Independent Thinking » Brand

What Andy Warhol and Joe Paterno Have in Common

Daria Steigman — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:01:37 +0000

Have you ever listened to Songs from Drella?

The album is Lou Reed and John Cale‘s brilliant tribute to Andy Warhol‘s life and art. It’s fascinating, personal, and emotionally raw.

The penultimate verse:

They really hated you, now all that’s changed
But I have some resentments that can never be unmade
You hit me where it hurts I didn’t laugh
Your Diaries are not a worthy epitaph

Your legacy is all your atoms and bytes.

When Joe Paterno died on Sunday, I wasn’t so much surprised as saddened by all the glowing words being said about him. Calling him a “flawed hero,” or talking about how he handled the Penn State scandal “with grace” (seriously?). Somehow I don’t think this is what my high school English teacher had in mind when she was teaching us about Shakespeare and Aristotelian tragedy.

You can be really great at something (for Warhol, art; for Paterno, winning football games), but you don’t get to write your epitaph. And the consequences of your words and your actions all become a part of your legacy.

Your brand, at the end of the day, is what other people decide it is.

Here’s the question: What would you like your epitaph to be? Will it?

Photo by Podknox (Flickr).

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Are Your Customers Feeling the Love?

Daria Steigman — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:48:57 +0000

We talk a lot about connecting with customers (and clients, prospects, and so forth)–but are they feeling the love? In other words, are they connecting with us?

These are not the same thing.

What a Two-Way Connection Looks Like

I’ve always highly valued my University of Chicago education. And I’m the second generation to earn a degree there (my mom was first), and then my brother followed me. But other than sending me an alumni magazine, the only time I ever heard from the university was when they wanted money.

(Except for the awesome local U of C Entrepreneurs Group, but I’ve always viewed that more as a business group than a university group.)

Now, thanks to, UChicagoAlumni, I feel connected to the institution.

It’s not about a Twitter feed. It’s Tracey Swanson (the voice of UChicagoAlumni), who gets that talking to people (conversation), listening to them (he honored my request to change how he identified my affiliation with the university when retweeting me), and valuing what they’re doing (he shares the occasional blog post from here with his audience) are critical in forging a two-way connection.

What are you doing to ensure your customers are engaged with you?

Photo by Worthy FM (Flickr).

Bigotry is Not a Business Strategy

Daria Steigman — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:08:07 +0000

You’ve probably heard that Lowe’s pulled its advertising from reality TV show All-American Muslim. The home improvement company says it made a business decision based on its assertion that the show is a ”lightning rod” for “strong political and societal views.”

The show isn’t the problem.

Lowe’s made a reactive decision based on a fringe Florida group’s disapproval of the company’s initial decision to advertise on the TV show. Now, somehow, Lowe’s is surprised by the backlash.

Like most business owners, I choose to work with people and companies I like. And I’m conscious of my brand. And my reputation. I also “own” my choices and my decisions.

So far, Lowe’s has done neither.

Bigotry is not a business strategy. Unless, that is, your strategy is negative PR, a firestorm of media attention, and a lot of customers who won’t be back anytime soon.

Photo by Niloy (Flickr).

4 Lessons From the Shakespeare Theatre About Valuing Customers

Daria Steigman — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:04:16 +0000

I’ve talked before about how brand loyalty isn’t eroding (we’re just saving our loyalty for where we feel valued). Today I’m doing to share four lessons from an organization that just doesn’t get it: The Shakespeare Theatre.

Lesson #1: People are more likely to donate if they feel connected to you.

In 20 years, the Shakespeare Theatre only called me to ask for money. No one called just to find out how I liked my subscription, whether I had any concerns, or even just to say “thank you.” They never held a subscriber-only Q&A with cast members (at least they never invited me), or sent t-shirts, mugs, or even bookmarks to mark milestones (e.g., 10-year subscriber!), or any of the little things that say “we appreciate your business.”

Lesson #2: People are more likely to donate if they feel their donation matters.

The organizations that get donations from me year after year are the ones where I understand where my money’s going and that it’s getting good bang for the buck. Feeding America, for example, states upfront that “your gift makes a big impact–every dollar you donate helps provide 8 meals to families struggling with hunger.” The Shakespeare Theatre’s individual contributions page lists as a reason, “The incomparable Michael Kahn.” Huh? That would be like me setting up a foundation and listing “Daria Steigman’s running it!” as a reason to give.

Lesson #3: You need a CRM system that codes for quirkiness.

This year, I transferred my tickets to the friends who have been using most of the tickets over the last 2-3 years. (They’re good seats. We wanted to keep them “in house.”) I’ll probably go to one play, maybe two. But since the account is no longer in my name, the Shakespeare Theatre called me three times in rapid succession to ask about renewing. The first time I explained that I’d transferred the tickets. The second time I explained it again. The third time I told them to stop calling. “This season?” they asked. “No. Forever.”

Lesson #4: There’s a difference between subscribers and people who subscribe.

The first one is about numbers and dollars. The other is about, well, people. Savvy organizations know that the best way to guarantee the first is to truly value the second.

Photo by Mark Hillary (Flickr).

The End of Brand Loyalty

Daria Steigman — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:04:09 +0000

Is brand loyalty dead?

One of the interesting findings in the IBM survey of CMOs ( here is is my take on the overall report) is that companies are unprepared to deal with “decreasing brand loyalty.”

They’re asking the wrong question.

Were travelers loyal to Wells Fargo?
Were households loyal to Ma Bell?
Were airline passengers loyal to Pan Am?

Customers don’t have less brand loyalty today. We have more choices.

People are fiercely loyal to companies that don’t suck. Apple isn’t the only computer maker, phone maker, or music maker. Zappos isn’t the cheapest place to buy shoes. And Disney isn’t really the happiest place on earth.

What are you doing to earn customer loyalty?

Photo by MoneyBlogNewz (Flickr).

5 Reasons to Think Thought Leadership

Daria Steigman — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:04:16 +0000

There was an interesting conversation about thought leadership on #profschat the other day around what it is, what it means, where it fits into an organization’s priorities, who “owns” it, and how to execute a successful thought leadership strategy. And it got me thinking anew about a strategy that’s increasingly important in today’s fragmented marketplace.

Here are five things to consider:

1. You can’t anoint yourself a thought leader. Doing so is akin to saying you’re a guru or begging people to “like” you. No matter how many times you put “renowned expert” in your bio or on a profile somewhere, it doesn’t make it so. It’s up to other people to judge your content valuable, interesting, and useful to them.

2. Thought leadership is an investment. It’s not an insta-solution. Before you can be brilliant, you have to know what you’re talking about. That means understanding your business goals, your competitive differentiators, and your customer’s and prospect’s pain points across both the product/service lifecycle and your company’s operations. And that’s all before you develop a content strategy to educate people, problem solve, and be a go-to resource.

3. One-size-fits-all fits no one. If you understand your business and are targeting the right audience, what works for another person or company won’t work for you. Don’t imitate. The best voice—whether in words or in pictures—is your voice.

4. It’s okay to focus on today and look ahead. During the Twitter chat, Bruce Hallas expressed frustration at the difficulty of positioning himself as a thought leader when he’s interested in what happens 3, 5, or 10 years from now but his clients are focused on the “now.” Why can’t you do both? The “now” responds to people’s current needs. The “thinking” piece is an opportunity to educate us on the things we don’t know we don’t know (or don’t yet recognize as needs). I’d create special, perhaps-gated, content (e.g., white paper, e-book) to showcase your forward-thinking smarts. You can always re-purpose some of that content into bite-sized nuggets to tease your everyday audience.

5. Thought leadership pays off. Look at IBM. After years as a products company, IBM has reinvented itself as an ideas business. But you don’t have to clone IBM to be successful. In fact, a thought leadership strategy is perhaps even more important for small companies who don’t have the deep pockets to supplement their content marketing initiatives with mass market brand advertising It’s all about differentiating yourself and giving people a reason to pay attention.

Photo by visualpanic (Flickr).

Going Fireworks

Daria Steigman — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:21:49 +0000

Some people go fishing–I’m going fireworks.

I’m off for a few days of much-needed downtime. I’ll be back with new posts right after the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, in celebration of three years of blogging (The Independent Thinking Blog turned 3 this month), here are three posts from the early archives you might want to check out:

See you back here on Tuesday.

Photo by therealbrute (Flickr).

Web Site Redux

Daria Steigman — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:04:05 +0000

Ever find yourself saying “do as I say…”?

I’ve known for some time that my Web site needed some work. The calls to actions were mostly hidden (or missing altogether). The font didn’t, as my brother so succinctly put it, “do justice to your design sensibility.” The social media buttons were disjointed–or missing altogether.

Now I’ve rolled out some changes, including making it easy for people to subscribe to this blog via e-mail, adding big “connect with me” buttons and a newsletter sign-up, and creating a custom 404 page. There’s also a new font to give the site a more updated look.

What’s your impression? (If you’re reading this in an RSS reader, please click over to my Web site and let me know what you think.)

And while you’re here, will you consider signing up for my newsletter?

Photo by Bernadette MacPherson Morris (Flickr).

Get Rid of that First Impression Once and For All

Daria Steigman — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:46:22 +0000

You can’t really shake a first impression. It’s done. When we screw it up, we have to live with that.

But I’ll share a secret: You can make a second impression.

I received a call recently from someone I’d talked to a few months ago about a possible project. She had read my blog post on The Importance of Saying “No” and saw herself in there. And so she called to say “I’m sorry.”

It takes guts to apologize. More important, it takes a lot of class.

In my earlier post, I wrote:

Most of us have mental lists of people who have gone out of their way to be helpful–or not. To answer or return phone calls–or not. To give an honest answer to an honest question–or not.

Guess which list she’s on now?

Photo by David Spender (Flickr).

Is 2011 the Year the Workforce Grows Up?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:15:38 +0000

Over at Small Business Labs, Steve King set out his top 10 business trends for 2011. At number 9: “Freelancers Realize They’re Small Business Owners.” King identifies two categories of contingent workers: those embracing freelancing and those stuck with it because of a lack of full-time job options. He writes:

Both groups will increasingly see themselves as long-term freelancers and realize to be successful they will need to view themselves as small business owners. [Emphasis mine.] This shift in thinking will improve their businesses and result in a stronger, more successful freelance community.

I agree completely with King’s premise. To succeed in business, you have to have a business mind. That falls right into my definition of Independent Thinking, which says in part that “to venture out on your own, you have to be great at your core business and savvy enough to manage everything else.”

But I think his conclusion is wrong.

It’s just not that easy to be a business owner, much less an entrepreneur. You have to understand that it is about more than just picking up projects or handing out business cards at a networking event. It’s about managing clients, marketing, branding, budgeting, forecasting, innovating, learning, business development–and getting the paying work done.

And you have to really want it.

I’ve seen some freelancers be very successful freelancers. Some independent contractors try to be business people and fail miserably. Some business people try business ownership and be completely lost. Looking at the landscape of the unemployed, it’s rare that I meet people who get how to pivot to small business ownership.

Are there some? Sure. But a trend? I’m not seeing signs of it.

Photo by Obliot (Flickr).