Book review: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World.

 

Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. Linda Kaplan Thaler, Robin Koval, Delia Marshall. Doubleday. 256 pages (Click here or on the cover image to purchase this book.) BY RICHARD PACHTER Originally published on Monday, October 27, 2003 in The Miami Herald. Hey you! Pay attention! If only it were that easy. For advertising, the challenge is attracting eyes, ears and imaginations to inspire purchases. But in a world of competing messages, cutting through the clutter is nearly impossible. Now more than ever we are inured to most advertising, yet somehow ads do get through to their target audience and are effective. They are remembered, discussed, and even move merchandise. How is this alchemy possible? There have been a number of recent books advising marketers in these endeavors, including Seth Godin's Purple Cow and Mark Stevens' Your Marketing Sucks, but it has always been tough creating ads that work. It's harder now, since customers' time and attention is severely diffused and limited. Advertising executives Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, aided by writer Delia Marshall, contribute a bright, breezy, but deadly serious guide to creating a buzz -- and a bang. They possess more credibility than many other authors; their agency is responsible for some of the most impressive, high-impact ads seen in recent years: Clairol's Herbal Essence Shampoo, AFLAC Insurance, Toys R Us, the Red Cross and more. And how does one make effective ads? They write: "According to The Economist magazine, people see over 3,000 messages each day but, like cooked spaghetti, only a couple of them stick to the wall. As a result, no one is sitting on the edge of his or her seat waiting to hear what you have to say. You need to disrupt the established paradigm to get through. Edward De Bono, the father of lateral thinking, noted that problem solving involves abandoning accepted, logical thought processes and rearranging and reevaluating the status quo. You must forget about what makes sense and open yourself up to the real reason why a particular brand or product is appealing. Great, explosive marketing or advertising ideas will only rise to the surface when everyone at the company is able to reject what worked in the past and embrace this kind of counterintuitive thinking.'" In other words, emotion beats logic, and a product or service's true ''Unique Selling Proposition'' is often counter to what the company thinks it is. The smart solution is not always the obvious one (and it's sometimes the dumbest one imaginable). This is not entirely new; advertising guru David Ogilvy would surely agree with much of what they say. Rather, Thaler and Koval adapt many of the strongest, most basic principles of marketing and promotion to modern media realities and aesthetics, and they provide plenty of anecdotes and examples to make the journey a pleasant one. Can you apply their approach specifically to your business? Perhaps, but even if you can't, their freewheeling and challenging notions will surely stimulate your own thoughts, and you may come up with your own marketing eruption.

Book review: Business: The Ultimate Resource by Daniel Goleman et al

 Pound for Pound, Goleman's Book is the Best Around.

Business: The Ultimate Resource. Daniel Goleman et al. Perseus Publishing. 2,200 pages.

BY RICHARD PACHTER
rpachter@wordsonwords.com

Chances are, you're never going to read this book, but that's all right, I haven't read it either - at least not the whole thing. But if you buy this giant compendium of business wisdom, you'll probably refer to it on a daily basis.

Created by an international team of writers, editors and authorities on a variety of aspects of business and management, this authoritative and comprehensive volume is encyclopedic in scope. Old business, new economy - it's all here, with contributions from Warren Bennis, Peter L. Bernstein, John Seely Brown, Jim Collins, Charles Handy, Thomas Petzinger Jr., David Weinberger and many others.

Goleman, the putative frontman for this ambitious endeavor, which is a collaboration between American publisher Perseus and the United Kingdom's Bloomsbury, offers a thoughtful explanation of the rationale - and practical value - behind this huge undertaking. He writes "business literacy [is] a working familiarity with the key thinking and writing that business people need to keep up with. Given the thousands of books and articles published each year for business people, it's virtually impossible to keep current with the explosion of new ideas and concepts - not to mention weeding out the quickly fading fads of the moment. The majority of that unwieldy mass of ideas and insights offered up each year will fall away like leaves in autumn. But year after year there are thinkers whose insights prove worthwhile, because they make a practical difference — they add to business intelligence, and prove their worth by ways they matter at work. Business advantage is gained by harnessing smart ideas — not just amorphous data, the latest technology, or a larger-than-life CEO. As each of us goes through the ups and downs, crises and triumphs, of a life in business, the brain automatically extracts lessons for confronting similar situations in the future. Over the years we each build up a set of tacitly learned decision rules - life's lessons - which constitute the sum total of our wisdom on the matter. But each of us has only a specific, limited set of life experiences - and so a restricted set of lessons — informing our business wisdom. We can each benefit from expanding the pool of lessons learned, given the unpredictable nature of challenges we will face tomorrow."

This 2,200-page extravaganza is loaded with all kinds of interesting and useful sections, including a world almanac covering 26 industry-sector surveys, profiles of the United States and 150 other countries and every U.S. state; dozens of best-practice essays; biographies of business leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Peter Drucker, Adam Smith, Henry Ford, Estée Lauder and others; digests of what the editors consider to be the 70 most influential business books; a lexicon of business terms; an anthology of quotations; and backgrounders on dozens of topics like accounting, intellectual property, mission statements, team building, venture capital and (as they say) much, much more
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All in all, it's an extremely well done effort. Pound for pound, in fact, it may be the best purchase one could make for a business library.

POWER LUNCH Cajun/Creole fare will brighten your day

 

Published in The Miami Herald on Monday, 1/05/04 POWER LUNCH Cajun/Creole fare will brighten your day Creolina's has been a fixture of Himmarshee Village for years. Its New Orleans-style cooking may be ideal cuisine for a business lunch. BY RICHARD PACHTER The atypically quaint area of Fort Lauderdale known as Himmarshee Village features a lively mix of restaurants and clubs. It's just a few blocks from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Museum of Discovery and Science on one side, and Las Olas Riverfront on the other. It's also within walking distance of numerous downtown offices, making it a perfect getaway for a noontime break or a business meeting and meal. Creolina's is a fixture of Himmarshee's colorful Southwest Second Street. Its New Orleans-style cooking may be the ideal cuisine for a business luncheon. If you're experiencing an unpleasant day, it's sure to improve it, and if you're having a good one, it will only make it better. On a recent weekday visit between Christmas and New Year's, Creolina's, which seats about 60 inside and maybe another dozen outside, was uncharacteristically quiet, with only about four interior tables occupied for lunch. Upon arrival, I was instantly and warmly greeted by assistant manager Rosemary O'Neal, who invited me to sit wherever I liked. My two guests, Aventura sedation dentistry guru Dr. Howard Hoffman, and his brother, Neil, the founding publisher of Florida Design magazine and other publications, arrived shortly afterward. Rosie was occupied with other guests, but another server quickly moved in, handed out menus and took our drink orders, giving us a chance to study the décor -- an eclectic mix of hanging wall art and plants. The dining room has a pleasant, funky-but-chic ambience, wholly in character with owner-chef Mark Sulzinski's deft interpretation of New Orleans' fabled Creole and Cajun fare. But is this food for everyone, or specifically, is it suitable for business lunches where hosts may be ignorant of guests' likes and dislikes? Though some might expect a menu replete with hellishly fiery and strange cayenne-laden concoctions, Sulzinski and executive chef Kevin Guay cook up a nice variety of fish, poultry, red meat, pasta and more. Befitting its Louisiana roots, red beans, rice, shrimp, crayfish, jambalaya and gumbo are featured prominently, but the heat is held to a minimum, and one can raise the temperature accordingly with a plethora of bottled hot sauces that are available upon request. Creolina's lunch menu is, naturally, a more concise version of its dinner offerings. Jambalaya, grilled chicken and smoked sausage in a spicy Creole sauce served over rice, is a bargain at $7.95 (or a dollar more with shrimp). Crayfish etouffée features the tail meat of the tiny freshwater crustacean, also in Creole sauce with rice, and bread and butter for just a nickel under ten bucks. Simpler fare, such as a plate of red beans and rice topped with scallions, is a mere $6.95. A Cajun combo, combining all three of these plates, goes for $10.95. Gumbo, the red beans and rice, and crayfish bisque can be ordered as starters for $2.25 a cup, and double that for a full bowl. Salads include grilled teriyaki chicken, grilled or blackened shrimp, blue crab or Caesar with grilled or blackened shrimp or chicken. These prices would be remarkable for competently prepared food served in a cafeteria setting, but the quality of Creolina's offerings is first rate, and the service is professional and accommodating. The restaurant also features a different lunch special every day. On the day of my visit, it was Maryland crab cakes: two jumbo cakes with a dollop of chipotle cream sauce served with that ubiquitous rice, cold roasted corn and black-eyed pea salad, and garlic toast -- all for just $7.95. If Creolina's sounds too good to be true, it's not entirely without fault. After we finished our lunch that day, Neil asked for a cup of espresso. Sounded good to me, too. Oops; our server said that she'd been meaning to pick some up for the last week or so, but they were out, and she didn't offer any alternatives -- not even a cafecito. Maybe not a deal breaker, but still, business is business. BUSINESS LOGISTICS • Rating:  (The highest rating is four stars.) • Details: A little off the beaten path, though not hard to find. Metered street parking is plentiful in the area. THE BASICS • Address: 209 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale. 954-524-2003. • Type of Food: Cajun, Creole fare. • Average Prices: $15 per person for main course, appetizer and drinks. • Service: Pleasant and familiar, but professional. • Atmosphere: Bourbon Street transplanted to Broward County. • Best for: Entertaining clients who are bored with the usual. Dutch treat lunches with co-workers. • Linger Factor: Let the good times roll. • Hours: Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Dinner: 5 to 9 p.m., Sunday and Monday; 5 to 10 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Sandwich window (gyros, Polish sausage, chicken pita wraps and salads): midnight to 4 a.m., Friday and Saturday. • Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express. • Reservations: Usually not necessary, but not a bad idea.