1.  Live at peace with others.  The easiest way to avoid problems with politics is to get along with people.  I’m not saying you need to hug everyone and sing songs, and I’m not saying you have to be a pushover for everyone.  You can be pleasant and professional, while at the same time being assertive when necessary.  If you have a concern, focus on the issue, not on the person.  If you have to refuse a request, explain why and try to create alternative solutions.

Living at peace with others also means being careful about choosing sides during office power struggles.  Aligning yourself with one faction or the other will prevent you from working effectively with people from the “other” side which will hamper your productivity and thus your performance.  Instead, focus on your tasks, dealing with people in either faction on the basis of tasks alone and avoid talk on the issue that separates the groups.

2.  Don’t talk out of school.  Have people told you things in confidence?  Then, keep those matters to yourself.  Talking to outsiders about issues within your organization makes all of you look bad to that outsider.  Furthermore, your boss or your boss’s boss will not appreciate that behavior.  People will find out that you spoke about what they told you, and they’ll lose confidence in you and respect for you.

3.  Be helpful.  We all have responsibilities and objectives, and yes, those things should receive priority.  Nonetheless, if it doesn’t take too much time, being helpful to others can reap benefits for you.  Did your co-worker leave headlights on in the parking lot?  Is someone having trouble building an Excel macro?  If you can help that person, especially if you can do so without taking too much of your time, you benefit yourself as well as the other person.  By doing these things, you’re building political capital and loyalty. 

4.  Stay away from gossip.  “I never repeat gossip, so listen carefully.”   Nothing destroys the dynamics of an office more than gossip.  Just be sure you avoid the “holier than thou” attitude of lecturing your co-workers on the evils of gossip.  You’ll make them lose face, and they’ll resent you.  Instead, try subtly changing the subject.  Example:  Someone is talking about Jane’s problems with her child, of course, Jane is absent from the group.  Do some free association and try to come up with some topic that’s related to Jane or her child, but won’t involve gossip.  Then, make a comment about that new topic.

5.  Stay out of the “talk-down-the-boss” sessions.  Suppose your co-workers start complaining about the boss.  If you join in, it makes you look disloyal to the boss.  If you don’t, it looks awkward in the group.  What do you do?  As with the situation of gossip, try changing the subject by linking the boss to another topic, then talking about that topic instead.  Or, you could simply respond to your co-workers with a smile and a tongue-in-cheek, “Come on, aren’t we exaggerating?  (Name of Boss) really isn’t THAT bad.”  Be careful, though, because it could be taken as an admission by you that the boss IS bad.

Part 2 tomorrow…

Q:  In a time of economic uncertainty, how does your brand look to connect with both leisure and business travelers?    A:  In difficult economic times, one of the things we’ve discovered is that people are looking hard for value in everything they purchase.  Part of our objective is to make sure that the travel experience with our airline is perceived as an improving value.  We realize the challenge of rising fuel costs and customers taking second looks at the necessity of some travel experiences… both issues put burdens on our people to continue to provide the best possible service.

Q:  Regarding these increasing costs: Given the recent consumer protests over airlines’ newly added baggage fees, how can a marketer develop and maintain brand trust?  The first priority is to help the marketplace understand the reasons for the fees- that there’s a business rationale for it that makes sense.  At the same time, it’s important to underscore product and service improvements, such as our new business class seat, to show that we’re continuing to make investments that improve the customer’s overall travel experience.

Q:  As consumers become increasingly vocal, what are some of the best strategies you’re seeing for engaging them in brand building?   A:  It’s vital that we start and maintain a dialogue with our customers and potential customers.  First, we utilize our website with an active opt-in program.  We’ve also introduced AA.com mobile and connectivity on our airplanes.  People who sign up for these options tend to be very interested in what’s going on with the airline and the industry.  In addition, we’re constantly surveying our customers to find out what’s important to them, and what is and isn’t working.  Every major corporation is doing it these days, but we believe we’re doing it more aggressively than most airlines.

Q:  What advice do you have for brand marketers looking to best spend their tightening budgets during this turbulent period?   Demonstrating return-on-investment is absolutely essential; faith doesn’t sell in this environment.  So, the first step is to determine what ROI you’re looking to achieve and find a way to track it.  The second step is to understand the change in media mix.  There’s no question that the Internet and online advertising is changing the way we market.  But, putting too much emphasis on any one medium is a mistake.  Not understanding that all media need to work together is also a mistake.  The key is figuring out how to deliver truly integrated communications.

So, why is it then that so many bleeding-edge, ultracool, movie-like web sites are designed to be invisible to search engines, and ultimately, potential customers?  Why is it that companies spend oodles of money ato end up with a site that can only be found by employees and friends?  Why are so many web sites “cloaked?”

The only reasons I can think of its a lack of knowledge about best search practices or negligence on the part of creatives who believe designing for visibility somehow restricts doing great (and beautiful) work.  Honestly, the opposite is true… designing for visibility doesn’t restrict creative excellence, it enhances it. 

Check out someone who gets it:  Scott Ellis at BlackBox Technologies.  Yes, this is a shameless plug for the company Wendistry partners with on all technology-driven issues.  Frankly, don’t care.  They REALLY know what they’re doing and your company will be on display for all the world to see. 

The tool now gives advertisers an option to target their bids by city or ZIP code.  (Previously, the most targeted a location could be was by Designated Market Area often including several cities.)  The forecasting tool begins with zeroing in on a locale.  The feature is designed to help local, small and service-oriented business target their campaigns.  When a customer searches for, say, a roofer in the 60601 ZIP code, the bidder’s ad can pop up on Yahoo.  Advertisers can choose from about 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S. and Canada. 

On Yahoo, the ultimate position of an ad is determined by the bid and by the relevance of the ad.  Theoretically, better copy will aid relevance.  The more customers click on the ad, the higher the ad will appear.  And, a higher bid may improve the ad’s position.  However, an ad cannot simply be bid to the top of a search.  An advertiser may bid $5 but end up paying only 50 cents.  Advertisers rarely pay the full bid amount. 

In 2007, Google generated about 99% of its revenue from advertising, primarily through its web-search advertising services.  Google accounted for 63% of US web search in August 2008, up 6.5 share points from the prior August.  With Google’s new mobile ad services, ad services in online gaming, and acquisitions of DoubleClick and YouTube, bet on more mobile and video applications and services. 

It’s a market so promising that it’s largely why Microsoft launched its failed bid for Yahoo earlier this year.  It’s also the only sector that’s continuing to grow double digits during the economic climate of recent months.  Because of how important search has become to marketers, Advertising Age’s DataCenter again has compiled a comprehensive guide which I will explore over the next several days.

According to ComScore, overall US search volume increased almost 20% over hte past year.  Search-marketing spending is expected to approach $14 billion in 2008.  So, where are all these dollars going?

Largely to Google, whose network snagged 72.2% of its advertisers’ search spending in the third quarter, according to SearchIgnite data.  That was down from the same period one year ago but up from the first and second quarter of 2008.  Yahoo came in second, with 22.3%, an improvement over 2007 that can partly be attributed to its Panama system, which has earned Yahoo more money per search.  Microsoft remained in third place, with 5.4% of spending. 

Search certainly is not recession-proof; nothing is.  And, it’s questionable how long search can continue to grow at such high rates.  That’s why it’s important for search engines to stake a claim in emerging, fast-growing areas such as mobile and local search.

Most brands have failed to continue effective brand building now that the bar has been reset, in large part because most brands haven’t changed the way they approach the market in decades.  What brand really means to a corporation is a promise of future value: the ability to drive future sales, to win consumer loyalty, and, most importantly, not being forced to commoditize your offering. This is why performance advertising on the Internet is not for brands. As soon as you begin to compete for transactions, you begin to “teach” consumers to value your brand on the discounts your brand is willing to provide.

Excerpts taken from “The Importance of Brand” by Joe Marchese

These facts on angel investing from Entrepreneurship Professor Scott Shane were enlightening:

Prof. Shane notes that only 21% of angels meet the Securities and Exchange Commission’s requirements for being an “accredited investor” – or an individual making $250,000 annually or more, or a couple making $350,000 or more (or net worth of more than $1 million). What’s more, the majority of angels don’t end up making money on their investments, and only 2% of businesses they invest in eventually become IPOs. And, only 15% of angels do “extensive” research on the sectors of the businesses they fund.  In a nutshell, the median angel investment is only around $10,000. 

RAY KROC  (1902-1984), Entrepreneur and founder of McDonald’s

The answer is a single mission-directed plan, crafted by stakeholders in both marketing and sales that shares the same success criteria, vision of the ideal customer, relationship outlook and process.  The plan is supported by a strong technology foundation comprised of a set of applications that are flexible, scalable, familiar, and easy to use. 

In this ideal state, marketing becomes a sales multiplier, making all front-office processes more definable, repeatable, and friction-free.  Sales becomes the confidante to marketing, sharing customer insight and best practices.  Together, they focus on what customers need and when they need it.  They learn together and get smarter together over time.