Believe it or not, you can – sometimes have to – perform your marketing routines silently. You might be doing mass marketing; no worries, it works. Your business might be illegal or it might be legal if you play around the dusty lines of the black book of the law-maker or you might be in a harsh market and still at a level where you can’t compete with the big guys over there. There are a lot of reasons to play hide and seek sometimes!

This is an exciting concept or a technique yet to be discovered. However you still have to wait a little bit more before I dig the whole thing more and put together a sketch.

Coming soon! Silence Marketing ;)

I have been studying my second masters degree at the Royal Institute of Technology in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. At the end of the program, when I was to write a dissertation, I thought of discussing how companies are neglecting their employees’ potential. They are the people at the very center of the business and usually they are the best people to contribute in an intrapreneurial or innovative activity.

It does not end there! These people are your employees, the more you get them involved, the more loyalty comes back. The most natural reward (for both sides).

Competition is the true driver of markets. It is the product of our environment. Unless a company is competitive it will not survive in the market it is serving. There is hardly any monopoly in a market, except when it is backed by the state. Sometimes oligopolies behave like monopolies but even the constituents have to fight for market share. To capture market share, companies constantly need to innovate their product or service as core competencies can remain unique for only a small period and eventually the competition catches up with an imitation or a new idea.

People pursue good health and will do anything new that will help them to live a better life. Corporates too do the same by pursuing strategies of improvements and breakthroughs that create new products and new markets. This is a continuous exercise and any let up, in health or corporate endeavours will invite a decline. Innovations are the engine that persuaded the corporate to innovate.

Despite the fact that the urge to innovate exists equally in the entrepreneur and an employee, the larger companies usually ignore the employee contribution. Some companies are seen to make a half hearted effort by offering reward for new or innovative ideas to their employees but there is no regulated or organised effort in this direction. There can be some results through rewards but these are few and far in between and just an improvement of the existing product or service and do not fall into the class of an innovation. It has been understood for very long that employees work for self satisfaction and self actualisation (Maslow, 1954) and this factor can certainly be harnessed by companies to meet the challenges posed by competition. The potential of an employee needs to be exploited for the benefit of the company. But what most companies aim at is setting targets for the employee and rewarding him on meeting the same. They never try to find out whether they can go beyond the target. The need is to find the potential and then to direct it towards innovative practices.

The PDF version of the whole thesis work: Using The Mental Force of The Employee

After a little glance through what is about to happen, I have written some trends that could change the world in the future. However, later I will share a detailed “fortune map” for those of you who are interested in this subject :)

As the world becomes smaller and living conditions gets tougher or at least more costly for the mass public, people already started trying to reduce their costs but at the same time, they always try to increase their quality of living.

On the other hand, from hunger to terrorism, education to health, there is a need for continuous and social and interdisciplinary innovations together with creative and efficient thinking, in order to solve the global problems.

→ Cooperative Consumption: Fractional ownership is moving beyond the shared planes of the jet-setting elite. The masses are already sharing everything from art to cars to designer handbags, and as technology for pooling demand and resources becomes increasingly sophisticated, this model will be applied to an even wider range of categories. (Zdrodowski & Schwartz, 2007) An example to it could be Zipcar where people can rent a car for really short periods with the same thinking of renting city bikes. One car for one person era is coming to an end maybe. People can be using consuming and using things together. As a trend, it meets scarcity, newness, future values. It is also a strange combination for today, an unexpected happening for the individualized current world but it is more efficient.

→ The ease of reaching information and difficulty of managing information will lead to a complexity that will open up some business fields in the short future. The digitalization of our lives and the increasing amount of information providers and internet makes it easy for us to reach the information from many devices and ways, wherever and whenever we want. However, on the other hand, this will make it difficult to manage the information. The amount of information is constantly increasing. Information production is growing and this ocean will create a risk for both individuals and companies where they will need to specialize on information processing. This is a great need for all to meet the expectations of everyday life in the future. When seen the channels of information today, it can sound strange that we do not need specialized functions in order to find information but the direction shows that we will need.

→ Adult Care: As the population in many countries get older, there will be a need for the elderly people to be taken care of. Especially in the developed countries, these segments of the population is already having a big slice on the wealth and since the young generations do not seem to cover up the space, the target segment of almost all companies will grow up as well. The biggest consumer group will be elder people and the market will be filled with products and services addressing them. “From 2010, in Western Europe, the ‘age dependency’ of the population (the number of non-workers expressed as a percentage of the working population) will rise from 50% to a peak of 70% around 2035” (Scase, 2006)

→ The Importance of Energy: Exhaustion of the world resources, changes in the climate, criticalpolitical and social situations and the predicted obvious energy shortage in the near future will lead us to green energies. Already, the major players in the energy industry have started directing their investments in future energy solutions. Renewable energies, less harmful resource creation and the aim for a better environment will take the lead. Even it may sound strange; people can start producing their own energy by having various energy facilities in their homes.

→ The Century of the Women: It seems that the women will have control on many fields and/or they will have a lot more control in management than before. According to Tom Peters, in the last five years, every two of three job vacancies are filled by females. The technology, regardless of it is developed my males or females, eases the physical force that is used. So far, physical works have usually been done by men, however these physical works, long working hours, stress and whatever the need of physically strong people takes, is getting reduced. So, women, with a different perspective then men’s perspective (which is the model that the world is used to) can gain the management positions easily because of their lateral thinking.

→ Rise of the Global Culture: The borders are fading off in between countries and new agreements provide people one of their basic rights: travelling wherever they want. There is of course a base for this that the countries where the people want to go and stay, are in need of immigration as well. Themore the people travel around and learn from each other (of course the help of technology cannot be neglected) they marry each other, they work in multicultural and multinational companies. Thus there comes a common culture of being international. The communication will need to b shaped in order to address this increasing segment of the population. The companies and the governments will need to adapt the values and needs of these internationals. Therefore the concept of being a world citizen with the blend of the cultures will come up.

→ GRIN Technologies: Genetics, Robotics, Internet and Nano Technology advances so fast that in the near future we can see more complex outcomes of these technologies. As it is foreseen widely, the medical operations can be done by the robots, internet or a more advanced derivation of it enters all parts of our lives. It can be quite scary that in the first, if not in the second half of the 21^st century it can be expected that robots like human beings are serving humans or doing their jobs.

→ A world without economic borders: Global companies have already started being a world citizen and they produce, sell, market, manage everywhere. Communication and finance started having no difficulty at reaching all around the world, at all. John Nasibitt states that there is an undoubted direction the world goes to a single-market world economy. When there is free trade among all countries, the “single world currency” idea can come alive as well. The economical cooperation of USA and China could lead us to this direction since it is obvious that it will sign the world’s future in 21^st century.

→ Oligopoly in major industries will play a bigger role and companies will merge together that will make great industry giants which are bigger than many countries. Therefore, integrated with the global culture changes in the world, more than being a citizen of a country, being a citizen of a company or a culture will play a more important role.

Marketing of food and beverage has maybe the most various kinds of marketing ways. No need to be surprised actually. Don’t you have a favourite drink, chocolate, flakes, whatever that you eat or drink… In all these, for sure the taste makes a lot of importance; however, it isn’t enough to differentiate. There are many products that taste almost the same. How do the consumers choose then? More shelf space? More advertisement? A cool brand? Lower price? Many reasons… However, sometimes even they can’t be so different. But still, there must be something that makes you take that one instead of the other.

Have you ever had your own soda brand? What would you do if you had one? Put your own, cool picture on the bottle? Come on! Don’t be such a megalomaniac! How about if anyone who drinks it, can do it? Find something else to market your soda. This way is already taken…

I met a brand called Jones Soda. Unfortunately we don’t have it where I live. Yet, I was ready to be a fan already. Actually it isn’t a soda brand. It is a brand that comes with a bottle of drink.

According to Jones Soda’s distribution story on their website, the difference can be seen that it is not just a drink: Distribution of Jones Soda began with “alternative distribution strategy.” Jones placed its own coolers, bearing the signature flames, in some truly unique venues, such as skate, surf and snowboarding shops, tattoo and piercing parlours, as well as in individual fashion stores and national retail clothing and music stores. Following the execution of this strategy; Jones began an up and down the street “attack” of the marketplace; this time placing product in convenience and food stores. Finally, the company began to achieve larger chain store listings with companies such as Starbucks, Panera Bread, Barnes & Noble, Safeway, Target, Cost Plus, Meijers, Winn-Dixies stores, Albertson’s, and 7-Eleven stores.

Jones Soda provides the standard content which would meet the expectations of an internet user on their website such as; about, products, Jones team, news, community, links, communication, etc. The difference of Jones Soda’s website from the others is that they are keeping the interactivity with the customer. To keep it up; they have lots of interactive applications. These applications are integrated into real life as well. That creates a bond in between the customer and the company too. Thus, they are showing the customers how to consume the product. It is not just for drinking; it is for designing, collecting and showing off to everyone. They also show their customers on the web site with their pictures and designs and lead the others to the way they want. This seems attractive to the customer at the end. In an outside-in approach, they are using the customers to influence the other customers. They are preparing the suitable environment for this as letting and more likely, canalizing the customers to do the advertisement by themselves.

Jones Soda actually is not a “soda” company. They are selling even skateboards, caps, t-shirts, etc. But they are not an apparel or accessory company neither. They are selling the customers’ own creations to the customers again and when crowds do this, it becomes more tempting. People own Jones Soda. They are creating something and then buy it. If they are not buying the exact thing they design, they know that somebody else did the design they buy. Somebody just like them, not an industrial designer. The company opens the kitchen for the customers to cook whatever they want. On the website, it is easy to see that they are giving messages for many layers of the public too. It is not a website talking about how much calorie they have or they are not associating the drink with a sport or so. They are letting the people do whatever they want with the brand. This is the way they keep the customers connected with the brand.

The company also gives importance to sponsorship which associates the brand with some public figures. They are also catching the special occasions such as serving soda with turkey flavour. The founder Peter Von Stolk says that some of their products taste really bad. However they sell good.

Not necessarily an agreed sponsorship :)

Jones Soda is very successful of doing marketing not to the customer but doing marketing with the customer. The feeling they create, gives the customer to have their own brand which they can be a part of. Jones Soda’s success is that they are not a soda brand. They are the brand of the customer in which shape they may want it to be.

See: www.jonessoda.com

“I’m so bored at work!! Why can’t my office be anything like these…

My boss is fat and looks like a monkey!!!

I’ve got a big nose!!”

Eye candy Andy (Fenner, 2006).

A random blogger on a website depicts his office environment as above. That creates the debate necessarily. Can an employee reach the desired efficiency, create something new, be innovative or can the job done by the employee be something greater than expected, without motivation, inspiration and together along with boring working climates? This brings us to the issue that the unhappy employees perform with a poor quality and their mood and unhappy visage spreads like a contagious disease which affects the working climate and decreases efficiency, quality and the joy of work which makes the work only a work, not an enjoyable activity. Not the aim is to entertain the employees but the efficiency comes with it anyway. Even the works are going smooth and everything seems nice with what is done in your working environment, there is a possibility that your employees are not satisfied enough or something may keep them away from innovation and there can be a lack of inspiration sources.

Do your employees and management staff like their work environment? Can you sense a team effort there? Are people actually happy to be involved in the organization? Are people showing up on time?

Does your sick day or holiday numbers come close to your industry average? And yes these questions do go for both small and large business? So, I expect you will answer them truthfully. (NO, no one is going to look at this but you.)

If asked; will your employees say that they are happy to be part of your company, small business or organization? What about your upper management? Do they like working there too? Is there turn over at these higher levels? Why and how much turnover?

Are your vendors and contractors also happy to do business with you? Do they feel like they are part of the team? If not do you think they maybe passing information to your competitors? Face it if your team is not in it for the love of it and in it to win it, you are not completely in the water and you are not going to win any polo matches.

In fact with lack lustre attitudes someone may end up drowning and you better hope it is not because your entire ship sank. Business Management is essential and you need to make sure you have a happy human team on your side of that net if you want to win games and get into the playoffs. (Winslow, 2006)

In a boring environment without any objects to inspire, see or interact to relax, with computers, documents, people walking around with formal clothes all the time, ringing phones and the rush of those places and of course, a lot of workload fills the room reserved for innovation, locks the doors of inspiration and decreases the level of efficiency at the end. The people can be paid well, all “needed” equipments and tools for them can be provided, their job description can be very well clarified, but the environment has its own spirit which energises the employees, pulls the trigger for creativity, innovation and inspiration. The little costs on turning your working climate into an enjoyable place for your work can bring incomparable high amounts of profit to the company in terms of efficiency, creativity and innovation.

If the environment is not active, changing nor providing something new to the employees, the everyday monotone of the same working place offering them only the workload that they have to accomplish, who would ever want to go there regardless of the salary they are being paid. In the current era of business life where the majority of big companies compete in harsh environment conditions in accordance with the new techniques used, changing consumer behaviours, well informed clients, easy to reach and open markets for any threats, the companies are trying to get the most out of what they pay to their employees. This includes the well cared, relaxed employees in a certain level as well. Therefore, a robotic efficiency would not help the companies just to get what they want. If the environment is designed just according to catch what is needed by the job, the humour, the joy, the creativity flies away and the company stays there with works done not more than what is needed hopefully and grumpy people who do not motivate each other and waiting for the end of the month to be paid and start over the same cycle.

The difference between the modern and post modern way of thinking in this issue would show that the change is needed in intangible sources of the companies. In the modern way; everything focuses on efficiency, all works are to be done the fastest way possible, people are depressed, stressed and affectivity is not high accordingly. Unlikely, in the post modern way; people are questioners, the result is more important and therefore flexibility comes to the way of planning own selves, there is a need of innovation, being open minded and the focuses are more long termed. Here comes the importance of the places where the employees work. A research on how to improve the satisfaction of employees shows how the direction on this issue has changed. In the early 1990s, a few organisations in the Netherlands began to experiment with flexible workplaces. Traditional cellular offices and the open-plan offices or team-oriented bullpen spaces in which everyone had their own fixed workplace were no longer a matter of course. Making use of modern information and communication technology, the pioneers redirected their attention towards the sharing of activity-related workplaces in a combi-office. (Van der Voordt, 2004)

Aesthetic need in creating a better working climate

As spoken before, boring places cause boring works, decrease the quality of the work done and makes the work only a work to make the employees wait for your payments to start over the same cycle and Matthew Gwyther, after visiting some Italian buildings including real art pieces on themselves, underlines the importance of art, aesthetic and inspiring working climates.

“One of the great advantages of art in Italy is that most of the paintings are still in the very places for which they were commissioned. They are frescoes, painted into the plaster as it dries, and frescoes are hard, if not completely impossible, to move, particularly if they are large. So when you walk into the old Council Chamber of Siena’s town hall, the Palazzo Publico, you will see, on the end wall, the great image of the Madonna and her court of angels which the counsellors of the 14th century would have looked at as they conferred. The fact that it was painted by Simone Martini, their very own artist, would have been a cause of some justifiable pride, but the real point was that the Madonna also happened to be the patron of their city and, as she is painted, her gaze forever looked down on them and their doings. Her gaze is benign, but at the same time demanding.” (Gwyther, 1997)

“I like more those traditions in which the directors start each day by feeling the stuff they make, or sampling their wares in one way or another.

Those boardrooms are often decorated with their products, visual reminders of what they do. My publishers’ offices are lined with their latest books – it’s easy to see what they are about, books first, and then money to make more books happen. What, I wonder, is it like to work in an office where there are no visual reminders of what it’s all for? It must seem rather soulless and anonymous. Work then becomes merely a means to an end, a way of simply obtaining a pay cheque.

We can’t all devise or afford stylish murals to emphasise our corporate purposes, but we can infuse our workplaces with our values in one way or another. Atmosphere makes more difference than any number of logos.

Boring places breed boring thoughts and boring people, of that I am sure, and then the one feeds on the other to produce yet more boring spaces. Quality and style however, encourage quality and style in their inhabitants.

It is hard to produce shoddy work in a beautiful place, where even the functional necessities are elegant. Buildings and offices often wear their hearts on their sleeves. You can tell what life is like within them just by taking a look at them.” (Gwyther, 1997)

Also a research published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine suggests that people who spend more of their working lives in jobs where they have little input in what work to do and how to go about doing it tend to die earlier than employees given more decision-making opportunities.

Some of the factors noted in the study such as monotonous work, and input into work design can be studied under the umbrella of macro-ergonomics. Techniques such as job enlargement and enrichment look at how to improve work that is monotonous or leaves little room for worker input. (Michael, 2002)

There are a lot of ways to create such inspiring environments and one of them could possibly be providing room to the employees to create their own inspiring environments. Letting the artists in them perform. In Beuys’ approach to human being as an artist, we can see that how the working environment transformations can be resulted such as in question. It is kind of discussed in “Human Capital When Everyone Is an Artist” part; “Beuys thus envisioned his expanded art as a dynamo of human energy that could transform the environment. If art became the content of a new economy, the business context would in turn be reshaped by its energy”. (Guillet de Monthoux, 2004, p. 253)

“In one advertising agency that I visited, everyone above a certain level was given a budget with which to furnish and equip their own room, with items from the company warehouse available for free. The result was a fascinating variety, reflecting the different tastes and needs of each individual. It was never going to be cost-efficient, but it was a fun place to work in, a place with an idiosyncratic atmosphere, one which challenged the individual who worked there to be creative and original.

I can’t help but believe that the famed creativity of the agency had some of its origins in the nature of the workplace. Where you work can’t help but influence what you do.” (Gwyther, 1997) In addition to the example here, another advertising agency in New York spends a lot of money for the decoration of their workspace for the inspiration it would spread and the creativity that would come with it.

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” David M. Ogilvy

Aesthetic objects that turn the working climate into an enjoyable place are to be supported by aesthetic behaviour as well.  The little things that make this can be making sure that everybody has a comfortable seat, the lighting of office, putting a daily cartoon on the wall of the office and being open to talk with each other. Asking the employees about their opinions to improve the environment, face to face and leaving a space for them to express their own opinions about anything. This is giving them the brush and letting them create their own art in a level. Seeing energetic, talking with each other, joking and positive people interacting in the working environment also makes that place livelier.

Creating the aesthetic in the working environments even puts the company in another position such as being listed in the most desirable companies. The below are some examples from the 10 coolest working places as of 2006.

Red Bull London Office

The Conference Bike

Employee praises

Spider cow in a meeting room

As it can be seen from the examples of the working environments that are inspiring and enjoyable for the employees to work, are the products of aesthetic thoughts. These objects are pulling the artists in people, out and give them the brush to work out. Thus, the employees are given the opportunity to create something new and therefore the excitement comes into play where the work place becomes more attractive.

“When in the early sixties Beuys offered and aesthetic redefinition of capital and labour rooted in art, he also became a pioneer of human capital management. It did not matter whether an individual was a doctor, forester, financial banker, teacher, or simple labourer; Beuys’s democratic proposition was that ‘everyone is an artist’. Art is the main source for human creativity in work. By the vehicle of art, the artist offers an escape route from the mechanical-inorganic world.” (Guillet de Monthoux, 2004, p. 254)

Especially when I look at the conference bike (Picture 3) this vehicle of art thought pops up in my mind with a smile. Also after reading the parts about Beuys in the course literature, -a great engineer or artist or both- Leonardo da Vinci can come to the mind. This can also be related to recalling the children in adults. Children have no limits when playing and imagining because the limiters are not filling the room of their inspirations yet. Therefore recalling the children inside the adults would help them to find the artist in themselves. This can pass from using even toys in the working climates to inspire.

The need for the aesthetic objects in a working climate is not the Achille’s heel but it is needed where there is a need of inspiration and creativity. However, to my opinion, this is a need for majority of the companies even it is not related with creativity.

Sources

• Guillet de Monthoux, P. (2004). The Art Firm. In Aesthetic Management and Metaphysical Marketing (pp. 253-254). Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

• French, L. B. (2003). Neo-Gothic abstractions cast a glow of creative inspiration at the Fallon ad agency in New York City. Architectural Record , 191 (5), 334-337.

• Van der Voordt, T. J. (2004). Productivity and employee satisfaction in flexible workplaces. Journal of Corporate Real Estate , 6 (2), 133-148.

• Fenner, A. (2006, October 6). 10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces. Retrieved November 27, 2008, from Chief Happiness Officer: http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/10-seeeeeriously-cool-workplaces/

• Gwyther, M. (1997, November 1). UK: Handy’s View – Boring workplace, boring worker. Retrieved November 27, 2008, from managementtoday.com: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/search/article/410747/uk-handys-view-boring-workplace-boring-worker/

• Kjerulf, A. (2006, October 5). 10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces. Retrieved November 28, 2008, from Chief Happiness Officer: http://positivesharing.com/2006/10/10-seeeeeriously-cool-workplaces/

• Michael, R. (2002, May 27). Study Suggests Boring Work may be Deadly Work. Retrieved November 28, 2008, from Ergonomics Today^TM: http://www.ergoweb.com/news/detail.cfm?id=532

• Winslow, L. (2006, June 22). Business Management and an Enjoyable Work Environment. Retrieved November 27, 2008, from Ezine Articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?Business-Management-and-an-Enjoyable-Work-Environment&id=226069

Hello from another cold and snowy day in Stockholm -necessarily a dark one of course. I start this new blog in a day like this. However it will not be as depressive as the winter weather in Stockholm :)

At the end of my studies which took almost twenty years until today, I am having my last months as a student. All these years were really enjoyable and fun but apparently the last ones were too stressful. It is not really that tasty to study after fifteen years maybe because then you realize that this was not for fun. This was for your living or leaving something behind or reaching somewhere. To have the same taste as before, it is necessary to squeeze this life and get its fun out of it :) Nowadays I am passing the last moments where there is almost no fun left because of squeezing it too much before :) Anyway, thinking for future -even near future- gives the motive and there is still some more fun in this period of life.

From this blog I will be posting anything that is interesting to me about life, history, topical issues and necessarily interesting stuff about marketing, management, innovation and etc. I am supposed to be specialized in these at the moment. Ain’t I? :)