So today is my Auntie Flora's birthday, and my Mom is over at Flora's house. I call and ask Flora if I may give her her gift.
"Over the phone?" she says.
Yes. I sing "Happy Birthday" to her. First time I've done this for her. She is wowed.
"You missed your calling," she says.
She gives the phone to Mom, who tells me I should open a business where I sing "Happy Birthday" to executives.
I ask her if she will be the business manager and my marketer. She demurs.
I remind her that after she retired from a distinguished career in Social Work, she took a job for a while in a specialized form of Real Estate, and quickly became the top salesperson in the office.
She comes back with, "That was property. Concrete." Says she can't sell intangibles very comfortably... and selling my singing would be selling an intangible.
... and you WONDERED why I am the way I am?
* * *
OK, down to business. Tangible vs. intangible, in fact. The future of business.
I saw an article that really set me a-thinkin'. It was in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday and I can't find a link to it, because it was written by Bloomberg News reporter Ian King... so if you're a better researcher than I, please send me the link and I'll put it up on this blog.
Here's the gist of the article:
Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a speech at Silicon Valley power-meeting-place The Churchill Club Thursday that he's very impressed by many of the things he's seen at the search engine company which is currently taking over the world.
"There are elements of Google that drive me nuts," Otellini was quoted as saying. "On the other hand, I love it. There are things I'm learning at Google that I would like to adapt and bring back [to Intel]."
I should probably tell you that Otellini has the ultimate insider's view: he's on Google's Board of Directors.
Now: Why is this interesting to me? Why should it be interesting to you?
And what in the heck does it have to do with copywriting?
Good questions, if I do ask them myself.
Here's why and what:
Intel (the world's largest maker of microchips) is about as tangible, rigid, Dilbert-cube as you can get.
Examples:
- They make physical stuff (tangible). Microchips.
- At least under the reign of former Intel CEO Andy Grove, everyone was required to be in the office at 8:00 a.m. sharp, or else sign a "late list" if they were tardy. This included Intel founder Gordon Moore.
- Even today, according to reporter Ian King, CEO Otellini "works in a gray cubicle that's smaller than the orange one he was first given when he joined Intel in 1974." Everyone else has the same-sized gray cube. The purpose: to stay consistent with the company's manufacturing approach that "emphasizes uniformity."
Now let's talk Google.
My friend and World Copywriting Blog Executive Contributor Jim Van Wyck sees them as the world's largest data mining company. I agree.
In Ian King's Bloomberg News article, the following points are made:
- Google lets employees bring dogs to work.
- Employees may have futons in their offices.
- Employees may spend one day a week -- slow down for this one and take it in -- "to work on projects of their own choosing."
Says Intel's Otellini: "It's everything that is not Intel. We are very disciplined and organized."
PERSONAL NOTE: I get it about Intel, and especially "Only the Paranoid Survive" author and former CEO Andy Grove. Back in the day, when I was a journalist, I interviewed Headmaster Grove and unthinkingly sent him a copy of the published article.
Boy, was I ever sorry.
He sent it back with a page of corrections and questions.
OK, it was good for me. I've learned to be a lot more fastidious with my fact-checking in the ensuing 21 years.
But I didn't like it one bit.
Anyway...
Why care?
Because, I believe, with Intel weighing in on the left side of the brain, and Google weighing in on the right, these two companies represent, in a very intangible but important way (sorry, Mom), at least a big chunk of the future of business... in America for sure, and maybe worldwide as well.
Intel is the über-organized company. Everything in its place, and everything has a place. There are procedures that are established and all individuals are subordinates of The System. (A System that works, mind you. Tops in the microchip wars is no mean feat.)
Google is the ultimate you-do-it-your-way, I'll-do-it-my -way, but-gosh-darn-it,-just-get-the-bloomin'-thing-DONE type of company.
See, there are different approaches to business, and what I have observed is you've got to find the one that's right for you and STICK WITH IT. Do that, and everything else -- and I do mean EVERYTHING -- is easier. Stress is lower. Profits are higher. Fun is more the rule than the exception.
I believe that being clear (and being consistent with) who you are, what you do, and -- this is new -- HOW you do it is going to be the new dividing line between success and failure in the future... assuming, of course, that you have a viable business to begin with.
ESPECIALLY in America.
Why?
Because globalization -- tangibly, through loosened-trade-barrier and lowest-cost-manufacturer-wins marketing, and intangibly, through the Internet, cheap or free telecommunications, and hungry skilled labor on all parts of the globe -- globalization is going to make ever greater efficiency, mandatory.
For survival.
So what does this mean to you as a copywriter?
It means that you've got to get clear on what works for you, and then make every effort to structure your business that way.
I know very successful copywriters who are very Intel-like. "Lockstep" wouldn't begin to describe them.
That's fine. It's who they are and how they do it.
Then there are copywriters who are more Google-like. Faster-paced, more experimental, a little off-the-wall, but still great at getting the job done, in their own peculiar way. And they make a very handsome living, at that.
I'm more of a Google-type person than an Intel type person. I live in a Google-type world - a lot of people I know are very quick on their feet, and you never know what they're going to do or say next.
But at least they're CONSISTENT in their eccentricity.
I like Google because there's so much room for error, as long as you bounce back before it's too late.
Here's a wild and crazy example:
Let's say you're thinking about Bailey Garfinkel Barnes, the World Copywriting Puppy. (He's on the blog if you haven't got the whole story yet).
And let's say you want to find my Web site and you're having one of those Sometimer's days ("Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't.")
So you go to Google and with too many things at once on your mind, you type in "World Popywriting Institute."
Here's what you get:
<< Did you mean: World Copywriting Institute
No standard web pages containing all your search terms were found.
Your search - World Popywriting Institute - did not match any documents. >>
Now dream with me a moment here. If Intel were running the search engine, you might get something more like
Seek error 100001111100000
No such URL found
Your system will shut down in 10-9-8-7-6... seconds
Well, maybe not that bad. But you do see my point, don't you?
Good. Until next time,
Cheers,
David Garfinkel
Publisher, World Copywriting Newsletter
My friend and co-author Jim Edwards (we wrote eBook Secrets Exposed and Immediate Money Immediately! together) is well known as an ebook and Internet Marketing guru, but not as many people know Jim is also a world-class search engine expert. He keeps that to himself because, I guess, he doesn't want to dilute his focus.
