A 'rewarding' catalogue – for customers and employees

Every so often, Glue receives a catalogue from the premiums and incentives organization 4imprint. What is commendable about this selling tool is that they not only have very clear photos and pricing info about their wares, they also subtly sell their own corporate culture.

They do this by frequently having their own employees holding or wearing the merchandise, and by naming the employees (first name only) along with their years of employment with the company.

What a great way to foster employee pride and drive engagement while helping customers see the product in a realistic setting. Bravo!

When book shopping time is short...

Despite the best efforts of customer service rep. Steve at the Chapters / Indigo store at Manulife Centre, the two copies of The Challenger Sale: Taking Control Of The Customer Conversation by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon that their website showed as in-stock were both on customer holds and thus unavailable.

At this point, the ever-trusty AbeBooks.com digitally rides to the rescue!

Not only was I able to order the book noted above, but also Achieve Sales Excellence: The 7 Customer Rules for Becoming the New Sales Professional by Howard Stevens and Theodore Kinni.

Expected delivery time: should be less than 8 days for both books!

Filling in some holes...

Just spent some time walking down memory lane while adding a few more items to my LinkedIn profile.

One was the one (and only award) for my illustrious high-school acting career at Adam Scott (as a rural French Canadian in love with the wonderful Marie... "Marie, could you not love me a little bit?").

With my friend (but academic rival) Paul Harris in full makeup in one of the one-act plays at Adam Scott (likely Hands Across the Sea by Noel Coward)

The other was my essay about an amazing Art Deco gem (the 1937 Toronto Stock Exchange) in the commemorative book about the opening of the Design Exchange in Toronto.

Where did those wordless years go?

If you're wondering why there's a three year gap in my blog posts, it's because I've been posting on Facebook and Twitter, but not here.

Thanks to the wise counsel of www.SofieAndreou.com, I've revised my online strategy; this is the place to come for my general observations, funny items, etc.

(I'm working on upgrading my Glue and Art Deco online presence as well... Stay tuned!)

The collapsing distinction between promotion and information

Yesterday, on my favourite radio interview program (CBC Radio's show Q), host Jian Ghomeshi  intreviewed Hayley Phelan, Fashion News Editor at Fashionista.com about her online story, 'Can You Trust the Editorial Integrity of Personal Style Blogs? A Closer Look at How Bloggers Make Money.'

The segment got me thinking about the larger issues of ‘independent thought’ and the blurring of ‘promotion’ and ‘information’ in contemporary culture.

Witness the growing popularity of advertorials in reputable newspapers and magazines, in which corporations or special interest groups pay to have ‘editorially formatted copy’ written about them to surround their advertisements, all bearing such headings as ‘sponsored supplement’ or ‘special information feature.’

Count the number of well-known brands that we are exposed to in a typical Hollywood movie or TV show. Product placement is big business.

The burgeoning field of branded content, accelerated by social media, involves brands creating their own editorial or entertainment-style programming that, to a greater or lesser extent, allows them to focus attention on their own products without the clutter of competing brands.

The prevalence of celebrity endorsements for products ranging from fragrances to fast food suggests that many consumers crave reassurance or status when making purchasing decisions.

For me, the most practical way to cope these days is to carefully choose brands that you identify with and trust, whether it’s a newspaper (in my case, The Globe and Mail), a clothing retailer (L.L. Bean) or a line of haircare products (whatever my stylist at Fiorio on Bayview recommends). 

Just don’t expect that your choices will yield “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

10 ways to strengthen employee engagement

I've just completed a new whitepaper that shares my thoughts on how organizations of all kinds can take action to enhance their workplace environment and boost employee engagement. (You can download the document by visiting my LinkedIn page at Tim Morawetz.)

The 10 ways presented in the whitepaper are:

Give   inspiration
          instruction
          information
          informality
          interaction
          influence
          initiative
          input
          incentive
          intensity

I hope you'll take the time to download it and read it... I welcome your comments!

How would your employees handle a 'pop-up show'?

An organization's internal culture is one of its most important and precious assets (or liabilities, as the case may be.) 

Because culture is so intangible, it can be hard to assess – and harder still to first establish or to change. But there's little doubt that culture has an enormous influence on how successfully employees collaborate with one another and how effectively they interact with customers.

Consider the role of corporate culture in the situation recently cited by Globe and Mail columnist John Warrillow in his article about the unexpected appearance of a 'pop-up' piano performance in a retail environment. Would your staff feel right thanking the pianist with the gift card, or would they feel it necessary to quash the fun? 

Virgin's Richard Branson, in a Canadian Business column on customer service excellence, advocates 'first to know, first to handle'; empowering employees who first encounter a problem to make every effort to solve it on the spot.

In these days of greater demand for top talent, be sure to unleash the best instincts of your people by fostering and reinforcing a positive organizational culture.