The Hot Iron

Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Non-Personal Touch

The other day I got a letter from a vendor whose name I will purposely withhold. By the nature of their business, my relationship with them is always personal. The letter I received was addressed to, "Dear Valued Client."

Am I really a valued client? They have my contact information to generate the mailing label that went on the envelope. How hard was it to do a mail-merge and address the letter personally to me?

Perhaps the letter was misaddressed after all?

Friday, March 02, 2007

Nickels Don’t Shred Well

I shred about 80% of the postal mail I receive. Most of the items chewed up by my shredder are the old stand-bys – offers for credit cards and insurance – and a few are for charities I have never heard of. As my intuition on junk mail has heightened over the years, many of these go right into the shredder without being opened.

The other day, my shredder stopped in the middle of shredding an item. When I pulled it out, I saw a shiny new Jefferson nickel in the address window. A nickel? Messaging inside the envelope mentioned something about sending the nickel back to the charity, accompanied by many more.

Just as spammers are trying to get their message across, so are snail mailers. Continuing that comparison, are nickels the new Trojan files attached to email? I cannot recall the name of the charity that sent that mailing with the nickel, and they certainly did not get it or a red cent from me.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Seattle Turnarounds

There has been much talk about Starbucks' founder Howard Schultz's Valentine's Day memo entitled "The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience." In short, he says that decisions made by the coffee chain in order to scale to its massive size, such as automatic espresso machines and putting beans in flavor-lock bags, have had a detrimental effect on the overall Starbucks experience. Or as I take that, Starbucks stores are losing their mojo.

Will Starbucks be able to turn it around and return some of the magic to the experience of paying several dollars for a cup of coffee? They can look to their neighbor in Redmond, Microsoft, for how to make a dramatic turnaround... from over a decade ago. In the early 90's Microsoft did not have an Internet strategy. Within a year, they were able to turn it around, introducing the Internet Explorer browser and the Active Server Pages language, and take a lead in delivering Internet solutions. Granted they licensed the Spyglass browser and remade it into IE, but they were able to go from nothing to something relatively quickly. Not bad for the early 90’s.

Then again, maybe Microsoft should look to its past for some help itself.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Guerilla Nametags

As I am writing this post, my printer is hard at work cranking out nametags for the Breakfast Network Club. The BNC is a networking organization in Chicago that has morphed from meetings in the morning (thus the name) to holding specialized meetings by industry and discipline. I have been involved with the group for about a year and through it have made many networking connections.

I saw an opportunity to help with providing nametags as the group, like many of the entrepreneurs who attend the meetings, runs a tight ship. Each nametag features the BNC logo at the top and "nametag powered by Dunkirk Systems @ dunkirk.biz" at the bottom, with my logo in the place of my company name. The cost of the nametags is minimal – a box of mailing labels and the ink to print on them.

Is my phone ringing off the hook as a result? No. But that is not why I am doing it. My goal for sponsoring the nametags is name recognition in the Chicago market and goodwill from giving a little bit back to a worthy group. The president of the BNC, David Carman, also makes a point to introduce me when I am at a meeting and thanks me for making the nametags. But if the phone does ring from someone who saw my name on the nametag they wore back to the office after a meeting, all the better.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Blogging Event in Chicago

Have you ever wanted to talk to fellow bloggers in person, without using their comments box? On the weekend of May 11-12 in Chicago, you can have that opportunity.

SOBCon07 is a conference that was born from – you guessed it – blog comments. When I heard about this over the weekend, I realized that I was a small part of those comments. It is being presented by Phil Gerbyshak and Liz Strauss, the latter I have not only communicated with through comments, but using that other device on my desk called a telephone. The agenda includes speakers, presentations and plenty of networking opportunities.

What does SOBcon stand for? SOB, despite what you may think, stands for Successful and Outstanding Bloggers. The name got my attention too!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

My Take-Aways from the book Small Giants

This year I have a goal to read one book a month. Where for some this may not seem like much, it is a big deal for me. I have not been much of a reader in the past, with the exception of trade magazines and technical manuals. As I finish each book, I will write not a review but my "take-away" or the things that made me go “hmmm” after I put the book down for a final time.

My book for January was Small Giants by Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large at Inc. magazine. It highlights several companies that are "giants" in their respective industries, but chose to remain at a certain, smaller size, and details their path to this decision. Some of the companies featured include Anchor Brewing, CLIF Bar and Chicago's Artists' Frame Service.

When people talk about growing their business, the discussion starts at getting larger, but it does not tend to stop anyplace. The companies in this book made a decision to get to a certain size – by the number of staff or services they offer – and are content there. They do not see themselves being limited by this, and the contrary they feel much better about their businesses and its vitality, and in turn themselves. As I plan to grow my own business, this book has given me a different perspective on what growth is, and insight into some choices I may have to make in the future. I recommend fellow small business folks to give this book a few hours to read.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

You Know What I Want

I find the office supply wars in Chicagoland mildly amusing. It may be the same in other areas – you tell me – but this is the first time I have been exposed to it.

Hailing from Massachusetts, I have shopped at Staples, which was founded in the Bay State, since they opened in the 80’s. Staples has dominated the northeast, even with the few OfficeMax stores that come into the area.

When I moved to the Windy City a couple of years ago, there were no Staples stores. Then they arrived, or should I say invaded. As I had a Staples Rewards card (their frequent shopping program) I was invited to their launch party, featuring a performance by Chicago’s own Mavis Staples. And for what seemed to be almost half a year, I was bombarded with general discount coupons (e.g. $5 off a $5 purchase) by guerilla marketers in the streets and by mail.

Prior to their arrival, I shopped at OfficeMax and Office Depot and I still have their respective frequent shopper cards. Therefore I am in their "systems" and they should have noticed that my purchases dropped and pretty much ceased. If so, you could have fooled me. I have yet to hear or receive anything from them to indicate this. How about a "we miss you" mailing with a general discount coupon or other incentives to bring me back? That would be my thinking, but not theirs. I get specific, low-discount coupons for items I am obviously not buying. Not to mention their lack of response to the general discount coupons I continue to get from Staples.

Or maybe OfficeMax and Office Depot do not have that kind of information on me, or they do but don’t know what to do with it?

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Buying from Microsoft and airlines without an option

It was not until 11:30 pm Central time yesterday, January 30, 2007, that I realized Windows Vista was officially launched. I only heard about it because Craig Ferguson, the host of The Late Late Show on CBS, mentioned it in his monologue. Maybe I saw headlines earlier, but note I have been hearing about this product going on eight years, back when it was code-named Longhorn.

As Craig continued to his punch line on Vista, and I paraphrase, he noted people will use it because they have to. Where the studio audience was laughing, I was not. It is an inevitable truth that at some point, I will be running Vista. For the Internet design and development I do at Dunkirk Systems, I will need to test Web sites and applications on Vista. Eventually all new PCs will be shipped with it as the only choice, with Windows XP going away.

As a result, Microsoft Corporation never does sell me, Mike Maddaloni, on their newest operating system. If I don't want to run Vista, I need a separate license for an older Windows version, or go down the Linux path. Yet Microsoft spends millions on marketing and selling Vista. Where it's easy to attack the giants, there are other products we buy where we really don't choose.

The first example of a lack of choice coming to mind is with the airlines, and maybe it's because I am planning a trip. This choice is different, as the entire industry is at a point where there is little differentiation between brands. The only news you hear about brand differences is when they cut snacks and olives in drinks and the like. If you are going to fly, you are more concerned with the price and maybe the number of stops, and only if all flights are the same price may you choose one airline because you have more miles with them.

Maybe it's a nice situation to be in, but I'd rather not be there. When something better, or different, comes along, as your customers have no loyalty to you, they will leave, with the speed depending on the level of difficulty in doing so.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

An Entrepreneur Reacts and Conquers

I was catching up with my friend Steven Benjamin today and I want to share part of the story. I got to know him originally through the ColdFusion community here in Chicago, and not only is he a talented developer, but an engineer as well – an engineer as in building things with tangible objects, not code.

Last year he launched a new business, MightyMugs.com, and I was asking him how things were going. MightyMugs gives people the ability to upload a photo or image via the Web site, and Steven would make a single or multiple coffee mugs with that image on it. He developed the process to put the image on it and makes them himself, and is a stickler for quality.

As he started marketing his services, he found a lot of interest from businesses, great and small. The fact they could order a quantity as small as a dozen was a key selling point, as other “swag” vendors usually require minimums from several dozen to a gross. Another nice feature is he can create a “3D” animation of what the mug would look like. It’s a great selling point – I know, I am a customer! He also launched a complimenting site for businesses, MightyMugsB2B.com. Not only can you upload an image, but you can email or post mail it, as he got many requests for the latter two.

I think the mark of a good entrepreneur is in how she or he can react to their audience or market and make changes in a way that large corporations cannot. Where he still sells his service to consumers, his tailored Web site and marketing to businesses has helped propel his own business. Same product, different markets, one entrepreneur. It makes you think of what you can do with your own offerings.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

TechCocktail this Thursday in Chicago

This Thursday, January 25, 2007 is the next TechCocktail. As you can guess by the name, it is an tech networking event where drinks are served. This is the third of what has become a quarterly event, and will be held at Amira at the NBC Tower in Chicago.

I went to the first one, missed the second, and I am looking forward to this one. Its success can be contributed to many reasons. It was heavily promoted on blogs, and as a result brought in a wide variety of people in technology including programmers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, venture capitalists and lawyers. As a quarterly event, it is not overdone, and still has momentum. And free admission and drinks aren’t a bad thing either.

TechCocktail's success is in its simplicity, and that’s why I think it will be around for a while. Many user groups or other organizations fail because of the complexities of their services and offerings. As well, when there is a turnover in the organizers, it is hard to regain much of the momentum the group had. I have seen this personally with tech user groups as well as established organizations like the Jaycees, and it falls in line with the team development model of forming, storming, norming and performing.

Are you going to TechCocktail? Hope to see you there!