? The right blend of uniqueness and alikeness.
- uniqueness — what is the benefit to the individual
- information they can use for work or life
- positive ethics within Community
- members may gain a benefit in world outside Community — renown, job, mate, etc.
- members may work towards “star” status within one or more communities
- cult / elite “insider” status
- coolness factor
- people want to be given credit (paid in accolades or money) for their input
- people want to be heard; complaints addressed, software problems addressed
- people want to express themselves
- people feel valued, smart, and important
- users have to see individual benefits to themselves
- alikeness — what is the benefit to the Community
- positive ethics within Community
- grassroots appeal
- usability
- people want to help others (most want to be known for it)
- people like to feel part of a team
- sense of communality
- trust and respect within the Community

Member Benefits
- “Tithing” — financial benefit — others buy the use of your interface / content
- members / creators
- Community builders
- Community may “buy” a member’s content / interface design
- Community may “buy” a member’s design to be one of the cool handouts
- use of Community platform
- members can market to others — if you build it they will come (use and buy)
- user generates unique content / interfaces
- other members pay originators to use interfaces / content
- can build their own Community
- can participate in another Community
- networking
- insider knowledge — blogging / magazines
- members who bring in other members get cool stuff to keep and to give the new members

Community builders
- Community initiators may receive tithing for their work
- anyone can build a Community and receive Tithing
- Community builders with larger member-base get “fringe benefits” — cool logoware, etc

Examples of kinds of SIG communities
- businesses
- charities
- organizations
- school children
- home schooling
- universities
- religious
- dating service
- artists
- designers
- animators
- musicians
- online magazines

Management techniques
- Peer Production — Amazon model
- Peer Management — Wikipedia model

–> more to come

– copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

** any parties interested in hiring me to form this online community, please email me at: myfullname@gmail.com

Other articles on Building Virtual Communities:

<– Article 1 :::: Article 2 :::: Article 3 –>

 

Building an Online Community, Article 1

This is the first in a series of articles about how to build a new kind of socio-economic virtual community using “natural ethics” as policy and structure. The financial benefit to belonging in the community I propose is equally shared by all participating members. The community is run by the community, not by any commercial interest, although the infrastructure may be built and run by a commercial interest. This last point is important, for if one understands the basis of viral marketing and community building, it is the users who are the building blocks of social networks.

First, let’s examine the commercial and social activity on the internet. What has changed in the last few years?

• internet hacking has increased
• email spamming has reached epidemic levels
• people have developed a strong aversion to advertising on the web
• people have a wide choice of places to go, and things to participate in
• free is not enough, it has to be something that they can benefit from right away
• many users are afraid to download anything on the web
• the democratization of media — users love being able to create and post content
• users need to see the benefits to them for anything they do
• people tend to trust the opinion of other users over advertisements
• overload — users are distracted by the plethora of places to go and things to do
• stickiness / loyalty is increasingly difficult to build

The trend seems to be towards an increasing democratization of media, away from corporate and central control. Communities or networks of like-minded individuals form in any space where people may express their voice. Online communities are the name of the day.

What forms can a community of enthusiasts take?

THE DRIVE BY WINDOW — friend to friend, business associate to associate
• people are added one by one
• slow process

THE LOCAL COFFEE SHOP — a simple place for users to meet; like a support group
• draws only from people interested in one thing
• members only stay as long as they benefit: getting a question answered
• people are not encouraged to stay for any other reason

THE PLANNED COMMUNITY — a commercial company provides an infrastructure for a community (ex. Wikipedia)
• draws from a larger group of people with varying individual interests, grouped because of a larger common interest
• infrastructure provides easy of use
• more interests, more reason to stay
• more chance for members to be recognized by the community for input
• more trust inside the community for adoption of the products presented within the community
• infrastructure can make the adoption of the products easy or even part of the structure

More about how to make a planned community work:
• make a way to claim belonging to an “in” group: a cool logo
• make a way for the groups to benefit from bridging to other groups (with permission)
• allow for closed groups and open groups
• visual map the networks and the connections a user makes in a nav system, based upon user preferences — my constellation system
• get the customers to educate the new users — assign them special status with stars from the users for good replies / service

The planned community has the best chance for building a virtual neighborhood with the most benefit to all. Subsequent articles will explore the kind of community that I have in mind, one that uses “natural ethics” to protect and serve all its members.

It seems to me that given an environment where all are respected and where all benefit, these are the kind of ethics that would naturally evolve:

“Natural Ethics” principles for Community Building (from The Gaia Paradigm)

- inclusion instead of exclusion
- partnership / cooperation
- enough for all
- responsible action
- tolerance for others
- credit for ideas / work within the community
- economic benefit for ideas / work
- democratic voice

–> more to come

– copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

Other articles on Building Virtual Communities:

<– Article 1 :::: Article 2 :::: Article 3 –>

 

Viral Marketing 101

There is a great interest in viral marketing these days. In many ways it is a marketer’s dream — for little or no money you could get the word out about your product or brand. How? Let your customers do your marketing for you!

Wikipedia defines viral marketing thus:

“Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. [1] Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.[2] Viral promotions may take the form of funny video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even text messages.

It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like.[3] Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.

The term “viral marketing” is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns[4]–the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline [5] to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.”

– http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Viral_marketing&oldid=168774903

Convoluted marketing ploys aside, if you look at it from a cultural standpoint, viral marketing has been around a long time. People always talk about what things work for them, what got the stain out, what cable company they use, why they love it or hate the service. Companies can get people to not only wear their t-shirts, but also even pay for the shirt so that the brand is advertised. Why do they pay to advertise a product or brand?

It’s the coolness factor. It is the elite of the small user group, the SIG (special interest group) that likes to proclaim that they are “different”, but cooler than you. Brands have used this for years to convince customers to pay premium prices for a product that could be the same in quality and usefulness as any other. It is an odd behavior that may be most obvious among the young but affects us all: peer pressure. If everyone else thinks it’s cool it must be.

There is as much a dress code among rebellious teenaged dropouts as ever was in any religious school. The difference may only be in the price tag for the apparel (and the price for differing in any way from the status quo). Cult marketing takes this trend to heart, by identifying how cults work.

What is a cult but a small group that exists within or outside a larger established group? During ancient roman times, Christianity was considered a “religious cult” by the established religion of the day. Nowadays, Christians consider Pagans a “religious cult”. Any group of others outside a larger group may most easily call a cult because they don’t belong to the larger group.

Beyond the negative connotations of the term, there are lessons to be learned about social behavior, particularly in regards to how people communicate with each other, and the basic human need to find a community of like-minded people. This information has far-reaching implications for anyone interested in cultural phenomena, social networking, and viral marketing.

People naturally gather with others of like-mind. When they do, they talk — this is viral marketing behavior. The “virus” travels through the network of the group that the initial person is in contact with. To find out what makes viral marketing work, one must first understand what makes a group.

What makes someone feel part of a group? A set of values, a code of behavior, personal preferences are some of the most basic building blocks of any group. This gets back to the idea of community: what makes a group a community, how to build a community, which I will cover in a subsequent article.

– Copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

Thinking In Pictures — recommended reading on the autistic experience

In my research for my book, Parallel Mind, I have found the inspiring work Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin. I quote it and her article, My Mind is a Web Browser: How People with Autism Think. below. Both may be found on her site:

http://grandin.com/inc/ads.html

I have long been interested in the brain, in perception and in awareness. My book Parallel Mind is about nurturing creativity and about the relationship of creativity to the wholeness of the whole individual; I talk about the way the normal brain functions, and how the holistic, picture-thinking right brain, can be integrated more effectively with the verbal, logical left brain. It is a long-standing scientific tradition to discover the typical of anything by studying the atypical. Therefore autism and asperger’s syndrome is fascinating to me.

I first learned about Temple Grandin when I read An Anthropologist on Mars by Dr. Oliver Sacks. Dr. Sacks is one of my heros, and one of the people I hope to meet someday: a brilliant neurologist, he treats his patients as complete human beings, not as interesting biological abnormalities. His books are marvelous studies of the range of human experience. I was not able to put the book down and finished it in a single session late one night.

Temple Grandin is a high functioning autistic; an innovative engineer, scientist and lecturer. She has devised humane slaughter facilities by envisioning the world from the cattle’s perspective. Oliver named his book after an anecdote taken from an interview with Temple. She said that she had to study faces in movies to understand emotions: in autistic people the emotional center of the brain, the amygdala is not connected with other brain processes, as in the “normal” brain. In other words, she can separate her thoughts from emotions, while the average person’s thoughts are colored and “grounded” with emotional associations. In fact, the emotional life of the average person is intricately intertwined with perception and memory.

“The amygdalae (Latin, also corpus amygdaloideum, singular amygdala, from Greek αμυγδαλή, amygdalē, ‘almond’, ‘tonsil’) are almond-shaped groups of neurons located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system … In complex vertebrates, including humans, the amygdala perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events … Many studies have focused on the connections between the amygdala and autism.” — definition of Amygdala, Wikipedia.org

Professor Temple Grandin says that she often feels like “an anthropologist on Mars” when dealing with others, “Non-autistic people seem to have a whole upper layer of verbal thinking that is merged with their emotions. By contrast, unless I panic, I use logic to make all decisions; my thinking can be done independently of emotion. In fact, I seem to lack a higher consciousness composed of abstract verbal thoughts that are merged with emotion.

Researchers have learned that people with autism have a decreased metabolism in the area in the frontal cortex that connects the brain’s emotional centers with higher thinking (the anterior cingulate). The frontal cortex is the brain’s senior executive like the CEO of a corporation. Brain scans indicate that people with autism use problem-solving circuits in social situations. Unlike non-autistic people, the emotion center in their amygdala is not activated, for example, when they judge expressions in another person’s eyes.”

I find what she says is absolutely fascinating because I can identify with her: She says she thinks in pictures; so do I, but I am also very verbal. I like to say that my real specialty is translating from the pictorial right brain to the verbal left brain and visa versa. According to scientific research this would mean that the white matter in the brain which connects the two sides is very developed in someone like me. I developed the ability to “translate” between right and left hemispheres when I became a graphic designer and teacher of art and design.

In the well-tested tradition of sink or swim, when I decided to become a designer, I had to quickly learn how to communicate on all levels. Originally trained as a fine artist, I was suddenly forced to translate my intuitive, artistic right-brain work into something that would make sense for my left-brain clients. I also had to learn to organize or “clump” information/text into logical units so the entire piece would make sense. I think of this as a left brain function because it has to do with the verbal and logical part of design; the right brain organizes disparate elements together as well, but they tend to be visual information.

Artists intuitively learn do this by using similar visual elements to link things: in a static design, one may use the same color for the accent and a different color for the elements belonging to the background or structural elements. That way the viewer knows what is of greater importance, or what is in the “foreground”, so to speak. In an interactive piece, I might use an accent color, special shape or motion to call attention to the interactive element, so that the user surmises that that element is special: a “button” for his use in navigating the site. I like to call this “coding the page”, or developing a language within the piece, that the user learns effortlessly, without being aware of it. A good interactive designer will subtly educate the user in this “language of action”, so that the design of interface becomes “transparent” and the site becomes easy for the user to use.

One may argue that iconic written languages use a similar kind of visual communication, because they use pictorial elements reduced to stylized icons to communicate ideas. In this way, their thought processes may be more akin to visually strong autistics. An iconic language may be said to be a language consisting of primarily “nouns”, in the sense that everything referred to has a literal, concrete origin reduced to an abstract symbol. In contrast, the languages which use the alphabet are composed of abstract letter forms, and therefore difficult for someone who only thinks in pictures. The reason why this is hard to comprehend for a literal person — a person whose language is only “nouns” — is because it is, at base formed of an abstractions. So, any new concept being, by its very nature, an abstraction (as all things are new concepts to the young), is doubly hard to understand.

The exclusively visual person, such as Temple, is forced to “ground” any new abstract concept — and this includes, for her, any familial grouping — with a literal picture from her personal experience. Dr. Grandin speaks of keeping files or tapes of each instance of a group in her head. From the instances, she finally forms a group (the abstraction). This is the opposite of the typical creative process, which goes from the abstract concept to the realization — from the general to the specific. An artist will start out, properly, drawing a simple egg shape for the face and later flush out the detail.

So, when the artist works, she first uses the holistic right brain that recognizes abstractions and generalities, and then jumps to the detail-oriented left brain to fill in the specifics. By contrast and analogy, Temple has to build her recognition of a face from assembling the details, one by one, until she can see that it is a face. She has to have enough experience of all kinds of eyes, noses and mouths to recognize them as belonging to categories of those elements, and then know that they belong on a human face.

An artist will often use similar shapes in a kind of familial grouping of elements. This “metaphoric” visual thinking is often conducted at a preverbal, often nearly unconscious level. A designer will intentionally group families of shapes together to allow the user to draw a desired conclusion. The artist knows this common non-verbal cultural language of symbols, associations and metaphors by experience, and uses this visual (often emotional) language to communicate with others who have the same cultural language.

So, in order to more effectively communicate as a designer, I learned to use both sides of my brain to appeal to people on both sides of their brains. I use colors, textures, shapes, and emotional associations to appeal to their right brains, while I use text, logic and structure to communicate with their left brain. Employing these techniques in graphic design is analogous to being able to communicate in two different languages at the same time: it is extremely powerful, as evidenced by advertising that appeals to both emotions and logic.

I was told by a woman with asperger’s syndrome that the typical female brain has more white matter than gray matter. The male brain is more likely to have more gray matter than white, connective matter. Dr. Grandin compares the white matter in the normal brain to the cables connecting computers between different departments of a corporation. “Scans of autistic brains have indicated that the white matter in the frontal cortex is overgrown and abnormal. Dr. Courchesne explains that white matter is the brain’s “computer cables” connecting up different parts of the brain while the gray matter forms the information processing circuits. Instead of growing normally and connecting various parts of the brain together, the autistic frontal cortex has excessive overgrowth much like a thicket of tangled computer cables.

In the normal brain, reading a word and speaking a word are processed in different parts of the brain. Connecting circuits between these two areas makes It possible to simultaneously process information from both of them. Both Courchesne and Minshew agree that a basic problem in both autistic and Asperger brains is a failure of the ‘computer cables’ to fully connect together the many different localized brain systems. Local systems may have normal or enhanced internal connections but the long distance connections between the different local systems may be poor.”

“When I wrote Thinking in Pictures I thought most people on the autism spectrum were visual thinkers like me. After talking to hundreds of families and individuals with autism or Asperger’s, I have observed that there are actually different types of specialized brains. All people on the spectrum think in details, but there are three basic categories of specialized brains. Some individuals may be combinations of these categories.

1. Visual thinkers, like me, think in photographically specific images. There are degrees of specificity of visual thinking. I can test run a machine in my head with full motion. Interviews with nonautistic visual thinkers indicated that they can only visualize still images. These images may range in specificity from images of specific places to more vague conceptual images. Learning algebra was impossible and a foreign language was difficult. Highly specific visual thinkers should skip algebra and study more visual forms of math such as trigonometry or geometry. Children who are visual thinkers will often be good at drawing, other arts, and building things with building toys such as Lego’s. Many children who are visual thinkers like maps, flags, and photographs. Visual thinkers are well suited to jobs in drafting, graphic design, training animals, auto mechanics, jewelry making, construction, and factory automation.

2. Music and math thinkers think in patterns. These people often excel at math, chess, and computer programming. Some of these individuals have explained to me that they see patterns and relationships between patterns and numbers instead of photographic images. As children they may play music by ear and be interested in music. Music and math minds often have careers in computer programming, chemistry, statistics, engineering, music, and physics. Written language is not required for pattern thinking. The pre-literate Incas used complex bundles of knotted cords to keep track of taxes, labor, and trading among a thousand people.

3. Verbal logic thinkers think in word details. They often love history, foreign languages, weather statistics, and stock market reports. As children they often have a vast knowledge of sports scores. They are not visual thinkers and they are often poor at drawing. Children with speech delays are more likely to become visual or music and math thinkers. Many of these individuals had no speech delays, and they became word specialists. These individuals have found successful careers in language translation, journalism, accounting, speech therapy, special education, library work, or financial analysis.” — Dr. Temple Grandin

Read Dr. Temple Grandin’s articles at:

http://grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html
http://grandin.com/inc/mind.web.browser.html

Dr. Oliver Sacks site:

http://www.oliversacks.com

I highly recommend any books by these two distinguished scientists and authors.

— copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

The Democratization of Media

Some call this phenomenon “open source media.”

The emergence of popular outlets for amateur expression such as YouTube, FaceBook, and MySpace has changed interactive media in an unanticipated way. Who is an authority in an environment where anyone can contribute or edit the vast encyclopedia of human knowledge? Where is the natural barrier of professional status? What will happen to the professional writers, web designers, and videographers?

Of course, what may happen is a general shakeout similar to what happened to many professions as they were changed to digital: typography, publishing, print design, etc. As the amateurs invaded each profession armed with the software program that was supposed to replace the professional, we were suddenly deluged with a great deal of bad work. Did the general public recognize bad design? No. What happened is that the value of the profession to the little client plummeted — “I’ll have my secretary buy the software and make the newsletter, it will save us money.” — and it shook out a lot of designers serving the lower end of the client pond. So, suddenly there were just the big clients, and a whole lot of designers trying to get them.

Where does it go from here? Do we lower our standards to the common denominator? As people get used to seeing amateur work in every media it may be that there will be no recognition or appreciation of professionally produced work. On the other hand, I’m willing to bet that most people would rather trust established brands when they are putting their hard-earned cash down.

It has become evident in the last few years that corporate control of the media has completely eroded the authority of those in publishing. Regardless of whether it is the news from the “authorities” or advertising from brands, or corporate reports, the average person has learned not to trust what he hears in traditional media.

What can you trust, and who can you trust? The emergence of social networking and viral marketing in this same era is provides a clue to what may be happening. The corporations would love to control this amazing way of advertising their products to the consumer, but it can backfire: this area is very sensitive to hype and is quick to expose inconsistencies and flaws. It would be just as easy to get negative as well as positive results using viral marketing and social networking.

The real positive of this movement is that it may allow a real accountability to emerge in the economic as well as the political arena. It has the potential to finally hold responsible those in authority to their word, hold companies accountable to their products and to their way of producing that product, as well as keeping them honest in advertising.

The power of free speech is in the hands of the many instead of the few as publishing becomes democratized. As ever in the past, commercial and political interests will strive to control and utilize this power to their own ends. Already, information on the buying habits and personal preferences of individuals is tracked by many entities. Viral marketing is a hot topic among marketers. They ask themselves how what people talk about can be used for profit and how they can control what is being said. Bloggers are romanced by corporate entities and some even paid to spread the word as if they are independent sources of information.

As the uncle of Spiderman said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Democracy in whatever form has the annoying tendency to mutate into something else, while pretending to have remained true to form. Sometimes I think the book Animal Farm was not really about communism at all, but about how truth gets mutated by those in authority. Truth can only be trusted if independent of commercial or political interests as the debacle of commercial media in present times has proved.

– Copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

Building a Community

In composing a proposal for a company intent on community building, I reflected on what is community; what encourages people to use/belong to a community?

I think that it is the right blend of uniqueness and alikeness.

UNIQUENESS — what is the benefit to the individual
- information they can use for work or life
- positive ethics within Community
- members may gain a benefit in world outside Community — renown, job, mate, etc.
- members may work towards “star” status within one or more communities
- cult / elite “insider” status
- coolness factor
- people want to be given credit (paid in accolades or money) for their input
- people want to be heard; complaints addressed, software problems addressed
- people want to express themselves
- people feel valued, smart, and important
- users have to see individual benefits to themselves

ALIKENESS — what is the benefit to the Community
- positive ethics within Community
- grassroots appeal
- usability
- people want to help others (most want to be known for it)
- people like to feel part of a team
- sense of communality
- trust and respect within the Community
– copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

Other articles on Building Virtual Communities:

<– Article 1 :::: Article 2 :::: Article 3 –>

 

The Elephant in the Living Room has #*@ on the Floor

While many of my colleagues will disagree with me, I remain convinced that we are entering a new age; one that no longer operates by the same rules as the one we are leaving. We are evolving from a story-based society to a society where the viewer creates his own story. The primary difference between this age and the last is the non-linear freedom of the user.

Previous to the advent of interactive design, most forms of communication, art and design were linear: books, music, film, and video. All were based upon the ancient art of telling a story. The user, as a passive recipient was “fed” a linear production: a story with a beginning, middle and an end. The only control he might have had was to stop, rewind, or fast-forward the show. The story often had a message that the author(s) wanted the viewer to understand, and the entire production was geared towards the delivery of that message.

In contrast, the interactive mediums have introduced the idea of “branching paths” with the user in control of what information he wants to receive and, to a certain degree, when he wants to receive it. Although most web designs deliver an “image” (brand) to the user, and may have a message; it is the user who chooses what he wants to see and understand.

This emancipation of the viewer through interactivity and freedom of choice has far-reaching ramifications. Advertisers have learned it is not as easy to hold viewers to their content when the user has the freedom to click away at any time. It is a bit like the remote control for your TV; when you can mute the ads or go to another station without getting up, why listen to another ad?

Interactive design has even greater implications: that we are learning a new way of receiving information, and that it is more and more up to us to “connect the dots” between diverse bits of knowledge, and that all information is just a few clicks away. We are no longer inside a story being led to a conclusion that the author wants us to draw. We can draw our own conclusions, and use many diverse sources to do it.

Long-term memory, or learning by rote is a thing of the past. Albert Einstein claimed never to memorize anything that could be looked up in less than two minutes. Since creative thinkers are often at least 50 years ahead of their times, I’d say that is an indication of what is happening to us as a society today.

Imagine what Einstein would do with the Internet and Wikipeidia today. Then again, why retain any information at all, except what is immediately practical? I notice that this has happened to me in my life as an interactive designer. I have created the programs for interactive applications, but I no longer retain how I did it. The reason? Well, as I tell my students, the scripting languages change, the applications change, and my needs change.

What is new today is gone tomorrow. There is no need to fill my brain with outdated junk, when, if I need it, I can grab a newer version from the Internet. Why bother to re-invent the wheel, why bother to create anything new, when new is gone so quickly. Someone else is bound to have already created it. Save yourself valuable time, unless you really want to learn how something like that is made, or if you want to do it all the time as your occupation. Otherwise, leave the technical specialty to someone who is really good at it and loves it. It is not your job as a creative person to know technical details (unless it is what truly interests you).

So, our job as designers is to enable others to “connect the dots” in ever new and meaningful ways. We build interfaces that allow others to easily navigate their own path through the bewildering array of knowledge, by both simplifying and organizing the information into a palatable and easily digestible form. That is what is similar in all forms of communication design. What has changed is the format, the delivery system, and most especially, the emancipation of the user.

People will always love a story; humans are naturally drawn to stories. I don’t think that interactive communication will ever replace storytelling, nor should it. I just think that it is important for designers to recognize that the new art form — this new means of communication — is changing us. As the creators of this new culture, we have to be more aware of how this medium really works and how it is evolving.

The impact of this new form of communication on human civilization is immense. In fact, it is so big, so obvious, that like the proverbial elephant in the living room, most of us cannot even see it. We should not take it lightly, but I, as an interactive designer, am very excited by the prospects. I love the unknown, the unexpected; I don’t know where it will lead, but I am most interested in seeing what develops.

Copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr

 

The Tools that Shape Us

I like to reflect on the evolution of science, technology and human culture. I have an avid interest in archeology, general science, quantum physics, art, music, dance, drama, and all other human endeavors. In every one of these fields, it is the questions which interest me, not the answers. “Dare to ask the question!”

Technology is contributing to a kind of cultural blindness. People get lost in the tool and forget the maker. Who cares today that oil paint was once cutting edge technology? When you think of a great painting from the past, do you think of the material he used or of the painting? Technology is important only in whether it works or not. The artists in the Renaissance who used the cutting edge technology of the day did experiment with it, and sometimes they failed; Da Vinci’s Last Supper fell off the wall because he tried to combine oil paint with fresco. Other times, the experiment succeeded; the “mixed” technique of egg tempera and oil paint resulted in some of the most long lasting and beautiful paintings ever produced.

My particular interest is in culture, so I find it very interesting how our tools change us. Just think of the evolution of the button. It seems that the button started out in ancient Roman or Egyptian times as a type of clasp, perhaps to fasten a cloak. Later, in the pre-Industrial
Age, people used buttons to fasten their ankle boots. They even used a tool to help them do this: a button hook. In the Machine Age, the button was used to start or connect equipment using electricity.

CD ROM, early web, and kiosk interface design introduced the first virtual button: these graphics were made to look like a familiar mechanical or electrical button, so that people new to interactive design (everyone) would get the idea that they were supposed to “push” them. They were designed to look pushed in when on and even sometimes read “on” or “off” to indicate their state. This use of the familiar to introduce the new has psychological and practical ramifications for the savvy interface designer. This is how we “push the envelope” of culture, design, language and human interaction.

What is the similarity in all forms of the button from early prehistory to current use? It is this: that the function / expectation of the button has always been to “fasten” or “connect” two things together, whether it be the sides of your Roman homespun itchy wool cloak, or to bridge one virtual page to another. The pages on a contemporary website are connected together by the virtual button, just as the sides of one’s nineteenth century shoes were fastened or brought together with the buttons of the day.

Today, buttons can be anything, and the audience has grown in sophistication with the designer. In effect, a good designer “teaches” the user what is interactive in a subtle manner. Javascript introduced the “rollover” effect on the web, but it was first introduced years before on CD and on kiosks.

Copyright 2007 Aliyah Marr