Avoiding Stale: The Answer was in my Inbox

Yesterday, I posted about a frustrating, repeat experience I have at my neighborhood Starbucks, about my concern for two the world's most recognized brands and about my anxiety as a marketer - the anxiety I feel over staying "awake" in my small-business, low-budget, low-woman-power marketing efforts.

Out, Out, Damn Thought!

When I write a blog post, I have to admit, it is mostly just to get what's in my head out. I don't spend enough time writing or promoting posts to have any following to speak of, but I do think enough to have a lack of brainspace available to perform daily marketing tasks.

So, I wrote yesterday's post, and then immediately started thinking. Did I really want to post that? What if I look incompetent because I freak out in public about holding onto my marketing originality? What if, by chance, someone does read the damn thing? Idiot! Then, since there is no way I was going to pull the post down because I spent time on it - time I don't have - I mentally-kicked myself and do what I do best. Fill my head with more thoughts - this time problem solving ones.
These thoughts must be outted.

How Not To Go Stale

Would it be cheating to cite social media for a way not to be stale? I know every marketer on planet Earth is pointing the finger at today's new media, but social networking opportunities like Facebook fan pages are capable of being very convenient focus groups. Yes, you cannot control all the variables, but you can talk. And you can listen - even silence is audible in this medium. There is even an Poll app.

So what happened to Starbucks and Apple? I'll leave it to them to be anxious about. I'm not smart enough for all that, for sure, and I don't work there. But both companies have active social networking presences, so it is curious...

Employees Can Fix It

My main thought about that is the companies have or are tripping themselves up along the way somewhere. Not too long ago, the company I work for started holding monthly marketing meetings with each department. The goal was to keep Marketing, a one-woman show, in close contact with Retail, Admissions, Clinic, Student and Faculty Affairs as well as Management, which are more or less also one-women shows.

My only personal criteria for these meetings was that I do not create agendas for these meetings. Instead, I ask the department heads to write one. The beauty of this is that, for the most part, these people don't know anything about marketing, and asking them to write my meeting agenda is a little "out of their box." They have to work at it. But they have what I don't and can't see from where I sit. And that is intimacy. They know about their department and they do know what does and does not work in their department, and they do know what people are complaining about. And they are flattered that I ask for their help. We don't talk about policies or rules or problems. We talk about solutions...It is an amazingly creative process. And I'm not alone in it.

Today, ruthlessly purging my inbox, I came across an unread Seth Godin blog post - Upside vs. Downside. Check it out. Had I read it Monday when it hit my inbox, I would have my opinions about creative brainstorming re-affirmed before I had the opportunity to re-wonder via blog.