Flexible Thoughts

OWS-Inspired Solutions for Businesses

The issues raised by Occupy Wall Street are ones that concern many Americans, and offer a cultural insight to what customers want from the businesses in which they buy goods and services. It's not that protesters want everything to be free and on the barter system—no, these protests are in response to feeling that the game is rigged.

Publicly traded companies are beholden to the shareholder; however, over time, the game has shifted from long-term goals with solid annual (or longer-term) profits to the short-term vision of clever accounting to show quarterly profits. So how can corporations connect and communicate with today's consumer sentiment?

1) Customers Are Shareholders Too: Although not direct owners of a company's shares, customers are the ultimate decision-makers on whether a business will be profitable or not. Keep this in mind, and be respectful of consumer power. Look deeper into your company's actions and adjust corporate policies to reflect the sentiment of your customer audience. If your values align to your customer's values, then you will ensure loyalty.

2) Work More Closely on Implementing Shareholder Proposals: These are people who own stock in your company and are willing to go through economic ups-and-downs with you; however, many proposals that seem would seem fair to your customers, do not get buy-in or support from the top—instead they get a fight. Some common and easy-to-implement shareholder proposals that should be considered.
--End Golden Parachutes: Nothing's more outrageous to the average American then knowing someone got millions for a job they failed at when the most people will get fired without severance. Although not all packages are for a job poorly done, these agreements offer a high payout for
--Develop Sustainability & Responsibilty Reports: Explain what you're doing that's good—whether it be environmental or worker's rights in Southeast Asian factories—and attach dollars to the costs (or cost-savings) involved. Layout a long-term plan for how the company is taking responsibility for its actions

3) Invite People To Own More Shares: Explain to customer's that you want them to be involved in the direction of the company and invite them to become shareholders as well. This says, "we're all in this together."

Big Banks, Big Business, Big Changes?

 

This past Saturday marked a new protest in the era of "We Are the 99%" with an action-message: Bank Transfer Day.

A clear and simple statement of "we're not gonna take it," and we're taking our money elsewhere to show you that we mean it. Big banks are finding new ways to impose fees on lower-yielding accounts, yet disregarding the damage to their reputation. As was seen in Bank of America's reversal of the $5 monthly fee for debit card usage, the consumer is defiantly taking a stand, consumers are fed up with feeling like a pawn.

Put another way, banking customers are beginning to wonder why they have to pay so much in a variety of fees, when they (in good faith) give banks their money to hold, and thus the banks can make money by: 1) loaning that money out, or 2) by receiving a fee everytime the consumer pays for a purchase with their bank card. In other words, consumers KNOW that the banks make money off of their money and their shopping habits. And they also know that the banks are not losing money, they're just not making as much in profits.

So what's a big bank—or big business—to do?

 

3 Ways Businesses Can Manage Fees in a Positive Manner

1) Create Clear Fee Structures: Consumers don't like to be nickled-and-dimed, look at all the ruffled feathers from the new policies in the travel industry. It's infuriating, and worse, creates brand animosity where customers feel the need to tell relatives, collegues, and friends about how they suddenly and unexpectedly had to pay for this, that, and the other thing. Nominal services or items that used to be free, but now have significant costs make me feel that they just lost at the shell game.

 

2) Give Consumers Something for Free: Studies show that by giving someone something, improves happiness. Now that corporations have the rights of people, they need to act like people and give. Nominal things that can be given for free: once-a-month use of a non-bank ATM (e.g., 7-11 or the competitor big bank) or one cocktail per customer on a flight. Even if the corporation doesn't earn the emotional benefit of giving, the recipient does and these small things can create incredible goodwill and loyalty.

 

3) Charge for Services that Can Be Done More Cheaply Online: If someone still wants a paper bank statement in the age of the internet, charge them $3 per month—it's a little high, to help boost conversion, but not so much that it's outrageous when one considers the cost for printing, paper, mechanical envelope stuffing, and postage. Those who decide it's worth $36 a year, will happily pay the fee, while the rest of your customers will log on. This is similar to the fee airlines impose for booking through the call center and the results have easily increased online usage and reduced customer booking calls, all of which is saving the airlines millions.

That said, businesses need to be conscientious of what the fee is for: will the customer perceive this to be understandable or annoying? For example, flying from Los Angeles to Europe with a plane change on the East Coast—suddenly there's a bag fee because the traveler is in domestic airspace, even though the full route of the ticket is to another continent. That's a nickled-and-dimed technique that should have the fee immediately waived the moment the customer checks in (online or at the terminal).

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Ultimately, consumers want a positive experience when interacting with the businesses they've chosen to trust. The protesters of Occupy Wall Street and Bank Transfer Day are more likely the beginning ripples of what will be a larger wave as this decade progresses. It is imperative that businesses understand consumer sentiments (as the people who run the business are consumers to!) and respond in-kind.

 

 

Pulp Shakespeare

Well, now that it's been six months, I'm spearheading a new attitude for myself, it's called: Embrace L.A.

This weekend I hit up an art faire and some small theater action, and there was something similar about both experiences that points to a larger trend. In our information-overload digital age, nothing is unique in its wholeness.

At the Beverly Hills "Affaire in the Gardens Art Show," many of the artists presented high-end canvas prints of their paintings (sometimes using fancy terms like glicee to indicate something more than a computer print). And not even in small-batch limited editions. This was a trend noticed at the Renegade Craft Faire as well. It's great that artists are finding ways to support themselves; however, it's just a nicely-inked print, then what value does this art object have long-term? These are just Pokemon cards for the hipster crowd; whereas, a brushstroke still denotes an artists labors that are an emotional and financial investment for the buyer. By turning this paradigm on its head, will artists lower their overall value by making their work cheaply ubiquitous?

As for the theater, there's a definite movement of antiquated and new. The other month, went to see the Jane Austen improv team which was hilarious and quirky. So thought I'd give some other mash-up a try and went to Pulp Shakespeare. The concept is fun; however, if you haven't seen Pulp Fiction (or haven't seen it recently) you spend the entire time trying to sort out what's happening in the movie and then carrying it to the scene. Thus, the Shakespearean language is just a device rather than being transportive to another time/place. I think this lies in the fact that the Pulp Fiction script does not lend itself to emotional portrayals. Overall, the acting was good and a special call out is deserved for the guy who played the Sam Jackson character—he was commanding and his impersonation of that character came through effectively, while still being tongue-in-cheek.

In the world of performance, this trend is fascinating because although not all of it will hit, there's always been something interesting in re-setting Shakespeare (think the Ian McKellen version of "Richard III")—how do our modern stories flesh out when seen through an antiquated lens?

 

 

Generation Gap

In a post-Lawrence Lessig remix world, anything is up for grabs in the creation of new; however, checking out the recently launched Canvas site I simply feel dumb, old, and shocked that "these kids today" waste so much time making stuff like this:

And yet I'm completely fascinated that a website of remixing words and images can genuinely make me realize that the Generation Gap has shifted. It's here. It's happened. I'm now on the other side. <sigh>

 

Same Story, Different Day

I'm currently reading Roseanne Barr's new book, "Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm," which is a great reminder of how pointed and timely her comedy was (and still is!). For example, here's this little gem, where nearly every part of this scene is still relevant today ... many years later.

 

Word Nerd

Like any professional writer, I love word play—whether on the page, in the scene, or on the board. Yet in all my years of reading, writing, and playing Scrabble, Boggle, and Yahtzee (I know it's about numbers/dice, but it's fun TO SCREAM!), I've never encountered this word.

 

I'm fairly certain that Scramble made it up. Scramble is a terrible, terrible game with lots of quirks—like it won't even recognize the word "slut"—and yet it's dictionary produces this. People, trust me, DO NOT put this game on your phone as you will lose hours of your life and gain an inaccurate vocabulary.

Bad Dad?

Today, in celebration, you could give your Pop a basket of hand-decorated cookies; although, I'm fairly certain that "Stop Dad" is not the sign you want to send. Unless your Papa really, really—like REALLY!—loved you ....

 

 

Multi-Tasker

With the Oscars this weekend, there's a flood of James Franco on all media outlets. Thankfully, being James Franco, it's easy for him to be everywhere at once—print, online, red carpet ... as we know, he can do it all.

How Do You Host? with James Franco and Judd Apatow from James Franco

 

 

And over at New York Magazine—the ultimate caption:
See Photographic Evidence That James Franco Actually Sleeps … while also reading and listening to music, because he is  James Franco.  (Now is the time to pause and squeal about the cats, if  you must.  Let it all out.)

Corporate Propoganda Alert

 

Phrased like a signature bill from the Republican Party, the Fan Freedom Project aims get the masses charged up over the fact that Ticketmaster wants a closed-loop, paperless system and then they could just add surcharge after surcharge with no in sight. Only, Ticketmaster already adds surcharges up the wazoo—they're like a domestic airline!—so how does them going electronic have anything to do with fan rights? It means fans can't sell their tickets if they don't go to the event. In some ways this is bad, such as the payee is required to show up to the event—thus if you live in NYC and want to buy tickets as a present for your folks in Boston, then you have to show up with your credit card to swipe your parents through the turnstile. Major drag.

However, there's a major upside to Ticketmaster going paperless: Suddenly, scalpers can't get a hold of as many tickets and thus there's more real tickets left for fans. So although the Fan Freedom Project is likely to financially supported by legal-scalpers like StubHub, it's incredibly dubious that they're legitimately fighting for fans rights. [NOTE: I paid 150% per ticket's face value for Conan O'Brien at Radio City last Spring—didn't I get scalped?!] Granted, it's not a perfect system—but considering how difficult it is to get a ticket to an event these days without going through these legalized scalpers, well, I'd rather take the middle-man out of it and pay all the surcharges to Ticketmaster (which is still cheaper than the Conan O'Brien ticket).

Missed Connections

 

Listed on Craigslist sites around the globe, the Missed Connections is a curious read that can easily suck in a voyeuristic reader. One such web peeper is artist Sophie Blackall. Although normally earning her income through illustrating children's books, she found herself perusing the personals for entertainment—c'mon, admit, you've done it—and discovered inspiration. Behold her collection of illustrated "Missed Connections" at the New York Transit Museum in downtown Brooklyn.

Along with the "Love in Transit" party that featured MTA-sanctioned subway singers, the museum itself is a great date option as it playfully conveys the history of this city and how deeply it's tied to getting about. To think, only two hundred years ago the population of NYC was 191,000; whereas, today it's over 8 million. And to watch as it evolved from horse-drawn carriages and omnibuses to motorized contraptions was not as "duh?" as you might think ... for instance, one piece that inspired the great need to find something other than horses was an equine influenza epidemic in which nearly 20,000 horses were slaughtered within a week to prevent spreading. 

But, back to the hilarity of many of the MCs, such as the above, is the fantastic honesty found within the writing and the imaginitive POV of Ms. Blackall's illustrations. Luckily, along with her Etsy store, all will soon be collected and published in a book titled, "Missed Connections: Love Lost and Found."