Toellner Tells it

Mailing it in

I just stumbled across an article in Ad Age (May 22) that talked about how the US Postal service has waived its long-time ban preventing advertisers from putting messaging on postage stamps.  The move will allow the government to make back millions that is being lost in the email age.  While many think there will be backlash on this, I agree, within the present structure.  However, the government could have made a lot of money, and prevented most of the backlash, but maintaining more control.

Think about it.  The people who will complain are those who think about the "glory days" of mail -- with flags, statues of liberty, George Washington, etc on the stamps. If it's nostalgia they long for, why not only open the medium up for nostalgic companies.  Would people really get upset if Coke put it's 125th Anniversary logo on a postage stamp?  How about a picture of the Statue of Liberty that said "Visit New York".  How about if Major League baseball promoted "America's Game"?  Or what about a postage stamp featuring Micky Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck or any other old-time Disney characters?  What about if Hollywood promoted the movie industry using former well-known actors?  What if the movie War of the Worlds promoted its movie or DVD release with a set of four with scenes from the movie and one with writer Orson Wells?  The opportunities to make it a nostalgic collectors item is unlimited. 

Yet the first company on board is HP.  Seriously, HP.  A company who's name and logo invoke little to no nostalgia in anyone's mind.  HP will get the notoriety of being first, and maybe even the credit for discrediting a medium before it even gets off the ground.  But will it help their brand?   

Learn more about photo stamp advertising at http://photo.stamps.com/PhotoStamps/business/

Missed targeting

I received this email today.  If you can't read it, it's in Spanish.  If you know me at all, my biggest goal in life right now is to learn to speak Spanish -- but that is to say, I don't speak it at all well now.  Needless to say, this website missed their targeting.

It's a shame too.  The internet, and email advertising have such a wonderfully unique opportunity to truly reach people who are interested in your products -- and only those people -- and yet, the power of the medium is lost by those who insist on screwing it up for everyone.

Three Day Weekends

I've never gotten people who work too much. You know the type, they're proud of being the first to the office, the last to leave and of the time they spend working on weekends.

While I appreciate people who can get large amounts of work done, I've never found that too much office time makes me a better employee.  In fact, I've found quite the opposite to be true.  None of my customers work at my office -- and for the most part, I feel like if I'm not out living, I miss big pieces of what make consumers tick. 

So live a little. Enjoy life.  You'll likely find that sitting at a coffee shop watching strangers on their daily routine will teach you more than you'll learn in 100 email newsletters or blog entries.  And it's pretty fun too -- and shouldn't just be reserved for three-day weekends.

It doesn't happen overnight

My home town Kansas City Royals lost their 13th straight yesterday -- and they did so in heroic fashion by blowing a 3 point lead going into the 8th innning and losing 13-8.  This marks their second 10+ game losing streak this season -- a season that is currently on pace to break the 1962 Met's record for most losses in a season.  This is especially painful because the 1962 Mets were an expansion team where the Royals are a strong franchise with over 35 years in the league.

So how did the Royals get to this point?  It took time.

An organization builds itself through getting young players -- either via trade, player development and the draft.

For the Royals, their 2001 draft (which took place before the Royals had an owner) has developed zero big-league players.  It is on pace to become the only team draft in history to accomplish that.

The 2003 draft, which featured 42 players, only led to four even getting signed to a team.

The organization has traded its few superstars (Carlos Beltran, Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye) for powerhouse players such as AJ Hinch, Carlos Hernandez, Angel Berroa (who is actually playing with the team but is on the outs with coach Buddy Bell), Neifi Perez, John Buck (a solid Big League cather), Mark Tehan and Mike Wood.  Underwhelming to say the least.

Meanwhile, the organization has failed to develop some of the existing young talent -- Zack Grienke is overcoming "personal issues' in extended spring training, Jeremy Affeldt, a kid with a million dollar arm and a 2 cent attention span has flip-flopped back and forth between Starter and Closer for the past 4 years, Jimmy Gobble had a promising start as a starter, but struggled without a strikeout pitch -- so they moved him to the bullpen where a strikeout pitch is more important.  Berroa won rookie of the year a couple years ago and is likely on his way out, Mike Sweeney is on the DL again with back problems, and Mark Tehan may be worse now than when they first got him from the A's.  I could go on.

The point is, the Royals have become the worst team in major league baseball for a variety of reasons.  This is pretty typical of most businesses.

Companies don't hire a series of incompentent managers all at once....it usually happens one hire at a time over a long timeframe.  Advertising Agencies usually don't lose clients over one mistake -- but a series of blunders that add up to a lack of credibility, mistrust, and an agency review.

The point is, if there are problems in your organization you need to fix them now.  Do it quickly and swiftly.  Problems don't go away.  They build.  If you don't fix the problem early on, you will continue to have problems, and over time, can lead to disaster for your business.

Today also marks the day that Kenneth Lay got sentenced to his role in the Enron scandal. The people at Enron didn't become corrupt overnight...it took time to get to one of the biggest business scandals in US History. 

How does your company do at stopping its problems before its too late?

So this is publishing?

Three years ago my dream was to write a book.  I sat down, sketched out some chapters, wrote an outline, and even got a chapter or two written. Then, personal life came up, and I set it aside.  Then, a funny thing happened in the last three years, nothing that I had previously written was relevant any more. 

Seems now that the publishing industry has changed.  By the time a book gets written, published, in stores, and promoted, the information in it is out of date.  Way out of date.  Things are changing very quickly.

12 months ago, I remember having a conversation about what a Blog even was.  10 months ago, we were trying to define exactly what a Podcast was. Less than a year later, I have a blog, and iPod, and have listened to Podcasts.  I'm not an early adopter.  That's how the pace of change has quickened. 

I saw a quote recently that talked about the shame of it now that there is so little useless information.  It's true.  I could make a full-time job of keeping up on all the new stuff going on in our industry -- and probably still fall behind.  Given this, I know how important it is to truly have useful information, no one has time for the useless stuff.  So my goal is to make this blog useful to those who eventually find it, and read it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy the process.