Brand Autopsy

The Wallop Wal*Mart 16

Tom Peters is ranting again. (As if he ever stopped.) This time he has a list of 16 MUSTS in order for the little guy to eat the BIG GUYS’ lunch. Methinks Paul and I will adopt some of this to our jumboSHRIMP marketing concept of getting bigger by being smaller.

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1 | Niche-aimed.
(Never, ever "all things for all people," a "mini-Wal*Mart.”)

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2 | Never attack the monsters head on!
(Instead steal niche business and lukewarm customers.)

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3 | "Dramatically different."
(La Difference ... within our community, our industry regionally, etc ... is as obvious as the end of one's nose! THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.)

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4 | Compete on value/experience/intimacy, not price.
(You ain't gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99 out of 10 cases.)

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5 | Emotional bond with Clients, Vendors.
(BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)

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6 | Hands-on, emotional leadership.
("We are a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically different team working to transform our Clients lives via Consistently Incredible Experiences!")

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7 | A community star!
("Sell" local-ness per se. Sell the hell out of it!)

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8 | An incredible experience, from the first to last moment — and then in the follow-up!
("These guys are cool! They 'get' me! They love me!")

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9 | DESIGN!
("Design" is a premier weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish enterprises, including the professional services.)

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10 | Employer of choice.
(A very cool, well-paid place to work/learning and growth experience in at least the short term ... marked by notably progressive policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!)

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11 | Sophisticated use of information technology.
(Small-"ish" is no excuse for "small aims"/execution in IS/IT!)

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12 | Web-power!
(The Web can make very small very big ... if the product-service is super-cool and one purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.)

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14 | Innovative!
(Must keep renewing and expanding and revising and re-imagining "the promise" to employees, the customer, the community.)

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14 | Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs!
("Branding" is not just for big folks with big budgets. And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in becoming a local-regional-niche "lovemark.")

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15 | Focus on women-as-clients.
(Most don't. How stupid.)

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16 | Excellence!
(A small player ... per me ... has no right or reason to exist unless they are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the right— one damn day and client experience at a time!— to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)

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SOURCE | Tom Peters weblog | July 20, 2005

Bzzing Tom Peters

Tom Peter’s latest book, Project04: Snapshots of Excellence in Unstable Times, is a collection of his “most passionate, thought-provoking lists, essays, and rants.”

Okay … it’s not really a book. It’s more like a booklet – a booklet of Tom’s most urgent and bombastic ruminations.

In fact, it reads much like Re-Imagine. However … Re-Imagine is Venti-sized and Project04 is an intense double-shot of Tom's ‘change now or risk becoming irrelevant’ strategic business thoughts served in a more manageable demitasse cup.

All in all … really good stuff. But neophyte Peters readers beware as full-on Tom is an acquired taste. (Like Barbeque Tempeh Sticks, dig?)

You can get your copy of Project04 here … but it’ll cost ya $10 plus change for S+H.

I got my copy free for being a BzzAgent. (Yep, I am shilling TP for some BzzPoints BABY!!! Seriously … I don’t need no freakin’ BzzAgent BzzPoints to ‘bzz’ TP and I ain’t giving TP digital ink for some quid pro quo reciprocation. I'm giving Tom Peters some Brand Autopsy digital ink cause he has smart things to say. 'Nuff said.)

But wait … you don’t need to spend $10+ to get a copy of Project04. And you don't need to be a BzzAgent to get yourself a free version of Project04.

Thanks to Peters’ prolific online ways, you can make a 'free' homemade version of Project04 by filling up your printer with paper, visiting the sites embedded in the chapter titles below, and hitting print over and over again. Have fun compiling your very own Project04.

Tom’s 60 TIBS (This I Believe)

Success Business’s Dozen Truths (Tom’s Thirty-Year Perspective)

Hands That Shape Humanity

Tom Peters’ Off-Shoring Manifesto/Rant

Re-Imagining Leadership: The Big Eleven

Pity the Poor Brown: Tom Peters Challenges Jim Collins, for Better or For Worse
In this chapter, Peters compares and contrasts his business ruminations with Collins’ “Good to Great” and “Built to Last” business strategy writings. (After much searching online, I could not locate a copy of this article.)

Excellence: I’ll Know It When I See It
Tom’s defines ‘excellence’ in 15 ways which first appeared in an issue of Oprah’s magazine. (After much searching online for this … I could not find a copy.)

FINAL RANT on Re-imagine ... re-ally*

While trolling through tompeters.com, I stumbled upon a summary presentation encapsulating the ideas contained in Re-imagine.

Great stuff - the best primer on Re-Imagine I've found yet.

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Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age
(Click here for the extended remix version released only in the Netherlands.)

ONE
It is the foremost task —and responsibility— of our generation to re-imagine our enterprises and institutions, public and private.

TWO
War-making, commerce, politics, and the essential nature of human interchange have come unglued. We are in a … Brawl with No Rules. We have to make it up as we go along.

THREE
Incrementalism is .. Out. Destruction is … In. Built to last is … Out. Built to flip is … In.

FOUR
There is no higher priority than the Total Transformation of all business practice to eBusiness practice—encompassing every element of the enterprise and every member of its family of alliances and partners. The Internet changes everything. Now.

FIVE
Ninety percent of white-collar jobs (90 percent of all jobs) as we know them will be disemboweled in the next 15 years.

Done. Gone. Kaput.

SIX
“Winners” (survivors!) will become de facto bosses of Me Inc.

Free the Cubicle Slaves! Self-reliance replaces corporate cosseting.

Hooray!

SEVEN
We must learn to add value through creativity … by inventing … Extraordinary Experiences … which provide scintillating “solutions” to customers’ oft unexpressed desires and dreams. Out: Tangibles. In: Intangibles.

EIGHT
Design Rules … in an Age of Experiences/ Dream Fulfillment.

NINE
Brand Value = All Value = Obeisance to Metaphysical Management.

TEN
WOMEN ROAR. Women buy (ALL) the stuff. Re-imagine the brand itself—and all business practices—around women-as-
purchasers.

ELEVEN
Boomers & Geezers have (ALL) the money. Pay attention!

TWELVE
Creative Enterprises demand … Awesome (& Creative) Talent. Everywhere.

THIRTEEN
WOMEN RULE. Women are …Tomorrow’s Leaders. (Period.)

FOURTEEN
“Talent Development” rests upon Total Re-imagining of our insipid schools. Those who “color outside the box” and “can’t sit still” are the New Heroes.

FIFTEEN
Weird Wins … in Weird Times.

(Innovation = Easy. Hang Out with Weird = Get Weird.) (Q.E.D.)

SIXTEEN
Leading = Re-imagining = Unleashing Passion in One & All. Winners … Pursue Quests to Places as Yet Unimagined. Leaders applaud their “followers’ ” Quirky Bravery … and egg them on to ever more wild & woolly experiments.

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The marketing coroners at Brand Autopsy reserve the right to raise Re-imagine rants up from the dead. In other words, at any time we can Lazarus-ize Re-imagine rants. Re-ally, we can. Thanks, the management.

!!! RANT Reading Re-Imagine - PART THREE

Last month, I expressed the frustration (in this entry and in this one) I’ve been having trying to read Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine. Tom’s book is more like Tom’s tome. Seriously, there is so much information to digest but without an index, Re-imagine is extremely challenging to read.

I asked if someone out there in the business blog world would be up to the task of indexing Re-imagine. Rich! answered the call. As it turns out, Rich! uses much of the content from Re-imagine in talks he gives.

So … click below to read Rich’s “Re-imagine Ah-Ha Moments”

!! RANT Reading Re-Imagine - PART TWO

Thanks Michelle, Marc, and Todd for your thoughts on how to tackle Re-imagine. From your perspective, I was able to gain a new perspective on Re-imagine. That new perspective being ...

Re-imagine is not a book you read. It is a book you use.

As Todd pointed out, Re-imagine is a book to use by asking yourself what marketing/business problem(s) you are facing and then seeing what Tom Peters has to say.

Problem is … the book is not indexed for problem/solution usability.

Re-imagine would be better used if it was indexed like the recently published Unstuck is indexed.

Unstuck, written by Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro, is a book designed to help teams and individuals overcome obstacles and make change happen today, not tomorrow. Unstuck is truly a book to be used and not necessarily read.

To encourage its usage, the authors have indexed Unstuck in a way to make it easy to jump from problem to solution. At the beginning (pg. 47) and at the end (beginning on pg. 162), are indexes that outline the problems and then the relevant solutions are listed by page number. Ingenious. Powerful.

Maybe someone out there in the business blog world is up to the task of indexing Re-imagine in the same way. Any volunteers? Bueller? Bueller?

! RANT Reading Re-Imagine

I am frustrated. Not pissed off … BUT FRUSTRATED.

I am not able to conquer Tom Peter’s tome … Re-imagine. I’ve been a voracious reader of business books for years now … and … have conquered them all.

All … EXCEPT … Re-imagine.

Am I not worthy? Do I need to buy the audio CD?

If I do buy the audio CD, will he follow the ellipses appropriately and how loud will he SCREAM the words in ALL CAPS?

To say Re-imagine is chock-full of delicious strategic sound-bites ... thought-provoking discussion ... and great business advice is an UNDERSTATEMENT of magnanimous proportions ... I want to learn all this book has to offer ... BUT HOW?

SERIOUSLY ... I NEED your HELP!

If you have read Re-imagine, please offer up how you tackled this bad boy … cuz I need help … BIG-TIME.

Thank you for helping this poor marketing sap.