heartharmony.com.au

In a down economy businesses scramble to find ways to cut costs and raise revenue. But in doing so, over-zealous cost-cutters can make some really dumb decisions. QANTAS is the latest in a long line of companies that have demonstrated smart people make dumb decisions when under stress.

They have decided to levy an additional $160 if you want to book an exit row seat. So what? It just so happens that exit row seats are the only seats on their planes that have enough leg room for taller people. By making this decision they have in effect levied a “tall fee”.

Tall people have two choices when it comes to flying. Take a regular seat and spend the flight either with their knees belting the back of the seat in front of them to the everlasting joy of the passengers in front of them, or tripping the air hostesses by stretching their feet into the aisles; or they can book an exit row seat to grab an extra 3 centimetres of leg room. Most choose the exit row option for the comfort and safety of both themselves and other travelers. Thanks to this decision by QANTAS, they now have to pay an additional $160 for doing the right thing.

In making this decision it could be argued that QANTAS is breaching Anti-Discrimination legislation. While it is true that this fee does not directly discriminate against tall people as other people also book the seats (mums with babies for example), what it does do is indirectly discriminate against tall people as it effects people with that attribute more than it effects other people.

QANTAS also has created a PR “challenge” for themselves, garnering a pile of negative publicity in the process.

It is important that all businesses are aware of the rules and regulations that govern their business … including Anti-Discrimination legislation. I suspect we will be hearing more about this less than smart decision in coming days.

In the meantime, watch tall people raise themselves to their not inconsiderable height and vote with their larger than average feet by flying with other providers.  So, if your business needs to cut costs, you may want to learn from QANTAS’s mistakes and consider how your actions negatively effect groups within the community.

What do you think? Did QANTAS make the right decision?

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriter

Something really really bad has been happening to Australian TV ads. They are gradually being taken over by inane jingles sung by fiercely jolly people rather than providing actual content.

Case in point – the ever so annoying “Happy EOFYS” flogging Foxtel pay TV. The last thing anyone wants or needs is another celebratory holiday throughout the year. And to make it worse Foxtel seems to have an unlimited advertising budget which means it is played once per ad break for each of the major channels. I would prefer to sit through endless primary school musical performances rather than listen to this ad.

Then you have all of the products targeting men. Back in the 60’s all products aimed at women were accompanied by song – remember Mr Sheen anyone? Someone somewhere realised that singing to women about cleaning products was less than effective. But the descendants of these advertising imbeciles have grown up and have decided that men only buy products if there is music attached.

In Australia it was a mandatory advertising code for decades (well it seemed like it) that all beer ads must be accompanied by deeply inspiring music and preferably a good roughly sung jingle appropriate for a bunch of drunken blokes to sing along to.

This has trickled over into all men’s products in the last 6 months so everything from chainsaws to tinned food now has an accompanying jingle attached.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the jingles were actually interesting and told you something but with jingles like “the fully loaded man has balls of meat” (thanks Campbells for that literary gem), you begin to wonder what planet a lot of the big advertising types are on.

I know in a recession it has been shown that people look for greater entertainment – but whacking a jingle onto an ad and calling it entertainment is as about as effective as whacking a bikini clad female onto the bonnet of a car and calling it highlighting the features of the car.

Those advertisers who work on convincing their clients that a jingle would be great for them should be forced to go back and rewrite 1000 times

“Advertisers who believe in the selling power of jingles have never had to sell anything” David Ogilvy.

David Ogilvy was the father of modern advertising and his words still ring true today. Jingles don’t work because:

• people have trouble hearing the words in jingles and
• selling is a serious business. How would you react if you went into a Sears store to buy a frying pan adn the salesman started singing jingles at you.

If you want to sell your product – focus on the basics. Highlight what makes it unique and interesting, and what difference it makes to people’s lives.  Do that and you will be half way to writing a decent ad that gets results and doesn’t irritate the heck out of potential customers.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriters

All copywriters and marketers worth their money talk about creating persuasive copy. After all it makes logical sense that you want to persuade people to buy your product or service … right?

Well hold your horses. Another psychology study report in New Scientist suggests that people may be becoming immune to persuasion, and in fact the more you try to persuade people the more you may be turning them against you.

Specifically – one study showed that if you remind people they vulnerable to manipulation by showing them ads with celebrities or models endorsing products they clearly know nothing about, then they are more likely to be difficult to persuade.

The study went on to show that people who successfully resist persuasive arguments then become more entrenched in their viewpoints; and the stronger, more credible or authoritative they perceive the attempt at persuasion to be, the more certain of their opinions they become.

Phew! Translating it into plain speak – if someone reads some long copy about a product or service such as internet marketing and as a result thinks that all internet marketers are shonks, then they will read all future copy by internet marketers with those goggles on. This means they are harder to convince to buy your product or service, and will be more and more righteous about why they are not buying it. People become more cynical and jaded and less likely to buy your product or service.

So as a business owner what can you do about it? I mean – the vast majority of businesses are run by decent people, trying to genuinely share solutions to people’s problems.  If people are cynical and jaded about your product – how can you convince them to buy?

Well to start with – be 100% honest and ethical in your dealings and your marketing so all your claims are valid and justifiable. That’s a given.

You will also want to rethink the celebrity endorsements and bikini clad models draped across your equipment. These are likely to give you more harm than good.

Then there’s the technique called so flatteringly “chunking” – where you start by presenting positions that are closer to people’s viewpoints and then gradually bring them up to your view. You have to do this carefully as if you actually label their belief that “all internet marketers are shonks” before countering it in your copy, you are likely to just reinforce their opinion rather than move their thinking.

You could also remember that when people feel good about themselves that they are more open to messages that challenge their current mindset. So no starting your copy with doom and gloom, or negative stories if you have encountered persuasive resistance. Start by building self esteem and confidence and you will be more successful.

Finally you could decide that you will only focus on attracting clients who do not already have those blinkers in place, and work on good old fashioned persuasive copy.  This works best if you are in an industry that does not already carry wide societal negative stereotypes about the people in the industry (eg: don’t try this approach if you are a multi-level marketer, telemarketer, real estate sales person, used car salesperson). In those cases, you need to work hard on removing the resistance to persuasion before you can even begin to share your message.

One last thing – you may want to remember this study the next time you try and convince your kids about the need to eat their greens or to tidy their rooms, or you could be entrenching some pretty strong viewpoints.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter

I love Twitter. It is one of those little things in life that you start doing and wonder why the heck you are doing it.  … And then a few weeks later you wonder what you did without it.

I have been watching Twitter develop over the past 18 months while people work out how to use it. Some use it to connect with colleagues with electronic water cooler type conversations in breaks in work, others trying to sell things with all the tact of an Amway salesperson and still others just doing what they do naturally – sharing ideas and tips to help make other people’s lives easier. Pretty much like life really – everyone communicates differently.

Today I watched another side of Twitter – the community development side. Here in Brisbane we have been hit with a massive all day storm. Flash floods were everywhere, people cut off from loved ones and accidents at every corner.

This is where Twitter really started to hit its stride.  All day people shared photos of roads near their part of the city, updates on road closures, info on which schools were closed and where there were major problems. People shared fears, questions and just connected with other locals to feel a little bit safer.

Through the use of a hashtag #bneflood people used in their Tweets, through Twitter search people collated and tracked this information faster than the traditional media could update things. Some Twitter users even set up Google maps for other Twitterers to see where all the problems were. It was fascinating watching the main local ABC radio station – @612brisbane, using the Twitter stream to help update listeners.

The lines between social media and traditional media were very blurred today. Twitter in effect created hundreds of “one the spot” reporters around the city – all willing to share their information and their experiences. Watching the stream of updates on my Tweetdeck was totally compelling from a human perspective. Each Brisbane person was making the world just a bit smaller and more connected.

The storm has been subsiding for the past hour and the typical Aussie humour is starting to show through the stream. People are beginning to laugh at their fears and to lighten the mood. Lots of wry comments are appearing as well as gratitude for getting home safely.

I had heard of the Twitter effect in the Victorian bush-fires. Today I experienced it first hand with the Brisbane floods.

There is certainly something to be said for the immediacy of Twitter. Twitter is just that little bit closer to my heart after today – and I have met a whole pile of brilliant and interesting locals in the process.

If you haven’t yet experienced Twitter, it is worth trying. I look forward to connecting with you on Twitter www.twitter.com/ingridcliff

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Writer

More about the power of metaphors. Have you the heard the metaphors “forward thinker” and “step back and think about things” . Psychology has caught up with testing on the validity of these metaphors.

Reported in We’re Only Human, scientists looked at what happens to people’s decision making ability when they literally and physically take a few steps back before making a decision.  They tested volunteers physically taking a few steps back, forward and to the side, before taking part in some simple decision making tests.

And the results … drumroll please. If you physically take a few steps back you are more focused and attentive. There is a whole lot of theory about why this happens in terms of vigilance and flight/fight, but all that matters is if you are feeling stuck you may want to get up and take a few steps back from your desk or your situation and think about the situation before responding.

If you want people to consider your marketing offer in more depth – suggest they mentally step back and consider … to trigger a similar response.

Once again – metaphors need to come with warning labels – they have more power than people imagine.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriters

People love to read great content on blogs. I often get emails from people telling me about how much they valued something that I had written, or I go to a networking event and people tell me how much they love reading my blog. This is fantastic – but what would be even more fantastic is to get comments and discussion happening about something I have written on this blog itself.

Every day I delete up to 100 comments that involve the selling of viagra or other pharmaceautical products or sites peddling pictures you wouldn’t want to show your mother through my Akismet filter.

As I morosely trawl through the blog spam folder each night, I wish for real comments and discussion. I crave to read and respond to comments from regular readers, people who may be too shy to normally comment on things, blog lurkers and generally nice people. People like you.

So … I would like to invite you to take a step forward and say g’day.

I would really love to hear what you have to say. Is what I write about useful? Is there a point that I have missed that may help other readers? Is there a different way I could have looked at the issue? Every comment is welcome and useful.

And are there any rules for this blog? Well I think the brilliant social media commentator Laurel Papworth has the best blog rules I have read anywhere – so I have reproduced them in total (with names changed where appropriate) to give you the ground rules for commenting.

1. Thou shalt show each other respect. I don’t care if the other commenter is a moron. Thou wilt not call them a moron.
2. You can however criticise a thought or idea. As in “that is a moronic idea”. Criticise the idea, not the person.
3. Unless it’s someone we all universally hate and revile. The Ruler of the Free World is one such being you can feel free to slam. Criticise the office or position, not the person.
4. Don’t write anything that is defamatory or breaks copyright or is threatening. Firstly cos it breaks Rule One. (show each other respect) and Secondly cos then the policeman will come to my house. In uniform. Looking gorgeous. And how can I concentrate enough to hand him over any details I may have about you? Which I will do so willingly. Unfortunately I won’t have any cos Google doesn’t give me IP addresses etc. So think of me, and don’t do anything illegal.
5. Did I mention that personal attacks are prohibited? This specifically means any comment that is blatantly attacking another person on or off the blog, especially in a personal way.
6. Trolling is prohibited.Trolling is whenever someone is clearly, deliberately posting in a manner for the purpose of angering and/or insulting the other participants of the board. Trolling DOES NOT encourage further discussion in the long run, it only encourages personal attacks (if left unchecked).
7. I think you are getting the picture. Play nicely.
8. Participant shall not post comments containing personal phone numbers or addresses. I choose to show my personal details. Others may or may not. If you accidentally call someone Ingrid instead of say, Heartharmony that’s ok. But inciting people to ring a telephone number to tell that person/company how awful they are? Not allowed.
9. No spurious advertising. Free the Content doesn’t mean Free the Spam. Yes this means you Mr Viagra and Ms Anonymous. Friends can post links to interesting products. That’s called information and the subject matter should be linked to the blog post. Nothing else allowed.
10. No spam.
11. I don’t get paid to write this blog. I don’t take money to write stuff. Sometimes people take me to lunch and I may or may not talk about their cool/uncool site afterwards. Get over it, I need to eat.
12. If you only buy me coffee, you only get a coffees worth of posting.
13. Posting details of bugs and exploits in such a way that others are able to perform said bug or exploit is prohibited. This includes software cracks. Unfortunately.
14. Posting of pornography, racist or otherwise discriminating remarks, threats to cause physical or mental harm, extreme offensive language, material that breaks any law or otherwise totally unacceptable posts or links to pages that contain the aforementioned material may result in me becoming extremely annoyed.
15. My (Heartharmony aka Ingrid Cliff) word is final. This is not a democracy. If I delete a comment don’t keep coming back to repost. My blog my space, my subjects: go pollute your own blog, facebook, twitter, Myspace or whatever. You are free to take the conversation elsewhere. Stick a billboard up with Heartharmony is a Moron on the Harbour Bridge if you must. Just don’t do it here.
16. My word is FINAL. Did I mention that? I did? Good.

I really look forward to reading and responding to your thoughts.

Ingrid Cliff

We put your businses into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Writer

Ever heard of slick talking salesmen? Well it appears that they were right on the money.

Research reported in New Scientist has shown that people who use phrases such as “you know”, “I mean” and “isn’t it” are seen as less credible than those who don’t when they are speaking.

The study looked at a salesperson selling a scanner. If the person used hesitant language, even if the product they were promoting had better features and a lower price – then people were less convinced to buy the scanner.

… And if you really want to convince people, talk confidently non stop, really really quickly, without any pauses or hesitation which means people have no time to think about what you are saying (gee sounds a lot like one very popular self help guru on the market at the moment who talks like a rocket).

It all goes to show that persuasion is not just what you say, but how you say it. And the less time you have to think about something, the more the style of delivery matters (You Tube Videos fit that category – you have only a few short minutes to persuade someone).

So, if you catch yourself stumbling over your sales pitch or tripping over your You Tube spiel – you may want to spend some time rehearsing it to iron out the umms and ahs. Toastmasters anybody?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Writers

To all of you teenage job-seekers, or parents of teenage job-seekers out there please pay close attention to what I am about to say.  I am going to share with you exactly how managers and Human Resources (HR) people go about working out who to hire for those casual jobs at rock bottom wages at Superscoop Icecream or Instant Plastic Food Fast Food.

Let’s start with some basics – you are not our only candidate. Most times for a single casual vacancy we get 25-30 applications.  If you go for something a bit more meaty – such as a Graduate Program or even a traineeship – I have personally been on the other side of 1000 applications.  Yours is only one of them.

As a manager we don’t love interviewing – in fact we will do anything possible to weed people out of our interviews. We are ruthless when it comes to cutting people out of recruitment processes – you don’t get many second chances. If you blow the first impression – you won’t make the cut.

It doesn’t matter how great you are, or what massive potential – unless we see a glimmer of it in your application, you won’t make the cut.

You see to us each entry level role is the same. We are willing to train you and pay you while you learn (yes the wages suck – but we are paying you to learn). In return these are the things we look for:

1. Reliability - Will you turn up on time every time, and not blow off work to hang out with mates.
2. Willing to learn & listen – Are you someone who can be taught? Are you someone who listens to instructions and follows them without argument?
3. Presentable – If our company has a uniform – we are proud of it. Will you wear our full uniform with pride? Will it be clean and ironed? Will you have neat shoes? Will you tuck your shirt in?
4. Polite – You are our face to our customers. Can you string a few sentences together? Can you be polite and friendly to them? Can you smile?
5. Team players – Other people work here. Can you get on with them? Will you help them out or ignore them if they need a hand? Will you back up your team members or are you the star?

That’s pretty much it. That’s what we look for in every single entry level role – no matter if you are cleaning tables, scooping ice-cream, digging plumbing ditches or ringing up sales. If you have these qualities we can teach you the rest.

So how do we choose who gets an interview and who doesn’t?

Well – there are whole libraries dedicated to the art – but in real terms it boils down to this. You get 10 seconds – 30 seconds tops where we look at your resume or CV. That’s it. Unless you grab our attention in those 10 seconds, you get thrown into the “Don’t bother” pile.

If you hook our attention – we will take a bit longer to read over your application. You will then go into the “Definitely Interview” pile or “Maybe” pile. At the end of reading all of the resumes, if the “Definitely Interview” contains more than about 5 resumes, the “Maybe” pile gets moved to the “Don’t bother” pile. Game over.

So what are we looking for in those 10 seconds?

Remember the top 5 qualities I talked about? Your resume has to show EVIDENCE that you have all of these. Evidence – just like the crime shows. You need to supply evidence that you can do all of this stuff.

Top Evidence:School reports & school references

Yes. We want to see copies of your last 2 reports. What do we look for? Well you know that column that says “behaviour” – we treat that as a more important clue than your academic results. If you consistently get poor behaviour scores, we take a stab that you may not be such a great employee.

We look at comments about uniforms “can be well presented at times” translates to “generally scruffy and poorly presented”. If our job has a uniform – well guess who goes into the “Don’t Bother” pile.

We look at your extra curricular activities. Do you take part in team sports, debating, choir or anything where show you can work in a team?

Personal references

If you have never had a job, having your Aunty write you a reference about how you are a good boy or girl does nothing for us. Having the local Pastor or Minister, or the Coach of your sporting team talk about what a great team player you are, or how you have leadership qualities will get our attention. Pick your personal reference.

Your resume

Did you follow all the instructions 100% in completing your resume. Sometimes we ask you to put in reference numbers, to address it to certain people, or to comment on certain skills.  These are not optional extras. Do it!

We also look if you took the time (2 seconds) to run a spell check over your resume before you sent it in. We also check that you spelt our name correctly and the name of our company. If you can’t spell our name with it written in front of you, we wonder about how good you are at following simple instructions.

It is also amazing how many people send in an application to ABC company, when the job is for XYZ company – we know you are going for lots of jobs, but it shows you really don’t care about us and only see us as a meal ticket. It helps if you know a bit about what our company actually does – so do some research and drop in some clues to show us you know what we do. It isn’t hard to check out our website first!

We check out your hobbies and interests. Hanging with mates and playing in garage bands won’t win you any favours job wise. We see that and think – gets drunk on weekends and too hungover to get to work the next day. Think about what your hobbies may say about you (and assume we think the worst).

Finally, we look at how to get in touch with you. getdrunkfriday@hotmail will not win you any favours. Watch your email address and if you have to, set up a separate business one (and check it regularly). We also hate it if you give us mobile numbers that are permanently out of credit. We don’t care! If you can’t return our calls – then you don’t get the job. Simple!

One more hurdle

If you make our “Definitely Interview” pile, don’t get too cocky – we still have another round of evidence to go. Managers these days look for evidence on the internet. We type your name into Google to see what we can find out about you on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all of the other social media.

We look to see what photos you have been tagged in. We check out the photos and videos you post on your page and we read your comments. These all tell us the sort of kid you are. If you have a fight video on your page  – kiss your job good-bye.  If you rant against ethnic minorities – good-bye. Our customers come from all walks of life – we need you to be able to serve them equally.

If you have comments about wagging school – good-bye. If you talk about how a specific teacher sucks or how much you hate your named school – good-bye. We know you will do the same about us and our company. We take our reputation seriously – dissing us out gives us a bad reputation – so why would we hire you?

The internet leaves clues. Before you do anything on the net – think before you upload!

Interview time

If you have made it through that hurdle – you may be lucky enough to get an interview. What are we looking for? The same 5 things we talked about before. Cover them off at the interview and you are in with a chance.

Take-aways

So, you have a less than squeaky clean trail of evidence. What can you do?

1. Pick up your act at school. Yes it does matter!  Get your uniform sorted, fix your behaviour and attitude and join some teams.
2. Get a cynical outsider to check your resume. Get someone who doesn’t know you to read over your resume and tell you how you appear to them. Fix it!
3. Get references. Get good references from people that matter. If you say you are good – so what. When someone else says you are great we listen.
4. Clean up your social media act. Take down all your videos, photos and stuff that is not helpful. Get your mates to do the same. Upload good stuff (too many photos of you at Church picnics and we may get suspicious though) and make decent comments. You need to bury the bad under a flood of good.
5. If you need to – hire someone to help you clean up your act. There are companies out there who can help polish your tarnished social media, polish your resume, polish your personal presentation. If you are serious – then ask your folks to get you their services instead of the latest i-pod. It is a much better investment.

One more thing. If you want a casual job in February – get hired in November.  We hire Christmas casuals as our pool of casuals for the year. Outside that time you are lucky to get a vacancy.

Good luck!

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – HR Writer

If you are looking for great tips to grow your business, you can gain inspiration from the most unusual sources. In my case … the local High School. You see this year my daughter started High School and after many years of angst, I decided to try sending her to Ferny Grove High School. It is a public school and when you think of the term massive – this school definitely comes to mind with about 1000 kids in each year of the school. Sending her there was a big step for me as I was the product of private education.

So far they have done everything that normal schools do, but they also have some amazing little twists that have made me stop and go “wow”.

Given the size, each year has it’s own Deputy Principal, who signs on to see the kids through grades 8-12. I have heard of that in Steiner – but in a public school that’s pretty out there.

Rachel, my daughter loves English and speaking in public (gee the gene pool was right on the money there) so took up after hours debating against other schools in Brisbane. At every debate this year the Deputy Principal has turned up and sat through all of the debates by kids in his year.

Now these debates are held at awful evening hours at back of beyond schools, so only parents who really have to be there turn up from other schools (and aim for car-pooling if possible). These kids are only just learning the craft so there are lots of embarrassed pauses, red faces and stumbled words – this is not high entertainment.

But for Ferny Grove High School not only do all of the debating teachers show up to each debate, the Deputy Principal does as well.  After each debate they talk one on one with each of the kids highlighting their strengths and reinforcing how proud they are of them.   I class this as really impressive by the teachers – showing the kids that what they are doing is pretty special. I gather the same thing happens for the year 8 sporting teams, so it is not unique to debating. I can bet money that these teachers are doing this in their own time and are not being paid for doing it – which is even more impressive.

Then we have the report cards. Nothing new here – but there was the twist. Yesterday I received a lovely letter from the school, beautifully written, that congratulated Rachel on her great behaviour results as well as praising me as a parent with some lovely words. This letter was signed by the Executive Principal, Deputy Principal and Year 8 Coordinator.

It is funny how these little things taken in isolation are lovely, but when you put them together they create a really strong impression of a school that cares and that takes its responsibilities seriously. Am I a raving fan of Ferny Grove High School – you bet your bottom dollar!

How can you apply this to your business?

People want to see the boss – they don’t want the boss to be hidden in an office somewhere. Get out and make yourself known. Be present with your team and you will create loyal employees and customers.

Also take the time to send thank you or congratulations cards or notes. They make a massive difference to people.

The bottom line is big is no excuse. This is a school with over 5000 kids – and yet they still take time to make each one feel special. How can you make your customers feel equally special?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance writers

Words have power. They are a copywriters bread and butter – so we know that the words we choose for our clients can make or break their campaigns. But – many people may not realise that the everyday metaphors we use create actual physiological responses in people.

A study at the University of Toronto in Canada reported in New Scientist asked 30 people to think about a time when they had been socially excluded from a group and the same number to think about a time when they were socially included. The 60 people were then asked to estimate the temperature of the room. The group who had recently thought about the social exclusion estimated the room to be 3 degrees colder on average, while the inclusive group correctly estimated the temperature.

This means there is physiological truth in the metaphor to be given “the cold shoulder” or being “frozen out”. It makes you think about the other metaphors we use – “pain in the neck”, “weight of the world on his shoulders” and so on.

Perhaps copywriters need to issue health cautions along with their metaphors.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance copywriters