Recent Activity

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  Most Pinko of the Big Boys

  Hey Phantom...you may be misunderstanding. This group is full of Pinko Marketers...which is a positive term, meaning: community sympathizers.

  Posted 28 Feb 07

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  I finally found tangler!

  Hey Eric! Thank goodness you are here!

  Posted 28 Feb 07

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  Pinko for the Non-Profit Sector?

  There is a Pinko Specific manifesto

  Posted 12 Feb 07

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  GDP vs. GPI

  01/27/2007

  What you measure matters the most

  I’ve been reading up on the call for the switch from GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) lately. I’m interested in this mostly due to my self-proclaimed role of a consumer advocate first, but also in regards to the research we are undertaking with Citizen Agency on how to measure the health of communities.

  I won’t try to masquerade as someone who understands the depth of these economics debates, but years ago in one of my university classes, we were assigned a book that changed my way of thinking forever, Counting for Nothing, by Marilyn Waring. Her basic premise in this book was that by measuring GDP as the sole indicator of progress, governments would continue to prioritize economic growth at any cost: human, environment, social, etc. Previous to reading Warings book, I had no idea that something like the Exxon Valdez oil spill was considered progress. Furthermore, Waring discusses how the drug trade, child pornography, war, clear cutting, terrorism, and many other horrifying things are not only counted towards the GDP, but sometimes they are the most profitable industries (for example, there is selling drugs, which counts as economic growth, then there is the cost of rehabilitation, which counts as economic growth, not to mention the cost of policing for drugs…).

  Thus, while general social wellness takes a plunge, the GDP gets healthier and healthier. Marilyn Waring argued that the cost of this is too great to continue down this path, that this is not a long term or sustainable measure for looking at things and that we needed to rethink our measures to make us accountable for the long term. In fact, even employing basic business accounting practices would account for the depletion of our natural resources (oil & gas companies get to write off their resource depletions for long-term hedging).

  What is really interesting to me is the ‘proof’ of how that has played out over the years. Redefining Progress, a California non-profit organization commissioned a study years ago to measure a comparison between GDP and GPI since the 1950’s and found that, yes, the GDP showed a healthy and steady growth while the GPI not only stagnated, but it actually fell after a minor growth to the 70’s as indicated here:

  

  Some even said their measurements were conservative and predicted a 45% reduction in the GPI from 1970-1999. Since then, we’ve seen 9/11, the war on Iraq, a further spread between the rich and poor and devestation of our natural resources.

  Months earlier on my blog, I asked the question, “Is purchasing power the only power we have left?” It isn’t. Not if we change the way we measure ‘progress’. The issue today is that policy is influenced by these indicators. No, not influenced…set. And it ‘trickles down’ - it also influences what we value as a society. When success is measured by pure $$ coming and going, everything else becomes noise. Instead of
  taking diversity of interests for granted, we have to fight for policies to protect human rights, the environment, the arts, and everything else that isn’t considered part of economic growth (although some arts are, it’s not an influential sector in this measure) under a system that values ‘the bottom line’ above all else.

  But rant aside…I’m actually looking at the GPI as a potential model for the way to think about how customer interests become core indicators on the success of a web service. Currently, it is measured by ‘growth’ or ‘new customer acquisition’ - especially in the cases of web apps as abandoned accounts still count for ‘members’ in many cases.

  As I’ve indicated before, I don’t think raw numbers have much to do with the health of anything, and I want to go beyond ‘gut’ instinct so that we can get some more leverage in adoption of this.

  I’m actually going to be looking for grants or other alternative revenue sources so that I can hire a research assistant or two over the next while on this and, hopefully, turn it into an e-book or even publish it in the future. If anyone has any hints or help in that area, I’d love to hear them.

  Posted 29 Jan 07

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  Is Spam the anti-Pinko?

  It's a product of greed and the fact that there are still enough people who can be fooled by this stuff and send money that they aren't detered yet. Education is the key. Especially to online newbies.

  Posted 06 Feb 07

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  The Boutique Era

  I'm going to invite a few folks by who are interested in this topic later on...

  Posted 29 Jan 07

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  Does Google Do Marketing?

  Pinko marketing does not include anything "push"...if that's what you mean. It's all INreach.

  Posted 02 Feb 07

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  Explaining Pinko To An Accountant

  Wow MikeMc...for being new to this topic, you do a mighty fine job of explaining it in layperson's terms! 

  Posted 06 Feb 07

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  Where is my community? (from the Future of Communities Blog)

  I just got caught up reading through a bunch of the posts here and ended up a little confused. Here we are, an organization supposed to be talking about the future of communities, but the subtext of what I'm reading keeps saying, "Community will help your business."

  Should we start a community or should we join other communities and make relationships there? What motivates people to join a community? How does tagging help? Should we have a wiki? A Blog? Big brand names being flung around as great examples of communities. 'Wisdom of Crowds'. Revenues increasing. Customer evangelism on the rise.

  It's so far from any experience I've ever had in any 'community' online or offline, that I wonder where I'm at. Much like the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and their discovery and guarding of P2P Networks, I wonder what's in store for The Future of Communities.

  But then I remember that Francois asked me to be part of this, even though I told him I would be a royal pain the rss. And I will be.

  Personally, I think Community has turned into a garish buzzword, leading hungry marketers by the snoot down a new path of public/commercial boundaries being crossed. The outlandish ad budgets of yesteryear aren't producing the same back-patting kudos and are looking more like cultural pollution than future award winning art direction. Word of mouth, itself, turns out the same reactions as those
  clever viral campaigns: an eyeroll at best. Marketers, desperate to keep their Madison Avenue jobs and yearly jaunts to Sundance, are finally ready to "take the precious time needed" to build a community behind their brands.

  But we aren't. We are marketers. Would we give a flying snake about Shari's kitty photos if we didn't want to sell her a new car? Would we hang around MMORPG's all day long waiting for a customer to walk into our lame store 'cause we enjoy it? No. And no...I don't know the majority of the people on this list, and I'm sure you are all
  well-meaning wonderful people, but I do know that we are all marketers. We are paid to help our clients sell stuff. And the more we tiptoe around that fact, the more dishonest this industry becomes.

  I struggle with my self everyday. I oscillate between being a marketer and a consumer. Everytime I think I've found peace with that, I slip and fall again. Especially when it comes to communities.

  Whatever motivates people to come together (and there are as many motivations as there are people) and form temporary or long term bonds that may or may not grow into a community, it is a personal experience. When you are dealing with people's personal experiences, you can't screw around. It's like that time the popular girl in school sat beside you and talked about hanging out. You went home all excited, like you had done something right. Your confidence soared. Then you found out
  she just wanted to date your older brother. Man, that stunk.

  I don't mean to be vitriolic. I'm just defensive and scared. I've been let down too many times before. I've had too many popular girls wanting to befriend me only to find out that I'm still at the nerd table and now being coined as 'the dupe'. It makes me bitter and jaded. I got rid of my television years ago. I use Firefox to turn off my ads
  in my browser. I have the best spam filters around. Sure, I consume. I consume like a madwoman. I'm a Sephora-holic. I get regular 'shopping bonus cards' for the money I spend at Banana Republic. I once counted a grand total of 78 pairs of shoes in my closet (insanity!). I'm a marketers dream and nightmare all at once.

  
  My community is supposed to be here, amongst the 'marketers with souls'. The people who Francois has gathered to make certain that the word 'community' doesn't get bludgeoned to death with every other well-meaning word. That we don't send people deeper into their closets, throwing up firewalls afraid of everyone, even their close friends, pitching them on the latest and greatest this or that.

  I know that somewhere inside our desires to prove the ROI on community to our eager clients, we know the answer. It's pretty simple. It's where we as humans start and customers/consumers/users/community-members/ call-us-what-you-will end.
  We can and will reach deep inside of that part of ourselves (which we are first and foremost) and empathize with the fact that entering someone else's personal experiences and trying to sell them something is uncool. We have to be willing to lose ourselves to the community. We need to become community advocates. We need to reverse the line of communication and bring word back to our bosses and our clients that their products are hurting the environment, exploiting labor, not
  acceptable to be tested on animals, falling apart, causing addiction, causing health issues, hurting our children, driving us further apart, etc. We need to protectively bring the soul of the community back INTO the organization and change things...not collectively go out, infiltrate and sell things.

  Yes, there is a changing role for marketers. I believe in the future, we don't work for brands and companies, we work for customers.

  That's my community. It isn't here. My role is to speak up here to say, "This won't do."

  It won't.

  Posted 29 Jan 07

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  Top Ten Marketing Ideas For 2006

  Those "Top 10 Marketing Ideas" are NOT pinko...sorry...Pinko is not about outreach marketing

  (ps. I heart my Moo Cards. I saw them on someone's blog and fell in love. Now I exchange moos with people from all over the world) 

  Posted 12 Jan 07