5. October 2010 by Bob Griffin.

I was thinking about why we have an obesity problem in the richer nations of the world and I have come to the conclusion that we are bored. I have bought more gadgets to get fit than I care to think about.  I have also been so bored with them that I want to take a nap in the middle of using them.  Repetitive Motion Sickness is the phrase for this junk’s usefulness.  None of it is fun and none of it makes me want to go back and use it again. I do not see the end to people becoming fat.  I was going to call this article “I Don’t Know the Answer”, but I do know the answer.  Eat less calories and exercise.  I am not good at either one, but I do maintain my weight with a scale and an occasional salad.

Now, why is a guy who talks about business and finding success talking about fat?  The answer lies in the fact that, like many things, it affects the way you do business.   If people are getting fat, they are getting slower.  They are looking for ways to get things done that require less energy and effort.  At the same time, you have to think about size in all that you do.  If you are making cell phones, you need to think about bigger buttons for fatter fingers or a voice recognition software that will make buttons obsolete.  If you have a brick and mortar store, you will need wider aisles.  That will mean you will have less room for merchandise.  You will need to move the products off the shelf and have a catalog system where a customer scans items at a kiosk and the order is bagged in the back warehouse.  Obesity makes you have to change the way you do business.

So, what if you want to change a person’s habits?  Changing habits is not really a business model.  A business is geared to the habits that the population already has.  Changing habits requires a shift in business that makes people think about a problem as a solution.  What if exercise was in that grey area of business where customers wanted to be?  How do we make exercise seem like a “must do” event in everyone’s day?  Make it fun.

• Many sports are good for exercise, but most of us find it hard to get the time to meet and play
• Workout places smell and there is always some kind of etiquette that I still don’t understand
• Workout equipment is either too costly or its cheap and dangerous
• If I look like I need to work out, I am probably not going to fit in on a team, in a gym, or as my own coach

We need a business model that involves fun and a challenge with friends that requires less time commitment and a way to communicate with a team of people working out with you.  The internet provides a medium for communication. That takes care of the peer pressure.  It can also make it so you can log in when you have time.  I like the idea of the exercise games on Wii and PlayStation, but they are marketed as toys and the exercise games are few. The adult mind is tuned differently than a child.  Trying to push an adult into a kid’s world is a bad fit.  Adults need variety even more than kids do.  Want to sell more Wii’s?  Make more games that appeal to the “big kids”.  Create a new brand that is team building, online, and is fun and you have a way to change exercise habits.

*I am not going to create the business here…this is the point where I get YOU thinking of the actual game for adults to play.

But, what about eating less calories?  Again, we are bored, so we go for comfort food.

Is there a fun way to eat less food?   I like to feel something when I eat.  I like to feel full and rewarded.  Sound selfish?  Yes it does.  I am not arguing that point.  I want to feel good when I eat.  So, I am looking for foods that take care of those wants (not needs since I only need the calories to keep my body alive).  Now I need to a tailor a business model to feeding people well and meeting their desire for full bellies and tasty foods.  That is a culinary dream.  Just like we get repetitive motion sickness with exercise, we get tired of the same tastes and need change.

Most restaurants have a set menu.  That is the consistency they bank on when a customer wants to eat.  We go through the list of restaurants weekly to find the right place to eat.  What if the menu changed and it was all acceptable to customers?  I have seen many of the best restaurants use this design.  What about a fast food chain, though?  What if they used fresh ingredients and provided it fast to buy and eat?  I have often heard that the seasonings and sauces make the dish.  Chicken is chicken flavored and beef is beef flavored when cooked.  It is the addition of seasonings that change the taste and make the dish.  Create a menu of fast well seasoned foods that are lower fat and calorie and you have a business that meets the needs of customers.

I know I am not the first to think of any of this.  It is not the point of the article to create something new.  I want to stir the pot and skim off some of the fat while meeting customer needs.  I want you to see clearly the world you sell to.  Take a good look at your customers and their challenges.  Look past today and see where people are heading.  Make changes that meet needs and change outlooks and you have a business that you can be proud of talking about.

Bob Griffin - CEO and Co-Founder

Email: Questions@BusinessBulldog.com

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4. October 2010 by Bob Griffin.

In the economy, there are things we need and things we want.  Everything else resides in a grey area that you want your products or services to live in.  There are very few needs.  You need shelter, clothes, food, and good health.  Everything else starts to creep into the grey area of wants.  Better shelter, better clothes, and the rest all quickly hit the top of the want scale fast.  After all, once you have taken care of a need, there is not much more on the need line of the scale.

But what about diamonds?  No one needs a diamond…unless you want to propose to your girlfriend.  In the strictest sense of the act, you do not need a diamond to get married.  (Here is where I get letters from angry women all telling me to shut my stupid mouth)   But, you do need a diamond to fulfill the contract you want to sign with the one you love. (See!  I brought it right back around ladies…sheesh!) If you aren’t bringing the diamond, there is a gap in the agreement.  She and the rest of society is looking for the diamond ring on her hand.  As a disclaimer, if you live in a country that does not have this ritual, I am sure there are other items exchanged in an effort to marry.

Do you need a diamond, ladies?  No, you don’t.  Are you going to say “yes” without one?  No, you won’t.  So diamond rings live in the grey area.

Do computers live in the grey area? Yes, they do…kinda.  If you want to send emails, write reports, send messages instantly, or talk to someone not in the same room, you need a computer.  Maybe it is an integrated part of the phone line, but it is there.  You may have someone else type your reports, but one was used to have the outcome you want.  So, yes computers live in the grey area of the economy that you want to be in too.

If you sell hats (for example) and you want to be in the grey area where everyone feels like they must have your hat to survive, how do you get there?

No one wears a hat much anymore.  So, you have an edge in the market.  How, if no one does something does that give you an edge?  Simple by being unique.  There are many ways to get your product or service to a level of uniqueness.  The best way is to do something that is not currently being done and find a way to market that individuality.

1. Get your hat to an expert who can talk about it.
2. Give a sample to a celebrity who would like it and wear it.
3. Use your network to talk about it.
4. Give samples away as a talking point in their networks.
5. Cross-promote with a charity that has great brand awareness.
6. Go viral with a video showing the hat with someone who is a trend setter.
7. Show it, wear it, and be in the scene where people will ask about it.
8. Make it stand out in a place where no one would normally wear a hat.
9. Ask the Internet community to find the flaws. (Risky, but really effective)
10. Be ready to talk about it to anyone.  Have your story ready.

All of these ways make sense and you are not sure where to start?  Neither do I.  You are the character behind the hat.  People buy from people they like.  You need to find what works best for you and get into the grey by not compromising ANYTHING!  If someone asks for more hats than you can deliver, be ready to tell them that.  It makes them exclusive.  Be ready to take back orders.  If someone makes a knock-off hat that looks like yours, be ready to smash them in the media with reasons not to buy a knock-off.  Be ready to toss whole shipments of the hat because they do not meet your high standards.  Setting the bar for quality and holding firm is where most businesses lose the grey area they could have been a leader in.

LOVE THE GREY!!

Email: Questions@BusinessBulldog.com

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3. October 2010 by Bob Griffin.

I was having lunch with my colleague Noel Guilford when we stumbled on a topic that got me thinking about how great companies fail because someone decides “We Need to Shake Things Up”.  These are the worst six words a profitable company can use to find more revenue.  I like change, but sometimes change from what you are known for and are loved for is a sure-fire way to lose your customer base overnight.

Coca-cola has been a loved brand for it seems like forever.   Since none of us can remember a time when there wasn’t the brand Coca-cola, I think it is a great place to start when talking about a brand that poured out its luck and refilled the bottle with a PR nightmare that it did not need to deal with in the first place.

I won’t get into the time-line of things, but Coca-cola is not the same as it used to be.   Coca-cola is now New Coke.  I guess it has lost the new part and is now just Coke, but that took years and millions of dollars spent trying to lure customers back.  Someone with a title and a measure of clout decided that customers needed something new to buy more Coke products.  It wasn’t a product issue.  The product was the same as it had always been.  Also, it wasn’t a delivery problem.  Coke products were everywhere you wanted a drink to be.  So, what made a universal brand go from being loved by millions to being ridiculed and lambasted for going out on a limb?  They took their main product away and replaced it with “almost as good”.

Jay Leno did the same thing.  He was on top of the heap when it came to nightly talk shows.  He held the spot firmly and was only bounced down a notch by the equally as talented David Letterman.  Here is where I got lost on the thinking.  Jay was great at what he did and had a good show.  The delivery worked and the fans watched nightly and liked what they saw.  Then he decided to retire and start a new show of his own creation elsewhere.  You can’t see it but I made a confused mixed with “what the hell is he thinking” face.

Once Jay left there was a mix up with Conan O’Brian.  Again, I do not want to get into the time-line, but it ain’t pretty and the winner was not Jay.  Since he came back to his nightly show, ratings are down and the winner seems to be Jimmy Fallon.  Go figure.

New Coke didn’t work and Jay’s new show didn’t work.  Where did they go wrong?  They stopped offering the same product the same way.  If Coke had added New Coke to the product list and see if anyone liked it, they would have known that it was a loser.  The same could have been done with Jay. Had he done the same style of show on a new network and tried out different things before changing the whole formula, he would have seen it was not going to work.

Now, for YOU!

What have you done that lost you tons of money?  I can tell you with all certainty that some of you will admit to making a huge mistake and paying dearly for it and some of you will deny ever making a mistake.  The rest do not want to think about it, but you should.  There was a time when the work you did made you successful. Why aren’t you still doing that?!?

I can tell you that there is system to everything.  You do not need to be a part of a franchise for something to systematically work and continue to grow your customer base.  Anyone who has been a reader here for more than one sitting can attest to the fact that I am a back to basics teacher.  The basics work EVERY TIME!!!  The Bulldog Rules for Business are the foundation of every great business.  No new style, formula, design, or way of serving your products will change the way that brought you this far.

Please do not miss out on opportunities to enhance your product line or give a new spin on a way of delivering your products or services.  There is a better way of doing things.  I am, however, saying that if you want to change things, be aware of what you are taking away from your customers in a drive to make changes.  If you lose one customer, is it worth it?  What will it cost to replace that customer?  Will the new customer need more time or effort than the old customer? If any of these questions have you spending more, then it is a rotten change.


P. S.  Thanks to everyone who has been a part of the Business Bulldog Pack.  I enjoy writing these articles and look forward to your emails and comments.   Please keep them coming.  I am traveling, writing my first book, and giving speeches over the next few months.  Things are heating up for Business Bulldog and I am looking forward to the new challenges.  I will keep you updated as I get the next chapters written in the growth of my brand.

Many, many thanks,

Bob Griffin - CEO and Co-Founder

Email: Questions@BusinessBulldog.com

Posted in Creating the Culture | Print | 617 Comments »