David Young | Branding Blog - Marketing Advice and Advertising Strategy for Local Business Owners

"The Giggle Test" in Corporate Speak

One of the more interesting phenomena in the blog world is people's willingness to send you review copies of new books. I've been sent a review copy of nearly every book on branding to be published in the past 18 months. I don't ask for them, I rarely read them and I almost never review them. (That doesn't mean you should stop sending them, whoever you are.)

The latest arrived yesterday from Cameo Publications. It's called Brand Clout by Dennis C. Flynn. My modus operandi is to flip through the pages from back to front and see it anything catches my eye. My eye caught the word GIGGLE.

Page 111, last paragraph. In a chapter on Vision, Mission and Values (yawn, yawn and yawn). Here's the paragraph that caused a Broca-inspired neural chain reaction (got my attention and caused me to stop flipping through pages.)

The Giggle Test

One way to validate the effectiveness and relevance of the vision and mission statements is to see if they pass the mustard of The Giggle Test. This means finding out the answer to how your employees are reacting to these statements when you're not in the room. Are they laughing at them in the hallways or exchanging jokes about them in their e-mails? Have the statements created cynicism amongst the troops? Or are they nodding their heads in agreement and endorsing them in their conversations with fellow employees? Passing The Giggle Test is a critical gate in validating the effectiveness of your vision and mission statements. Again, if they don't ring true, if they're not believable and achievable to the employees, then they are useless.

I can't tell you much about the rest of the book, but I like The Giggle Test.

Two years after the Bar Mitzvah...

In January of 2003, Roy Williams declared that it would be the year of the internet's Bar Mitzvah.

Now, two years later, our friends from Brooklyn have proven that what's only worked before with strong brick-and-mortar support is possible using ONLY word of mouth, blogs and a little help from your friends.

The first title from Wizard Academy Press to make it onto the best-seller lists of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today is also the first book in history to do so without store sales.

Most people would be thrilled to get on these lists and make it their goal to do so using any means possible. Jeff and Bryan Eisenberg made it their goal to go into the gunfight armed with only a pen-knife and they won!

Not only that, but the book is extremely valuable to anyone who wants to succeed on line.

Whew! What a Day!

Well, we finally ran out of the good wine and Seth took off to visit with Peter tomorrow. I'll get things cleaned up and we'll be back to normal (whatever that is).

I'd better call my friend over at Winerant and get some more of the good juice. You never know who's going to drop in next.

BBBT - Seth Godin: on Bull Market

BrandingBlog: I appreciate the link and mention on your Bull Market ebook. Could you explain the concept behind it and how you envision people will use it?

Seth Godin: WHAT: Bull Market is almost 500 pages of references to blogs and freelancers and consultants and agencies and people who can help you make a Purple Cow. It costs $21 (donation to charity) or you can get it for free from anyone that's listed in it.

WHY: Because if a million people read it and use it, the world will get more interesting, people will have more fun, employees will reach their potential and the economy will start moving. That, and a million people will know about my new book (http://www.freeprizeinside.com) and I'll have created a remarkable (worth talking about) way to spread the word about my new book, for free, which is what the new book is about... the idea is always to use the ideas in the book to spread the idea of the book itself.

BBBT - Seth Godin: The Courage to Be Remarkable

Branding Blog: I love the story about Rita's Candy Shoppe! I work with lots of very small retailers. Their fear of doing something different keeps them small and keeps them in the shadow of the Wal-Marts of the world. They don't need an inside champion for their idea. They need the courage to step up and do something different. Do you have a magic word for them or a medal of courage?

Seth Godin: It's a lot of work to run a store. A lot of risk. A lot of money for rent and staff and ads and signage. You need to be there a lot, and you need to worry about theft and shrinkage and competition and insurance and Walmart and and and...

So, after doing all that, WHY ON EARTH BE BORING? After taking all that insane risk and doing all that excessive work, why blow it all because you're afraid to put up a ridiculous window display for a day or afraid to have your cashiers dress funny or afraid to give people a discount because they're cute...

I think sometimes we mix up the battering we get from the daily grind with the battering we MIGHT get for being too remarkable. The retailers who have the most fun and who make the most money are the ones that do remarkable stuff.

The best part is that most of the time, the Free Prize is just that... Free.

BrandingBlog welcomes Free Prize Inside author Seth Godin!

It's a thrill to welcome Seth Godin to another stop on the Business Book Blogging Tour. Many thanks to Todd for the warm invitation.

The raves for this book have been super and we'll hear the echos of this tour reverberating through the blog world for months. In case you haven't heard, the version of the book in the cereal box will NOT be available much longer. Order them while they last!

Just to offer a recap, you can find previous stops on the book tour at these fine blogs:

• May 3rd - A Penny For...
• May 4th - Brand Autopsy
• May 5th - Decent Marketing
• May 6th - 800-CEO-READ Blog
• May 7th - Brand Mantra
• May 10th - Ensight
• May 11th - WonderBranding
• May 12th - Business Evolutionist

And the tour continues:

• May 14th - Thinking by Peter
• May 17th - Bold Approach

Sethaholism: A warning

Johnnie Moore's been busy moving his blog to a new address, but he had time to think up some seriously funny musings on the dangers of Sethaholism. And of course with the BBBT in full swing, many of us will be on a Sethahol binge for two full weeks. I'm a bit worried. I have an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow.

Johnnie Moore's Weblog: Sethaholism: A warning

Free Prize Inside Tour Underway at A Penny For...

The Business Blog Book Tour is underway with Seth Godin. The book is a kick in the pants to read and I'm looking forward to the next two weeks as Seth makes the rounds. He'll be here on May 13th. Today, he's Todd's guest on the "A Penny For..." blog.

A Penny For...

Seth's Blog: A free eBook for loyal readers

Seth Godin is one busy guy. A new business book is about to hit the shelves and now he's posted an eBook on his site with a directory of companies that can help you make a Purple Cow.

The Business Blog Book Tour for Free Prize Inside starts Monday and I'm delighted that Seth will be stopping by here on the 13th to talk about his latest book. The eBook has a summary of Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside that will whet your appetite for more.

Seth's Blog: A free eBook for loyal readers

Branding my Book

Back from a business trip and now I've got time to actually post something. I'm a relative newcomer to the blogosphere, having been exposed to it during a graduate class on cyberspace last summer. I got my TypePad account the day they became available and have created and deleted about half a dozen blogs just to experiment.

I've found that explaining blogs is not an easy thing. My book is really a one-hour answer to the question, "What's a blog and why should I have one?" It is not a how-to book. It is a why-to book. There is nothing technical in the book and if you already have a blog, you probably won't learn much from it. However, you will have a tool to hand to someone who just doesn't get it.

My background and experience in small markets tells me that just about every business should be blogging. Why should a local retailer pay a bunch of money for design when she can start a blog for a few bucks a month? I've talked to many people who have cool web sites AND a blog. Guess which site gets the traffic? That's right, the blog.

Because it's a conversation with your customers.

So, don't buy the book to learn new juicy technical tips on blogging. If you find yourself having difficulty explaining this blogging phenomenon, buy the book and loan it out. Better yet, buy a dozen and give them away.