It’s where you say Spaghetti that counts.

Recently I re-tripped over a favorite TED presentation – a talk by Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell about the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce, nature of choice and human happiness.



Gladwell’s presentation is inspired by the work of his hero, Howard Moskowitz, a man famous for reinventing spaghetti sauce.

Turns out that Mr. Moskowitz is the scientist who convinced Prego that success takes much more than having the best spaghetti sauce, success is dependent upon having the best spaghetti sauces. Note the extra s. What Moskowitz helped companies, like Prego and Ragu, realize is that they needed to pursue more than the perfect sauce for the largest number of people, but a variety of perfect sauces to suit different tastes. That’s where varieties like Cheese, Light, Robusto, Rich & Hearty, Old World Traditional, Extra-Chunky Garden Style all come from – in fact, when Prego released its first Chucky variety, they soon found out it was the perfect sauce for over 1/3 of the market.

While watching the video, it dawned on me that Moskowitz’s revelation is more than a great recipe for selling more spaghetti sauce - it applies to what marketers and business communicators are trying to do.

Today’s marketers are dealing with slashed budgets and increased expectations, and all are looking for ways to maximize ROI on their marketing spend. Printers tell them it’s better packaging, variable mailers and PURLs. Advertisers say, place more ads – strategically. Internet radio says, surprisingly, Internet radio. TV, well, TV. Developers say you need a better website – Web 2.0, 3.0, whatever it takes. And Social Media experts say they are way too cool to be used for marketing. OK. Perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch, but I’ve heard it all lately.

So which approach is right? What’s the best marketing vehicle? The answer: all of them. You should be looking for the best marketing vehicles. Note the extra s. Marketing still requires an integrated approach.

It’s more than just saying you sell chunky and smooth – it’s how you say it and where. Get to know your target audience, and you’ll find some people like reading chunky ads, some like those spicy emails you send, and some are into watching you noodle around on twitter.

Marketing is all about trying to reach the most number of people who like what you sell – not simply the average, universal meatball.

Avoiding Horror Stories

After a very rough day and night of work, I decided to relax with a good haunting from the show, Ghost Hunters. (Don’t ask me why I do this right before I go to bed. It must be because I don’t get enough haunting from the child spirit who occasionally roams our circa 1882 Victorian home.)

Forty-five minutes into the show, the TAPS crew plays a recording of creepy voices saying “leave me alone” and “get out” to a terrified curator in a small museum in Buffalo. Paranormal investigators, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, respond calmly to the voices on the recording, trying to reassure their frightened client. They simply remind the curator that ghosts are people… only without the skin and bones. These spirits once had spouses, children, and jobs -- just like us. And they advise the museum’s staff to continue to acknowledge and respect the ghosts as “real individuals.”

Not only is this great advice for dealing with ghosts, it’s great advice for dealing with people in business.

Technology, though making us more efficient, has kept us from conducting business face to face. We here at Blue Star often work with clients less than a 15-minute drive from our office, but collectively we have scant recollection of an individual’s appearance or mannerisms. Often our work goes to vendors where the many people involved, invisible to us, are entrusted with our electronic design files and are responsible for turning them into fabulous products for our customers.

It’s ironic to me that the electronic distance between us makes us seem so close, yet there’s a great divide among business people in truly understanding personalities and motivations of the individuals with whom we interact on a daily basis. That’s why tone is so important in our communications, but that’s another blog.

The point I’m trying to make today is that just because you don’t see the person who cleans your Excel spreadsheet mailing list for next day turnaround or the person who creates the metal die that stamps out your over-the-top business card, it does not mean they aren’t “real individuals.” They, too, have spouses to love, children to feed, jobs to do, and vacations to dream about. And occasionally when a job goes awry, it’s not as if the “ghosts” working to complete your project have been maliciously waiting to “put a curse on.” Unfortunately, our electronic world can be quite impersonal, allowing us to make false assumptions about an individual’s performance or to place blame for something that’s gone wrong. But sometimes…mistakes just happen.

Next time a project gets sucked into the vortex of badness, think twice before you fire off a nasty email to your vendor. Remember to respect those “you cannot see” as real people and, simply, keep your head. One day you’ll obviously be without it.

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By the way, speaking of keeping your head, our ancestors did just that when loved ones died, turning skulls into beautiful pieces of art and displaying them like we do photographs today. Check out this fascinating program on PBS, To Death and Back, the final episode in the How Art Made the World series.

Counting the Days

There are approximately 5110 days among the fourteen calendars we received in the mail this past holiday. I’m not even sure we have fourteen different places to hang all of these yearly markers. Somehow I feel compelled to try, though.

The calendars vary in shape, size and material. The best is made out of low tack and sticks to the wall. No nails necessary.

Then came one that was mailed to our home – a purse calendar from a law office. It was perplexing – like I had received a slide rule for calculating my taxes.

I wonder why anyone would bother to send out a purse calendar when I have an iPhone complete with a calendar application, and when the rest of the world owns Blackberries or other handhelds--all with calendar applications.

That law firm would have been better off sending me (and the rest of the modern world) a link to a customized calendar widget listing 365 of the best ways to chase an ambulance.

I would have downloaded that ambulance-chasing-calendar-widget and probably forwarded it to ten of my funniest friends. I might even have posted this unique widget to my facebook page. Instead, I dropped that logo-clad paper calendar right in the recycling bin. Now no one is looking at it.

Speaking of widgets, here are a few of our favorites:

Julia’s Pick – “I purchased this Mac based fortune cookie widget that supports the American Cancer Society.” http://www.ultimatemacexperience.com/Fortune_Cookie_Widget.html

Sue’s Pick – “I have always loved playing Linerider”
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/line-rider-swimrocket

Kellie’s Pick – “I loved Simon when I was a kid...I
was so mesmerized by it last night!”
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/simon

John’s Pick - If you didn’t know, John speaks fluent French. “It reminds me to practice my French, and it helps me learn new words.”
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/french-word-a-day

Check out a widget right here in our blog. Marketing Profs’ Daily Fix widget sits in the side bar to the right.