Blackberry (RIM) and the followers of  scientology  hold identical business philosophies.  Both believe in the use of primitive technology when attempting to establish themselves as leaders and persuade people to choose them. In the case of Scientology, there is a process very early on called “auditing”. Auditing basically uses two tin cans which you hold connected to device. The entire device is  called an e-meter. In essence, it is a primitive, unreliable and and over-hyped lie detector. Blackberry on the other hand, produces devices that my all modern standards,  use horrible software, have closed-development so no apps can be made, up until last month had processors that were last produced by Intel or AMD in 1995.  In essence, it is a primitive, unreliable and and over-hyped phone.  When a blackberry user is placed in a room with an Android user and Iphone user, the only reason he isn’t essentially holding two tin cans like the Scientologist is because he presumably only has one blackberry in one hand.

Blackberry like scientology forces things upon their users like the apps they gave away as compensation for their recent world-wide outage. Instead of letting users choose blackberry told the users what apps they could have, but more of this later. It is another piece of evidence blackberry hasn’t been in the field listening to customers.

But the connection between blackberry and scientology is far deeper than that. Blackberry sees it’s users as parishioners as well. It like Scientology produces the slickest marketing material, nicest websites and gives hope that it might do better soon. Blackberry and Scientology also are arrogant. Believing that for a variety of reasons that they don’t have to compete in the marketplace. That followers will follow no matter how much you price your devices at, no matter how many features you continually lack nearly 5 years after. Blackberry has seen no reason to upgrade the web browsing experience despite the Iphone and Adroid giving a much more solid performance. Scientology saw no reason to speak about the hundreds of defectors saying auditing is just a way to build up dirt on members that is later used against them in extortion and blackmail schemes.

Blackberry uses the same chanting about security and data compression as Scientology launches a PR/awareness stunt about Psychiatric practices and drugs.  Both in very narrow terms are correct. I’m sure security isn’t quite as good but safe is safe. I’m sure we do over medicate, but drugs help millions.  It would cost more to build a competitive blackberry but it would be worth it. It would cost more to prevent over medication too but both these groups have made choices about their stances and approaches. Neither group has the right to ignore the market and still retain their titles as leaders in technology or religion.

Since October 21st, 2011, until today, I am ashamed to say, I am closing in on using nearly 4000 cell phone minutes. In a typical month, minute usuage can go as high as more than 7000 minutes. Data usage can exceed 5GB per month and almost always exceeds 3. I tell you this to illustrate what an important role my phone plays in my life. I rely on it almost directly for my income and don’t have a landline. I don’t consider it a joke. I do however, consider blackberry a joke.  Just how quickly they fell, is also a testament to how quickly they could return to be market leaders. How likely they will take the necessary action? We’ll, that’s   the real question.

I use my phone a lot but Blackberry is not my religion. As much as I hate to leave a Canadian icon, I will. It is about time blackberry realized that.

I purchased my first blackberry in June 2003, it was the blackberry 7290 on the Rogers Network. The plan came with .5 MB of data and I splurged and got the 1MB. In that time, I don’t think I ever came close to using the amount of data. I remember the first website I visited was my own company. I was amazed how it translated a website into something that could detect links and navigate a website that was at least some what similar to browsing on my computer. It also had the PIN system and Black Berry Messenger or BBM. PIN’s are individual codes and each blackberry has one. People can use PINs to connect blackberry’s together. The best part was it was secure and free. The address book held more than a phone number and the physical keyboard was amazing.

Fast forward to today.  Do you remember the storm we had a few weeks ago? This is Canada and I’m sure in Nova Scotia we did have some type of rain storm, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about a personal storm. It seems that the universe decided to send a message or God wanted me to realize that Atheism was not an option.  A few weeks ago, my business partner began whining. I sensed very quickly that this whining wasn’t going to go away. I had experienced before, when we were up too late working on our company. But this was different. Chris was whining about the lack of features, adequate hardware and operating system used by blackberry. The operating system for those of you who don’t know is software on your blackberry. In laymen terms think of it  as the menu and stuff you use to access programs on your blackberry. I knew instinctively that my path of least resistance was to be supportive of this change and lose the battle of using blackberry quietly. However, I was fist-clenching furious. How could such a great device had gone so far astray that even I could not defend it except for three increasingly weak argurements: that physical keyboards were better than virtual, that the security and data compression was helpful, particularly because BBM messages are harder to subpoena, and finally and most importantly to my self righteous bahviour, this wasn’t my idea to change phones and I don’t like change.

Then the second part of storm started swirling. Blackberry fell down for 3 days. This wasn’t the problem. Like so many things, the problem wasn’t the problem. It was how blackberry handled the problem that was the problem. It was to me the final and absolute demonstration of complete ignorance of their customers. Blackberry didn’t compensate their customers correctly. They gave away free applications. Only a certain set and only for a limited time. During the outage blackberry costs me hundreds of dollars in inconvenience. I couldn’t use my blackberry messenger and I didn’t know it for hours.  Blackberry is primarily a business device. Virtually none of the free applications help business people. The smart way to give the apps out would be to give everyone a credit of $10 or $15 to the app store. Apple does then in August when you buy a mac. Except it is $100. Once again, blackberry has chosen, even after a catastrophic mishap to try and tell the user what they will like. They offered useless apps like bejeweled. For those business people bored of brick breaker, here was your chance. This mishap reminded me of my need to  recognize blackberry didn’t care about me and I was in an abusive relationship with them. Only coming back to them because I had become so used to the abuse, and tolerating lack luster performance that I had closed my eyes to their shortcomings.

I  have owned a Blackberry 9700 and currently use a blackberry 9300. Typically, due to  wear and tear I buy a new phone about every 14 months. Never on a contract, I always by my phones outright. I don’t like being strangled by my provider anymore than my smart phone manufacturer.

My jaw dropped about a 140 feet, as if on a scary amusement park ride, when my father told me, I had missed the technology boat when it came to phones. He had on his own instinct, chosen a iphone receiving my opinion to choose blackberry.  It was the only time in my life, he hadn’t taken my advice on a technology matter. He tells he regularly over the last two weeks how much he enjoys it.  The voice to text features amaze him. It would cost me $19 and  then thirty seconds of load time each time I wanted to run a similar app on my blackberry.

For Blackberry to recover would be simple. First talk to your power users. If you can service the power users, the users who use less won’t have as many issues. Just don’t allow power users to over complicate things. This is where the company steps in,l to create a balance of features and power. My guess is they need three things:

1. A better operating system with a better browser experience

2. Hardware that keeps up with current applications

3. An accessible way for developers to develop and a reason to attract developers

Like Scientology, assuming RIM isn’t bought,  if the continue on this path, we can be assured they will continue to dwindle in disorganized fashion. In Blackberry’s case this will manifest itself as a delusion of the grandeur conjured by images of blackberry 7290s and 8300s.

I hope Blackberry makes the appropriate adjustments and more importantly investments to make this happen. Until they talk to users like me and everyone else, and I  don’t mean by a stupid survey. I mean engage in conversation, they are going to continue on their doomed course and will be a Canadian disgrace used to wipe the floor of one of the other mobile giants.

I  watched my twitter feed blow up tonight in the post-announcement coverage of the shipping building contract. Halifax won. My mind immediately raced to what does Nova Scotia need to do to make this a spring board for more economic, social and political activity,  but before getting into that, is important I provide some context to this post. I want to be careful to expressly say, that I too thought it was a TREMENDOUS achievement for Halifax and I was proud we won. I wasn’t surprised either. I wasn’t surprised because the 25 billion dollar contract is simply the outcome of a growing recognition of the type of place Halifax is. Halifax and Nova Scotia, like any place have many strengths and many weaknesses. It is how the province plays the hand that is dealt that is going to matter in the increasingly complex and global marketplace.

It should also be known that I delayed the publication of this post until the morning, to give Nova Scotians the proper time to celebrate. This deserves to be celebrated for what it is and not detracted upon in any way shape of form. 11,500 jobs is a big accomplishment.

Meanwhile, as I write, the #shipsstarthere hash tag is trending in Canada on twitter. I think is is also worth noting that it seems traditionally, disengaged citizens have noticed and agree that this a big deal. The volume of tweets about this, just hinted that Nova Scotia was either happier then I felt was reasonable or desperate for a break. Eitherway, I think we need to examine how to make the ship building contract more than a one-off contract and what strategy we’ll use to compete for these deals globally. On the otherhand, perhaps it was the PR campaign.  I think the lobbying campaign that swept the province proves that a message can be successfully communicated to citizens and potential voters.  However, personally, I find it alarming how  MUCH emphasis and what a big deal people seem to think this is. There are some epic tweets, about the impact this will have. Indeed, this is true but any business person worth their salt will caution the an investor in putting all their eggs in one basket. Nova Scotia must quickly use the credibility and faith they have garnered by being award these contracts to diversify the industries in the province. Not necessarily with the sexy industries they have tried to attract in the past like Video game developer, HB studios or with A-list names such as RIM but companies who deserve the cooperation of government. A great acid-test for this is: “Would Kevin O’Leary fund them?” Yes, the calculating, CBC star of Dragon’s Den won’t give an inch unless his return on investment is there, but this is a good strategy for government because, as is often forgotten by government bureaucrats, it’s not their money and their budgets, it’s our money and tax-payer budgets.

For those who don’t understand diversification yet,  William Donovan explained in using this baseball anology:

There are plenty of industries that are complimentary to the ship building, but there are also plenty of industries that would like to come to Nova Scotia but are scooped up by provinces with more aggressive strategies. The Nova Scotia government has the tools to initiate this kind of diversification.

One of these tools is called Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI). The organization is currently led by Stephen Lund. NSBI provides investment attraction initiatives to attract business to Nova Scotia. In the past these have taken the form of pay-roll rebates and other incentives. These incentives are high cost and once they run out, economic conditions can swirl into the perfect storm very easily and lay-offs begin followed by a domino effect collapse.

The way forward for NSBI, is through using Nova Scotians to attract people around the world. Nova Scotians are Nova Scotia’s biggest export. If you don’t believe me, scan twitter for the number of people crediting ship building with bringing people back from Alberta. The fact that Nova Scotians leave is often viewed as a negative thing, but I think there is a strong case that Nova Scotian’s are required to bring Nova Scotian’s back. It is time for Darrel Dexter to establish or revamp NSBI into a public-private partnership, so Nova Scotian business leaders can attract other leaders from other parts of the world. The strongest case to do business in Nova Scotia is other businesses succeeding in Nova Scotia.  By the government facilitating global business for other Nova Scotian businesses, they will inherently promote Nova Scotia and allow NSBI to spot real value. When I say, real value, I mean, businesses located somewhere else and it would make more sense for them to operate in Nova Scotia. To lessen the burden and increase accountability, amoung the private businesses, a small membership fee can be charged ($500 or so) to access services such as export assistance and market research that is otherwise unattainable.  This weeds out the businesses that aren’t serious which essential to an efficient system. I should say, I didn’t develop this model. This isn’t even my idea. This model is already the case in a number of provinces including Saskatchewan with the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership. Now is simply the ideal time to act.

It requires on-going efforts by Nova Scotian business leaders and the willingess and support of government to watch and learn what policies are attractive global commerce. No government salesman is going to stand up to world class business leaders. It is our Nova Scotian titans like John Risley and John Bragg that is needed.  Both these men epitomize the fierce loyalty to the maritimes and the true grit needed to succeed in Halifax.  Bragg built his fortune off blueberries and later  what became Eastlink Cable. Risley, is more widely known for pioneering the lobster business beginning out of th back of a truck. Gordon Pitts, is his book the Codfathers explains the extraordinary networks, understated yet, aggressive negotiators that impressed their counterparts around the world. Risley’s seafood is globally sought. Bragg, well, the man sold many blueberries which is equally impressive.  These leaders are the only way, CEO’s and boards are going to make the decision to base any operations in Nova Scotia. They demonstrate what can be done in this province and their stories are nothing short of movie-worthy.

The second factor, is  that Nova Scotia government’s economic priorities are non-existent or non-articulated. I’d like nothing more than to chat with the Premier and get this straight but  at first blush, from where I sit as the owner of Denote Communications and Profile Halifax Magazine, the goal of economic development isn’t for the premier to be on the front page of papers. This seems to priority uno for Dexter and it would be nice if some actual Nova Scotians who were behind the deal were featured rather than the political angle. While the government deserves credit for the ship building deal,  and has taken credit for a private power deal with Newfoundland, several mill workers of the New Page Mill are still stunned for more than a moment by the economic flash- bang, that was the government’s attempt at business negotiation. While New Page is off the front page, and the ship deal fresh of the minds of Nova Scotians, these deals dictate starkly fickle nature the government has taken, to promote some industries while sacrificing others with utility rate hikes and little to no support.  Certainly,  it makes sense to persue a 25 Billion dollar deal with more zeal than the mill, it means one can only be left to question, what the overall strategy is when it comes to Nova Scotia economic development as it appears that the Dexter government has excellent communications team to showcase their successes and minimize damage.  It just seems to me, like the rate at which the provincial government changes it’s focus is determined not by a long term vision but by how fast the press secretary can find a network TV camera regardless of whether the announcement is actually going to garner the government more votes. None-the-less,  Dexter  or someone in his government has shown incredible agility and leadership in the ship building bid both in regards to  communications and procuring the deal. While not many are in the mood to examine, what comes next, it is a question of priorities and the wrong priorities could waste the  prosperous time the ship building will provide. Remember, Nova Scotia has seen dependence on one industry and the hazards it produces with the fisheries and their decline. Nova Scotia along with the rest of the maritime spent a long time trying to replace the fisheries after we failed to consider a future with less fish. Perhaps the ships have replaced the fish for sometime but now is the time to build and plan for rainy days.  The easiest way to do this, is to let successful Nova Scotians speak for themselves and make a concious effort to attract more industry rather than resting on our laurels.

Just some random thoughts o feed the blog, let me know yours.

Social Media continues  to be in state of purgatory. We are waiting for one force or another to show us the limits and establish standards. While some sites like facebook and twitter dominate what we can and can’t do on social media, The best way to engage customers is still very much up in the air.   This post is designed to share some information and context for anyone still weary they are making the most of social media. When I talk with clients today, some of them are so wrapped up in being on top of facebook, but once they’ve logged in, haven’t the slightest clue what to do with the their accounts. Often they end up asking themselves, do I have anything valuable to say?  I don’t want to say anything stupid. I better be quiet. So far loud mouths are winning the war.  The reality is is in that in the world of facebook and twitter, a standard and best practices are both yet to be defined. It is time to make mistakes. As a joke at 3am, I posted a contest on the wall of Profile Halifax Magazine on facebook.The below video shows the results:

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point, he made himself a millionaire and triggered a tipping point by identifying three types of people. One of the people he identified was Connectors. Connectors are people who have a large network and the ability to persuade people to follow them. The example he uses was Paul Revere. Paul was a great example of an incredible person who heard the British were coming and rallied people by riding from house to house. Facebook and Twitter shareholders would have you believe that everyone is Paul Revere. While facebook certainly makes it possible, it remains highly improbable that everyone will use facebook as Paul Revere once use a horse to rally people.

The main faleshood that facebook either tacitly or actively spreads is that that a user needs only to be targeted and that because of their wide-reach facebook is a great advertising solution. Certainly, their is some truth to this. There is no denying some companies make tons of money of their facebook advertising. However, every great liar knows to sprinkle as much truth as possible into any lie. Infusing lies with small truths make most people doubt that you are lying at all. For most businesses, paying $15,000-$20,000 for a promoted tweet is also out of the question. The great lie of course, is that facebook is an effective agent of peer pressure.

In reality, the facebook targeting does encourage the sharing of content through what they term “social reach” but this can also waste large amounts of money that would have far greater impact if spent in other types of advertising.  Even this feature is no more effective because of the fact a friend likes it. Yes, it may make an individual take a first or even second glace at your product, but as far as I know, the correlation of buying the product is actually less successful than most Google Adwords campaign, I have been involved in. Most companies are far better off to hire experts to create the content with their advertising as a component of a larger plan to attract costumers.

Peer pressure has existed since the beginning of recorded time. Entire books have been written about persuasion, and becoming a more persuasive person. Marketing changed with the advent of the printing press, radio, and boomed to millions with  television. In fact, it used to be the case,  that entire products could be successful or unsuccessful based on having enough marketing capital (cash) to buy your TV commercials. Then as many blog posts have pointed out before, Mark Zuckerburg, came along with facebook. There is no denying that facebook has an incalculatable effect on the way we communicate, share information and indeed see advertisements. As it stands, the social media landscape is much like the wild wild west. There are a couple of major players who are setting the rules but for the most part thousands, if not millions of people are trying to stake their claim as social media “experts”. Entire companies, as I’ve seen so many times before, are placing their orders for Italian leather chairs  to make their clients comfortable before charging them absorbent amounts of money for social  media management. How can one tell if someone is worth their salt in social media like facebook and twitter? The truth is, you can’t. There is, as of yet, no definitively clear standard as to what success looks like.

Many “experts” will tell you that you can measure a companies social media presence by the number of fans or followers.  This is not a true measurement because many fans may never engage with your companies on this network and the true power of social media is when people have a dialogue either with or about your product.This means it has to be interesting and that requires, at a minimum, a real person with a brain to be attending to your social media. It is of course possibly to buy fans from such
“reputable” businesses as these guys.   All of these ideas are costly as their is no guaranteed way to measure ROI. Often social media gets put on the back burner and I’m not advocating for that. In fact, if you feel like your not getting the most of social media, call Denote Communications. (shameless plug). Most of time if you think your business can’t use social media, you’re not thinking about the fact that behind every business their is a human. The question is what is the most effective way to reach those humans. People  pay attention to what they don’t expect. Seth Godin called the Purple cow. Whatever its called, you must now stand out more than ever.  Facebook has flooded us with shared content. We are drowning in information.

There are some emerging measurements on how to find influential users. In the coming years, I can see some of these services becoming extremely useful and profitable but today their system seems to lack the human nuances that make companies like Google so success. The primary leader in  Klout. If you haven’t signed up for Klout I highly recommend it as it is entertaining at a minimum.

Other “experts” claim that making a video go viral is the key. Viral videos are those videos that people share with their friends. Viral videos are extremely successful and if you have the creativity and money to create one. All the power to you. To give you an idea of what is required for a video to go viral or what videos that are popular look like check out this the Viral Video Chart.

Finally, experts will claim that they can set up advertising camapaigns and this will be done but make sure to ask questions about the reporting, targeting and set clear expecations of timelines to reach measurable results.

There are clearly many roads being perused at once in the world of social media. For me the key will be watching the meaurement of influencial users and what the majority consider to be influencial in social media. They key will always lie in communicating with your customers ad facebook just changes how you do that.

The DSU has produced a catchy new tune and video to go along side.  A lot of credit have to be given to the past couple years executive for producing a line up of great new videos. I think this type of collaboration is a great direction for the Union to head in and I suspect you will see more of it in the  months to come.  You can learn more about the singers and song writers behind this masterpiece is the the upcoming issue of Profile Halifax. Enjoy!

Let us learn all things from everybody

As a marketer, I have seen the power of blogs to create buzz, keep people informed, dictate the news, and arguably start bloody revolutions. Yet, until recently, I was never compelled to start one. Perhaps, this is because I inherently know I won’t have time to update it. Perhaps, this is because anything I have of value to say, can be expressed more or less in 140 characters on my twitter account @denotemark.

I must confess, there are only two people responsible for me even having the slightest inkling to write a blog and they are Chris K, my business partner at Denote Communications  and EastcoastKTO.

A few things you should know before reading, while I believe in proper grammar, I tend to write quickly and not edit, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.  While it’s most certainly a personal weakness, it’s not going to be remedied anytime soon. Yes it is true, I own and operate a magazine called Profile Halifax but I have editors who go over that for me. Personally, I can’t afford to hire them to vet my individual ramblings.

It seems my entrepreneurial lifestyle thrusts me from one crisis into the next. In no way is this a complaint. I love it…or at least parts of it.  In fact, I have the same propensity to avoid challenges, as Darryl Dexter has to avoid hiking power rates. I cannot say no to a challenge. It seems to me that despite,  not having every or at times any aspect of my business in check, I am happy. I can’t really explain why but the fact that I am happy is to me a measurement of success. I’m not constantly happy, but overall, more or less, I am happy and smiling. Reflecting back, I always enjoyed running a  business. Since I was small, I have been dumbfounded by the people who abandoned their dreams. For me, business provided a realistic outlet to empower me to accomplish my dreams. At a most basic level, this was done through power in the financial sense. I was able to make more decisions, the more of the bill I was able to pay. However, as I grew up, business became the greatest classroom I ever entered. A classroom not defined by rules that cease to exist upon graduation and entering the real world. It quickly became apparent of the obligation which those who were given the opportunity to peruse their dreams had to help those who couldn’t or were more vulnerable in our society. The shackles of circumstance that prevented so many from following their passions were clearly visible.  Perhaps, the only revelation which became apparent quicker was all the constraints placed on this idealistic way of forging a new world.

At every turn challenges arose. There was never enough money, time and yes, patience to make meaningful impacts.  And so, with a small business hobbling along, it was first my  business itself or entrepreneurial spirit that pushed me to explore the world. It was my business sense, and yearning for adventure that sent me into the chorus of musicals, or on races down the Saskatachewan River in a kayak as one of the only disabled paddlers, or would many years later get me tangled into the unknowingly dramatic  world of student politics at the Dalhousie Student Union.

On the surface, it seems logical that the more you experience in life,  the happier you will be. I believe “success”, however defined, is a derivative of being happy. In other words, you will be successful when you are happy. It would follow that the more experiences you have, whether positive or negative, will ultimately allow you to achieve success or happiness.  There are some obvious problems with this notion, such as people who have a series of extremely traumatic negative events and are seemingly never happy, but I’m  not writing an essay. I’m just spouting off the random nonsense to have it float in the blog-o-sphere.  Getting back to my original point, about experience.  For me, it has held true that gathering a plethora of experience is only part of being happy. The other part is the people you meet and those you make an effort to surround yourself with.

There are plenty of articles about happy employees, happy workplaces, and happy meals, so I’m not going to waste your time, because if you have read this far, that’s impressive. I was just thinking today, about accomplishments, and measuring accomplishments versus the value of experience which can mean at least for a time I’d be slightly off course compared to a plan that had in recent days gradually formed in a spontaneous corner of my brain. Much in the same way, mould appears on cheese, this plan developed. I tend not to be a big fan of plans. Unless of course, one knows the outcome(s) one desires is constant regardless of the circumstance which they find themselves. The major problem with most plans is that Plans require assumptions. Assumptions are the serial killers of creativity.

…however, Canada Post lost my computer and so the rest of this is going to have to wait as I have to leave the building I found a computer in.