Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E17 - Bookmarks 2018

Episode Date: April 26, 2018

This week, it’s our annual look at brands I admire. They may not be the hippest, the latest or the coolest, but I envy them for a reason. Like the most iconic studio in rock history, the first casual shoe ever invented or the world’s most timeless sunglasses. Join us for a peek at a few of my favourite things… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. BetMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with the sportsbook Born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM.

And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, and authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns

about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode

is from Season 7, 2018. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. The bestseller list is always an interesting read, because books are a reflection of society at any given time. As I write this, Stephen Hawking has recently passed away. His 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, has jumped back onto the list. There are several books on the list about the late Gord Downie and the tragically hip. We're living in an era of extreme politics, so there are quite a few books about Donald Trump. In the fiction department, we see perennial best-selling authors like James Patterson, John Grisham, and Danielle Steele, along with some exciting new authors.

While the best-seller list is a timely snapshot of our reading tastes, there are other lists that are equally as fascinating. Like, what are the most stolen books from libraries? It's one thing to borrow a free book from a library, but what are the books that people are constantly stealing? So, if you had to make a guess as to which books are stolen most often from libraries, what would you say? The classics, maybe? Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, perhaps?

Or J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye? Or maybe Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien? Or maybe you're thinking because this is Canada, the most stolen are hockey books, like The Game by Ken Dryden or The Sweater by Rock Carrier. Nope, not even close. In an informal survey of Canadian librarians, the results were surprisingly unanimous. The most stolen book from Canadian libraries is... The Driver's Handbook.

What? Yep. The government-issued book for people learning to drive is the most stolen book from libraries. Not much of a plot, but I guess the pressure of a driving test can drive people to a life of crime. Who knew?

When I searched the same question in the United States, the results were different. While there is some variation city to city, the book that holds the record for being the most stolen book from American libraries is... The Guinness Book of World Records. I kid you not. The second most stolen book in the U.S. is the Bible. I guess most thieves didn't quite make it to the thou shalt not steal portion of the program. Also on that list of most stolen

is the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. While not technically a book, it is still technically one of the most stolen items from libraries. Keeping with that particular subject, the joy of sex doesn't go missing very often, but pages from the joy of sex go missing a lot. Another thing that Canadian and American libraries share in common is that books about paranormal activity, UFOs, and witchcraft

are high on the list of books that go missing. Is it because people don't want to be seen checking those books out, or are they literally disappearing? Hilariously, one other book that vanishes from shelves with alarming frequency is a book written by activist Abby Hoffman back in 1971 titled Steal This Book. I guess people just can't resist a challenge. Welcome to our annual Bookmarks episode.

Books are a big part of the research we do for this show. Not all the great stories we find can fit into our season, so we save those stories for this episode. Some of the stories today are about marketing and some aren't, but they all contain an insight that can be applied to the world of marketing. Oh, and feel free to steal the ideas. You're under the influence. As I mentioned, hockey books sell well in Canada, and one of the most enjoyable ones I've read lately is Wayne Gretzky's 99 Stories of the Game. In this excellent book, Gretzky tells stories that give you remarkable insight into the game,

how it evolved, and it gives you a glimpse into the habits and idiosyncrasies of well-known players. One of his stories I was particularly interested in explained why we have three 20-minute periods in hockey. Prior to the NHL, the league was known as the NHA, or the National Hockey Association. At that time, hockey games were played in two 30-minute halves. But NHA owners noticed, for the first time, that a lot of their revenue came from food and drink sales at the concession stands. So the NHA changed the way the game was played

by altering the rules to three 20-minute periods. That way, fans could visit the concession stand one more time per game. Years later, Gretzky says Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard would shut off all the water fountains at Maple Leaf Gardens during games, so the public would buy more drinks. It is remarkable how much of sports is impacted by marketing decisions. When the NHL expanded to 12 teams in 1967, many of those new teams struggled to attract fans, especially in warmer climates like California, where hockey was so foreign back then. The expansion team there was originally called the California Seals, then changed its name to

the Oakland Seals partway through their first season. But in those first few years, the Oakland Seals were playing to mostly empty stands. One day during the Oakland Seals' first season, a woman called the team's office to ask what time that night's game was. The manager said, What time can you get here? Too funny. One more story from Gretzky's book.

When Gretzky's team played the Pittsburgh Penguins, a tough player named Kim Claxon always shadowed him. While Claxon never wanted to fight Gretzky, he liked taking runs at him. It was like scoring goals to Claxon. Knowing that,

Gretzky always wanted to know where Claxon was on the ice at all times. It was a distraction to Gretzky. In other words, Claxon was paid to make you think about him. You see this same principle at work in marketing.

A smart competitive brand becomes a stone in their competitor's shoe. Virgin is like that to other airlines. Nike is that to Adidas. Coke and Pepsi have each been that stone at various times. Apple has been in a few of Microsoft's footwear. The more a company is distracted by their competition, the less they focus on their business.

In the autobiography I Am Brian Wilson, the songwriting genius behind the Beach Boys gives us some interesting insights into his music. First of all, Brian Wilson is deaf in his right ear. He was hit on the side of the head with a pipe when he was a kid and lost his hearing. But as Wilson says, many musicians had handicaps.

Rocker Bill Haley was blind in one eye. Beethoven slowly lost his hearing and went completely deaf. That's when he wrote this. Wilson, who is very honest about his mental health issues, writes that he has heard multiple voices in his head for over 50 years. While he struggles with that, he also learned to use those voices in a positive way. It is one of the reasons he wrote such beautiful multi-voiced harmonies, the signature sound of the Beach Boys.

Wilson says that almost every song he ever wrote came to him fully formed. God Only Knows was written in just 45 minutes. One more interesting tidbit from Brian Wilson. When you read the credits for the song uses the sound of Paul McCartney chewing celery as percussion. A strange choice, but then again, the name of the song was vegetables. Brian Wilson was never afraid to break the rules. It's a philosophy I preach often in the world of marketing. And it's something Gordon Lightfoot would discover one day in an algebra lesson. And we'll be right back.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives? Available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. There is a new biography of Gordon Lightfoot on the shelves called simply Lightfoot by Nicholas Jennings.

The book tracks the life and times of the famous songwriter with many delicious stories. One of the most amusing is the day Gordon Lightfoot was driving up Yonge Street in Toronto a few years ago. He was listening to the car radio, and If You Could Read My Mind came on. Gordon was humming along with himself, arm out the window, nice summer day. When the song ended, the DJ said he was sad to announce Gordon Lightfoot

had died. Nobody was more surprised than Gordon Lightfoot. So he pulled over and called the radio station to tell them he was still very much alive. The next day,

a newspaper in Sault Ste. Marie ran the hilarious headline, Gordon Lightfoot No Longer Dead. There's another interesting story in the book about the power of words and the song If You Could Read My Mind. Lightfoot had a new album out called Sit Down Young Stranger, and on that album was the song If You Could Read My Mind. It wasn't considered single-worthy, but some DJs started playing it, and it reached the Billboard Top 10.

So Lightfoot's record company sent him a that the record company wanted to change the title after the album had already hit the shelves that he flew directly to Los Angeles and demanded a meeting with the record label. He told them there was no way he was going to change the title of his album, period. The record executive said, Gord, did you take algebra?

Gord replied yes in high school. The executive said, Gord, did you take algebra? Gord replied yes in high school. The executive said, Well, changing the name of your album is the difference between X and 8X. Lightfoot understood immediately. Change it, he said. Then he flew right back to Toronto. Sure enough, the album went from selling 80,000 copies to 650,000 copies almost overnight.

It would become Lightfoot's long-awaited U.S. breakthrough hit. Words contain the seeds of change. John Fogarty of Creedence-Clairwater Revival learned the lesson of choosing well-worded titles when he first saw a Dwayne Eddy song called

Forty Miles of Bad Road. Fogarty thought that was an amazing title, especially since it was an instrumental. CCR's album Willie and the Poor Boys was inspired by an ad in the paper for a Winnie the Pooh Super Pooh package. Fogarty just liked the way it sounded. The Beatles called their 1966 album Revolver because it revolved on a turntable.

Words are powerful. I see it over and over again in the world of marketing. The huge difference between choosing the right word over a good word. I've mentioned this before. A direct mail ad writer once changed the word fix to repair in a roofing ad. The response to the ad increased 200%. Fix sounded like work. Repair sounded like a solution. There's another truism in marketing. When people can describe a company without using words related to price, it's a sign they really like the company. When a firm differentiates itself with well-chosen words in its marketing,

together with excellent products and exemplary service, price is no longer the only criterion. Conversely, if a company doesn't distinguish itself with smart marketing, and if it doesn't go above and beyond the call for its customers, it will always be forced

to compete on price. And that is a race to the bottom. Recently, I had the privilege of writing the foreword to the new edition of Dale Carnegie's famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. I had read it years ago, but while re-reading it again

before writing the foreword, I realized how many of its timeless lessons I had absorbed and embedded into my life and career. So many valuable lessons contained within the covers of a book written in 1936. A book that still sells 200,000 copies a year. How is that possible? Answer, because it's still so relevant.

First of all, Carnegie tells his readers that the suggestions in his book are not a bag of tricks. The principles will only work if they come from the heart. He accurately says only about 15% of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge. The other 85% is due to skill in human engineering. Put another way, true success is dependent on the ability to connect with other people. One of the greatest ways to connect is to master the art of listening. As Carnegie says, listening isn't about silence. It's a form of activity. It's about truly hearing the other person,

learning about them, asking questions, responding, having a genuine conversation. I meet a lot of people in my travels, many wonderful people. But I also meet a lot of people who confine the conversation to talking about themselves. They are their favorite subject. They don't ask a single question or show any interest in the person they're talking to. I think that same problem exists to a large degree in marketing.

So much advertising is built on self-praise. Car brands taking a full 30 seconds to say how many awards they've won. Or cellular companies boasting about how many customers they have over their competition. It's the equivalent of being trapped in a one-way conversation at a party. Smart companies make their customers the heart of everything they do. The best marketers are the best listeners. Dale Carnegie reminded us of this over 80 years ago. Good marketing makes a company look smart,

but great marketing makes a customer look smart. Dale Carnegie also has a wonderful way of summing up one of my strongest marketing beliefs. He says, You may love strawberries and cream, but fish prefer worms. Exactly, Mr. Carnegie. Know thy customer. All smart marketers make it job one to fully understand their customers.

That means companies have to have empathy for their clientele. And companies have to actually like their customers. I know that sounds like a blinding flash of the obvious, but so many companies seem to have a barely concealed resentment towards their own customers. The service may be crisp and efficient, but it lacks humanity. Smart companies are built on customer insights. I read a book about the founding of Rolling Stone magazine recently called Sticky Fingers. In the 1960s, the founder of Rolling Stone looked at the British invasion and understood that the phenomenon was fueled by girls. Until the mid-60s, the primary outlets for groups like the Beatles and the Stones were magazines like Tiger Beat and Sixteen, both aimed at teenage girls.

But the founder of Rolling Stone sensed the rock era was fueled by males, and he knew that market was underserved. So he designed Rolling Stone to be masculine. He made it safe for boys to ogle their rock idols in a publication that not only offered great photography, but a healthy dose of articles written by the top writers of the day. The layout of Rolling Stone was actually a parody of stiff British newspapers like the Times of London.

Even Rolling Stone's masthead slogan, All the News That Fits, was a parody of the New York Times slogan, All the News That's Fit to Print. Rolling Stone treated pop and rock criticism like serious art, a tone that was usually reserved for jazz. That attracted rock stars, rock stars attracted readers, and readers attracted advertisers. Rolling Stone magazine was wildly successful because it understood its audience. Know thy customer is the golden rule in marketing. And it's why I refer to that rule so often in my latest book, This I Know.

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Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a sellie, and an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Thank you. pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I have an extensive library of marketing books, as you can imagine, and one of them is titled Of Cigarettes, High Heels and Other Interesting Things by Marcel Danacy. The book is about semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and what they really mean in our society.

One of the symbols Danacy discusses is cigarettes. He begins by asking this question. Why do so many people put their survival at risk by smoking cigarettes? A powerful part of that answer is that cigarettes are more than rolled tobacco. They are a symbol. Cigarettes stand for something other than itself. For starters, cigarettes are a symbol of maturity. How many of us as teenagers had a cigarette hanging out of our mouth

in order to try and look older than we really were? That's why teens are attracted to smoking. Hollywood has historically conditioned us to see cigarettes as cool. When I smoked as a teenager, I wasn't influenced by cigarette advertising. I wanted to look as suave as James Bond did when he lit a cigarette or as tough as Steve McQueen did when he scratched a wooden match on a wall

to light a smoke. Movies also told us cigarettes were a prelude to sex. When a man lit a woman's cigarette, we knew what the next scene would be. Conversely, the end of that next scene showed cigarettes as a reward after a tumble in the sheets. When women began smoking in the early 20th century,

it was another symbol altogether. It was seen as a sign of equality and independence. Semiotics is an interesting concept, and it's a big aspect of marketing. As I've mentioned before, the reason people choose certain brands often has nothing to do with how that brand functions or actually tastes. Because, with so many categories, we drink the label and smoke the advertising.

Generally speaking, when someone orders a Budweiser, they are saying something about themselves. When someone orders a craft beer, it says something different. If you drive a BMW, it says something about you. If you drive a Volvo, it says something else entirely. We are all affected by symbols. We all understand the shorthand. Our culture has already done the curating. That's why soft drink commercials, beer ads, and fashion advertising

don't have much to say, but lots to communicate. One last amusing story from a book titled The King of Madison Avenue by Kenneth Roman. Leo Burnett was one of the most revered ad people in the history of advertising. He founded the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency in the middle of the Depression years and it grew to become one of the great agencies of our time.

His agency created Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Snap, Crackle and Pop, the Marlboro Man, the Jolly Green Giant, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, and many, many more campaigns that are all still running today, some more than 60 years after they were conceived. Burnett built a massive agency on his principles of doing simple yet memorable advertising, avoiding silly adjectives,

and a belief that if you can't turn yourself into your customer, you shouldn't be in the ad business. He was also fiercely loyal to his blue-chip clients like Kellogg's, Procter & Gamble, and Nestle. One day, on the way to a meeting, the hypoglycemic Burnett went into shock, fell to the ground, and desperately needed an infusion of sugar. Someone mentioned a candy vending

machine down the hall. Burnett weakly raised his head and said, make sure it's Nestle. So much of this radio show is fueled by books. I'm a story hunter. That makes me an avid reader. I make notes on every single book I read.

Only a small portion of the books I read are about advertising and marketing. The rest are incredibly eclectic, and they all feed our show. I'm also an avid listener, which means I subscribe to the theory Dale Carnegie wrote down in 1936. Listening is an activity, and it's a way to connect to people. When Leo Burnett said that if you can't turn yourself into your customer, you have no business being in advertising, he was so right. To succeed in this business, you have to connect.

You have to remember what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck. You have to know that a coupon for 50 cents off a purchase is meaningful to someone out there. You have to know what it's like to worry about a mortgage, raise a family, and try to maintain a good job at the same time. You have to draw on your own experience. That's the only way to produce effective advertising that is honest, genuine, and doesn't annoy people to distraction. Want to become a better ad person? Walk a mile in your customer's shoes. Want to gain more knowledge than one lifetime can provide you? Read.

Because books have much to say and lots to communicate when you're under their influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Under the Influence was recorded in the Terror Stream. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre.

Digital content producer, Sydney O'Reilly. Hey, we're always posting fun stuff on Instagram. Visit us at Terry O'Influence. See you next week. This episode brought to you by Full Light, the new LED motion activated light that transforms your toilet into a soft and gentle nightlight. Great new product that doesn't do much.

By the way, feel free to peruse the Under the Influence shop. We've got some fun t-shirts that will fit you to a tee. Go to terryoreilly.ca slash shop. Every purchase supports the show and we appreciate it.

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