Like most people, I look at my e-mail box several times a day and answer my emails by order of priority. I am generally efficient as I classify my emails according to methods shown in best-seller books such as the “Hamster Revolution”. However, every once in a while I receive one of these impersonal emails addressed to me from individuals that ask my benevolence without offering any gratitude about who I am. My answer to these emails is generally inexistent as I politely press the “delete” button to clear my mailbox. However, I constantly ask myself, what makes these people think that I would take my time to help them when they are not even able to take a second to mention my name in the email they just sent me. In other words, why do these people press the damn “send” button that would email their spamming message to a whole bunch of innocent recipients? It seems like anonymity or some sense of anonymity has made some individuals think that they could spam the whole webosphere. However, some might say, but Jean-Francois, where are you going with that boring story that doesn’t seem related to marketing at all? The answer is in the next paragraph.

Sometimes I would wish that button would exist

A little story to make you think about that “send” button

A few weeks ago, a student entered, with an hour late, the first class of the “Brand Management” MBA-class taught by Professor Scott Galloway at New York University (NYU). Professor Galloway, who is the former president of Red Envelope and also an ex-member of the board of directors of the New York Times is well-known for his arrogance but also his fairness and crispy examples. Professor Galloway (politely) asked the student to comeback on next class, since he was late and that according to the course outline, being more then 15 minutes late was not accepted in his class. The student left the class, but email Professor Galloway a few hours later to explain him that he was not agreeing with his behaviour. However, Professor Galloway answered the student’s email with an “in-your-face” ironic email as a response and decided to send it to every other student registered to the course. The conversation is presented below and for more juicy details you can refer to the following article: NYU Business Professor has mastered the art of email flaming.

“Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 7:15:11 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Brand Strategy Feedback

Prof. Galloway,

I would like to discuss a matter with you that bothered me. Yesterday evening I entered your 6pm Brand Strategy class approximately 1 hour late. As I entered the room, you quickly dismissed me, saying that I would need to leave and come back to the next class. After speaking with several students who are taking your class, they explained that you have a policy stating that students who arrive more than 15 minutes late will not be admitted to class.

As of yesterday evening, I was interested in three different Monday night classes that all occurred simultaneously. In order to decide which class to select, my plan for the evening was to sample all three and see which one I like most. Since I had never taken your class, I was unaware of your class policy. I was disappointed that you dismissed me from class considering (1) there is no way I could have been aware of your policy and (2) considering that it was the first day of evening classes and I arrived 1 hour late (not a few minutes), it was more probable that my tardiness was due to my desire to sample different classes rather than sheer complacency.

I have already registered for another class but I just wanted to be open and provide my opinion on the matter.

Regards,

xxxx
—
xxxx
MBA 2010 Candidate
NYU Stern School of Business
xxxx.nyu.edu
xxx-xxx-xxxx “

And The Reply:

“—— Forwarded Message ——-
From: scott@stern.nyu.edu
To: “xxxx”
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 9:34:02 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Brand Strategy Feedback

xxxx:

Thanks for the feedback. I, too, would like to offer some feedback.

Just so I’ve got this straight…you started in one class, left 15-20 minutes into it (stood up, walked out mid-lecture), went to another class (walked in 20 minutes late), left that class (again, presumably, in the middle of the lecture), and then came to my class. At that point (walking in an hour late) I asked you to come to the next class which “bothered” you.

Correct?

You state that, having not taken my class, it would be impossible to know our policy of not allowing people to walk in an hour late. Most risk analysis offers that in the face of substantial uncertainty, you opt for the more conservative path or hedge your bet (e.g., do not show up an hour late until you know the professor has an explicit policy for tolerating disrespectful behavior, check with the TA before class, etc.). I hope the lottery winner that is your recently crowned Monday evening Professor is teaching Judgement and Decision Making or Critical Thinking.

In addition, your logic effectively means you cannot be held accountable for any code of conduct before taking a class. For the record, we also have no stated policy against bursting into show tunes in the middle of class, urinating on desks or taking that revolutionary hair removal system for a spin. However, xxxx, there is a baseline level of decorum (i.e., manners) that we expect of grown men and women who the admissions department have deemed tomorrow’s business leaders.

xxxx, let me be more serious for a moment. I do not know you, will not know you and have no real affinity or animosity for you. You are an anonymous student who is now regretting the send button on his laptop. It’s with this context I hope you register pause…REAL pause xxxx and take to heart what I am about to tell you:
xxxx, get your shit together.

Getting a good job, working long hours, keeping your skills relevant, navigating the politics of an organization, finding a live/work balance…these are all really hard, xxxx. In contrast, respecting institutions, having manners, demonstrating a level of humility…these are all (relatively) easy. Get the easy stuff right xxxx. In and of themselves they will not make you successful. However, not possessing them will hold you back and you will not achieve your potential which, by virtue of you being admitted to Stern, you must have in spades. It’s not too late xxxx…

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Professor Galloway”

Conclusion

So what do I think about this story?

1. I personally think that the student should not have sent this email.
2. I also think, that the response of Professor Galloway is brilliant, especially the last paragraph.
3. I, however, do not think that forwarding this email to everyone was the best thing to do.

So what is the moral of this story?

Some thoughts are better when not shared. If you are arrogant, before sending an email, make sure to know your sender well. Once your email is sent, anything can happen, and sometimes, this “anything” is not necessarily good for your career. The main lesson that one should learn from this “Brand management” Professor is that every time you send an email you are putting your personal brand into play. What do you think?

Jean-Francois

Two weeks ago, I attended a conference given by my friend Marc Poulin at the W3Quebec. The conference was quite interesting from a practioner’s perspective, and after his presentation, Marc and I had a discussion around the importance of either converting or creating incentives for users to come back to the website. At first glance, we discussed about the difference between low-involvement and high-involvement products.

After some “hardcore” thinking, my thoughts on the topic would help me come to the conclusion that depending on the type of website, both objectives are positive outcomes but depending on the type of website, the preferred outcome should vary. Personally, my objective on an e-commerce website would always be to convert the visitor for any type of product. In this way, for an e-commerce website selling dishwashers, which could be considered as a high-involvement product, I would put the emphasis on comparing the product to competitors to facilitate the sale. However, my objective would be to convert and not to make the visitor comeback again and again. Thus, for this reason I present in the table below a list of type of websites and which of the “comeback” and “convert” options should be considered as the most important outcome.

Convert the visitor or creating incentizes to make him comeback?

1. E-Commerce websites

Like mentioned before, the primary objective of any e-commerce website should be to convert the visitor into a buyer, and generally, in a minimum number of clicks.

2. Relational websites

Relational websites can be quite similar to e-commerce websites even though we can’t buy products on these websites, they should emphasize a call-to-action (conversion) aligned to more traditional objectives (i.e. calling the company, answering a callback facility questionnaire).

3. Brand promotion websites

Brand promotion websites had for objective to be relational, but also they should be made to constantly increase the aura and the positioning of the brand. But this aura is only possible if users visit this website, the more active users are, the better it is for the organization. For this reason, brand promotion websites should focus on creating incentives to increase the willingness of the user to come back to the website.

4. Newspaper websites

Newspaper websites differs from blogs that are mainly like personal relational websites in the sense that the main objective would be to convert a visitor into an e-mail or RSS feed subscriber. Any newspaper website makes most of its money out of advertising (and VIP content) which reinforces the need for integrating features that encourages the visitor to comeback to the website.

5. Social Network sites

Social network sites (SNs) are emerging in the webosphere as websites where forcing a visitor to comeback is the main objective. In this situation, the objective would be more associated to actions like clicking on an ad or to concepts such as stickiness, but at the end of the day what is most important is that the visitor come back to the website to create a larger and more active network.

Conclusion

In conclusion, to borrow William Shakespeare phrasing, or if you prefer Tom Dickson one, to “convert” or to “comeback”, that is the question? And it all depends on the type of website. However, a good first step for any organization having a website is that, at least, one of these objectives is reached. Questions? Comments? Or Suggestions?

Jean-Francois Belisle

In many organizations you will find employees that are perceived as “innovative minds”. They are generally the ones who come with the brilliant ideas and trendy cool concepts that no one else in the organization have thought about. The first time you met these employees, you generally wonder how they do to be so innovative. However, when you become more acquainted with these individuals and you learn how they have become innovative, sometimes you realize that you can be perceived as an innovative mind too. So, what makes these employees so innovative? Personally I would limit my thinking to three simple hierarchically-related mantras. So here they are:

1. Get out of your comfort zone;
2. Explore what is done elsewhere in the world;
3. Adapt already existing so-called “new concepts” to your targeted audience.

The art of being perceived as innovative in Marketing

1. Get out of your comfort zone

So let’s start with the first mantra: “Get out of your comfort zone”. This may seems obvious to many, but getting out of your comfort zone takes a huge amount of courage and discipline. Most well-known businessmen or artists had to use this quality at least once to meet their (career) objectives. This doesn’t mean being completely irrational, this means to take calculated risks that could generate strong outcomes. Imagine you are a media planner and an employee of yours proposed a media campaign targeted to youth that uses “old salty clichés” from the hip hop world. You think this concept can reach your targeted audience but you barely hate hip-hop music and you’re around 40 years old. What about buying some tickets for the next hip hop concert in your area? Find the “ethnographer” in you, just get out of your comfort zone!

2. Explore what is done elsewhere in the world

When you’re travelling a lot, you realize that some new campaigns on your national television are simply insignificant copies of successful campaigns that are launched elsewhere in the world. Imagine how much innovative ideas you can have if you have recently seen some of these campaigns when traveling or via the Internet. Personally, my lucky “13” cities list to find some cool concepts would include from West to East the following cities:

1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Rio de Janeiro
4. Amsterdam
5. Stockholm
6. Paris
7. Johannesburg
8. Tel Aviv
9. Mumbai
10. Singapore
11. Melbourne
12. Beijing
13. Tokyo

3. Adapt already existing so-called “new concepts” to your targeted audience

Imagine you get out of your comfort zone, you pick the best “new concepts” from around the world and you adapt them to your targeted audience. What will your colleague think you are? Quite innovative, no? To be perceived as an innovative mind, the important is not to be the first to launch a concept in the world. What is most important is to be the first to launch that concept to your targeted population. Complete your mix with qualities such as (1) intelligence, (2) strong observational skills and (3) well-developed communication skills, and you got the perfect package. A good example of this is the popular lipdub by UQÀM students launched on YouTube during summer 2009. What did the UQÀM students do. Well, in summary they:

(1) Took the same concept HEC Montréal students have done months before,
(2) Choose one of the most popular song of the summer (Black Eyed Peas song) instead of an old Bryan Adams song,
(3) They communicate their creation to local Medias.

Was the concept really innovative? No way. Was it perceived as innovative? For sure. Final outcome: Around 4.5 million YouTube views and coverage at least all across North America. My verdict: Brilliant.

Conclusion

Briefly, remember that you don’t need to be the first one that has a real new concept in mind to be perceived as innovative, you only need to know where to find the information that no one else in your organization knows and adapt it to your targeted audience. What do you think about these three points?

Jean-Francois Belisle

Canada is one of the countries where consumers pay the highest mobile contract fees in the world. In short, this situation is mainly due to an oligopolistic/cartelistic structure that favors providers/retailers over consumers, which lowers competition and encourages scarcity on the supply side. The customer empowerment concept can essentially be thrown away for that particular market. To better understand how this market is evolving in Canada, and especially in Quebec, one interesting approach, that some may argue simplistic, is to use the 5 components of the Porter model: (1) manufacturers, (2) retailers/providers, (3) new entries, (4) substitute products, and (5) consumers.

The Porter Model on Competition (1980)

1. Manufacturers

Let’s start with manufacturers. This is where the competition is most aggressive, since it is an international competition. Companies continue to evolve and many new products are launched. The following companies are actually selling/competing in Canada.

1. Apple (iPhone)
2. HP
3. HTC
4. LG
5. Motorola
6. Nokia
7. Palm
8. Research in Motion (BlackBerrY)
9. Samsung
10. Sanyo

2. Retailers/providers

Providers have to be considered as the starting point of our anti-competition story. First, there are not many providers/retailers, and secondly, all of these providers control other sub-brands.

1. Rogers controls Fido
2. Telus controls Koodo
3. Bell controls Solo & rent its network to Virgin Mobile

Thirdly, as in most countries, the low number of providers encourages exclusivity for a specific phone. For instance, Telus has, at the time being, exclusivity on the HTC Pro 2 which reinforces the power of the provider over consumers.

3. New entries

The end of this oligopolistic structure is still under legal fights, notably for access to networks. Up to 6 providers (for more on the topic, I would suggest to read the following post by Ian Hardy) are supposed to join the market in the next few years. Here is the list:

1. DAVE Wireless
2. EastLink
3. Globalive
4. Public Mobile
5. Shaw
6. Videotron (already slowly entered)

Like in most oligopolistic markets, the entry of these new competitors would favor lower prices and give more power to consumers.

4. Substitute products

In comparison to other products, with the emergence of powerful smartphones that are integrating features (see my post entitled Three types of convergence – Is the future friendly? for a discussion about convergence), the mobile market in Canada is taking market shares away from other products such as cameras, MP3 players, electronic agendas,etc…

5. Consumers

Many customers are still locked-in with awful 3-years contracts. Furthermore, the structure of monthly contract fees encourages these 3-year contracts. Some providers have even started to pay the end of some consumers contracts’ with another provider in order to gain new clients they would thereafter locked-in with 3-year contracts.

Conclusion

To conclude, the mobile market in Canada doesn’t favor competition at all which puts the consumers handicapped with expensive contracts. However, the possible entry of new providers should favor more competition and lower the prices in the next few years. Let’s wait and see what the future will be, and like the Telus catchy sentence say, we only hope that the “future is friendly” for the consumers that we are? Any comments?

Jean-Francois Belisle

My second post on this blog entitled Canada in the Worldwide Top 3 for Internet Penetration Rate, which is one of the most viewed, was about a worldwide ranking based on one of the most important macroeconomic indicators of innovation: “the Internet penetration rate”. This post did not generated lots of comments at the time, but many people find it useful to cite for the first steps of a presentation. However, with time, new data have become available and the shape of the ranking has changed. Using data from The Internet World Stats database, this post is an update of the Top 30 countries with the highest Internet penetration rate for nations with more than a million individuals, so here is the new Top 30 compared to the previous one of April 2009:

The changes in the ranking are mainly due to two factors: (1) changes in the sources used by The Internet Worlwide Stats Database, and (2) natural growth. The new ranking includes all members of Scandinavia in the new top 5: Norway (ranked 1st, 90.9%), Sweden (ranked 2nd, 89.2%), Denmark (ranked 3rd, 84.2%) and Finland (ranked 5th, 83.5%). In terms of changes, 6 of the previous nations in the Top 10 are still in the Top10 (Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand & Japan).

Worldwide map that fits well with this article

Conclusion

In conclusion, Scandinavia and Oceania are still leaders in term of Internet Penetration rate while nations such as the Four Asian Tigers (South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong & Taiwan) should improve their position in the next few years even though the new ranking did not revealed strong improvements. However, even though this macroeconomic indicator is quite reliable to reflect a nation’s innovation, it is important to note that it tends to favor nations where the population is highly concentrated in urban areas. In this way, this ranking is a good complement to my post entitled The 10 Most Hi-Tech Cities in the World.

Happy new year to everyone and feel free to express what you think of this new ranking?

Jean-Francois Belisle

Mentioning the need to build a successful online marketing campaign is easy to say but way harder to detail. What can be considered as a successful campaign? The answer is straightforward; a campaign that reaches the fixed objectives whilst minimizing the costs and maximizing gains. In other words, we can define a successful campaign as one that generates a positive long-term return on investment (ROI). To the minimum, if your objective is to gain subscribers to your newsletter, all you need to implement in relation to your online strategies is one designed ad and a single video that redirect viewers to a subscription form thereafter. I personally think that the simpler is the better, and that the buzz/viral/buzz sequence is a good recipe to success. So what is the buzz/viral/buzz sequence?

The buzz/viral/buzz sequence is a 3-step hierarchical procedure which includes:

1. Buzz in the creation process;
2. Viral to propagate in the targeted population;
3. Buzz in the targeted population.

Each of these steps is described with more depth in the following paragraphs.

1. Buzz in the creation process

If there is no buzz around the video in the creation process, the probability that there will be a buzz once launched to the targeted population is minimal. Why would I share a video is the question to ask to any member of the marketing team before the campaign is launched. Great campaigns often come with innovative and simple ideas. You are much better off dumping a bad video than showing the whole world how much the video sucks!

2. Viral to propagate in the targeted population

Viral marketing is about the techniques employed to propagate a message/video in the online environment. If the message/video sucks, you will spend plenty of time trying to spread rotten material. For a more detailed view of viral marketing myths, feel free to read my post entitled “Demystifying Viral Marketing – 7 Myths of Viral Marketing Campaigns”.

3. Buzz to the targeted population

If there is a buzz in the creation process, then chances that viral techniques worked are multiplied and chances that a buzz occurred in the targeted population are exponential. In other words, buzz in the targeted population is a function of the two previous elements of the sequence. A well-executed example of these three steps is the successful online campaign featuring the Bee Boys Dance Crew for Häagen-Dazs video (see picture below) launched a year and a half ago.

The Bee Boys Dance Crew for Häagen-Dazs - A Successful Online Marketing Campaign

Conclusion

What do you think of the proposed sequence? Do you have any example of organizations skipping the first part of the sequence and then whining about the fact that users didn’t buzz on their campaigns? Users are not dumb, so proponents of the online marketing intelligentsia, please stand up!

Jean-Francois Belisle

Do you know/remember websites like “Hot or not” or even “Goth or Not”. In the case of “Hot or not”, the primary goal of this website is simple; the main thing you need to do is judge whether or not someone is “hot” on a 1 to 10 scale. The concept is simple but addictive. However, what if a similar website was created concerning brands instead of people? In a quest to share his interests for branding, my friend and colleague Bob Mackalski just launched last week a nonprofit website entitled BrandMojo.org.

Brand Mojo

BrandMojo.org – What you need to do

So what is BrandMojo? Similarly to a website like “Hot or not”, all you need to do is to rate brands on a 1 to 5 scale, and if you don’t know a brand, you only need to press on the “skip” button. You can choose from four different types of brands: (1) Celebrities, (2) Corporate organizations, (3) Non-profit organizations, and (4) Geography.

The addictive part

The addictive part of this website comes from the fact that after rating a brand, you got the average score given by other participants on this brand. In this way, every time you rate one brand, you want to know if your perception is similar to others’ or if you just have awkward tastes. If you think it’s not addictive, just think more than 15,000 ratings have been made for the last week alone; I think some people find it addictive for sure!

Brand Mojo - Rating the brand Lexus after having rated the brand Google

Conclusion

Even though this website is all about having fun, how do you think this kind of website can be useful for managers? Do you think some modifications/extensions could be made to this website to make it even more managerially helpful or even more addictive? Feel free to express yourself!

Jean-Francois Belisle

I recently took part, along with 60 other bloggers from Québec, in a video ad (you can see me in the video at 0:33) for Commensal restaurants where the message urges Stephen Harper’s government to fight against climate change and, to a more global extent, to generate more awareness of the climate change issue. The video appeared on Youtube on Tuesday November 10 and has already been seen by more than 3,000 people, which is an acceptable number.

Whether you like this ad or not, an interesting question that needs more attention is the following: Is using bloggers as endorsers a good way to spread a message? Before answering this question, we need to define what is a good endorser. According to the literature on ad endorsements, the three most important characteristics are: (1) honesty, (2) credibility, and (3) attractiveness. Thus, we ask the following three questions:

1. Are bloggers honest?
2. Are bloggers experts?
3. Are bloggers attractive?

Furthermore, because bloggers are also opinion leaders, we can add this fourth question:

4. Are bloggers good at propagating a message?

So here’s a more detailed analysis of these four questions.

1. Are bloggers honest?

Most bloggers are honest when they endorse a cause. I would also tend to think that bloggers would be judged as more honest than journalists. However, fake blogs (flogs) which are more and more present in the blogosphere are not helping the reputation of bloggers.

2. Are bloggers credible?

In opposition to honesty, credibility is not universal across topics. Someone can be considered as honest for all topics, but it is way more difficult to be considered as credible for lots of topics. For instance, when I am blogging about e-marketing and technology, I can be considered as credible. However, if I decide to endorse a product similar to a ShamWow, I am pretty sure I would not be credible at all.

3. Are bloggers attractive?

Even though we can say in reference to Oscar Wilde that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, bloggers haven’t been known to be the most beautiful people. However, for having studied the concept of beauty, I agree that we can say that attractiveness is partly subjective and can also depend on the context.

4. Are bloggers good at propagating a message?

Bloggers have generally access to lots of blogger friends that also know other blogger friends. Thus, they are generally good at propagating a message. Furthermore and most importantly, they have access to their fanbase of readers. However, as discussed before, it is not because a blogger is read by many readers that the message will be propagated; if honesty, credibility and attractiveness are not there, chances of propagation are way lower. In the case of the Commensal video, we can say that bloggers are mostly good at propagating the message if they at least blog about it, which we’ll see the impact in the next few days.

Conclusion

Briefly, what do you think of this ad? Will you propagate it? Do you think using bloggers is a good way to endorse and/or propagate a message? What do you think of this strategy? Other cool things to add on the topic?

Jean-Francois Belisle

P.S.: For those who might be interested, here are some links to the blogs of the 60 bloggers who participated to this video:

1. Caroline Allard – http://www.trashindigne.blogspot.com
2. Pierre-Léon Lalonde – http://www.taxidenuit.blogspot.com
3. Daniel Rondeau – http://www.danielrondeau.com
4. Jeff Lee – http://www.bombe.tv
5. Bob le chef – http://www.boblechef.com
6. Dominic Arpin – http://www.dominicarpin.ca
7. Josianne Massé – http://www.blogosphere.branchez-vous.com
8. Catherine Beauchamp – http://www.letapisrosedecatherine.tv
9. Maxime Tremblay – http://www.photosmax.blogs.com
10. Jean-Michel Vanasse – http://www.jeanmichelvanasse.tv
11. Martine Pagé – http://www.martinepage.com
12. Patrick Dion – http://www.patrickdion.ca
13. Laurent Maisonnave – http://www.zelaurent.com
14. Renart Léveillé – http://www.renartleveille.wordpress.com
15. Pierre-Luc Cloutier – http://www.dansmatele.ca
16. Catherine Perreault-Lessard – http://www.urbania.ca
17. Sylvain Grandmaison – http://www.fono.ca
18. Philippe Martin – http://www.nayezpaspeur.ca
19. Claude Malaison – http://www.emergenceweb.com
20. Laurent Lasalle – http://www.mesparolessenvolent.com
21. Carl Charest – http://www.carlcharest.com
22. Nadia Seraiocco – http://www.cheznadia.com
23. Cecile Gladel – http://www.cecilegladel.blogspot.com
24. Josée Plamondon – http://www.joseeplamondon.com
25. Thoma Daneau – http://www.thomadaneau.com
26. Diane Nadeau – http://www.dianenadeau.ca
27. Diane Bourque – http://www.dianebourque.com
28. Marie-Julie Gagnon – http://www.marieju.com
29. Jonathan Villiard – http://www.villiard.com/blog
30. Jean-François Bélisle – http://www.jfbelisle.com
31. Julia Vallelunga – http://www.alamodemontreal.com
32. Gabrielle Chalifoux – http://www.pretextes.ca
33. Jérôme Paradis – http://www.paradivision.com/blog
34. Sophie Peloquin – http://www.commensal.com/blogue
35. Catherine Lefebvre – http://www.lethnogourmande.blogspot.com
36. Véronique Desrosiers – http://www.mintbirdy.ca
37. Nathalie Rivard – http://www.twitter.com/indigonat
38. Alain Thériault – http://alaintheriault.com/startupcoach
39. Martin Lessard – http://www.zeroseconde.com
40. Maxime Dubreuil – http://www.thefoodfeed.blogspot.com
41. Marc Poulin – http://www.marcpoulin.blogspot.com/
42. Olivier Mermet – http://www.oliviermermet.com/blog
43. Katerine Rollet – http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blogs
44. Christian Aubry – http://www.aubry.org
45. Marie-Louise Gariépy – http://www.videoqualia.blogspot.com
46. Mélanie Briev – http://www.ouvregrandtesailes.com
47. Julien Galtier – http://blog.baobaz.com
48. Cedric Essiminy – http://www.lebagelblog.wordpress.com
49. Paulina Podgorska – http://www.sosgarde.ca
50. Nicola Navratil – http://www.nicolanavratil.com
51. Christine Renaud – http://www.e-180.com
52. Frédéric Clairoux – http://www.fxstudiodesign.blogspot.com
53. Karl-Frédéric Anctil – http://www.ekorce.com/blog
54. Christelle Samson – http://www.twitter.com/christ_elle
55. David Hamel – http://www.davidhamel.ca
56. Martin Ouellette – http://www.provokat.ca
57. Yves William – http://www.yveswilliams.com
58. Adrien OLeary – http://www.b-unique.ca
59. Gina Desjardins – http://www.ginadesjardins.com
60. Michelle Blanc – http://www.michelleblanc.com

Bad events are always important opportunities to reinvent yourself or to think about what went wrong. The recession is/was a good example for many organizations. On a more personal side, this Wednesday, I dislocated my left shoulder and spent a beautiful six hours (11PM to 5AM) at the hospital waiting for this nightmare to end. I was playing hockey as a goaltender when I fell on my left shoulder; a second shoulder dislocation in the last five years. Everything’s not lost, at least I am not a professional goaltender, this is not my career, God bless.

The Dan Blackburn story

This injury leads me to the story of Dan Blackburn. Dan Blackburn was a young goaltender born in Montréal in 1983, who was named in 2001 the Canadian Hockey League’s (CHL; which includes QMJHL, OHL and WHL) most valuable player. The same year, he was drafted by the New York Rangers in the first round (10th overall) of the 2001 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft. Blackburn made the New York Rangers team in 2001-2002 and became the third youngest goalie to win a NHL game. Unfortunately, two years later, Blackburn missed the entire 2003–04 NHL season due to a serious nerve injury to his left shoulder sustained just before training camp. He had nerve exploration surgery on March 31, 2004 and as his injury rendered him incapable of rotating his glove hand, Blackburn was forced to retired in 2005, at the age of 22. Afterwards, Blackburn enrolled at Arizona State University and became a manager of business development for the Goaltender Development Institute and now loves his new role. Even though Blackburn had to retire prematurely, his passion for hockey and knowledge of the game allowed him to continue to work in the same environment although in a totally different role. Other perhaps even more interesting examples in hockey also include former major NHL deception Gord Kluzak who ended up earning an MBA from Harvard University and having jobs as an analyst for Goldman Sachs and later on as a commentator for ESPN.

Dan Blackburn when he was with the New York Rangers

What can we learn from the Dan Blackburn story

Without wanting to make an Anthony Robbins of myself, the most important things we can learn from the Dan Blackburn/Gord Kluzak career changes are:
1. Past knowledge clearly helps in career change;
2. In terms of personal branding, being known helps to ease career switch;
3. Education brings credibility;

Past knowledge clearly helps in career change

In the case of Dan Blackburn, the knowledge he acquired as a goaltender and in hockey in general helped him to crack an organization using his past knowledge. He certainly had more than 10,000 hours of knowledge, passion and hard work under his belt. Even though he was quite raw in terms of business knowledge, he knew the industry before he stepped on the plate.

In terms of personal branding, being known helps to ease career switch

Connections are always important for future jobs; being connected with others in main social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) is always suggested. But being known because of positive screen presence is always an a priori edge for being hired. Olympic athletes, make yourselves visible!

Education brings credibility

I have always been a huge proponent of the argument that education brings success. Arguably, I am totally biased on this issue with four completed post-secondary degrees and another in-completion. Adding some letters on a business card like BBA or MBA is always useful and makes it easier to start many conversations.

Conclusion

So what do you think about the case story of Dan Blackburn? Do you know interesting examples of career changes that where really a success? Even more personal ones? Can you add a fourth point to my analysis?

Jean-Francois Belisle

This super cool blog has been online for 6 months, and for this half-year life anniversary, I decided to highlight the top 10 posts on this blog based on unique pageviews. So here they are:

1. The 10 Most Hi-Tech Cities in the World
2. Canada in the Worldwide Top 3 for Internet Penetration Rate
3. Demystifying Viral Marketing: 7 Myths of Viral Marketing Campaigns
4. The BIXI: What Rocks and What Sucks?
5. Three Types of Convergence: Is the Future Friendly?
6. Pork and beans by Weezer and the 27 YouTube All-stars
7. 5 Questions You Must Answer in a Web Analytics Kickoff Meeting
8. Hockey and Social Networks: The Importance of Teams Members as Social Networks Assets in the NHL
9. A Reply to Mashable: 5 Reasons Why the Cost of Education Will Not Be Zero in The Future
10. Is Twitter the Next Big Thing or the Next MySpace?

6 candles for the half-year birthday of this blog

Because dedicating an entire post to the single idea of promoting the top posts on this blog would not be complex enough for me, I decided to organize the remainder of this post as an overview of two psychological concepts related to the ranking phenomenon: (1) memory activation and rankings and (2) the consumer’s judgments of rankings.

Memory activation and rankings

Some will maliciously describe rankings as “MBA-format” text because they are already organized and ready to be digested by your brain. So what? Who in the world would prefer to read disorganized texts rather than organized ones? When reading an online text, textual masochism should not generally be an optimal option! Some might say that texts containing rankings sometimes lack depth or present information that should not be presented at the same level of abstraction; I would answer them by saying that this should be considered independently.

Furthermore, in a copywriting fashion, rankings could be considered as an interesting thing to add to any website since they generally ensure that the copywriting is CRABS (Chunking, Relevant, Accurate, Brief, Scannable).

The consumer’s judgments of rankings

Most organizations use rankings to show consumers how good they are in a specific area. However, there is a “science” behind the use of rankings and consumers are more aware than ever of the “science” of taking advantage of rankings. For instance, if a company ranks 10th in a top 30 ranking regarding employees’ satisfaction, will it be to the company’s advantage to highlight that it is in the top 30 regarding employees’ satisfaction or rather to mention that it ranked in the top 10 regarding employees’ satisfaction? The obvious answer will certainly be the second one, and that is what most organizations will opt for.

I remember six months ago, a Ph.D. student presented his dissertation paper at the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP) meeting and presented how consumers perceive the rank of an organization based on the framing in which the information is presented. Some might think that working for two years on this topic would be worthless for this student, but I personally think that rankings presentation will gain in importance as the web will continue to grow. I also remember reading influential work concerning the effects of price-ending (i.e. last-digit prices) by Professor Robert Schindler of Rutgers University who spent more than 15 years working on this topic, and other influential work on psychology of pricing by Professor Kent B. Monroe when he was at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Both of these professors research are highly cited and have influenced large corporations. Here is in the table below a summary of how I think an organization should present its ranking.

Conclusion

In conclusion, rankings such as “Top 10” are useful in many other ways than only in promoting my Top 10 posts on this blog. So what do you think of rankings? Do you like them or hate them? Do they help you or harm you? Do you think rankings are like poker faces? Anything else to add on this electrifying topic?

Jean-Francois Belisle