"Sadly, too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be a climate in which new ways of thinking, perceiving, questioning are encouraged.”
Yesterday I was watching the Olympics when a Toyota commercial came on. The commercial was not about another hybrid but about Toyota’s latest bout with their brake recall. The recall has dealt a major blow to sales and to consumer confidence in the Toyota brand. A commercial dedicated to “restoring” that must mean a major problem.
With some 9 million recalled vehicles worldwide and counting, Toyota has undoubtedly had to publicly address this issue. I don’t know all the ins and outs regarding the recall (there are plenty of articles out there right now that speculate what is happening) but there are 3 simple things I appreciate from Toyota’s commercial that I think organizations can learn from.
1. Fess up and own your mistakes.
The commercial starts with the line:
“History has shown that a good company will fix its mistakes but a great company will learn from them…”
2. Reassure consumers that you are fixing the problem. Most would probably assume Toyota would fix the problem. Toyota, however, chose to communicate that they are working on the problem. By doing so, they help shape consumer perceptions by reassuring them that they are on it and resisting the temptation to try and hide the blunder.
3. Wrap it all in humility.
Make no excuses and wrap your message in humility.
“We’re working to restore your faith in our company by providing you with safe and reliable vehicles…”
I can’t believe we are into a brand new year. The end of last year was so busy that I am taking a couple weeks off for some much needed rest and relaxation. That includes time away from my little blog. I have a couple of very exciting projects that I am working on for 2010 though and I think you are going to dig it.
Thanks for visiting this site and I hope your new year is a blessed one! Check back in a couple weeks.
I read a great post today from Seth Godin. Read full post here.
But what about you and your organization? As you get bigger and older, are you busy ensuring that a bad thing won’t happen that might upset your day, or are you aggressively investing in having a remarkable thing happen that will delight or move a customer?
Here’s a rule that’s so inevitable that it’s almost a law: As an organization grows and succeeds, it sows the seeds of its own demise by getting boring. With more to lose and more people to lose it, meetings and policies become more about avoiding risk than providing joy.
I read a great post today from Crestock’s blog and had to share it. This article makes some great points that work in and out of the Church world. To read the whole post from the original site click here.
“From flash intros, to logo theft, to information overload, clients often ask a design team to do a lot of stuff that’s just plain wrong. Here are 7 of the most common mistakes clients might ask you to make — and how to talk some sense into them.
Too Much Information
The problem: The average client seems to have never heard the old adage: less is more. No matter what you’re designing, they’ll want to add more copy, links, calls-to-action, logos, headers, footers, global nav elements and 1-800 numbers. Part of the problem is that they think that if it’s there, their customers will read it. And sometimes part of the problem is that they’re balancing the needs of fifteen different divisions within their company, who all want some of that prime screen real-estate on whatever you’re designing.
How to fight back: Ask them what they want the design to accomplish, not what it should contain. No matter what you’re designing, it should have a purpose. Whether it’s a poster, product packaging or a corporate homepage, the design should serve to accomplish something for the person who will ultimately be viewing it. Once you’re discussing what a viewer needs from the design (rather than what the company wants it to contain) you’re on the right track to reducing the amount of information to only that which is necessary.
The “Long Neck Theory” by Gerry McGovern states that every website has a very short list of “killer tasks” that visitors to the site want to accomplish. His testing indicates that just 5% of content, which serve those killer tasks, is used by at least 25% of visitors to a site. And past that key 5%, the vast majority of the rest of the content is only useful to a tiny percentage of people. Which means that not every little bit of content on a site needs prominent placement.”
I was able to interview Louie Giglio a few months back and had asked him if he was on Twitter. He smiled and said he was still thinking about it. Louie is hilarious and a ton of fun so when I saw this video I couldn’t help but crack up. Enjoy!
