Regret Or Content?
by John R. Sedivy
How do you feel about your life? Do you feel that you have not had enough time and that you have not lived life to the fullest? Or do you feel that you have taken full advantage of life’s opportunities that have come your way? In short, are you living with regret or with content?
Merely Passing Time Or Making The Most Of It?
Consider the following from Viktor Frankl, the author of “Man’s Search For Meaning”:
“The pessimistic resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away from its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back.”
There are at least two important points that you should take away from this passage. First, I have heard that at the end of life, a person regrets not what they have done, but what they have failed to do – missed opportunities. If you truly think about what you are doing each day, and attack each problem that comes your way with vigor and zeal while continuing to move to the next challenge – there will be little to regret at the end of your life.
The second aspect is the value of reflection. Take a little time each day to think or reflect upon what you did each day. What went well? What could have been improved upon? By considering each day and jotting down a few notes you can work to improve your life gradually over time. This is a simple yet effective technique. It may be difficult to get into the groove at first, but like any habit, it will come with ease over time.
Results Of A Fully Lived Life
Frankl addresses the results of a fully lived life below:
“He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? “No, thank you,” he will think. “Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.”
I can attest to the truth of the preceding statements. The path I have taken in life has not always been easy, however it has been rewarding, sometimes painful. There is one thing that I can say with certainty – I would not care to repeat any part of it. That is the beauty of living each day to the fullest – the best is yet to come!
Consider your life and if you are living with regret or content!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
Starbucks Brand Hijacking Attempt Part III
by John R. Sedivy
This article concludes the “Starbucks Brand Hijacking Attempt” series by explaining how Starbucks successfully survived the social media assault unscathed and what we as individuals and businesses stand to learn from their example.
In “Starbucks Brand Hijacking Attempt Part I” I had explained the attempted undermining of a Starbucks social media campaign. In “Starbucks Brand Hijacking Attempt Part II” I had discussed how in my opinion the attack fell short, and Starbucks has appears to have surfaced unaffected. Now on to how they did it…
The Right Stuff
So what did Starbucks do right concerning this attempt to hijack their social media campaign and potentially their brand? Simply put – they just kept being Starbucks. That’s right. There was no silver bullet, smear campaign, or counter-strike necessary. Starbucks just continued with their social media presence and focusing on their customers all while the attack dwindled in effectiveness.
Starbucks has a pretty solid social media presence to begin with. For example, they have a Facebook page and Twitter account. The Starbucks Facebook Page has over 3 million fans at the time of this writing. The Starbucks Twitter Page has over 200,000 followers. Not to say that having social media accounts and a fan base is an end all, but they also do a reasonable job of keeping their accounts up to date and keeping fans and followers engaged.
Learn To Let Go
Rob Walker in his book “Buying In” discussed the concept of brand hijacking. Basically it is when the consumers of your product or service attempt to define your product. In essence, you lose control as your consumers gain control. Sometimes it could be good, other times bad. The mistake that is sometimes made is that a company may attempt to interfere or squash the hijacking of their brand rather than let the situation play out. Rob Walker provides an example of a positive brand hijacking that actually helped a company redefine their brand in a positive light while reducing overall marketing costs, and increasing sales. In my humble opinion, control is an illusion – therefore one should go about their business, monitor their environment, and adjust accordingly all while learning along the way.
Although the intent of the anti-Starbucks campaign was certainly negative, I believe that Starbucks took the right approach and others should follow suit in the event that they should experience a brand hijacking. In this instance Starbucks continued to participate in social media, engaged their audience, kept their product offerings the same, basically it was business as usual. Remember – what you focus on expands, if you focus or respond in negative fashion to a negative attack – it will only fuel the fire. Responding positively or just maintaining a positive presence will help grow this positive presence over time.
Just be yourself, consistently – over time this is the best strategy!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
Starbucks Brand Hijacking Attempt Part II
by John R. Sedivy
In “Starbucks Brand Hijacking Attempt Part I” I had explained how Starbucks had been under attack on the social media front. I had also reexamined our approach on keeping it positive, and how it has worked wonderfully for us. Now that some time has passed since the release of the anti-Starbucks video, I am going to discuss what has happened.
A little over a month has passed and what was the end result of all this effort? I was curious and performed a Google search on the results – I typed the following search phrase in Google: “Social Media + anti-Starbucks campaign” I received the following results as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Anti-Starbucks Social Media Campaign
The first page highlights a number of bloggers who linked to the video and prematurely declared it a success for the attackers. This undoubtedly built up some steam for the producers of the video – at least initially. But what constitutes a success for an attempted brand hijacking? Is it merely someone saying something bad about you or your company on the Internet and encouraging their friends and others to do so and spread the word? If that is the case we are all in trouble.
Anything Goes. Or Does It?
I have found that people are less inhibited on the Internet and will go out their way to be nasty, many while hiding behind a shield of anonymity. These are the same individuals who may yell and shake their fist at you (or something worse) while driving on the highway, but suddenly become meek when you both pull into the same parking lot and they discover you are actually coworkers – generally the courage and rage go away at that point and the timid, embarrassed individual returns.
So goes it with the Internet, especially social media. I believe that this was a case of a few individuals attempting to push their political cause and expecting everyone else to jump on board. If one is to gauge success in terms of social media metrics such as number of tweets and fans, it appears that this effort fell short. I located an interesting blog post that provided what appears to be a decent analysis of the effort in terms of social media metrics – summary: looks good for Starbucks, not so much for the upstarts. For those interested in the details, the full article is here.
My opinion based on what I have seen and read? Like most activities with negative intent – it was a flash in the pan, without substance to sustain it over the long term.
To Be Continued…
Next I will discuss how I believe Starbucks weathered this attack unscathed and how other businesses and individuals can learn from their example.
Attacks are generally a flash in the pan and generate some buzz, but are not a sound strategy over the long term – keep it positive!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
