The Hopkinson Report - Wired.com's Marketing Guy Jim Hopkinson takes a fresh and funny look at marketing trends in the Wired world.

Jan 01 2009

Episode 37: The Hopkinson (Book) Report … my favorite books for marketing, money, mini-retirement and Manhattan real estate.

Image via Flickr user maryilyn819

For the last episode of 2008, I’m going to leave you with some required reading, summarizing my favorite books for marketing, money, mini-retirement and Manhattan real estate.

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It’s the information age and every day you’re confronted with millions of websites, podcasts, email, online video, RSS feeds, text messages, phone calls and when you finally get home there’s a dozen shows waiting for you on your TiVo and a NetFlix movie and this month’s Wired Magazine in your mailbox.

So who has time to read a book anymore?

Admittedly, it’s a lot easier to read a short column on the web or fast forward through a few skits on Saturday Night Live than to plow through a 300 page novel. But maybe you can find some time over New Years, and besides, I know quite a few women that are in book clubs. Well, from what I hear they are actually wine and gossip clubs that they bring books to, but the effort is there.

Recently a friend of mine was visiting my apartment and looked at the books I had displayed. They said, “Jim, all your books are about self-help.” At first I was offended. Self-help? It made me sound like I had a wall full of Scientology books or the Tony Robbins collection. I was about to fire back but then I really took a moment to study what I had.

There were certainly no leather-bound copies of Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, or Robinson Crusoe. No novellas or poetry collections. No James Joyce or Arthur Miller. And definitely no Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.

Now that’s not to say I don’t enjoy the classics or haven’t read them in my youth. But the reality hit me that what’s ended up as keepers gracing my bookshelves could be summed up in two categories: How to do better in business, and in sports. For this podcast we’ll eliminate the latter, so send me an email if you want to know my thoughts on New England sports history and the best marathon training programs.

I’m not going to apologize for my collection… I’ve made sports and marketing my career and that what I truly enjoy reading. That’s how my brain is hard-wired, and there’s probably a good chance yours works this way too. Like music and art, it’s subjective.

So here are my 7 picks for the Shakespeare of business books covering for marketing, money, mini-retirement and Manhattan real estate.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point

The fact that it is now hip to write articles directly opposing his theories indicate the level of success that this book has had. Released back in 2000, most people have heard of it already and many have no doubt gone on to read his follow-ups Blink and newly-released Outliers.

The book was given to me as a Christmas gift from a friend right after I transitioned my career away from the tech side a bit and he simply said “someone at the bookstore said this is good about marketing stuff.”

Gladwell talks about the three types of people necessary to help virally spread an idea, trend, or social behavior from the flu to crime in New York City. I knew I wasn’t the salesperson type, but then I started reading about connectors. I said, oh yeah, I know a lot of people and help do some of those things, I must be a connector. But then I read about the third type, the mavens, and every single sentence he wrote was like he was listing my biography. I was like oh boy, that is me to a T. I am the very definition of a maven.

In a way, the book foreshadows the social networking we’re seeing on the internet right now, which I talk about in my hyper-influencer podcast. Still a must-read.

The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas J. Stanley

The Millionaire Next Door

I’ve always said that if I didn’t find work in the fantasy sports industry, I would have made a good financial planner. Now you might think these two fields are unrelated, but in fact the skills necessary to succeed in both fields are very similar. The key to outperforming your peers is doing research, finding diamonds in the rough, unearthing statistical anomolies, avoiding busts, and knowing how to buy low and sell high.

While this might be a little too stat-heavy for some, the mavens and researchers and detail people will love it. When you think millionaire, many people think of the Donald Trumps and Bill Gates of the world. What this book illustrates is the surprising number of millionaires across the country doing things like owning a dry cleaning or construction business.

What’s most interesting to me are the detailed case studies of the habits these people have. They shop at Costco, they buy real estate intelligently, they do their research on the important decisions in life, and they live below their means. My favorite chapter was about the surprising cars that millionaires drive. One example listed all the reasons why a millionaire refused a Rolls Royce that was given to him as a gift. But the best was when one of the authors quipped that it was as if millionaires bought their cars based on the cost per pound… and then took the next step and did a detailed analysis of this theory and listed about 100 cars and their cost per pound.

I was shocked to see that this book originally came out in 1996, but it’s still worth checking out. Best of all, you can now get the paperback on Amazon for only $10, a price the authors would surely agree is a good investment.

Made to Stick

Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath

This is the most recent book I purchased, and is very marketing-focused. It uses urban legends as an illustrative framework to show how stories - or ideally marketing and advertising campaigns - can be extremely memorable and viral.

While I took away some great points, I must admit that I have yet to finish it.

So I guess it didn’t totally stick.

The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss

While I didn’t quite make it all the way through Made to Stick, I actually read 4HWW twice. I first came across Tim Ferriss when he was named The Most Effective Self Promoter of All Time on a Wired survey, beating out Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Jesus.

The 4-Hour Work Week

This was especially interesting because I had never ever heard of him. It’s been getting a lot buzz this year, and it’s easy to understand why. He promises to give you the key steps to quitting your job, escaping the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich.

So is this just another ‘get rich quick and retire’ book that over promises? No.

While it bills itself as a step-by-step guide to “luxury lifestyle design,” here is why you need to read this book. I found that it actually covers several different topics individually, and you are free to pick and choose the ones you want independently. For example:

- Quitting the workforce While this is the main theme, and he encourages working remotely and getting down to just a handful of hours, I’m actually OK with going to the office. The problem many people probably have, is not being at the office until 7 or 8 at night, not checking the Treo or Blackberry at all hours, and actually using up all your allocated vacation days every year.

- Mini-retirements The conventional wisdom is your work your butt off for 45 years and THEN you get to retire. Ferriss argues, what fun is that? Who decided that was the rules? His plan is to take a series of mini-retirements throughout your life.

- Marketing Ferriss shows some great examples of implementing the 80/20 rule. Is it simply rehashing a theory from an Italian economist born in 1848? Yes! And he admits it. But it’s still good to get a refresher on Pareto’s rule every once in awhile.

- Managing E-mail This is something that just about everyone can use help with. He has some great practical advice on when to check email, using out-of-office replies, and managing information overload.

- Virtual assistants Can you outsource all your mundane busy work to someone overseas? Tim says you can and while I haven’t tried it, it’s something I’d love to test.

- Starting an internet business to make passive income This one intrigued me the most, especially the stories about the French Sailor shirt and the Rock Climbing Yoga DVD. He makes it sound easy, but if you’re a smart marketer, internet savvy, have ever done a Google keyword buy, and are up on the latest social media, he gives some very, very compelling examples.

So again, if you’re sick of your job and you want to live in Buenos Aires and get a check for doing nothing every mont h, Tim steers you in the right direction. This could be your bible. But this is also a great read to pick up simple workday efficiency tips like batching your email. The example he gives is that you don’t do your laundry every single day after one of your shirts get dirty. It would be silly. There’s too much startup time to go to the basement, run the washer, add the soap, clean the shirt, take it out, put it in the dryer, etc.

So instead you put it all in a bundle and do it once a week. He argues it’s the same thing for a project you’re working on. If you’re in the middle of a budget spreadsheet and try to multi-task by tabbing over to answer a quick email or pick up the phone, when you go back to the spreadsheet there’s a huge startup time to ramp back up again. I highly recommend it.

The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz

The Paradox of Choice

If you identify yourself as a maven in The Tipping Point and love to do research before making a purchase, then this is a must-read. The author starts out by listing the unbelievable number of choices we are now given when shopping. Take aspirin alone. He noted eighty different pain relievers at his local supermarket (80!). Aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofin. 350 milligrams or 500 milligrams. Caplets, capsules, and tablets. Coated or uncoated. You can get regular strength, extra strength, low dose, rapid release, back and body, heart advantage, cold and sinus, fever reducer, tension headache, and more.

He then noted 40 options for toothpaste, 360 types of shampoo and conditioner, 29 different chicken soups, 120 pasta sauces, and 275 types of cereal.

It’s enough to give you a migraine.

The first question is, is marketing to blame for all this? Is this all our fault? But the good news is, he helps you cut through the hype and figure out the BEST option for you, without having buyers remorse.

If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails, Barbara Corcoran

Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails

This is a fun, easy-reading book by real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran. Following the Manhattan real estate market isn’t far behind keeping track of celebrities and the fate of the Yankees and Mets as a full-time obsession for most New Yorkers, and Corcoran is a household name here.

It came out in 2003, so any book on real estate needs to be looked at with a different viewpoint.

But this isn’t a how-to book, but rather a series of life stories she learned from her mom growing up, that turn into keen marketing and business strategies that proved valuable in making the best of any situation, succeeding in business, starting your own company, and even taking on Donald Trump.

Negotiating Your Salary: How to make $1000 a minute, Jack Chapman

Negotiating Your Salary

You know from previous podcasts that I enjoy talking about interviewing and resumes and mentoring. Let’s face it, these are tough economic times. If you find yourself laid off, when you do nail that interview you want to get as much money as you can.

I’ve purchased this book 4 or 5 times for friends and family members, because it gives such good advice. If you go to the career section of a bookstore, there’s a lot of time and effort spent on resumes and cover letters and interviewing, and not enough on the final step of getting the salary you deserve.

I want to talk more about it, but lets just say I plan to have more about this topic in the future…

That’s it for today, I hope you enjoy your reading.

Please follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hopkinsonreport

Happy New Year!

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Dec 23 2008

Episode 36: Top 10 marketing trends that mattered in 2008 (and what’s to come in 2009).

Apple iPhone

Today I’m going to live up to my tagline and do exactly that, taking a look back at the marketing trends that mattered in 2008, and what’s to come in 2009.

Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):

Or read as a blog post:

Hey Everyone… Christmas is just days away for me so I’m going to crank out a quick top 10 list before I head home for the holidays. I’ll give you the marketing trend that mattered this year, how that trend could evolve in 2009, and the podcast episode to go back and listen to that covered the topic. Let’s roll.

10. Customer Service.
2008: I recently saw Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay), CEO of Zappos.com, speak about customer service. He said that most customer service call centers are rewarded on how quickly they get the customer off the phone. He puts his 800 number at the top of every page, and viewing each call as an incredible 5-10 minute, uninterrupted branding opportunity to bond with his customers. Hear hear.
2009: I think companies are starting to get it. I recently had two stellar customer service experiences with Amazon.com and AT&T, and even companies like Comcast are taking notice.
Podcast to listen to: Episode 31, Ritz-Carlton service at a Red Roof price – why Japan is king of customer service.

9. Advertising smarter
2008: Reality TV… gossip websites … celebrity magazines … over-the-top news programs … are companies tired yet of contributing to the dumbing down of America and advertising to the lowest common denominator?
2009: Aim higher. Of course we’d like you to advertise on Wired, but when every dollar counts, shouldn’t most companies try to reach the most intelligent, educated consumer?
Podcast to listen to: Episode 14: Interview with Julia Allison - Queen of self-promotion, lightning rod for publicity, Wired cover story

8. Going Green
2008: Gotta go green. What’s your carbon footprint? I hope that paper’s recycled. I hear you’re thinking about getting a Prius. You bring your own canvas bags to the grocery story, right? Is that a bottled water?
2009: More more more more. I know it’s the right thing to do, but I’m sensing a slight backlash. What do I mean? Go to the McDonalds web site. You’ll see photos of salads and water and wraps and apples slices. Now go to the Carl’s Jr website. Check out the Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger. 1140 calories. 85 grams of fat. THAT kind of backlash.
Podcast to listen to: Episode 35: What Japanese toilets taught me about the auto industry.

7. Mac Vs. PC
2008: This year saw huge gains for the Mac and Vista getting pummeled.
2009: Microsoft is fighting back with their own ads, I think smaller and smaller laptops are going to make huge inroads, the next Windows release is getting hyped, and Steve Jobs won’t attend the last Macworld conference. Does it ever get old following this story?
Podcast to listen to: Episode 8 and 24: Ad Campaign Showdown - Apple vs. Microsoft, Round 1 and Round 2.

6. Facebook
2008: I was referencing a report I did from February, which talked about Facebook’s 65 million users. That number is now 140 million.
2009: The story is the same as it’s always been. You’ve got the eyeballs. How do you monetize?
Podcast to listen to: Episode 21: 10 Things I taught my interns.

5. MySpace
2008: I hate MySpace. It’s old. It’s clunky. It’s so last year. It’s done.
2009: Then I saw a share of visits chart [Credit: www.marketingcharts.com]
Podcast to listen to: Episode 17: DJ Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk: The Music, The Model, The Mitigation

4. The Recession
2008: In Episode 29, I almost went contradictory, saying that the recession was being overblown. That people were still spending money. That at least in New York, I personally wasn’t seeing the signs that other parts of the country saw. But I dialed it back. That was on November 5.
2009: Then a few weeks later, the layoffs hit my company. On both coasts. And then it seemed the stories rolled in daily. And budget cuts. But traditionally, strong brands survive - and often gain market share – in a bad economy. We’ll be watching every industry.
Podcast to listen to: Episode 29: Live on the streets of New York – 5 optimistic tales of the recession.

3. Twitter
2008: Back to Zappos. Every employee is encouraged to use Twitter. The 2 rules they are told? 1) Be yourself. 2) Use your best judgement.
2009: More people twittering. More stories. More hype. More users. Today I read an article of a man that Twittered a plane crash he was in. I foresee more stories like this.
Podcast to listen to: Episode 11: Twitterer-in-Chief … How social media is changing politics.

2. Video
2008: It’s growing and growing and growing. HD is commonplace. Companies are starting to get it. Ad models are evolving. YouTube. Vimeo. Hulu. Joost. iTunes.
2009: It’s growing and growing and growing.
Podcast to listen to: Episode 34: The Hyper-Influencer … Word-of-mouth marketing mavens using social media to influence sales.

1. iPhone
2008: The iPhone 3G was unleashed on the world to unbelievable hype on July 11. It was faster. It was cheaper. There was GPS. There were shortages. There were lines. There were call problems.
2009: But I’m going to tell you folks, the most important thing to come out of Cupertino that day was the App Store. That will be the game changer in 2009. Wait till you hear my first guest next year.
Podcast to listen to: Episode 01: Porsche vs. iPhone

Thanks for listening all year, and special shoutout to my super intern Anuja Shah, whose last day is this week. She has a great future ahead of her. Happy Holidays all.

Thanks for listening

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Dec 18 2008

Episode 35: What Japanese toilets taught me about the auto industry.

You thought I was kidding when I said I would do an entire podcast about toilets, but you were wrong. Here’s what Japanese toilets taught me about the auto industry.

Play Episode (recommended for maximum loud, funny, ranting):

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Konnichiwa, boys and girls. Today I’ll do my final podcast about my trip to Japan. Previously I’ve covered a dozen marketing and cultural observations about Japan and why Japan is the king of customer service. So if you haven’t seen those yet, check ‘em out.

But another thing that really struck me was the Japanese bathrooms. Don’t worry, I’m going to keep the language, um, out of the gutter, but when I started thinking about how to broach this topic, somehow the US auto industry came to mind, which of course, is going down the toilet.

But along the way, think about how the topics I discuss apply to ANY business.

So let me rant about five things involving toilets, and cars…

1) Evolution
Think about the toilet in your apartment. Think about the toilet at your office. Think about the toilet at your parent’s house. Think about the toilet you had when you were 5 years old. What do they have in common? EVERYTHING. They’re exactly the same.

For me, with the exception of my unrenovated 60s era apartment in Seattle in which the toilet was a bright canary yellow, every single one was basically the same, a white ceramic bowl with a white ceramic cover with a white lid. OK, maybe at my mom’s house there’d be a furry blue cover or a red and green one with Santa on it during the holidays, but they were all the same.

Which is why it’s so striking when you go to Japan, because the toilets are unlike anything you’ve ever seen. They seem so evolved. I’ll talk about how in a second.

Now lets compare cars from the US and Japan.

I’m not going to rip the US car industry and say that they’ve never evolved, but look at something like a Jeep Cherokee from the 80s compared to now. Are they really that different? Now pick a Japanese care and do the same thing.

You want a rant about car evolution? Listen, I don’t know if it was a Japanese company or an American company that finally figured this one out, but how about accidentally leaving your lights on and draining your car battery.

How many of you are nodding your head right now, shuddering about the time you left the lights on in your car, went into a friend’s house or the football game or whatnot, and when you came out, your lights were on, and your battery was dead.

Really? We couldn’t figure this one out? Not a single engineer for years and years and years and years spoke up and said, you know, there’s really no need to have your lights stay on, why don’t we make it so that when you shut the car off, it shuts your lights off?

What happened to that guy? Did he get fired on the spot? Did they lock him in a basement in Flint, Michigan? Really? You mean to tell me that no one thought this was a good idea?

Think about that… think about how many thousands of lost productivity hours there were from people that couldn’t get to work. Think about all the dangerous situations people were put in stranded at night in a parking lot. Think about all the nice couples having brutal fights as the frustration mounted. Think about all the annoying announcements in department stores “Would the owner of a blue Plymouth Reliant, license plate 147-PFH please return to your car, your lights are on.”

My theory is that there was a powerful mafia organization built around Sears Diehard batteries and the jumper cable industry.

Wouldn’t it have been nice if all American cars evolved past that 20 years ago?

And two quick ones: when I was in high school in the 80s, we had our standard American cars, but my friend’s family bought a Subaru station wagon. And I was struck by two things on the dashboard. First, the heat controls were nice, round, clearly marked dials that you could twist easily, not difficult sliding levers.

And second, the hazard lights were simply a triangle on the dash that you pushed. Press once, the hazards were on. Press again, they were off. On American cars, you sometimes had to do a 2-step process to turn on the hazards, and sometimes it was located under the steering column. Again, really? They’re HAZARD LIGHTS. Who thought, well, if someone needs the hazard lights, it’s probably a stressful, emergency situation. Let’s hide the switch and make it difficult to engage!

2) Mechanical breakdowns
Ever have to unjam a stopped up toilet? Is there any greater fear – any greater fear? – then when you’re at your rich friend’s house and they have like 6-ply, 300-thread count Egyptian-weave toilet paper and you flush and it starts to get stuck and the water is rising and your heart stops because it looks like i