Thoughts From The Cake Scraps

If you’re like me, you see a bed full of pillows and wonder what the purpose of all of them could possibly be.  After all, if one were to use the bed, all of the pillows would have to be removed and the put back on after the cat nap.  It is very easy to think that the extra pillows have no purpose.  But, I have found that there is a very subtle error in this way of thinking.

Many things are not designed with practicality in mind.  Yes, the widget has to accomplish the job it was made for, but it also has to look good doing it.  Here again you may argue that as long as it gets the job done, it doesn’t matter; again I have to say that there is an error in that logic.

The common error between the throw pillows and the widget examples is that it ignores that instant judgment that people make upon viewing the object.  The reality is that many, if not all, people judge a book by its cover.  Knowing that, it is easy to see how this ties into business.

The experience that people have with your product matters, the story it tells matters.  What is often overlooked is that this extends beyond the product to the company itself.  This includes everything form retail locations to corporate headquarters.  Money has to be spent to preserve the experience and the brand image.

I have a great example.  Out at Lands’ End headquarters in Wisconsin we have both offices and a distribution center.  Out in the back there is an area where semi trailers are parked that are not being used.  I have not idea how much space, but it can hold a few.  What I noticed on a run the other day is that there is a big grass mound/hill between the offices and this parking area.  It has been there for a long time, but how much did it cost to build it?  I have no idea, but it also makes me wonder, how many people decided to work for Lands’ End, or how many vendors gave a better deal, or how much business has been done because of a great experience on the campus.  An experience that was great, in part, because they saw a beautiful grassy hillside with trees instead of parked semi trailers.

That is why as much as I wonder why a business would pay for an office in downtown NYC or why people spend what they do on nice suits, or why a company does what might be considered ‘fat cat’ spending on things such as landscaping, art, architecture, and the like…as much as I wonder about all of that and as much as people love to criticize it I think at the end of the day it matters.

People will argue until they are blue in the face that they would like to just have something that gets the job done and that all that spending is wasteful.  Mostly this is because we want to believe that we are completely rational and don’t make ’shallow’ decisions.  But as much as we would like to believe this, it is simply not true.

What do you think about throw pillows?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

I enjoy a drive through the countryside every now and then.  There is something that is just relaxing about it.  You just get to cruise along, maybe have the windows down and the music up.  If you are lucky then you have a few hills and turns to keep things exciting.  And if you are in the right spot, at the right time of year, you may even stumble across a home selling whatever happens to be in season.

Often times these places have handmade signs listing what is being sold and what price it is being sold at.  Perhaps there is also some obnoxious arrow pointing you up the driveway.  And if they really have it together, they may have a flag waving in the wind with the word “OPEN” on it.  That will really get people to stop in…or will it?

When I see an “OPEN” flag I cannot help but wonder if the place is actually open.  Do they really take it down each day?  What about when I drive by after suppertime and the flag is still displayed?  Should I assume that they are still open for business?  It seems like a good idea to have the flag, but I’m just not sure how genuine most people think it is.  Oddly enough, I think that a cardboard sign will actually help because I know that can’t be left out very long before it falls apart.

Another idea would be a light.  If I see that there is a light on the flag or sign, then I am more likely to believe that it is in fact open.  All of this is interesting, but it paves the way for a broader issue: credibility.

A home shop with a cardboard sign or “OPEN” flag has plenty of credibility.  A light that is turned on and off has credibility.  The problem is the open flag always looks the same.  It is always there.  Nothing is ever different.  The owners are not considering what leaving the flag up might do.

In the current business environment, this is a critical issue.  How credible are your promotions (because everybody is running them)?  Are you running the same thing over and over?  This will work just fine for a short amount of time, but make sure that you have an exit plan.  Even if you take pause for just a week you rebuild credibility.  You rebuild a scarcity factor.

If the “OPEN” flag isn’t always up, then I know that I had better stop in when it is up because otherwise I may miss my chance.  There is no urgency if there is always a sale.  I can’t stress this enough: Small things, the ’scraps’ as I like to call them, matter.  Leaving the flag out and the promotions running may be the easy path, but sometimes it pays to take the path less traveled.

Do you believe “OPEN” flags?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

All brands have some sort of logo, even if it is just a stylized version of the brand itself.  It is something that people see and can recognize instantly.  The real question is how much does a brand speak for itself without a visible logo.  Can you tell the car is nice just by looking at it?  Does the shirt look comfortable?  Does the toy look fun and durable?

A good brand will stand out beyond a logo.  Too often in the apparel industry for young adults (whatever that means) is so over the top in the amount of branding that it just looks silly.  A logo on the shirt is one thing.  A leather patch on the waist band of the jeans is fine.  But then they take it to the next level.

Take the shirt at the top of this post.  You will not have any problem telling where it is from, but really?  This is style?  I guess I got it confused with a billboard.  Other brands are just as bad.  AE, A&F, Aero, etc. are just a few.  But there is hope.

I have recently been enjoying Express shirts because they don’t blare the brand.  They just let the uniqueness of the shirts speak for themselves.  It could be viewed as a missed opportunity to brand.  I view it as a sign that they are confident enough in their product that they don’t need to do anything as bad as AE did with their shirt.

What do you think of branded shirts?  What is okay and what is too far?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

As an analyst I can’t help but try and figure out why something is done a certain way if it doesn’t seem immediately logical.  Sometimes these thoughts are fleeting and other times they keep nagging me.  The nagging thoughts tend to be the ones that seem totally illogical; that no thought or reason has been put into the things I am observing.  I always think that I must be missing something.

One that has been nagging me for far too long is the gaps in the bathroom stalls.  I just cannot figure it out.  Google searches leave me with no definitive answer – but there is interesting conversation about it here.  So I turn to you, my readers, to answer this question.  This is an issue that really needs to be solved.  This is our privacy people!  There’s not all that much left of it in the world (I say as I sit here and blog about my thoughts).

In case you have not recently been in a bathroom stall at work, school, or any other place that has public facilities I will break it down for you.  There seems to be some sort of engineering gaff that nobody has noticed.  The door that are supposed to keep out eyes from outside have large gaps around the edges of the door.  In some cases they are as large as an inch!  Now that may not seem like much, but at a distance of just a few feet it is enough to see plenty through the gap.

Now lets be clear, I am not talking about the gaps on the bottoms of the stalls.  This makes for easier cleaning and whatnot.  I get it.  I’m not talking about the gaps between the stalls and the ceiling.  Clearly this is for ventilation so that things can air out.  Or maybe so that those automatic air fresheners have an easier time of perfuming in the stalls.  Whatever the specific reason, it makes sense.

I am not even talking about the gaps between the stall walls and the wall.  Again, I don’t know the specific reason.  I can only guess.  Perhaps it has something to do with caulking it, or cleaning it, or ventilation, or to pass notes when you don’t want to go under the stall.  Really, I don’t care.  There is nothing to see against the back wall.

My issue is with the door.  Doors exist so they can be closed.  Now I don’t expect it to be a perfect fit.  I understand that there is more cost with a tight fitting door.  But these things can be mass produced to a greater extent than a 1 inch gap on each side, right?

Or, if you don’t want to worry about a close fitting door, then put a nice big strip of plastic on the side of that door that opens (e.g. if it opens out when in the stall, have the plastic on the outside).  That way not only with the gap be non-visible, but you will not have to deal with tight doors or anything else.  The cost of a plastic strip in comparison to the cost of the total structure ($250 – $1,000) cannot be all that much.

And to address a final concern – I won’t even complain very loudly if these bathroom gaps existed at truly public places such as restaurants, subways, and parks.  But in corporate offices people?  There are no concerns about what graffiti or activities might happen there.  So really, what’s the deal with the gaps?

Have you ever wondered this?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

Recently I got quite the offer from Fortune Magazine on a 3 year subscription.  I have always thought about getting a subscription but it always seemed just a bit to expensive for me.  If you know me you know I take my money very seriously.  So after much consideration (mostly in the form of having the offer sit on my desk for a few weeks) I decided to go ahead and send in the form.

At this point I would like to admit that I am a credit-card-aholic.  I hate to use cash and never use a check – at least when it can be avoided.  Its not that I rack up the debt, it’s more that I just prefer it as a form of payment.  I like the perks that it offers.  I like the convenience of it.  I like being able to review my transactions BEFORE the money is taken out of my account.  And that’s my beef with debit cards.  I can contest a credit card charge before the money ever leaves my holdings.  I have to get the money back if there is an error and I used a debit card.

With that background in mind, I move on to my issue with Fortune.  On the slip they provided, an option was to be billed later (and probably use my own stamp), send a check, or fill in my credit card info.  I did the credit card info.  It was just the easiest and quickest way to pay.  I slipped it into the provided return envelope (postage paid by them), licked it shut, and was all ready to send it off when I noticed something odd.  I could basically see right through the paper and read my credit card number.

This didn’t take some special light, or even holding it up to the light.  Literally all I had to do was set it on my desk and press down on the envelope and I could see, plain as day, my credit card number.  Hmm….seems a bit odd.  So I didn’t send it and instead put in an inquiry to Fortune Customer Service – to verify that the offer was in fact real – and said the following:

Comments : Hello – I got an offer in the mail for Fortune that advertises a corporate rate of x yrs. for $xx. The listed address is PO BOX 61xxx Tampa FL 33xxx-1xxx I have filled out the form, but before I send it off, I wanted to see if the offer was real. Main reason I question it is that you can see right through the envelope. Odd for an offer that asks for payment info to have a return envelope that is easily seen through.
Thanks,
David

It took them nearly the full 2 business days they quote to get back to me and they said:

Thank you for contacting FORTUNE Customer Service.

Yes, the offer is a legitimate offer from FORTUNE magazine.  Any further questions, please let us know.

We appreciate this opportunity to be of service.

And then they had a bunch of links to useless info at the bottom.  Does this strike anybody as an odd response?

Here I am, a potential customer.  I was suspicious about the offer but I didn’t discard it.  I went through the trouble of making sure it was real.  But more importantly I let them know why I was concerned and they didn’t even address the issue.  And they certainly didn’t thank me for bringing it to their attention.

Keep in mind that this is Fortune magazine.  One would think they would be savvy about the real danger of identity theft.  And yet, they seem to have no problem giving you return envelopes requesting payment information that can easily be seen through.

This is the sort of stuff I just don’t get.  How can they totally ignore the issue in their response?  I know there is just a small chance of anything actually going wrong but in the days where it is not difficult to hear about one story after another about a stolen identity, one would think a magazine of Fortune’s reputation would do what they can to protect the people they are prospecting to.  I don’t want to make a big issue out of nothing, but I can’t help but feel that being able to see my credit card number and expiration date through a business reply envelope is a big deal.

What do you think?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

When you are driving along the highway and suddenly notice that you are almost out of gas you want one thing: gas.  You glance up and see a huge billboard advertising the very thing you are looking for.  It talks about the “Cold Beer”, “Fresh Coffee”, and “Exit Number 32″ but most importantly it is a gas station.  If you are lucky it even has the current price.

You quickly look for the small green mileage posts to figure out just how far that is.  After a few moments you see that you are at mile post 30.  Only 2 more miles.  You feel a bit more at ease.  About a minute or so later you see the familiar signs listing Food, Gas, Lodging and the like. A moment later you are upon the exit ramp.  You take it off cruise control and start slowing.

Halfway down the ramp you see the sign with the logo of your favorite gas station and an arrow to the right.  You roll up to the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp and turn right.  No gas station in sight.  You drive along anyway until you finally just turn around and continue on to the next exit.  Now you’re angry.  The gas station was only another mile ahead, but you will never see it.

I have one thing to say to businesses that are on these exit ramp signs: don’t lead people on like this.  I’m not sure what the rules are, or if it varies state by state, but I hate it when locations on the exit sign don’t have a distance on them.  It is such a small thing to do.  It’s not like the distance changes each day.  There is just no reason not to have 1.2 miles or 5.7 miles or whatever underneath the logo on the exit ramp.

Perhaps it is just me, but I like to know the distance to my destination.  It is so easy to add this to the exit signs and yet for some reason no exit around me has that piece of information.  How many displeased customers are created because of this?  More importantly, how many people does that business lose because people can’t see it from the highway and don’t know how far away it is.  If they know it was just a mile away perhaps they would take the exit, instead the just keep driving hoping that the next exit will have a sign visible from the highway.

Small things, like distance to location on the exit sign, are so critical in providing an optimal customer experience.  This blog is built on that very principle, that every little scrap of information has value; if you overlook the scraps (also called “the long tail”) you are going to miss huge opportunities.

Does your area have distance on the exit ramp signs?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

It has been some time since I last posted on Twitter.  I have only used it for a few months but I feel like I can safely split Twitter into 4 types of Twitter users.  The User, The Contributor, The Talker, The Streamer.

The Streamer is the Twitter user that feels like they need to post every update in their life.  They use it like a combination of an Away Message and an IM to the world.  The problem is that, on the whole, most people don’t care.  And if they do, they probably already are in contact with you in some other way.  The other defining characteristic of The Streamer is the frequency of updates.  If The Streamer would only post once or twice a day then the Tweets could be interesting, even if they are just about general life.  The problem arises when this is done with an annoyingly large frequency.  Of course the threshold of annoyance will be different for different people so you will have to self-define that limit.

The Talker is the Twitter user that shares every link they come across if they can justify sharing it with a single follower and often times even when they can’t.  They retweet as often as possible.  Again, as is the case with The Streamer, each user will have their own threshold for how many retweets are too much.  The Talker will also have conversations on Twitter that really should be done in a Direct Message or some other communication channel.

The Contributor is that perfect blend of everything.  The Contributor shares only a few links, but great links.  The Contributor will share helpful tips.  The Contributor will share an interesting event in their life.  But really, they only share the cream of the crop and will direct their tweets with DMs and @replies rather than full on blasts to all their followers.

The User is person that is following a ridiculously large amount of people.  They are the user that only follows you hoping that you are a brainless sheep and will follow back even though you have no interest in what the person has to say.

Of course these are generalizations and things like TweetDeck help manage these sorts of things, but it would be nice just to have people use common sense.  It makes it better for everyone involved.

People can’t read what you tweet if you are tweeting 20 times a day because they don’t have the time for that.  Then multiply those 20 tweets by 50 followers and you start to see just how silly and, ultimately, less useful these people make Twitter.

Which Twitter user are you?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.  If these posts interest you, follow @TheCakeScraps!

Diamonds are not the only thing that is forever anymore. It is no secret that Google will dig deep and find things on a person that the person has long since forgot about. Individuals that are active on the internet are pumping out a HUGE amount of information that is then on electronic record.

It could be a post in a blog, a comment on a blog, a Tweet, a Facebook wall post, a resume on your college club site, etc. The list of places that your name might show up grows almost every day.

I was most recently reminded of this by an interesting site, Cursebird, that tracks curse words used in Tweets. It even gives a real-time stream. Not only that, but you can search by user and it gives you all the tweets that the person used a curse in and ‘rates’ them based on which and how many curses they use.  If you check it out, @TheCakeScraps has no results.

While you may know all of this, and it may all seem pretty common sense, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded every once in a while. I will leave you with the short – but great – post from Seth’s Blog:

A friend advertised on Craigslist for a housekeeper.

Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person’s name.

The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, “binge drinking.”

The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, “I am applying for some menial jobs that are below me, and I’m annoyed by it. I’ll certainly quit the minute I sell a few paintings.”

And the third? There were only six matches, and the sixth was from the local police department, indicating that the applicant had been arrested for shoplifting two years earlier.

Three for three.

Google never forgets.

Of course, you don’t have to be a drunk, a thief or a bitter failure for this to backfire. Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you’re on Candid Camera, because you are.

What are your thoughts on the legacy you leave on the internet?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

What do you see when you look at this picture?  Do you see a game of Jenga nearly complete?  Do you see a tower of block about to fall?  Do you see the next block that you would take out and add on top?  It all depends on your perception.

Many people will just see the picture as a game of Jenga.  Passive.  Just a picture.  That may be true, but what it represents is opportunity.  Yes, there is risk in taking the next block out.  But – as they say in a casino – you cannot win if you don’t play.

The economy is in an interesting state right now.  Things are a little wobbly.  But the interesting part is that we can change it.  All this is is economics.  As business pull back and cut ad spend that means that if you were to buy what they are leaving behind it will not only cost you less, but you will gain market share.

This won’t work with all businesses and all products.  Some things just won’t sell with things as they are.  Then go somewhere else.  Wal-Mart is growing.  McDonalds is growing.  Thrift stores are growing.  It is easy to just dismiss these things as obvious.  Resist the temptation.  What they are really doing is providing a service that people are seeking out right now.  Yes, in this case it is value, but it doesn’t have to be.

Really think about how your business can fit a need for the modern customer.  If Lands’ End had never expanded into apparel, would they still be around?  BMG is canning its mail-order membership.  I just got my “Final Mailing” because they are getting out and moving into a discount model rather than a mail-order model.  (On a side note, did you know that if you forgot to decline the ‘Featured Selection’ you could just write “Return To Sender” on the box and they have to ship it back and don’t charge you!)

The point is that people still have needs.  Visualize how you can help morph your current business to fit a need.  It may be as simple as shifting your marketing to promote value.  Or if you are doing that maybe you have to highlight the value and some other feature that the product has.

Winners and losers are being determined as you read this.  Which side is your company on?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

In the world of dashboard and report generation every little trick can help.  The trick might save you time, make something possible, or just look pretty sweet.  I think that any one of these is a great reason to employ an Excel trick, but I have to be honest; I am partial to the last one.

The reason that I love Excel tricks that look sweet is that often times if it looks sweet then it is also more likely to be used and appreciated by others.  On top of all of that it can be fun just seeing what Excel can do.  With all of that in mind, I give you my first post on Excel Tips and Tricks: Creating a Dynamic Data Validation Range.

The first tool that you will need is the “INDIRECT” formula.  The INDIRECT formula takes a text string and evaluates it as a range.  So, whereas normally a formula might say ‘=sheet1!A6′ and INDIRECT would look like ‘=INDIRECT(”sheet1!A6″)’.  The main difference is that the second formula is text and can be broken up into text segments and concanated together like this ‘=INDIRECT(”sheet1″&”!A”&6″)’ which is the key because then any component within the INDIRECT can be part text part cell references, calculations, formulas, etc.  Here’s and example of that ‘=INDIRECT(”sheet1″&”!A”&3*2)’ or if cell B1 had a value of 6 in it ‘=INDIRECT(”sheet1″&”!A”&B1)’.  All of these formulas would return the value that is in sheet1!A6.

Whew! Take a deep breath after that.  Perhaps take a second to play around with it because the next part relies on it.

The difficult part about using data validation in a cell is that the data validation range must be in the same sheet as the cell you are validating.  Unless you use a named range.  You cand define a named range in 2 ways.  The first is to select what you want and then in the box in the upper left corner of the sheet type a name.  The second is to use Insert > Name > Define (2003) or Formulas > Defined Names > Define Name >Define Name (2007)

Here’s the setup.  I am entering “List of Letters” in Sheet2!A1 with letters A – F in column A rows 2 – 7.  Select Sheet2!A1:A7 and type “Data” into that box in the upper left corner.  You should now have a named range called “Data”.

Then in cell Sheet1!A1 Use Data Validation and select List for the “Allow” drop box.  For the source type “=Data”.  You should now have a drop down in Sheet1!A1 that has all of the values from Sheet2!A1:A7.  Now you have applied Data Validation to a cell that pulls from a list on a separate sheet.  Nice.

Now for that extra piece of flare.  We need to redefine this named range.  For this go back into the Define Name – select the name and click edit; in 2007 use the “Name Manager”.

Now, we get to use the INDIRECT from before.  We will start off nice and simple.  While the current name should be defined as ‘=Sheet2!$A$1:$A$7′ we will just make that and INDIRECT so we get : ‘=INDIRECT(”Sheet2!$A$1:$A$7″)’.  Now we want to change this so that we know how far down to go.  Right now we go to A7, but what if things are added.  We would have to redefine the name every time.  Luckily, we can use the COUNTA formula to count the number of non-empty cells.  In this case COUNTA(Sheet2!A:A) should equal 7 (one for the heading and one for each letter).

Lets throw that into our named range definition in place of the last “7″ so that we get: ‘=INDIRECT(”Sheet2!$A$1:$A$”&COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A))’.  Notice that we have to put in the quotation and ampersand right before the COUNTA because we are building a text string.  As a final touch lets say that we don’t want the heading the drop-down box in Sheet1!A1.  We have to change the row that the range starts on so we get : ‘=INDIRECT(”Sheet2!$A$2:$A$”&COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A))’.

As a final wrench, lets just say that the list on sheet2 is moved from A1:A7 to A:3:A9 with A1 and A2 blank.  Here we would just have to add something to the formula on the end to pad it for the blank rows and change the starting row.  In this case we would end up with ‘=INDIRECT(”Sheet2!$A$4:$A$”&COUNTA(Sheet2!$A:$A)+2)’

Let me know your thoughts on this post and if this worked for you!

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.