The four secrets to proven academic success

I've been teaching for over 10 years now. Recently I started giving a presentation to new students revealing my four secrets for academic success.

All students are keen to find the "secret sauce", but then realize that they actually knew these "secrets" all along.

1. Come to class - Yes this is pretty obvious but the strongest correlation to good grades is attendance. And of course once in class you should actually pay attention rather than spend the entire time on social media.
2. Do the work - And this is not just doing the work you think is required, but actually reading the description of the assignment and doing what has been asked for. If the assignment asked you to compare two B2B companies, don't compare two B2C companies.
3. Hand in the work - As Wayne Gretzky said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take". You are better off handing in what you may feel is a substandard piece of work and getting some marks than handing in work that you regard as perfection  so late you get nothing. And once you get the work back read the instructor's comments. They have taken the time to read your work and give you some feedback. Take a few minutes and read it over.
4. Don't plagiarize - A bit obvious. But I've lost count of number of times I've seen students who opt to take what they regard as the the easy route and copy part or all of their project from the web. But it does not go unnoticed. The plagiarized work stands out as if the handwriting had changed.

Students that do these four things pass their courses. For anyone who has been teaching for a while these tips are pretty obvious, but it appears that many in the latest generation of students didn't "get the memo".

It looked a bit familiar

Alpine Aviation logo
(Source: http://www.alpineaviationyukon.com/)

I was doing so research for a presentation and came across this logo. I thought the logo looked familiar and went looking for the original.

Lowe Apline logo (Source: http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5498a579e4b08142c229ca5b/54997e2de4b03ff49a71c06e/54998230e4b04b06d4618f0c/1419346566135/Lowe-Alpine-LOGO.jpg)

It didn't take me long to remember where I'd seen a similar logo before. The circular border, the mountain profile, and the orange sky all look rather similar to the old Lowe Alpine logo.

The question is is this coincidence, influence, or copying?  Perhaps it is just the view out of a airplane window flying through the Yukon. Or is this sort of imagery so common and generic that anyone could have come up with the idea?

Bowen Island's branding in action

New branding for Bowen Island
(Source: https://www.tourismbowenisland.com/destination/what-they-say/tell-your-friends-its-awful/)

On June 27 2016, a new branding initiative for Bowen Island was unveiled at a meeting of the Bowen Island's municipal council.

The new branding message is rather tongue-in-cheek and has not met with universal approval. (It seems that Bowen Island nothing ever does.) 

Last week I saw elements of the campaign  being used at a new building being completed close to the ferry terminal.

Garden adjacent to a new building in lower Snug Cove, Bowen Island, BC

Sign in the garden adjacent to a new building in lower Snug Cove, Bowen Island, BC

I'm keen to see how many more instances of this campaign I see in action around the island over the summer.

Giving it away

Nivea sampling crew, Broadway City Hall SkyTrain Station, Vancouver, BC

Nivea sampling crew, Broadway City Hall SkyTrain Station, Vancouver, BC (Detail)

For firms in the bath and beauty area, sampling is a cost effective way of getting consumers to try your product. For the price of some product samples, pennies each, and a couple of staff a firm can put samples into the hands of hundreds if not thousands of people.

When I saw these two women around noon and they informed me that they were paid until 3:00 PM or when they ran out of samples, whichever came first.

Before consumers will buy a product they must be lead through a multistage process. The steps are; Awareness, Attitude, Trial, Purchase, and Repeat Purchase. This sampling exercise accomplishes the first three stages in one fell swoop.

My daughter and I each  took a couple of samples of the In-Shower Body Milk. I quite like the product, while my daughter is not crazy about it. But at these prices who can complain?

I expect better (And so should you)

Article by Lawrence A. Crosby, Marketing News (Published by the AMA), July/August 2016

Article by Lawrence A. Crosby, Marketing News (Published by the AMA), July/August 2016 (Detail)

I'm not perfect. I make spelling mistakes and I have had to go back to old blog posts and correct the typos.

My marketing students also make spelling mistakes. One of the worst and most common mistakes I see in their work is spelling company names wrong. (Is it Sportcheck, Sportchek, SportCheck, SportChek, or Sport Chek?) I tell students that this sort of sloppiness is inexcusable and a mistake that could get them fired.

But they are not writing for an official publication of the American Marketing Association, and Lawrence A. Crosby is.

So either Mr. Crosby does not know how to spell the name of JC Penney, or more likely some automated editing bot has changed the spelling. (I think that the latter is far more likely.)

Seeing this sort of egregious spelling error in an industry publication is depressing. How can I get my students to take spelling seriously when they see examples like this?


PS The correct version is Sport Chek. The logo does not have a space between Sport and Chek, but the text version does.

Sport Chek company name
(Source: https://www.sportchek.ca/help-desk/corporate-information/about.html)

Better than YouTube, but that isn't saying much

Advertisement for Spotify featuring Justin Timberlake, Burrard SkyTrain Station, Vancouver, BC

Vinyl was supposed to be dead. But in 2015 sales of vinyl in the UK were the highest since 1994. In 2015 UK artists earned  £25.1 million from sales of vinyl, which is more than than the £24.4 million they received from YouTube and similar services. 

In 2015 Spotify and Deezer did cough up more (£146.1 million) to UK artists, but the amount per play is very low. According to a story in Time, Spotify pays between $0.006 and $0.0084 USD per play. A Spotify user would have to listen to an song over 3,000 times before the artist would make the same amount that they would from a single CD sale. 

Justin has made over $20,000 from Spotify in Canada. That is small change for him, but many smaller artists feel that Spotify, and similar services are using their work without providing fair compensation. 

This story is not over yet.

Another tenuous attempt an an Olympic connection

Advertisement for Interac Flash on bus exterior, Vancouver, BC

Who is the "King of Speed"? By many measures it is Usain Bolt of Jamaica. Current world and Olympic record holder at the 100, 200 and 4x100 metre distances.

And at the Rio Olympics, like most summer Olympic games, the 100 metres is the most watched event. Usain Bolt will be back to defend his title and see if he can be the first person to win the event in three consecutive Olympic games.

So I am sure that it is just a coincidence that Interac came out with this campaign just before the summer Olympics.

Let the promotions begin

Packaging celebrating the summer 2016 Marketing Games

Every four years, the best of the world's youth gather together to figure out how to turn a meeting of athletes into the biggest marketing and promotional event of the year.

This year the athletes are gathering in Rio de Janeiro but marketers in every corner of the world are trying to figure out how to use the Olympics to sell more stuff.

This is the package for the limited edition" Oreos. (Notice that the cookies are emblazoned with the maple leaf instead of the word "Oreo".)

But as Oreo is not an official Olympic sponsor the words "Olympic", "Games" or "Rio", or any possible combination of those words, do not appear on the front of the package.

And, nudge nudge wink wink, I'm sure that no one would make any connection between a cookie on a ribbon and an Olympic medal. That would be wrong.

Using advertising to achieve none of your goals

Advertisement for Gray & Farrar, The Matchmaking Service (The Economist, July 16, 2016)

I saw this advertisement in a recent issue of The Economist. Now, it is not that I'm looking for the services of a matchmaker, but I was intrigued.

According to the firm's website;

"Welcome to Gray & Farrar, where only the most eligible single people are accepted as private clients. The success of our service reflects the success of this selection criteria and we are certainly not right for everyone.

It has often been said that we are one of the world's best kept secrets and we certainly intend to keep it that way. Our clients' right to privacy is safeguarded at all times and the internet has no place in our business. That is why you will find only limited information on this website.

The majority of our clients come to us through personal recommendation or by personal invitation and so already know who we are and how we work. However, if you are not familiar with Gray & Farrar and would like to know more about how to retain us, then please do get in touch to arrange a personal meeting. This can take place either at our Headquarters in Mayfair, London, or in one of the following locations: Paris, Monaco, Brussels, Geneva, Zurich, Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles and New York. Other locations by arrangement.

Our fees are £15,000 for our standard service whilst Gray & Farrar Bespoke is solely price on application."

I love irony, and the line in this FULL-PAGE ADVERTISEMENT that I love the most is, "It has often been said that we are one of the world's best kept secret and we certainly intend to keep it that way." 

And you've purchased a full-page advertisement in The Economist to achieve this goal?

Getting it a little bit wrong and then getting everything right

Letter from LEGO accompanying missing pieces

Letter from LEGO accompanying missing pieces (Detail)

I am a fan of LEGO. I've bought quite a few sets for my daughter. Every now and then a piece is missing from a set. As a customer I can either say, "Oh well", and dig into my existing stock of LEGO to find a piece the right size, or I can contact the firm.

I contacted LEGO and in just over a week the replacement parts arrived in the mail. It is this sort of service, and the great products themselves, that has kept me as a loyal LEGO customer for more decades than I'd care to admit.

This is now the service standard that I expect other brands to match. It is not if you screw up, but how you recover that makes the difference to the customer.